Page 136 of The Chain

“Noah’s still alive.”

“Just about. We don’t use The Chain for our own personal vendettas, Ginger—we’ve discussed this.”

“I didn’t.”

“Or to meet handsome young men.”

Ginger groans. He’s onto her. “Do you know how difficult it is to meet people in this city?” she protests.

“Not difficult at all. There are a million dating apps.”

“I’m supposed to ignore any man who might have come in contact, even peripherally, with The Chain?”

“Yes! You know the protocols.”

“Who set up the protocols? Who invented The Chain?”

“It’s a security issue, sweetie.”

“It’s all my handiwork. It wasn’t you. It was me. I can do what I like with it.”

Olly closes his eyes and sighs. All good things have to come to an end eventually, he supposes. He is surprised that it has lasted this long, actually. The models all said that The Chain would probably last only about three years before it collapsed. You could intimidate so many folks for only so long. The number of people involved grows almost exponentially, and no conspiracy can survive exponential growth. It’s a typical stochastic fast-slow system and when the breaking point comes, it will break spectacularly.

Olly strokes the little goatee he has been cultivating without much success for the past few months. “We should have retired The Chain years ago,” he mutters. “I mean, why keep it going when we have enough money?”

“Why stop it? You’re just jealous because it was my creation.”

“Wasn’t the purpose of The Chain to set us up for life? It’s done that.”

“Was that its purpose?” she asks with a sneer.

He frowns and shakes his head.

“You just don’t get it, do you?” Ginger says. Not for Olly the peregrine-hovering-over-the-hay-field thing. Olly isn’t a true predator like her. A true predator sometimes kills even when it isn’t hungry. “Wasn’t it us against the world? Remember?” she says.

Olly’s frown deepens.

“All right, what’s gone wrong?” Ginger asks.

“It has to do with that notebook,” Olly says.

“You’ve decoded it, haven’t you?”

“No, not yet.”

“Then what?”

“Near the end, crazy Erik didn’t write everything in code.”

“And?”

“What did you say your new boyfriend’s ex-wife’s name was?”

“Oh, shit.”

“Sometime in the last week or so, Erik apparently met with a woman named Rachel.”

“Shit, shit, shit.”