“It’s hard to characterize. You can make your own judgments. If you don’t like the way it’s going, I’ll pull her and assign you somebody else.”

“Okay.”

“Talk to you later.” Eggers hung up.

Less than an hour passed when Joan buzzed. “There’s an Allison Wainwright to see you.”

“Ah, yes. I forgot to tell you, she’s an associate at Woodman & Weld, and Eggers has assigned her to me. Send her in, and then you can put her in the office next to yours.”

“Okay.”

There was a rap at the door, and Stone looked up to see an impeccably dressed young woman, with perfect dark hair and chiseled features. “Good morning,” he said.

“Good morning. I’m Allison Wainwright.”

Stone stood up, shook her hand, and waved her to a chair in his seating area, then sat down himself.

“Do you have any idea why I’ve been assigned to work here?” she asked.

“Bill Eggers thinks I need an associate. I’ve no idea why he picked you.”

“I’m not sure I like the idea of being stuck in Turtle Bay,” she said.

“The door you came in by works both ways,” Stone said, “but before you leave, shall we talk a little?”

“Oh, all right,” she said.

“Tell me about your background.”

“Personal or educational?”

“Whatever you think is important for me to know.”

She took a deep breath. “Born and raised in New York City, Spence School, then Mount Holyoke and Columbia Law.” She hadn’t needed a second breath.

“You look like all of those,” Stone said.

“What do you mean by that?” she asked, sounding defensive.

“I meant it to be a compliment,” Stone replied.

“Oh. What, exactly, do you expect from me?”

“For a start, I want you to read all the corporate paper that comes into this office from Strategic Services and, starting soon, from Steele Security, our new client, and brief me on the high points. In short, I want to be able to appear that I know about everything financial in both firms, without actually having to read the documents.”

“I get the picture.”

“I believe they’ll be sorting out the files as they arrive from the client’s previous firm, so you won’t have to do that.”

“What else?”

“I’ll let you know when it comes up.”

“Is your secretary my secretary, too?”

“Did you have a secretary in the Seagram Building?”

“Just somebody to handle the phones.”

“Joan will do that for you here. We have a line that runs through the main switchboard, so you should probably route your calls through them; Joan will give you an extension number. My advice to you is, make friends with Joan.”

“Why?”

“First, common courtesy; second, she’s a very nice lady and extremely capable; third, she makes a bad enemy.”

“All good reasons,” Allison said.