Page 79 of Only the Wicked

There’s no reaction. She doesn’t get it.

“You have a photographer somewhere out here, right? I want to be certain I look my best.”

With that, she smiles, revealing a touch of red lipstick on her front tooth.

“Shall we?” she says, gesturing for us to walk away from the embassy.

I let my hands fall to my side and fall in line beside her.

“We might be photographed, but not by our photographers. That’s not why I asked you to meet outdoors.”

“No?” It doesn’t matter what she says. I’ll never trust the Russians. Doesn’t mean I won’t do business with them—with eyes wide open.

“The Forbes Intelligence System.”

Her heels rap a steady stream of clicks on the concrete sidewalk. I expect her to expand, but we arrive at the intersection in silence.

“Is there more to that? Did I miss something?”

“There are interested parties.”

Yes, there are. She’s right. It’s been on and off the metaphorical auction block for years.

“And?”

“Are you bidding?”

Miles wishes to explore an acquisition. It might be something we need to buy through a separate entity to avoid congressional interest.

The pedestrian light flicks white and the two of us proceed.

“I think you should,” she says.

“Why?”

“Would you prefer for it to go to Moscow or Beijing?”

“Excuse me, Ms. Romanovich, but are you not Moscow?”

“We would buy before we allowed adversaries to purchase, but you are our partner.”

Technically, they are a client. But if a client prefers the word partner, I don’t get lost in semantics.

“I’m looking into it,” I say on an inhale.

“We want you to do more than look into it.”

We stop on a section of sidewalk situated between a busy street and shrubbery.

“Let me explain,” she answers in crisp, textbook English with a distinct Russian accent. “If we were to purchase, there would be opposition.”

That’s an accurate assessment. It would be easier to list the countries that would support the purchase than to list those that would oppose.

I can’t see her eyes behind those oversized sunglasses, but I sense she’s staring at me, waiting for a response.

“I’ve been looking into it. It’s not clear cut. We do not wish to invite an investigation.”

More than that, I haven’t determined we need to acquire the database. We have a wealth of data. The beauty of our system is the ability to cull massive amounts of data into useful information. While acquiring the Forbes Intelligence System is tempting, I get nervous at the responsibilities that would result in strengthening ARGUS capabilities with such an acquisition.