Nevertheless, he will have to make a few calls and set something in motion. Paloma Electronics are on target for the first-phase rollout of the BellumBot, but to maintain any kind of competitive advantage they clearly need a new five-year plan, and a new source of thanaxite, one that doesn’t depend so heavily on the good graces of a nonentity like Colonel Arnold Kimbela.
Vaughan looks at the phone.
Time and tide, as it were.
He picks it up and dials the number for Craig Howley at the Pentagon. After the usual song and dance, he gets through.
‘Jimmy, how are you?’
‘I’m good, Craig, I’m good.’
‘My God, have you been following this?’
‘I know, it’s horrible, isn’t it?’ He wanders from his desk over to the window. ‘Just horrible.’
‘I mean, what the hell makes someone flip like that?’
‘I don’t know. And I guess we’ll never know.’ Vaughan is gazing down now at the passing traffic on Park Avenue. ‘But in a roundabout way, Craig, that’s why I’m calling. We need to talk. I want to have another look at Logar Province.’
Afghanistan.
Southeast of Kabul.
Although the discovery here a few years ago of a substantial thanaxite deposit was omitted from a recently published geological survey of the region, Vaughan has been reliably informed that it’s there. The trouble with mining in Afghanistan, however, has always been the country’s woefully inadequate transportation infrastructure.
But it seems as if that might be about to change.
The Chinese have embarked on a long-term project to establish a new trans-Eurasian corridor, a sort of modernised version of the old Silk Road. Vaughan’s idea is to get in early, establish a foothold in Logar. Fly under the radar for a while and see what happens.
He’s learnt that you have to take a long view on these matters.
‘Sure, Jimmy, of course. I’m actually going to be in New York at the end of the week.’
‘Oh?’
‘You want me to swing by?’
‘That’d be great.’
They make an appointment for Friday afternoon.
As he’s closing his phone at the window, Vaughan sees a car pulling up below.
The driver gets out. The doorman appears.
Showtime.
A few moments later Vaughan is in the entry foyer, and feeling, almost in spite of himself, a flutter of anticipation. But not just for the next thirty seconds and his wife’s arrival home.
For something more than that.
For the future itself.
The elevator glides open and Meredith steps out, followed by the doorman, who is carrying her bags.
She is wearing a figure-hugging royal-blue pencil dress and black patent leather stilettos. Radiant and fragrant, she also has a new hairstyle, a bob, short and boyish.
Vaughan likes it, likes it all.
‘Darling,’ she says, opening her arms to embrace him, ‘did you miss me?’
ALAN GLYNN
ALAN GLYNN is a graduate of Trinity College. His first novel, The Dark Fields, was released in March 2011 as the film Limitless by Relativity Media. He is also the author of Winterland.
