The Fear Index

cent, the UK fifty per cent—’
    ‘Fifty per cent!’ cut in Quarry. ‘I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m as patriotic as the next chap, but do I really want to go into a fifty–fifty partnership with Her Majesty’s Government? I think not.’
    ‘There is no democracy any more,’ said Elmira Gulzhan. ‘The state is in control as never before. All our freedoms are disappearing and no one seems to care. That’s what I find so depressing about this century.’
    De Gombart-Tonnelle was still going on: ‘… even Geneva is forty-four per cent.’
    ‘Don’t tell me you guys pay forty-four per cent,’ said Iain Mould.
    Quarry smiled, as if he had been asked a question by a child. ‘Theoretically you have to pay forty-four on salary. But if you take your income as dividend and your business is overseas-registered, then four fifths of your dividends are legally tax-free. So you only pay the forty-four on the one fifth. Hence a marginal top rate of eight-point-eight per cent. Isn’t that right, Amschel?’
    Herxheimer, who lived in Zermatt but by some feat of teleportation was actually based in Guernsey, agreed that it was indeed so.
    ‘Eight-point-eight,’ repeated Mould. He looked sick. ‘Good for you.’
    Easterbrook called down the table, ‘I’m coming to live in Geneva!’
    ‘Yeah, but try telling that to Uncle Sam,’ said Klein gloomily. ‘The IRS will hunt you down to the ends of the earth as long as you have a US passport. And have you ever tried getting rid of American citizenship? You can’t do it. It’s like being a Soviet Jew trying to emigrate to Israel in the seventies.’
    ‘No freedom,’ repeated Elmira Gulzhan, ‘as I say. The state will take everything from us, and if we dare to protest, we will be arrested for not being politically correct.’
    Hoffmann stared at the tablecloth and let the discussion flow around him. He was remembering now why he didn’t like the rich: their self-pity. Persecution was the common ground of their conversation, like sport or the weather was for everyone else. He despised them.
    ‘I despise you,’ he said, but nobody paid him any attention, so engrossed were they in the inequities of higher-rate taxation and the inherent criminality of all employees. And then he thought: perhaps I have become one of them; is that why I am so paranoid? He examined his palms under the table, and then the backs of his hands, as if he half-expected to find himself sprouting fur.
    At that moment the doors swung open to admit a file of eight tail-coated waiters, each carrying two plates capped with domed silver covers. They stationed themselves between their allotted pair of diners, set the plates down before them, grasped the twin covers with their white-gloved hands, and at a signal from the maître d’ lifted them away. The main course was veal with morels and asparagus, served to everyone apart from Elmira Gulzhan, who had a piece of grilled fish, and Etienne Mussard, who had a hamburger and chips.
    ‘I cannot eat veal,’ said Elmira, leaning confidingly across the table to Hoffmann, offering him a brief glimpse of her pale brown breasts. ‘The poor calf suffers so.’
    ‘Oh, I always prefer food that’s suffered,’ said Quarry cheerfully, wielding his knife and fork, his napkin back in his collar. ‘I think fear releases some especially piquant chemical from the nervous system into the flesh. Veal cutlets, lobster thermidor, pâté de foie gras – the nastier the demise the better, that’s my philosophy: no pain, no gain.’
    Elmira flicked him with the end of her napkin. ‘Hugo, you are wicked . Isn’t he wicked, Alex?’
    ‘He is wicked,’ agreed Hoffmann. He pushed his food around his plate with his fork. He had no appetite. Over Quarry’s shoulder he could see the Jet d’Eau probing the dull sky on the opposite side of the lake like a watery searchlight.
    Łukasiński began calling across the table some technical questions about the new fund, which Quarry laid down his cutlery to answer. All money invested would be subjected to a one-year lock-up, with a redemption day thereafter four times per annum: 31 May, 31 August, 30 November and 28 February; all redemptions would require a notice period of forty-five days. The structure of the fund would be as before: investors would be part of a limited-liability company registered in the Cayman Islands for tax purposes, which would retain Hoffmann Investment Technologies to manage its