Page 54 of In Too Deep

“Call it what you like.”

“How do you know who to target?”

“We don’t. It’s like going on the prowl, only electronically. It’srandom. I spend hours every day, searching. Sometimes a company name catches my eye. Sometimes a website looks creaky and vulnerable.”

Reacher thought for a moment. “Let me guess. You did a trial run. Bowery went to collect the payoff.”

“Right. He went, but he didn’t come back. Ivan thought he stiffed us. But what if that’s not what happened? What if he got stiffed and thought we wouldn’t believe him? Or he got hurt and needed time to recover. Or the guys we hit came after him. He dropped out of sight, then came back to warn us. Which is why he had to lay low and watch. To make sure they weren’t already onto us. And when he saw what you did, and then knew you’d left…”

“So he’d be working alone?”

“I guess.”

“Vidic was still unconscious. His cuffs weren’t removed because rescuers don’t waste time throwing away their trash, either. I can just about see Bowery leaving the cuffs on. He could have figured Vidic would be easier to carry that way. Or that cutting them off would waste a few seconds. But here’s the problem. He’s alone. He’s carrying Vidic. So how did he get Knight to go with him?”

“He surprised her when he came in. Took her hostage.”

“And kept her subdued while he searched the house and then carried an unconscious body down a flight of stairs?” Reacher shook his head. “There’s no chance that happened. Zero.”

“What, then?”

“Talk me through the process. Everything that happened from making contact with your mark to losing touch with Bowery.”

“It wasn’t complicated. It was agreed Bowery would meet their guy at a diner and exchange the information for the gold.”

“Gold? Why not crypto, or whatever you tech guys use?”

Paris shrugged. “That was Ivan’s idea. He wanted gold.”

“What for?”

“He didn’t say. I didn’t ask. I didn’t care. I just wanted to prove the concept.”

“How long between first contact and the sit-down at the diner?”

“Seventy-two hours, give or take.”

“Who picked the venue?”

“They did.”

“After Bowery dropped off the map, did you visit the diner? Speak to the waitresses? Other customers?”

“No.”

“Did Vidic?”

“He thought about it. But when Bowery didn’t come back, Fletcher got all hysterical. He thought every shadow was an agent. Every passing car was a spy. Ivan figured dropping out of sight to investigate would be too risky, at the time.”

“OK. One last question. The guys you tried to rip off. What kind of business are they in?”

“Property development. It’s a young company. Very active in the market. Constantly acquiring rivals. Taking on new projects. Their growth is phenomenal. So’s their profit. Investors can’t get enough.”

“Sounds too good to be true.”

“It is. I found their skeletons. They’re booking their new assets for what they think they’re going to be worth at the end of the following year. If they meet the projected valuation, great. They take the credit early, make it look like they’re growing faster than they are, attract more investment, rinse, repeat. And if they take on a dud that doesn’t live up to the forecast, which obviously can happen, they should book the loss. But they don’t. They have a whole complex web of subsidiaries and sister companies, and they bounce the toxic asset around between them, hoping that if they keep it moving no one will spot it. But I did. They’ve built a house of cards and I had the proof.”

“And that’s what you were going to sell back? The proof?”

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