There, he had said it. McLain stared at his deputy, digesting what he had just heard. “Stan, someone just tried to kill your head inspector on the OptiMarx system. Now you’re recommending a fast track for approval? Maybe you’d better explain. I don’t understand.”

Miller answered without hesitation. “Look, nobody at OptiMarx would attempt something like that the very week she started on the project. Goldman is a hothead as you well know. She is a real pain in the ass. It could have been any of a hundred people she has pissed off in the past that tried to off her the other night. Remember that Senate hearing last year when the president of Que Trading threatened to punch her in the nose in front of the entire subcommittee?”

McLain chuckled. That had been humorous. The effete little Harvard-educated lawyer getting mad enough to threaten one of the SEC inspectors, and a female one at that, had fed Jay Leno’s late-night joke machine for a couple of shows.

“That was one for the books,” was all McLain said.

“We don’t have any link to OptiMarx except some ill-defined hunch, woman’s intuition, from Goldman. You want to face the heat when the NYSE shuts down because it can’t handle the volume and we got the solution tied up in red tape? Those guys at Eleven Wall Street play rough. They’ll be yelling from the rooftops that it’s all your fault because you held up the OptiMarx system on a whim.” Miller paused for a beat and then went on. “You think that will help your Senate race next year?”

McLain stared at Miller. Very few people knew that he was planning a bid for a Senate seat from New York. The office was becoming available and the timing was perfect. He would need the support of the New York financial community. His chances were near zero without it.

Miller was right. He needed the NYSE.

“Any possible political implications do not affect my decisions at all,” McLain said coolly.

Miller winked when he responded, “Yes, sir. Of course, politics wouldn’t affect any decisions from the SEC. We have to think of the greater good of the American investor. What I’m saying is that the American investor needs the OptiMarx system as soon as we can get it approved and get it out there.”

McLain smiled. “Yes, I understand. For the good of the American investor. Set up the fast track, Stan. If Goldman can’t play, if she has an overactive imagination, move her off the project and get someone in there who can.”