Costs fifty thousand dollars and a case of Scotch.
You used a similar protocol yourself in Lisbon back in ninety-eight, if I recall the debriefs correctly.”
He pulled up a second metal stool, dusted the vinyl seat with his handkerchief, and sat down opposite me.
“Garrett was always an intolerable idiot,” Julian said, shaking his head with genuine, paternal distaste.“Weak-willed, arrogant, completely devoid of strategic discipline.
And Evelyn… well, Evelyn was a grotesque relic.
She believed that old family money was an eternal entitlement, that you could buy immunity with symphony donations and governor’s balls.
She didn’t understand that in the modern era, real power doesn’t sit in high-society drawing rooms.
It sits in logistics.
In deep-water shipping lanes, container manifests, and privatized port facilities.”
He gestured toward Chloe with a small, affectionate flick of his fingers.
“Your daughter, on the other hand, is an absolute marvel.She approached me in Geneva eighteen months ago.
