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for these lives they couldn't quite afford with their credit cards and their student loans? Who else but the banks? And what was he reading? GQ or Men's Health? Some article telling him how to shave his nuts or pluck his eyebrows or sculpt his tender gut? His hair was carefully unkempt, shiny with product, a deliberately stray curl hanging down over his forehead.

"Now what do you want to eat?" Mikey said. "Pasta? Chicken Parm? What's it gonna be."

Last night, Nate had turned over in his sleep and nuzzled up against Doug, his arm coming to rest across his chest. For what seemed the longest time, Doug had remained still under that warm weight, wanting to shrug it off but unable to.

"I got to go," he said, seeing McTeague's number appear on the screen of his phone.

"What kind of a lunch is this? You just got here."

"Call me later," he said, heading back onto the sidewalk.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"I'm on vacation," McTeague said. "Finally. 'Cause you know, the funny thing is, I never took any vacation, not since I got out here. And that's the company rule - you have to take your paid vacation. Good, simple tool for risk management - make sure people take their holidays."

"Well, your timing's pretty shitty. Where the fuck are you?"

"Macao. You ever been? It's like the Chinese Vegas. Casinos everywhere. Kind of butt ugly during the day but they get the fountains lit up at night. Turn on the neon, and it ain't half bad. Some real old-time glitter. And the bird markets, you should see the bird markets. You pick one out and they'll kill it on the spot and fry that sucker up for you."

"You're drunk."

"Not really. I mean, sort of. Getting started, I guess. Or maybe I'm in the middle. They have great girls too. You should check it out when you visit. They'll suck your cock for hours, if you want. They're all saving up for college."

In the background, Doug heard the screeching cheers of some Asian game show.

"Well, I'm glad you're getting your rocks off. I spent this morning in Evelyn Jones's office trying to explain your accounting. Is one of your hedge-fund buddies out of pocket? In which case, why didn't you call?"

"Let me tell you, Doug. What you and me did in Osaka - that was great. That was classic. I mean, when you recognized that Japanese deputy dude - amazing. The mistress, she was kind of complicated actually. I don't know if I ever told you. I thought she had me figured, at first. But enough booze, it doesn't really matter what you think anymore, right? You just do what you do and it doesn't matter what you think about it. So in the end I didn't even have to ask her. I just mentioned the guy - this is after we'd started fucking, she's getting another drink - and she unloads on him, goes on and on about what a creepy shit he is and then she tells me straight up. The whole story about what the government's gonna do. You ask me, she knew exactly what she was doing - fucking him over. But what a tip? I mean Jesus. We were thirty-five percent of profits last quarter. How can you walk away from a tip that big, right?"

Doug slowed on the path back across the Common.

"What are you trying to say?"

"Listen, Doug. I swear to you. I haven't stolen a dime. If you hadn't respected me so much, taken me in like you did, maybe I would have, you know? But being in so close with you, a higher-up, taking me under your wing, giving me this stage to play on, 'Don't worry about the middlemen,' 'Call me direct.' That's what you always said."

"So what the fuck's the problem?"

"Doug. There are no clients. I made them up. From the beginning. All that money you've been funneling to cover their positions - it's ours. And it's still in the market."

He came to a halt in the middle of the pavement, forcing the young couple headed toward him to part their hands as they passed.

"You're lying," he said.

"I was in the money. Every contract. Every position. And you wanted to pull it all back. But I kept remembering what you told me: keep your eye on the big picture, don't let fear stop you, the models aren't always right. It was there for the taking. And you always said the losers were