Free The Miraculous Plot of Leiter & Lott by Jonathan Lowe

Aazad asked, after a pause.
    "If you like."
    Aazad tossed the stub of his cigar overboard. "You lost money to one, or to both."
    David shook his head. "No, not me. It was my deceased mother. For me, it's more complex. I want to see who they are now. I know who they were. Or at least I know who I thought they were."
    "Interesting. What do you propose?"
    "A party at your place."
    Aazad sniggered at his brazen suggestion, then broke out another Havana, cut off the tip, and lit up. "And what is my interest in these two to be?"
    "Let it be a mystery. We'll ignore them completely."
    Aazad nodded. "I'm liking this idea more and more. Go on."
    "Jeffrey Innes will be impressed immensely by you. He will be curious. Looking for his angle, seeking redemption, whether he knows it or not. He's cheated his employees and investors out of millions. Unless he's a sociopath--which might be likely, I have to admit--he must feel guilty. He escaped justice on a loophole, and sailed here on a golden parachute. Ted Cashman , on the other hand, was a pimp for God."
    "Your televangelist's name is Cashman ?"
    "Yes. It's his real name. His entire ministry was a sham. He took Social Security money, and bought a jet with it. He took donations from the elderly, and bought jewelry for his wife. He promised prosperity, but all his followers got was a tax write-off. When his finance director threatened to blow his cover by appearing on 60 Minutes, he took his retirement early and moved into the Al- Jumeirah Tower."
    Aazad blew a breath of smoke out over the bow. "But we just ignore all this."
    "Completely. We let them find each other. We seat them together, and listen to their conversation."
    "For what purpose? What do you expect them to say?"
    "It's not what they say, it's how they say it."
    Aazad's watery eye's narrowed. Then a slight smile crossed his lips. "You're a curious one," he said.
    "I know," David admitted. "Will you do it?"

10
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    "You what?" Etherton whispered hotly as they bypassed the Palm toward an approach to the World Islands.
    David leaned sideways against the deck railing, and looked past Doug toward the dark windows of the control room behind him. "I made a wish, like dying kids do to get ball players to visit them. Aazad is going to grant it. He's having the phone calls placed now."
    "Are you crazy?" Doug asked.
    "Don't worry, it won't jeopardize his generosity with you."
    "How do you know that?"
    "I'm not sure, I just do."
    "Wow, that's a relief. I thought you were going to help me on this."
    "I am, trust me. You'll just get the job done a little earlier, is all."
    Doug shook his head, angry at himself now. "Oh, never mind," he said. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have approached him. Should have let it ride until next week. And then I--" He paused, staring at the inlet into which the Big Dipper now carefully maneuvered, following a narrow, deep-water channel between the first two of many symmetrical islands of sand.
    "Then you what?" David asked.
    "I made an even bigger mistake. When you were out here, looking at the skyline, I gulped a whisky, then told Aazad my theory."
    "You mean about Victor Seacrest ?"
    Etherton winced, then glared at him in stunned amazement. "How did you. . ."
    "I deduced it by your reaction, and what you said about their rivalry."
    "Yeah, but that's quite a leap, even for you."
    "Or you? You said the men hated each other. There's motive. All that's left is means. So what if Seacrest got the idea to create a diversion by hitting the Burj Khalifa first, before targeting Swann's family condo at the Dynamic Tower? It would be some revenge for him, and no one the wiser."
    "Sounds insane, though, hearing somebody else say it." Doug bit at his lower lip. "Okay. Like Aazad asked me, then, how in hell would Seacrest get access to drone military aircraft?"
    "Who's proven they're military? Maybe he had them engineered. Or if they are military, maybe he bought them on the black market. Didn't a few drones go missing a