The Prince of Risk: A Novel by Christopher Reich

Author:Christopher Reich
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780385535069
Publisher: Doubleday
Published: 2013-12-03T05:00:00+00:00

A second later his phone rang again. “Sam Bloch on line one,” said his assistant.

Bloch was another lender, one of the two people at the clambake on Sunday night whom Astor had counted as a friend. Bloch was old-school. They had always kept one rule between them: no bullshit.

“Yeah, Sam.”

“You fucked up, Bobby.”

“Give me some time.”

“You’ve got six hours till the close. And twenty-four after that to make good.”

“What are we out to you?”

“Couple hundred. You got it?”

“Let me check my pockets.”

“No one’s in the mood to laugh today, buddy. This is real. No sign the rates are softening. I saw that press conference last night, too. You’re not the only one sweating this. What the hell were you thinking?”

Astor grimaced. Win big or lose big, it was the same question. Only the tone differed. Admiration or condemnation. Right now, he was damned if he had an answer. “I’ll talk to you after the close, Sam.”

“I can’t be your rabbi on this one. Rules are rules. Lots of people are watching. You know how it is.”

“Yeah, I know how it is. And Sam…thanks.” Astor hung up.

The pain in his temple increased.

The phone rang again. “Who is it now?” he asked his assistant.

“Adam Weinstein from the Times.”

Weinstein wrote the “Deal of the Day” column for the paper. He was Wall Street’s Hedda Hopper, and just about as warm and fuzzy, with a reputation for breaking the big story. Astor couldn’t trust himself to dish out the requisite bullshit this morning. Telling a newspaper the truth was like handing the hangman a rope. Astor had no illusions. Weinstein was an executioner. Astor knew just the person to shut him down. “Give him to Marv.”

Another light was blinking. Astor ignored it. Instead, he called Sully and asked him to bring the car around to the front of the building. He placed one last call. “Get me Septimus Reventlow.”

“One second.”

The call went through a moment later. “Hello, Bobby. Why aren’t you calling on your private number?”

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