The Layered World Pt. 01

She found her way back to her place at the table, pouting, "They are all so dumb. I don't want just sex. You have to find a smart, studly one for me!"

She reached for a piece of his toast, "May I?" He nodded and she munched cheerfully.

Jennifer was one of Jay's success stories. Sybil's younger sister and terribly bright. She visited the flat one day and Jay started playing number games with her. After an hour, she was still keeping up and he knew she had a special talent. This happened at just the time he and the PA's had been discussing the need for someone to look out for their private accounts, which were growing rapidly and could attract unwanted attention if a staffer were to leak details.

She had come to London from the family home near York, looking for entry into university. When she had gone off to an interview, he undressed Sybil, who liked to be manhandled as a diversion from being constantly in charge, and walked her to the workout room of her flat, where he put them on adjoining treadmills. The first time he made her run in the nude, she threatened to resign. Now she felt strange in her leotard when working out on the road. There was something about sweat forming and running everywhere that was a giant turn on, especially if Jay was watching.

He said, notching up the speed, "Jennifer has a special talent for numbers."

She had her hair gathered in a headband and looked dark and predatory. She was French, but from a family in Savoy. They shared a love of that hilly part of the world. The father's family was originally from nearby Turin. Her breasts were ample and she would have preferred a workout top, but he wanted to watch them bounce. It was a terrible game they played. He insisted on an hour of exertion before he took her roughly and repeatedly, causing her to come in wild screaming orgasms. If they were particularly tense because of work pressure, she got strung up on the wall and taken from behind, accompanied by enough blows to make her ass tender for a day.

"Yes. Everyone wonders where it came from. The rest of us are word people."

"What would you think of our employing her part time for our private financial requirements and sponsoring her at LSE?"

"This is like one of those Mafia things, keeping it in the family?"

"She won't know that at the beginning, will she?"

They smiled and the sex was especially wild.

A year and a half later, Jennifer sat across the table and gave him the short version of their exposure. "I'm not sure I have all the numbers, because some of the reinsurance is hard to pin down. The airlines use multiple consortia. But our direct risk is ten million on Claude's life, and twenty million to Global for loss of executive services. Our part of the airplane pool is twenty million."

She looked at Sybil, "In the open accounts, we are reserved to thirty million. In the closed accounts, there is a provision for fifteen."

It was a convenient fiction. The closed accounts were not in any public ledger, and most of the assets were in well hidden places. Jennifer was the custodian of the closed accounts and the only one who had the total picture. Jay had taken her on a long, sunny picnic a year ago and discussed his intentions. They were in a very private place and she was totally smitten with his intellect, but even more, at that moment, by his sex appeal. While innocently munching on a sandwich, she stood and dropped her shorts. The brilliant crimson thong covered almost nothing of her young sex.

"You are not allowed to tempt me."

"I'm not a virgin anymore, and I am of legal age. I have a healthy sex drive, and I want you."

"You are having a teenage infatuation. It will pass. Your sister would kill me if we have relations."

She stuffed the rest of the sandwich in her mouth, dropped the thong, and settled into his lap. "There has to be a deal before I do this."

Her tongue caressed his lips and he found himself getting very hard. She bounced her bare sex on the bulge in his trousers.

"I don't do deals."

"You are entranced by my head for numbers. I want you entranced by my body too." She pulled his hair and kissed him passionately. He tried hard to find an escape from her torment.

She whispered, "You have to promise me sex when I am twenty-one. And you have to promise you will not tell the others. I will be your very bright, very giggly numbers girl and keep your secrets. Do we have a deal?"

Her tongue found his and went to work. He said to himself that he was only human and nodded his head.

"Good." She lay back on the picnic cloth and spread herself wide. "Look at the treasure you will be getting in eighteen months." Her smile was infectious and seductive at once.

After they returned, he wondered if he would regret the deal. Jennifer enrolled at the London School of Economics and never came close to getting a B. She grew into her double life quickly. Each of the PA locations needed a visit where she would inhale numbers for her file of closed accounts. Her coed act impressed and disarmed them. She invented a fictitious boyfriend at school and talked about dates and fending off insolent hands.

He asked her a few desultory questions about the numbers as they glanced at each other and away. Their assignation was only a few weeks hence. He wondered if it would happen, given the storm clouds over his very private empire. He had quietly placed a hundred million in a trust with her name on it. One that had multiple documents hiding its purpose that would only be disclosed in the event of his death. Within the group, he let it be known she earned a salary only slightly less than theirs. There was no jealousy. They had ordinary good skills with finance. Hers were phenomenal. She not only had the closed accounts at her fingertips, but most of theirs as well.

One day after school, she came by and wanted a private moment. He worried about her intentions, but closed them in his private office anyway. She sat in his lap and asked him to disable the camera and microphones. His worry level grew, but he complied.

She lay on his chest and whispered. "This is about work, you can relax." She took one of his hands and licked the fingers. He said, "That is not work."

"Yes, but I'm here to admit to an indiscretion. There is this girl whose father is a computer scientist. She grew up with the machines from infancy. We are rooming together and she is teaching me about software. Encryption software, to be exact. The other night, she was out on a date and came back drunk and crying. I took her to the shower and washed the mess off, then got her in bed with me to comfort. When we woke up in the morning, she was rubbing on me and had her hand between her legs. She kept saying 'please' and we had sex. Really great sex."

"I'm not sure that is much of an indiscretion these days."

She kissed him, "Spoilsport."

She sat up straight but kept his hand with hers, flexing the fingers back and forth and looking him in the eyes. "We need her talent. We have a lot of sensitive data that is not being adequately protected by the IT people. The hackers can get to anything if they really want to."

She paused for a slow, gentle kiss. He tried but failed to keep himself limp.

"I'm not here to tease. I need your very private, very truthful advice and consent."

They stared at each other. "Her name is Antonini. Italian, like you. I want your permission to take her as a lover. She will protect us, but will know our secrets. At least some of them."

"First name."

"Scarafina. She is very pretty and I wanted her even before the night she came back drunk. I keep asking myself how I can want her and you at the same time. That's why I am here."

He leaned back and closed his eyes. He avoided moments where his brain ran up against purely human problems, but occasionally they could not be avoided. This was one. There was always the potential for betrayal. That was the primary reason for his layers. Deep down, he disliked a life where parts of him were known only in separate existences. His brain had earned him the wealth to make it possible. But Jennifer was across his knees with tender eyes that trusted him and wanted him.

He held both her hands and said softly, "I am the last person to give you advice about sex. Everyone is different. You have lots of company in men and women who love both sexes. Don't worry about that. Worry more about a relationship based on trading for sex. If either of you runs off the end of that, the results are unpredictable."

She smiled and laughed. "Unpredictable as in probability?"

He laughed with her. "Arrange a dinner with her at one of your student hangouts. Tell her I am like a substitute daddy and want to meet your roommate."

"Ohhh, that is so bad. I am going to save this up and torture you with it later." Her eyes held dark promise and he worried that he might be risking his empire for a woman, like rulers of old.

Sybil broke him out of the daydream. "I should send an email to Offshore clients assuring them that we have minor exposure to the crash, and asking to be contacted personally about special situations. Anything else?"

Jennifer rose, waved kisses at both of them, and left. He concentrated on Sybil, but she said, "Your protege is doing well, don't you think?"

He went behind her chair and massaged tense shoulders. "We have a lot riding on her. She flirts with me and I can't tell if the strength is building?"

"She tries to hide it, but is madly in love. The biggest threat to her strength is an emotional crush over you."

"We need to talk more. Does tonight work? Should we include Sam?"

She leaned her head back for a kiss. "I'm horrified at the thought of losing your undivided attention this evening."

His fingers played with the bump in her cashmere, under the wool jacket. "Where is dinner?"

"We were expecting a treat in a nice restaurant. You do owe your PA's something for being away so long."

She gripped his hand and kissed the back. "Perhaps this is not the time for play? We should skip the reception?"

"If you have the maid stock the refrigerator, I will cook. Can you stand that? It will keep you near your machines and phones."

"It is terribly incongruous for a man of your wealth and brilliance to cook for your employees." She managed to make her smile look seductive and he kissed her forehead as she rose.

"Do we have Hugh all day?"

"Yes. I told him circumstances required a driver close by, but said he should make himself at home in the lounge."

"I would like to share a tub with my friends. What time should that be?"

She laughed and said, "Seven sharp. I'll tell Sam. Are you going to see her before?"

He shook his head and stepped through to his office, closing the narrow panel.

Chapter 5 - MI5

As the Land Rover with hidden armor eased out of the underground garage, he spoke to Hugh. "I have several calls to make. Why don't you head towards Regent's Park, and keep an eye out for anyone paying attention to us."

He dialed a number, and punched in a series of codes. "Hello Anthony, it's Jay. I thought we might share notes on the air crash?"

"Yes, that would be an excellent idea. Needs to be here, where our conversation can be private. Would an hour from now be agreeable? I can arrange some lunch."

"Fine. I've just arrived from New York, but finished a staff briefing a few minutes ago. Hugh is doing the driving. Is there a way for him to stay near?"

"Yes. Give me your plate number and the guards will admit you on standard ID's. There is a lorry park with a lounge where he can be comfortable."

The next call was to Sam. "Sybil tells me the two of you are starved for affection."

"Why do you show up, after a long absence, on a day when everything is breaking loose? I'm excited enough, dealing with that body of yours, without this."

"What about my difficulty dealing with your body? Those images I took the last time I was here, with you shadowed in the slanting sunlight, are spectacular. If the others see them, I will be in trouble."

"Is there a reason for your call, other than to torture me?"

"I am cooking for the three of us at Sybil's. I would like to come by and catch up and we can go over there together. I told her I was not going to see you before dinner, so do not reveal my confidence."

"I'll be here. Do you want me upstairs or downstairs?"

"Upstairs will be fine. About four o'clock."

He turned to the driver. "Hugh, I am told they will admit this vehicle at the Sundby entrance with our normal ID's. There is a lounge and I shouldn't be more than an hour. Can you manage that, rubbing shoulders with spies?"

"Aye, sir. They'll give me the once over and I'll give them my SAS staredown." Hugh and Jay had a complicated relationship that was more than driver and passenger. Far more.

They were admitted with extra care. At the building entrance, even though he had been here before and even though he was on the cleared list, Jay got the full treatment.

"Sorry, sir, but when we are on red alert, there are no exceptions to full screening." At the other side of the security check, he could see Sandra, Anthony's PA, who was to be his escort. They smiled thinly at each other.

"I'm sorry, Jay, but it has been a terrible day here. Anthony has been going crazy dealing with the PM's office, and the Mayor's office, and calls from the Queen's military adjutant."

"Sandy, I am amazed he has time for me."

"Jay, there is a very short list of people whom Anthony trusts and counts on for help when needed. You are on it."

In the office, they shook hands and Anthony gestured to his sofa. "Tea?" He nodded.

Jay gave a brief rundown of Offshore's exposure and then moved on to Claude. "Was this specifically related to Abramowich?"

"We are beginning to think so. His meeting in Kuala Lumpur was with some Asian dealers who are also known to supply jihadists."

"But why kill a whole planeload of innocent people?"

"That's question number one and causing uncertainty in our assessment."

"Is there a remote chance that they have uncovered Green Garden and are sending a message with this crash?"

"That possibility has some very important people very worried. They've been on me all day."

"But you have to take care that overreaction doesn't confirm what are only vague suspicions."

"You are here to extricate me?" Anthony laughed.

There was a quiet knock and an aide slipped a sheet of paper in front of his chief and retired.

He read it carefully and pushed it down the table with a smile. "You are a popular man, Jay."

The words were very indirect but asked that MI5 do what it could to expedite Mr. Manco's return to Washington as soon as possible.

Jay smiled himself. "Do I detect a trace of jealousy among friends?"

He went on. "Langley is the poorest spot I can think of to be at the moment."

"There are advantages to being an ocean closer to the action."

"I have a business to run, and am currently thirty or forty million quid in the red. Not to mention having lost the services of one of my and your best men. They will have to get along without me. Do you suppose the station chief here knows any of my involvement?"

"Perhaps I could answer that urgent matters detain you, but a meeting with the local office could be arranged?"

"Yes. Excellent. I would rather not use my communication channel with them right now."

"About Green Garden?"

"Offshore's field people, and others with whom I have influence, have been preparing for an undisclosed warlike event for some time. Laying in provisions, selective hardening of facilities and transport. I have passed it off as insurance against rogue activity and said little else."

"Are your PA's informed?"

"Very peripherally. For their own protection."

"If the PM were to ask how far along our Phase II plans were, what would you say?"

"You obviously have compartmented plans I am not privy to, but my part is between eighty and ninety percent. We could be ready in a week, faster if absolutely necessary. There are risks to my organization, you know, and if Green Garden is abandoned, I would like to avoid fallout."

Green Garden was a mix of proxy war and a den of thieves. He didn't have time to think about it just then.

"Anthony, I appreciate this chance to talk in the middle of your busy day. As I said, I am sticking close by for the next few days, although at an undisclosed location. Sam will know how to reach me."

They shook hands and Sandra escorted him to find Hugh.

(cont'd in Part 2 - Fallout from Air Disaster)