The Fear Index

changed as the day’s gone on. Now it seems the crash wasn’t caused by mechanical failure after all. Apparently there was a bomb warning put up on some Islamic terrorist website while the plane was in the air. The FBI missed it; we didn’t.’
    Hoffmann couldn’t take it in at first: too much information was coming at him too quickly. ‘But that’s way outside VIXAL’s parameters. That would be an extraordinary inflection point – a quantum leap.’
    ‘I thought it was a machine-learning algorithm.’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘Then maybe it’s learned something.’
    ‘Don’t be an idiot, Hugo. It doesn’t work like that.’
    ‘Okay, so it doesn’t work like that. Fine, I’m not the expert. The fact is, we have to make a decision rather quickly here. Either we override VIXAL or we’re going to have to put up two-point-five bil tomorrow afternoon just so the banks will let us continue trading.’
    Marie-Claude tapped on the door and opened it. ‘Monsieur Genoud is here.’
    Quarry said to Hoffmann, ‘Let me handle this.’ He felt as if he were in some kind of arcade game, everything flying at him at once.
    Marie-Claude stood aside to let the ex-policeman enter. His gaze went immediately to the hole in the ceiling.
    ‘Come in, Maurice,’ said Quarry. ‘Close the door. As you can see, we’ve been doing a little DIY in here, and we were wondering if you have any explanation for this.’
    ‘I don’t believe so,’ said Genoud, shutting the door. ‘Why should I?’
    Hoffmann said, ‘By God, he’s a cool one, Hugo. You’ve got to give him that.’
    Quarry held up his hand. ‘Okay, Alex, please just wait a minute, will you? All right, Maurice. No bullshit now. We need to know how long this has been going on. We need to know who’s paying you. And we need to know if you’ve planted anything inside our computer systems. It’s urgent, because we’re in a very volatile trading situation. Now we don’t want to call in the police to handle this, but we will if we have to. So it’s over to you, and my advice is to be absolutely frank.’
    After a few moments Genoud looked at Hoffmann. ‘Is it okay for me to tell him?’
    Hoffmann said, ‘Okay to tell him what?’
    ‘You are putting me in a very awkward position, Dr Hoffmann.’
    Hoffmann said to Quarry, ‘I don’t know what he’s talking about.’
    ‘Very well, you can’t expect me to maintain my discretion under these circumstances.’ Genoud turned to Quarry. ‘Dr Hoffmann instructed me to do it.’
    There was something about the calm insolence of the falsehood that made Hoffmann want to hit him. ‘You asshole,’ he said. ‘D’you think anyone’s going to believe that?’
    Genoud continued unperturbed, addressing his remarks directly to Quarry and ignoring Hoffmann. ‘It’s true. He gave me instructions when you moved into these offices to set up concealed cameras. I guessed he wasn’t telling you about it. But he’s the company president, so I thought it was permissible for me to do as he asked. This is the absolute truth, I swear.’
    Hoffmann smiled and shook his head. ‘Hugo, this is total, utter bullshit. This is the same goddamned crap I’ve been hearing all day. I haven’t had one single conversation with this guy about planting cameras – why would I want to film my own company? And why would I bug my own phone? It’s total bullshit,’ he repeated.
    Genoud said, ‘I never said we had a conversation about it. As you well know, Dr Hoffmann, I only ever received instructions from you by email.’
    Email – again! Hoffmann said, ‘You’re seriously telling me that you put in all these cameras and never, in all these months, despite all the thousands of francs this must have cost – that never once did we have a conversation about any of it?’
    ‘No.’
    Hoffmann emitted a sound that conveyed contempt and disbelief.
    Quarry said to Genoud, ‘That’s hardly credible. Didn’t it strike you as bizarre at all?’
    ‘Not especially. I got the impression this was all off the books, so to speak. That he didn’t want to acknowledge what was going on. I did try to bring it up with him once, obliquely. He looked straight through me.’
    ‘Well I probably would, wouldn’t I? I wouldn’t have known what you were talking about. And how in the hell am I supposed to have paid you for all this?’
    ‘By cash transfer,’ said Genoud, ‘from a bank in the Cayman Islands.’
    That brought Hoffmann up short. Quarry