It was nearly a half hour after the opening bell when Cassy and Ben were cleared through security outside the New York Stock Exchange and got to the visitors waiting area.
In the middle of everything Betty Ladd had called down to Cassy’s station in the DCSS to find out what progress was being made.
“My program has loaded,” Cassy had told her.
“And my fingers are crossed,” Betty had said. “If the cops will let you come over, we can watch what happens together.”
“May I bring Ben and his friend along?”
“Absolutely. Love to meet them.”
But Chip had begged off. “I have to talk to Huggard and let him know we ran into another delay,” he’d said.
“Like helping save the world’s free enterprise system,” Cassy had told him. She stood up on tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“You know I do outrank Ben. And I’m making a lot more money than he does.”
“I make it a rule never to date married men, especially happily married ones,” Cassy had said and they all laughed.
A pretty young woman appeared with a smile. “I’m Jennifer, Ms. Ladd’s assistant. Follow me, please.”
Down the hall and around the corner they came to the trading floor, which was fairly calm, though there was some commotion at the post where BP’s stock was traded.
Betty came over and gave Cassy a big hug. The older woman looked tired and worried, but she smiled. “Thank God you’re okay,” she said, and she turned to Ben and held out her hand. “The savior of the day.”
They shook hands.
“She’s worth it,” Ben said. “But I thought there’d be more action here.”
“It’ll come if Cassy’s program doesn’t work, because on top of that I just learned that there was an explosion in Union City across the river that took out our backup computer and killed as many as a half dozen people.”
“The Russians?” Ben asked.
Betty shrugged. “Unknown.” She glanced at a monitor showing the numbers. The Dow was down only a few points, as were some of the other indicators. But it was nothing catastrophic. “We’re about where I expected we would be,” she said. “But we should have a better idea in the next half hour or so, because if Abacus does kick in, there’ll be an all-out free fall that our automatic systems won’t be able to stop.”
A bearded man in a gray suit and knitted red tie walked up. “Sorry to interrupt, Betty. We’re putting together a follow-up to our news story about Reid Treadwell. Any comment?”
“Reid was a giant of Wall Street,” Betty said. “No one was smarter, more charismatic, or more visionary than he.” She smiled faintly. “Considering everything else that’s been happening this morning it’s all I have for now, Tony. We’ll talk later.”
He returned her smile and walked away.
“Tony Langley of The Wall Street Journal,” Betty said. “I’ll give him the truth about Reid’s suicide later.”
“And the explosion?” Ben asked.
“I knew nothing about it until I heard it on the news this morning.”
They glanced at the monitors again. The Dow and S&P were still falling but not dramatically.
“So far so good,” Betty said. “But is there any chance your program didn’t completely wipe out Abacus?”
“From my diagnostics in DCSS it looked as if we neutralized it,” Cassy said.
“But the chance still exists?”
Cassy nodded uncomfortably. “There’s always a chance. Whoever designed the thing knew what they were doing,” she said. “But if it were going to kick in, it would have started by now.”
“Good enough,” Betty said, and she hugged Cassy again. “If you’re looking for a job, say the word, and you can come here and work for the exchange as my director of cybersecurity.”
A man in a blue trader’s jacket who Cassy recognized as Seymour Schneider, Burnham Pike’s legendary and always prescient floor trader, came over. He nodded to Ben and Cassy, but then turned to Betty. “A word with you?”
“Sure,” she said. “Be right back,” she told Ben and Cassy and went with Schneider off to the side of the floor.
“What’s on your mind, Seymour?”
“I heard something of what went on overnight, but not everything. With Reid gone, what’s going to happen on fifty-four?”
“That’s up to your board.”
“I meant, what’s the exchange’s next step?”
“We’re not started with the inquiry yet, and even if we were you know I couldn’t discuss it, except to say that the firm has been doing some seriously bad things.”
“My question is, what about our leadership team? Reid is gone. Spence was arrested just an hour ago, and Julia was taken into FBI custody until whatever happened is unraveled.”
“As I said, that’ll be up to your board. And as much as I don’t like the man, you still have Dammerman if his hands are clean.”
“I heard that he’s all lawyered up. Says he had no real idea what Reid was up to, and that he needs to take over at least as interim CEO.”
“I’ll tell you this much, Seymour. Whatever my personal opinion is of the man, I think he was up to his neck in the scheme to cause a crash. I suspect that Julia might be able to provide some links.”
“I wouldn’t count him out,” Schneider said. “Reid was a sneaky bastard, and Dammerman is three times worse. But he knows how to run the firm.” He glanced over at a monitor. “Maybe we’ll get through today better than yesterday, but the threat is still there.”
“And what threat is that?” Betty asked, though she knew the answer, and it wasn’t Abacus.
“The worldwide debt. We’re on the rim of the abyss.”
Cassy was sad. “I’m going to miss Donni. He was a bright kid and a really good friend. If it wasn’t for me, he’d still be alive.”
“If it wasn’t for you giving him the flash drive, the Russians who took you would have gotten it, and this place would be a shambles right now. And if you’re right, so would the entire world economy.”
She nodded. “He did it.”
“You and he did it,” Ben said
Cassy smiled wistfully. “Maybe it’s finally over,” she said. “But you mentioned something about going to Paris. Is that still on?”
“You bet,” Ben said.
“Then let’s go.”
“The admiral is going to have a fit, but what the hell.”
“And wasn’t there something you were going to ask me when we got there?” Cassy said.
“Why wait,” Ben said, “Cassy Levin, I’m in love with you. Will you marry me?”