Every one of the “LV” victims, Gleason says, was a climate activist. Their fear was of the cadre of killers and defamation specialists utilized by the FSB and the energy extraction industry worldwide, including U.S.-based entities, Big Agribusiness, and the petro-oligarchs of Central Asia and the former Soviet bloc, of whom the red-white-and-blue Solntsevskaya Bratva, the Russian Mafia based here in New York, was and is a principal man-killing instrument.

MANNING

Then who is Instancer?

GLEASON

An asset. A freelancer. A hired gun.

MANNING

With all respect, Frank . . . bullshit.

Manning asks Gleason if his decision to release Rachel Davidson has anything to do with Ellie Landau’s ten-million-dollar lawsuit against the city. Gleason has not, by any chance, received a phone call from the mayor?

Could Gleason’s decision, Manning says, possibly be linked to his own political ambitions? Or maybe the fact that half the judges in the city have either studied under Ellie Landau or are sucking up to her now for their own career aggrandizement?

GLEASON

My decision, Manning, if it’s any of your fucking business, has to do with this division—with DivSix—and with keeping your “investigation” from taking it, and all of us, down the tubes.

Gleason tells Manning to go home.

MANNING

I don’t wanna go home.

GLEASON

Go anyway. The line of investigation you’re following ends tonight.

I steer Manning to the elevators. When he and I emerge at street level, Ben-David, Ellie Landau, and Rachel are still on-site, sheltering from the downpour under the south-facing awning.

It’s a moment. In some crazy way, the relentless friction of this long day has produced a bond among the participants. Manning slides in between Ben-David and Ellie Landau. I find a space at Rachel’s shoulder.

Ben-David is telling Ellie Landau that he will take Rachel home with him now, uptown to his place at Riverside and Ninety-Ninth. Manning reacts with concern.

MANNING

If you’re going, let me and Dewey drive you.

“I’ll take them,” Ellie Landau says. Her car and driver will be here in a few moments. Ben-David thanks her but waves the offer off, citing the storm and the flooded streets.

BEN-DAVID

I’m still a New Yorker, Ellie. We’ll catch the local at Seventy-Second and be home in three stops.

Rachel and Ben-David take off.

It’s Manning and Ellie Landau now, with me, under the awning.

Manning shifts one step upwind of Ms. Landau, opening his umbrella to shield her from the gusting wet. His eyes betray frustration, exasperation. It looks like he’s half ready to give up on the case.

Ellie Landau sees this. Manning’s face is turned away from her, looking out into the storm.

ELLIE LANDAU

Will you take something from me, Manning, and not use it against my client?

Manning turns back.

ELLIE LANDAU

When I was in Moscow two weeks ago, I saw Instancer.

MANNING

What?

ELLIE LANDAU