Total Control (46 page)

Sidney gaped at him.

"What the devil do you mean, sneaking in here like this? With a gun, no less?"

Sidney stopped shaking and straightened up. "I'm a partner in this firm, Philip. I have every right to be here." Her voice was trembling, but she met his gaze forcefully.

Goldman's voice was sneering. "Not for long, though." He withdrew an envelope from his inner pocket. "Actually, this will save the firm the cost of a messenger." He held out the envelope to Sidney.

"Your termination from the firm. If you would kindly just sign it now, it would save everyone a great deal of trouble and rid the firm of an enormous embarrassment."

Sidney did not take the envelope but kept her eyes and the pistol on Goldman.

Goldman fingered the envelope before glancing at the pistol.

"Would you mind putting away that gun before you add additional crimes to your resume?"

"I haven't done a damn thing, and you know it." She spat the words out.

Goldman rolled his eyes. "Of course. I'm sure you were entirely ignorant of your loving husband's nefarious schemes."

"Jason hasn't done anything wrong either."

"Well, I'm not going to argue with you while you have a firearm pointed at me. Would you please put it away?"

Finally Sidney began to lower the 9mm. Then something occurred to her. Who had turned on the lights? Goldman hadn't been anywhere near a switch.

Before she had time to react, a strong hand gripped her arm and the pistol was violently jerked from her. A powerful force slammed into her and she was thrown up against a wall. She sank down to the floor, her head splitting with pain from the impact. When she looked up, a burly man dressed in a black chauffeur's uniform stood over her, pointing her own pistol at her head. From behind the gunman, another man appeared.

"Hello, Sid. Gotten anymore phone calls from dead husbands lately?" Paul Brophy laughed.

Shaking, Sidney managed to stand up and lean against the wall while she tried to get her breath back.

Goldman looked over at the burly man. "Good work, Parker. You can go get the car. We'll be down in a few minutes."

Parker nodded and put Sidney's pistol in his coat pocket. She noted that he carried a holstered gun of his own. Much to her dismay, he picked up her purse from the floor where it had fallen during the brief struggle and strode off.

"You've been following me!"

"I like to know the after-hours comings and goings at the firm: an electronic tap on the entry system to the building. I was quite pleased when I saw your name come over the log at one-thirty ^.M."

He looked at the shelves of legal tomes. "Doing some legal research, or perhaps following your husband's example and trying to steal some secrets?" Sidney would have hit Goldman flush in the face with her fist if Paul Brophy hadn't been too quick for her.

Goldman was unruffled. "Perhaps now we can get down to business." Sidney made a move to lunge through the doorway; Brophy blocked her way, however, pushing her back into the library. Sidney stared a hole through him. "Going from partner in a major firm to burglary in a New Orleans hotel is a big swing, Paul." Brophy's smile disappeared.

Sidney looked over at Goldman. "If I scream right now, someone might hear me."

Goldman responded coolly. "Actually, Sidney, you may have forgotten, but all attorneys and paraleagls left earlier today for the firm's annual conference in Florida. They won't be back for several days. Unfortunately, I was called away on unexpected business and have to take an early morning flight down. Paul had a similar predicament. Everyone else is in attendance." He glanced at his watch. "Thus you can scream all you want. However, actually you have every reason to work with us."

Her eyes turned to slits, Sidney looked at both men. "What are you talking about?"

"This conversation might best be carried on in my office." Goldman motioned toward the door and then produced a small-caliber revolver of his own to reinforce the request.

Brophy closed and locked the office door. Goldman handed the gun to him and sat down behind his desk. He motioned for Sidney to sit across from him. "It's certainly been an exciting month for you, Sidney." He produced the termination letter again. "However, I'm afraid your recent excesses have resulted in your tenure at this firm coming to an end. I wouldn't be surprised if the firm and Triton Global instituted civil litigation against you. Possibly criminal action as well."

Sidney's eyes now bored in on Goldman. "You're holding me against my will at gunpoint and you're telling me to worry about criminal action?"

"Paul and I, both partners in this firm, observe someone, an intruder, in the firm's library doing God knows what. We attempt to apprehend said suspect and what does she do? She pulls a gun on us.

We're able to wrestle the gun away, fortunately, before anyone is hurt, and now we are detaining that intruder until the police arrive."

"Police?"

"Oh, that's right, I haven't called the police yet, have I? How absentminded of me." Goldman reached for the phone, lifted the receiver and then sat back in his chair without dialing. "Oh, now I remember why I haven't called them." His tone was goading.

"Would you like to know the reason?" Sidney didn't answer. "You're a deal lawyer, Sidney. Well, what if I were to propose a deal to you?

A way for you to not only remain at liberty but also derive some economic gain, since you now happen to be unemployed."

"Tyler, Stone isn't the only firm in town, Phil."

Goldman winced at the abbreviation of his name. "Well, actually, in your case that's not quite correct. You see, as far as you're concerned, there are no firms left. Not here, not anywhere in this country, perhaps the world."

Sidney's face betrayed her confusion.

"Let's be rational, Sid." Goldman's eyes gleamed momentarily as he

returned the verbal joust. "Your husband is suspected of sabotaging a plane, resulting in the murder of almost two hundred people.

On top of that it's clear he stole money and secrets worth hundreds of millions of dollars from a client of this firm. Obviously these crimes were planned over a long period of time."

"I haven't heard you mention my name yet in this ridiculous scenario."

"You had high-level access to Triton Global's most important records, perhaps records to which even your husband wasn't privy."

"That was part of my job. That doesn't make it criminal."

"As they are fond of saying in legal circles, and as is embodied in the Canon of Ethics, even the 'appearance of an impropriety' must be avoided. I think that you long ago overstepped that boundary."

"How? By losing my husband? By being railroaded out of my job without a scintilla of proof? Why don't we talk about lawsuits for a minute? Like Sidney Archer versus Tyler, Stone for wrongful termination?"

Goldman looked over at Brophy and nodded slightly. Sidney turned her head to look at him. Her chin began to tremble when she saw the minicassette recorder emerge from his pocket.

"These things come in so handy, Sid," said Brophy. "Record so clear it's as if you were right there in the same room." He hit the play button.

After a minute of listening to her conversation with her husband, Sidney whirled back around to face Goldman. "What the hell do you want?"

"Well, let's see. I suppose we must first establish market price.

What is that tape worth? It establishes that you lied to the FBI. A felony in itself. Then there's aiding and abetting a felon. Accessory after the fact. Another nasty one. The list goes on from there. Neither of us is a criminal lawyer, but I think you get the picture. Father gone, mother in jail. Your little girl is how old? Tragic." He shook his head in mock sympathy.

Sidney jumped out of her chair. "Fuck you, Goldman. Fuck you both." Sidney screamed the words in uncontrollable fury. Then she lunged across the desk, gripped Goldman's throat with both hands and would have done him serious damage had Brophy not come once again to the older man's rescue.

Goldman, coughing and gagging, looked furiously at Sidney as soon as she was pulled off. "You ever touch me again, you'll rot in jail," he sputtered.

Breathing hard, Sidney stared wildly at the man. She flung off Brophy's restraining hand but did not move as he kept the gun trained on her. Goldman smoothed down his tie and ruffled shirt and reassumed his confident tone. "Despite your crude reaction, I am actually prepared to be quite generous with you. If you would look at the matter rationally, you would be compelled to accept the offer I'm about to make to you." He cocked his head at her and glanced down at the chair.

Shaking and breathing irregularly, Sidney finally sat back down.

"Good. Now, as succinctly as possible, here is the situation: I know that you have spoken with Roger Egert, who is now in charge of the CyberCom matter. You are privy to Triton's latest proposal regarding the CyberCom acquisition. This I also know to be fact. Now you are also still in possession of the password to the master computer file for the CyberCom transaction." Sidney looked dully at Goldman as her thoughts jumped ahead of his words. "I want both the latest terms of the proposal and the password to the computer file, just in case there are any last-minute changes in Triton's negotiation position."

Sidney's tone was slow, deliberate, her breathing now returned to normal. "RTG must really want CyberCom if they're paying you something other than your hourly rate to violate attorney-client privilege, not to mention stealing corporate secrets."

Goldman merely continued: "In return we are prepared to pay you ten million dollars, tax-free, of course."

"Ensuring my economic stability now that I'm unemployable?

And my silence?"

"Something like that. You disappear to some nice little foreign country, raise your little girl in luxury. The CyberCom deal is consummated.

Triton Global will continue on. Tyler, Stone will remain a viable firm. No one is the worse off. The alternative? Well, it's something considerably less pleasant. For you. However, time is of the essence. I need your answer in one minute." He 'stared at his watch, counting the seconds off.

Sidney sat back in her chair, her shoulders slumped as she swiftly thought through the few possibilities left to her. If she agreed, she would be rich. If she didn't, she could and probably would go to jail.

And Amy? She thought of Jason and all the terrible events of the past month. More than enough for several lifetimes. She suddenly stiffened as she looked at Goldman's triumphant features, felt the sneering presence of Paul Brophy behind her.

She knew what course of action she would take.

She would accept their terms and then she would play her own cards. She would give Goldman the information he wanted and then she would go straight to Lee Sawyer and tell him everything, including the existence of the disk. She would hope for the best deal she could get and she would expose Goldman and his client for what they were. She wouldn't be rich and she might be away from her little girl if she did any prison time, but she wasn't going to raise Amy with Goldman's extortion money. And, most important, she could live with herself.

"Time," Goldman announced.

Sidney didn't speak.

Goldman shook his head slowly and lifted up the phone receiver once more. Finally, almost imperceptibly, Sidney nodded her head.

Goldman rose from behind the desk, a broad smile on his face. "Excellent.

What are the terms and the password?"

Sidney shook her head. "My bargaining position is a little fragile.

First the money, then the information. Or you can just go ahead and dial 911."

Goldman hesitated for a moment. "Well, as you say, your position is precarious. However, precisely because of that fact, we can be somewhat flexible. Shall we?" He stood up and motioned to the door. Sidney looked confused. "Now that we've reached agreement, I want to fully implement the deal before I let you go. You may be difficult to find later," Goldman explained.

As Sidney rose and turned, Brophy put the revolver into the back of his waistband and intentionally brushed lightly against her with his shoulder, his lips near her ear. "After you get settled down into your new life, you may want some company. I see myself having a lot more free time and more money than I know what to do with.

Think about it."

Sidney's knee slamming into his groin sent Brophy to the floor. "I just did, Paul, and I'm trying hard not to be sick to my stomach. Stay away from me if you want to keep what little manhood you've got left."

Sidney walked briskly down the hallway, Goldman right behind her. Brophy finally managed to pull himself up. Clutching his privates, his face pale, he staggered after them.

The limo was waiting for them on the lowest level of the garage next to the elevator bank, its engine running. Goldman held the door while Sidney climbed in. Brophy, still trying to catch his breath and painfully bent over, entered last and sat across from Goldman and Sidney; the darkened glass partition was fully raised behind him.

"It won't take long to make arrangements. You may find it's in your best interests to maintain your present domicile until things cool down a bit. Then we'll fly you to an interim destination. You can send for your daughter and live happily ever after." Goldman's tone was openly jovial.

Sidney's response was all business. "What about Triton and the firm? You mentioned lawsuits?"

"I think that can all be taken care of. Why would the firm want to immerse itself in such embarrassing litigation? And Triton really can't prove anything, can it?"

"So why should I deal?"

Brophy held up the minicassette recorder, his face still flushed.

"Because of this, you little bitch. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life in prison."

Sidney's manner remained calm. "I'll want that tape."

Goldman shrugged. "Impossible for now. Perhaps later, when things have returned to normal."