“I’m not a killer. I liked to see the girls get off. Some did. We’d party, then they would be released. Always. They didn’t know who I was or where I was from.”

“So you were satisfied with the arrangement?”

Lipton nodded and his eyes lit up. “Very. I’d been dreaming of this my whole life. The reality was as good as the fantasy. Of course, there was a price.”

“A bill had to be paid?”

“Oh, yeah. I got to meet the Wolf, at least I think it was him. He had sent an emissary to my office in the early days. But then he came to see me. In person, he was very scary. Red Mafiya, he said. The KGB came up, but I don’t know what his connection to them was.”

“What did he want from you?”

“To go into business with him, to be a partner. He needed my company’s expertise with computers and the Internet. The sex club was secondary with him, a throw-in. He was heavily into extortion, money laundering, counterfeiting. The club was my thing. Once our deal was struck, I went looking for wealthy freaks who wanted their dreams fulfilled. Freaks who were willing to spend six figures for a slave, male, female, didn’t matter. Sometimes a specific target, sometimes a physical type.”

“To murder?” I asked Lipton.

“Whatever they wanted. Let me tell you where I think he was going with the club. He wanted to involve very rich, powerful men. We already had one, a senator from West Virginia. He had big plans.”

“Does the Wolf live in Dallas?” I finally asked. “You’ve got to help me if you want my help.”

Lipton shook his head. “He isn’t from around here. He doesn’t live in Dallas. Not in Texas. He’s a mystery man.”

“But you know where he is?”

He hesitated but finally went on. “He doesn’t know that I know. He’s smart, but not about computers. I tracked him once. He was sure his messages were secure, but I had them cracked. I needed to have something on him.”

Then Sterling told me where he thought I could find the Wolf. And also, who he was. If I could believe what he was saying, Sterling knew the name Pasha Sorokin was using in the United States.

It was Ari Manning.

Chapter 99

Chapter 99

I SAT HIGH in the cockpit of a luxury cabin cruiser in the Intercoastal Waterway near Millionaires Row in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Were we close to the Wolf now? I needed to believe that we were. Sterling swore to it, and he had no reason to lie to us, did he? He had every reason to tell the truth.