The Associate

The Associate Page 5

With a crushing weight suddenly lifted from his shoulders, and with his breathing somewhat normal again, Kyle glanced at his watch. It was after midnight. He looked at Wright, or whatever the hell his name really was, and he wanted to smile and even hug the man because he wasn't a cop from Pittsburgh and he didn't deliver an indictment. There would be no arrest, no prosecution, no humiliation, and for this Kyle was euphoric. But at the same time he wanted to bolt across the table and punch Wright's face with as much violence as he could generate, then knock him to the floor and kick him until he didn't move.

He vetoed both ideas. Wright was fit and probably trained and could take care of himself. And he certainly wasn't the type anyone would want to hug. Kyle leaned back in his chair, placed his right ankle on his left knee, and relaxed for the first time in hours.

"So what's your real name?" he asked.

Wright was preparing a new legal pad for a fresh round of note taking.

He entered the date in the top left corner. "We're not going to waste time with frivolous questions, Kyle."

"Oh, why not? You can't even tell me your name?"

"Let's stick with Bennie Wright for now. It doesn't really matter, because you'll never know the real name."

"I like this. Real cloak-and-dagger shit. You guys are good. Really had me going there for about four hours. Had a knot in my colon as big as a pumpkin. Already thinking about finding a nice bridge to wing it from. I hate your guts and don't ever forget it."

"When you shut up, we can get down to business."

"Can I walk out right now?"

"Sure."

"And no one will grab me? No more fake badges and phony FBI agents?"

"None. Go. You're a free man."

"Oh, thank you."

A minute passed without a word. Wright's fierce little eyes never left Kyle's face, while Kyle, hard as he tried, could not return the stare. His foot twitched and his eyes darted and he drummed his fingers on the table. His mind raced through a hundred scenarios, but he never once thought of leaving the room.

"Let's talk about your future, Kyle," Wright finally said.

"Sure. Now that I won't be arrested, the future has certainly improved."

"This job you're planning to take. Piedmont Legal Aid. Why do you want to waste a couple of years saving the world?"

"Don't really see it that way. There are a lot of migrant workers in Virginia, many of whom are illegal, and they're subjected to all sorts of abuse. They live in cardboard boxes, eat rice twice a day, work for two bucks an hour, often don't get paid for backbreaking work, and so on. I figure they could use some help."

"But why?"

"It's public-interest law, okay? Obviously you don't get it. It's lawyers giving their time to help others. They still teach this in law school. Some of us believe in it."

Wright was not impressed. "Let's talk about Scully & Pershing."

"What about them? I'm sure you've done your research."

"They offered you a job?"

"Correct."

"Beginning when?"

"September 2 of this year. I take the bar in July, and would start working in September."

"As an associate?"

"No, as a full-fledged partner. Or how about a secretary, or a copy clerk? Come on, Bennie, you know the routine."

"Don't get angry, Kyle. We have a long way to go."

"I see. And we should cooperate now, and be pals, because we're striving for a common purpose. Just you and me, right, Bennie? A couple of old friends. Where the hell is this going?"

"It's going to Scully & Pershing."

"What if I don't want to work there?"

"You have little choice."

Kyle leaned on his elbows and rubbed his eyes. The folding table was narrow, their faces were two feet apart.

"Have you said no to Scully & Pershing?" Wright asked.

"I'm assuming you already know the answer to that question. I'm assuming you've been listening to my phone conversations for some time."

"Not all of them."

"You're a thug."

"Thugs break legs, Kyle. We're much too smart for that."

"No, I have not said no to Scully & Pershing. I've informed them that I'm giving serious thought to public-interest law for a couple of years, and we've even discussed a deferment. They've given me extra time, but I need to make a decision."

"So they still want you?"

"Yes."

"At a starting salary of $200,000?"

"Something like that. You know the numbers."

"One of the largest and most prestigious law firms in the world."

"The largest, at least that's what they tell everybody."

"Big firm, important clients, wealthy partners with contacts everywhere. Come on, Kyle, it's an offer most law students would kill for. Why not take it?"

Kyle jumped to his feet and paced to the door and back. He glared down at Wright and said, "Let me make sure I follow you. You want me to take the job at Scully & Pershing, for reasons that I'm sure will be against my best interests, and if I say no, then you'll blackmail me with the video and the rape allegations. Right? Is this where we're headed, Bennie?"

"More or less. 'Blackmail' is such an ugly word."

"Wouldn't want to offend anyone, Bennie. I'm sure you're very sensitive. But it's blackmail, or extortion, or whatever you'd like to call it. It's a crime, Bennie. And you're a thug."

"Shut up and stop calling me a thug!"

"I could go to the cops tomorrow and bust your ass. Impersonating an officer, attempted blackmail."

"It won't happen."

"I can make it happen."

Wright slowly stood and for one horrible second made a motion as if he were about to throw a nasty punch. Then he casually pointed a finger at Kyle and in a firm and steady voice said, "You're a kid with a snoot full of law. You want to run to the cops, go ahead. Work up your little textbook theories about who's right and who's wrong, and you know what will happen, Kyle? I'll tell you what will happen. You'll never see me again. The boys across the hall, the FBI agents, are already gone. No trace whatsoever. Vanished, forever. Before long, I'll have a visit with the attorney for Elaine Keenan, show her the video, look once again at the net worth of Baxter Tate, provide her with the current addresses and phone numbers and e-mails for you, Alan Strock, and Joey Bernardo, prod her to have a chat with the prosecutor in Pittsburgh, and before you know it things are out of your control. Maybe charges will be filed, maybe not. But, trust me, I will destroy you."

"Where's Elaine? You got her in a bunker somewhere?"

"It doesn't matter. We have reason to believe she feels strongly that she was raped in your apartment."

"Please."

"She's a ticking bomb, Kyle, and the video would set her off. You have seven more years to worry about it." With that, Wright returned to his chair and made some notes. Kyle sat on the edge of the bed, facing the mirror.

"It could get really ugly," Wright continued. "Think about it, Kyle. Yale Law's brightest student arrested on rape charges. The women's groups screaming for all eight testicles. The video leaked onto the Internet. A brutal trial. Chance of conviction, prison. A career ruined."

"Shut up!"

"No. So if you think I'm worried about your two-bit threats, please rest assured that I am not. Let's talk business. Let's take the video and lock it away so that no one will ever see it. How does that sound, Kyle?"

It sounded pretty damned good at the moment. Kyle scratched his stubble as he said, "What do you want?"

"I want you to take the job at Scully & Pershing."

"Why?"

"Now we're getting somewhere, Kyle. Now we can talk business. I thought you'd never ask why."

"Why? Why? Why?"

"Because I need information."

"Great. That really explains things. Thank you so much."

"Bear with me for a few minutes, Kyle. You need a little background here. There are two gigantic corporations who compete with each other. Both are ruthless competitors, both are worth billions, and they really despise each other. There have been lawsuits, nasty ones, big public spectacles with no clear winner or loser. So, over the years, they have tried to avoid the courtroom. Until now. Now they're about to square off in the mother of all lawsuits. It will be filed in a few weeks in federal court in New York City. At stake is something in the neighborhood of $800 billion, and the loser might not survive. Nasty, vicious litigation. A bonanza for the attorneys. Each uses a huge Wall Street law firm, and guess what? The two law firms hate each other."

"I can't wait to get in the middle of that."

"That's where you're headed. One firm is Scully & Pershing. The other is Agee, Poe & Epps."

"Otherwise known as APE."

"Yes."

"I interviewed there."

"Did they offer a job?"

"I thought you knew everything."

"Only what I need to know."

"I didn't like the firm."

"Attaboy. Now you can really dislike them."

Kyle walked into the bathroom, ran cold water in the sink, splashed it on his face and down his neck, and for a long time stared at himself in the mirror. Don't get tired, he told himself. Ignore the fatigue and the fear. Try to anticipate what's coming. Try to throw him a curve, mess with his timing, knock him off course.

He sat down across the table from Wright. "Where'd you find the video?" Kyle asked.

"Kyle, Kyle, such a waste of time."

"If the video is used in court, then the owner of the cell phone camera will have to testify. You can't protect his identity at that point. Does he know this? Did you explain it to him? He's one of my fraternity brothers, and I'll bet he'll refuse to testify at trial."

"A trial? You're willing to go to trial? A trial holds the possibility of a conviction, which means prison, and prison for cute little white boys convicted of rape is not pretty."

"I'll bet she won't press charges."

"You have nothing to bet with. She needs money. If she can squeeze it out of Mr. Tate, and a few bucks from you and the other two, she'll do it. Trust me."

"I wouldn't trust you with my dirty laundry."

"Enough of the insults. We'll go to her lawyer and show her exactly how to do it. Or, maybe we won't. Maybe we'll just release an edited version of the video on the Internet tonight. Cut out the rape and let everyone see the party scene. We'll e-mail it to all your friends, family, prospective employers, the whole world, Kyle. See how it plays. Then maybe we'll edit it some more, maybe include some of the rape, post it again. When Elaine sees it, your face is in the newspaper."

Kyle's mouth actually dropped open, and his shoulders slumped. He could think of no quick response, but the one thought that hit him hard was that of being shot. Mr. Wright here was a ruthless little cutthroat who worked for some group with unlimited resources and great determination. They would ruin him. They might even kill him.

As if reading his mind, Wright leaned in a little closer and said, "Kyle, we're not Boy Scouts. And I'm tired of this bantering back and forth. I'm not here to negotiate. I'm here to give orders. Either you follow my orders, or I call the office and tell my pals to destroy you."

"I despise you."

"So be it. I'm just doing my job."

"What a miserable job."

"Can we talk about your new one?"

"I didn't go to law school to become a spy."

"Let's not call it spying, Kyle."

"Then give it a name, Bennie."

"Transferring information."

"Oh, bullshit. It's nothing but spying."

"I really don't care what you call it."

"What kind of information?"

"Once the lawsuit gets cranked up, there will be a million documents. Maybe ten million, who knows? Lots of documents and lots of secrets. We expect each of the two law firms to commit fifty lawyers to the case  -  maybe as many as ten partners, the rest associates. You'll be in the litigation section of Scully & Pershing, so you'll have access to a lot of material."

"Security at these firms is extremely tight."

"We know that. Our security experts are better than theirs. We wrote the book, Kyle."

"I'm sure you did. May I ask what these two big companies are fighting over?"

"Secrets. Technology."

"Great. Thanks. Do these companies have names?"

"Fortune 500. I'll give you more information as we progress."

"So you're going to be part of my life for a while?"

"I'm your official handler. You and I will spend a lot of time together."

"Then I quit. Go ahead and shoot me. I'm not spying and I'm not stealing. The moment I walk out of Scully & Pershing with a document or a disc I'm not supposed to have and give it to you or anybody else, I've broken the law and violated half the canons of ethics. I will be disbarred and convicted of something."

"Only if you get caught."

"I'll get caught."

"No. We're much too smart, Kyle. We've done this before. It's our business."

"Your firm specializes in stealing documents?"

"Let's call it corporate espionage. We do it all the time and we're very good at it."

"Then go blackmail someone else."

"No. It's all you, Kyle. Think about it. You take the job you've always wanted, at an obscene salary, living the fast life in the big city. They try to work you to death for a few years, but they reward you. By the time you're thirty, you're a senior associate making four hundred grand a year. Nice apartment in SoHo. A share of a weekend house in the Hamptons. A Porsche. A circle of friends who are all smart and rich and moving up as fast as you are. Then one day the lawsuit is settled. We disappear. The statute runs out in Pittsburgh. The video is finally forgotten, and at the age of thirty-two or thirty-three you're asked to join Scully & Pershing as a full equity partner. A million or two per year. The pinnacle of success. A great career ahead of you. Life is great. And no one there will ever know about the transferring of information."

A headache that had been smoldering for the past hour finally matured and hit hard in the middle of his forehead. Kyle stretched out on the bed and massaged his temples. He closed his eyes, but in the blackness managed to keep talking. "Look, Bennie, I know you don't care about morals or ethics and such things, but I do. How, exactly, am I supposed to live with myself if I betray the confidences of my firm and its clients? Trust is the most important thing a lawyer has. I learned that from my father when I was a teenager."

"All we care about is getting the information. We don't spend too much time pondering morality."

"That's about what I figured."

"I need a commitment, Kyle. I need your word."

"Do you have any Tylenol?"

"No. Do we have an agreement, Kyle?"

"Do you have anything for a headache?"

"No."

"Do you have a gun?"

"In my jacket."

"Let me have it."

A minute passed without a sound. Wright's eyes never left Kyle, who was motionless except for his fingers pressing gently on his forehead. Then Kyle slowly sat up and asked in a whisper, "How much longer are you planning to stay here?"

"Oh, I have lots of questions."

"I was afraid of that. I can't keep going. My head is splitting."

"Whatever, Kyle. It's up to you. But I need an answer. Do we have an agreement, a deal, an understanding?"

"Do I really have a choice?"

"I don't see one."

"Neither do I."

"So?"

"If I have no choice, then I have no choice."

"Excellent. A wise decision, Kyle."

"Oh, thank you so much."

Wright stood and stretched as if a long day at the office were finally over. He reshuffled some papers, fiddled with the video camera, closed the laptop. "Would you like to rest, Kyle?"

"Yes."

"We have several rooms. You're welcome to take a nap if you'd like, or we can continue tomorrow."

"It's already tomorrow."

Wright was at the door. He opened it and Kyle followed him out of the room, across the hall, and into room 222. What had once been an FBI command center had now been converted back to a regular $89-a-night motel room. Ginyard and Plant and the other fake agents were long gone, and they had taken everything  -  files, computers, enlarged photos, tripods, briefcases, boxes, folding tables. The bed was back in the center of the room, perfectly made up.

"Shall I wake you in a few hours?" Wright asked pleasantly.

"No. Just leave me alone."

"I'll be across the hall."

When Kyle was alone, he pulled back the bedspread, turned off the lights, and soon fell asleep.