Alaka, Kate said, where‘s Emaa when we need her. Emaa could out-formal the Queen of England. She could have matched Agrifina politesse for politesse, whereas all Kate wanted to do was run very fast in the other direction.

They settled on the couch with coffee and pastries, a vast array of paperwork spread over the coffee table.

First, he said, an article in TheWall StreetJournalabout a venture capitalist firm called True North Investments. It was formed a few years ago to fund resource extraction projects above the Arctic Circle. Their spokesman will neither confirm nor deny that they are interested in acquiring a share of GHRI stock, possibly a controlling interest.

Kate digested this. A takeover?

He nodded. I found the same story elsewhere, BusinessWeek Forbes Kiplinger, a couple of others. They all said pretty much the same thing.

He blew on his coffee and took a big bite of the pastry. He was as big a ham as Brendan. She wondered if the characteristic was endemic to people who snooped for a living. Maybe because they worked so much out of the limelight, they had a tendency to go for the big reveal whenever they had a captive audience. Kurt washed down his thorough mastication of the bit of pastry with a healthy swallow of coffee, patted his lips with a napkin, and smiled. At least some of the blind deposits into Allen‘s account?

Yes?

Are from True North Investments.

Really. Kate sat back. Allen was accepting money from True North Investments? A possible competitor to Global? For whom he was working at the Suulutaq Mine? And accepting a paycheck, I might add.

He didn‘t miss her too-demure expression, and said smoothly, I‘m guessing you already know about RPetCo. It was just too easy to trace.

She nodded. Brendan popped it in about two seconds. Lest he feel that she had not thought him capable of finding out this information himself, she said, He said it was impossible to trace the source of the other payments.

He grinned. Only the best butter. I know a guy who knows another guy in banking in New York who knows somebody else in Switzerland. They were able to follow the money trail for us.

Kate choked on her coffee. Switzerland?

He waved a hand. Don‘t ask. It‘s a, you should pardon the expression, global world, Kate. The money had been run through a dozen banks and some of them were offshore. This is how this works. And my contacts made sure I knew that they don‘t find answers easily and never this quickly.

Kate wondered how big a fee Pletnikoff Investigations was paying the guy in Switzerland. She did not ask. There were advantages to being a silent partner. Is there any way you can acquire True North‘s financial records?

No way, Kurt said. They are very big hitters with serious internal security. They‘re a private concern so there‘s no published prospectus and no published annual report, either.

Is there a president or a board of directors?