Simon said he did. Barely. “Tell them not to worry. I’ll wire it in the morning.”
“Got it.”
“What about her condition? They promised to know more by now.”
“No change, but apparently that’s something.”
“Have you seen her?”
“Was by the clinic yesterday. She has some color in her cheeks.”
“Was her mother there?”
“No. No one mentioned seeing her either.”
“All right, then.”
“Am I allowed to ask where you are or when you’ll be back?”
“Far away and as soon as possible.”
Simon ended the call, noting that London was also on her phone. Probably her editor.
The first boarding announcement was made. Simon suggested they be among the first in line. He picked up his bag and walked to the gate, where an agent had begun scanning boarding passes. A group of well-dressed passengers swept past in the first class line, entering the aircraft through a designated door. Among them, a proud, iron-jawed woman with jet-black hair in traditional Indonesian dress.
“Did you see who that was?” said London. “Nadya Sukarno.”
“Two guesses where she’s going.”
“Zurich with a connection onward to Nice and a room at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc.”
“It’s going to be quite a gathering.”
“The Cannes Film Festival is going on right now, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
London watched as Sukarno disappeared down the gangway. “I remembered something. I took a look at all the earnings reports issued by HW for its first Future Indonesia fund. One of the investments they made was in a film company, Black Marble. I thought the beta on that one was a few standard deviations above the norm.”
“The ‘beta’?”
“The risk. You have to be crazy to invest in the movie business, right?”
“How much did they put in?”
“It didn’t say, only that they held a majority stake in the company.”
“I know a little about Black Marble,” said Simon.
“You do?”
“It’s run by a man named Samson Sun. Strange guy. That answers my questions about where he got his money.”
“Sun is Sukarno’s nephew. He’s been popping up in the local papers’ entertainment pages.”
“That right? I did a small job with him just last week.”
“You’re joking!”
