The Assignment 4 (2 page)

“That’s what the AL stands for.”

“That, or his name, either one,” Claudia said.

“And what is Atlas Lake?”

“They’re a pretty serious outfit,” Claudia said. “They provided private security services for the US military.”

“They’re a military contractor?”

“And a lot more. They’re also serious lobbyists in Washington. They’ve done work on behalf of some pretty major organizations. Two of their former directors are now Congressmen.”

“How did lobbyists get elected to congress?” Lacey said.

“I don’t know. Maybe because of their connections. They’ve got massive amounts of money behind them. Here’s a list of their other directors.”

Lacey looked over the list that Claudia passed her. She recognized many of the names. They were among the richest men in the country.

“And get this,” Claudia said, leaning in closer to Lacey and lowering her voice, “they’re currently trying to get approval to provide private security work for the city.”

“You mean like the security they provided for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan?”

“Exactly.”

“There’s no way that will get approved.”

“The city’s arguing that it should.”

“Where?”

“In Washington.”

“I’ve heard nothing about it.”

“There are senate hearings about it in Washington as we speak. It’s all very hush, hush, but the city is arguing that they need a new level of security to protect New York’s financial heart. They’re arguing that the stock exchange, Wall Street, that whole area is vulnerable and that the city has to provide better security if those lucrative industries are going to remain in the city.”

“Isn’t that what the police are for?”

“They’re saying the police aren’t enough. They’re saying that after September Eleventh and the Occupy Wall Street protests and all these other potential threats, that they need a higher level of security to maintain Wall Street as the financial heart of the globe. The city has specifically requested that Atlas Lake be the provider of that security.”

“So, let me get this straight. They want a private security firm that was hired by the military to kill Al-Qaeda members in Iraq and hunt down the Taliban in Afghanistan to start protecting Wall Street?”

“Exactly.”

“They want a private military contractor to point guns at US citizens, on US soil?”

“According to the transcripts from Washington, that’s exactly what’s being proposed.”

“Jesus, Claudia. That’s insane.”

“I know.”

“That’s huge.”

“It is.”

“And no one’s talking about it?”

“The hearings haven’t been announced publicly but the transcripts are available. The city hasn’t made any formal announcement about the process either but if you listen to the mayor’s acceptance speech, he hinted at all of this.”

“I haven’t read the speech.”

“He said New York is the heart of global capitalism. It’s at the very heart of the world’s wealth, and that if we’re going to keep all that money, all those jobs, we’re going to have to provide them with the security and the environment that they will feel safe in.”

“It’s a bit of a leap from saying that to proposing that Wall Street gets its own private security force.”

“I know it is.”

Lacey shook her head. This was really huge. If it was all true, it would be one of the biggest stories to hit New York in recent years. She wasn’t even sure if it was constitutional. If private interests could have their own military contractors roaming the city, what did that mean for the rest of the population? This was bigger than a private security contract. This sounded more like a private police force was being proposed, and not just any type of police, but one with more teeth than the real police. They wouldn’t be just patrolling private property either, they would be securing the streets of the city, an entire section of Manhattan where all the financial institutions were based.

An image of the paramilitaries from Jason’s photos popped into her mind. Could that be who he was photographing? The locations certainly matched. She would have to talk to Jason about it. It would mean letting him know she’d snooped around his things, it would also mean letting him know who she really was, but this was too much of a coincidence to ignore. If he was taking photos secretly of a private military force in the heart of New York, she could use that information. And she could certainly use those pictures.

She felt very uneasy about it all. It was certainly a much bigger story than anything she’d suspected. She had been looking at uncovering a sex scandal involving the mayor, and maybe some corruption and cronyism. Now it looked like someone wanted to give Wall Street its own private army.

She looked at Claudia. She realized just how big of a story this could be, just how deep its roots could go.

“And no one knows you were looking into this for me?” she said.

“No one,” Claudia said.

“Even at the magazine?”

“I hardly know anyone at the magazine.”

“Good,” Lacey said. “We have to keep it that way. This story could go very deep and we can’t afford a leak.”

Claudia nodded. Lacey smiled at her. She hadn’t even asked Claudia how things were going with her own stories.

“Thank you so much for digging this up.”

“It’s a pleasure.”

“And what about your own article?”

“It’s almost ready to submit.”

“That’s great, Claudia.”

“I just hope they accept it.”

“They will, don’t even worry about that. You’re very talented. You’re a real natural at this. It took me years to be able to write like you do. What’s your story on?”

“Lobbying at City Hall.”

“Is that a thing now?”

“It’s growing. A few years ago the city government was pretty much left alone to do its work. Now there are companies setting up with the sole purpose of influencing it.”

“I guess it was inevitable,” Lacey said.

Claudia nodded. “Still, though. People should know it’s happening. New York spent decades trying to get corruption and larceny out of City Hall. If anything is threatening that, New Yorkers should know about it.”

“They should,” Lacey said.

“Which reminds me,” Claudia said, “the horses you asked about.”

“Yes?”

“An anonymous donation.”

“What?”

“That’s the official line.”

“Since when did the city accept anonymous donations?”

“That’s what they’re registered as.”

“And did you find out about Lally’s daughter?”

“Oh my God, Lacey, that should have been the very first thing I told you.”

“What?”

“Guess who Lally’s daughter married?”

“I have absolutely no idea. That’s why I got you to look into it for me.”

“Claire, Lally’s beautiful daughter, married the Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.”

Lacey almost spilled her coffee. “What?”

Claudia nodded her head.

“Who’s that?”

“Mark Wolf.”

“I’m not familiar with him.”

“He’s got quite a reputation. A lot of political ties. He donated millions to the new mayor’s campaign.”

“I should have guessed,” Lacey said.

“And get this, he’s sixty-eight years old.”

“Oh no,” Lacey said. “And what age is Lally’s daughter?”

“Claire, she’s twenty-nine.”

“That’s almost a forty year gap.”

“Yes it is,” Claudia said. She was clearly unimpressed.

“Do you think Lally offered his daughter to Wolf in exchange for the security contract?”

“I don’t know, but something doesn’t sit right. Why would a rich, white girl marry a sixty-eight-year-old?”

“This story is going to be huge,” Lacey said in a low voice.

Claudia smiled at her. “I hope you’re prepared for the fallout,” she said.

III

L
ACEY’S HEAD WAS SPINNING WHEN
Claudia left. She’d never imagined the story would go so deep. She’d been expecting to be writing about a sex scandal from the point of view of a call girl, now she was getting involved in something that could change the face of the entire city. What if Wall Street managed to get its own private army? What would that mean for the city, and for democracy and social justice?

She sat at the table with her notepad in front of her and tried to connect all the dots. The waitress came over to her.

“More coffee, honey.”

Lacey nodded and the waitress refilled her mug.

“Could I get something to eat too?”

“Of course,” the waitress said. “What can I get you?”

“What’s the soup?”

“Chicken noodle.”

“That would be perfect.”

Lacey picked up her pen and wrote, “The Club,” in big letters on a page. She drew a circle around it and inside the circle she wrote Aaron Lally and Mayor Elijah Gibbons. Next to it she wrote Mark Wolf and put a question mark. She told herself what she knew so far. Wolf wanted better security for Wall Street, and not just better police security but his own private military force. He’d gotten the mayor to agree to it, and the mayor and Wolf were requesting Atlas Lake as the contractor. They were definitely all connected. Wolf must be in The Club, she thought. And Lally must have given him his daughter, Claire, in exchange for the contract. She shuddered at the thought, but as Claudia had put it, why else would a rich, twenty-nine-year-old white girl marry an old man like Mark Wolf?

Somehow the mayor was going to get the whole thing past city legislators. It would be Atlas Lake’s job to get it through Congress. She’d seen the list of board members. That was a lot of clout, a lot of money and power on that list, but would it be enough? The US Government was not an easy thing to control and there was no way anyone would be able to get their own private military force to patrol Lower Manhattan without the Federal Government having its say. It was more than a security issue. It was a constitutional issue. There had to be federal restrictions on this sort of thing. Lacey didn’t know enough about it to answer all the questions that were flooding into her mind but she knew who might.

There was a pay-phone in the restaurant and she went up to it and dialed Gretchen’s number.

“Gretchen, I’ve got a lot of new information.”

“Lacey, where are you?”

“A restaurant in the Upper East Side.”

“Honey, we’ve got to meet. Can you meet me at the little cafe we met at last time?”

“Piccolo?”

“That’s the one.”

“I’ll see you there in an hour,” Lacey said.

She got back to her table and her soup was waiting for her. She ate it quickly and went back out into the icy wind to hail another cab.

IV

L
ACEY STEPPED INTO THE PICCOLO CAFE
and shut the door behind her against the bitter wind. She was surprised to see that Gretchen wasn’t alone. Sitting across from her, sipping coffee from a big mug, was none other than Sandra Price. Lacey took a deep breath. She hadn’t expected the editor of the entire magazine to be there.

“Gretchen,” Lacey said, “Ms. Price.”

“I’ve already told you to call me Sandra.”

Lacey shook both their hands before taking a seat. The atmosphere of the meeting was more formal than it would have been if Sandra wasn’t there. Gretchen smiled at her.

“I’m sorry but I didn’t know you’d be here, Sandra. I would have prepared.”

Sandra smiled. “Relax, dear. Gretchen said you had information and I’ll be damned if I was going to wait at the office for her to come back with it. She enjoys keeping me in suspense too much.”

“Okay,” Lacey said. She didn’t know where to begin. She was still trying to get a grasp on all the information herself. She’d been expecting to go over it with Gretchen. They could have looked at everything from different angles so that they could both get their heads around it. Now that Sandra was there it made her nervous. She felt like she needed to know what she wanted to say already, like she needed to pitch the story right then and there. It was as if telling the information to Sandra made it more official. With Gretchen she would have had the chance to rehearse a bit more. She felt like she still needed time to get a handle on everything before pitching it to Sandra.

“Tell us what you’ve got, dear,” Sandra said.

“Okay,” Lacey said again. “Well.” She knew that she was stalling, stumbling over her words.

Gretchen and Sandra looked at her encouragingly.

“Have either of you ever heard of Atlas Lake?” she said.

At the mention of Atlas Lake, Sandra’s face went visibly pale. Lacey noticed it. Gretchen noticed too. It was unmistakable.

“What is it?” Gretchen said to Sandra. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

Sandra shook her head as if to say that it wasn’t important but it was too late. “It’s nothing,” she said.

“Tell us,” Gretchen said, insistently.

“Okay, okay,” Sandra said, “I’ll spill the beans, but Lacey, you go first.”

“Atlas Lake,” Lacey said, “is a security contractor for the military.” Sandra was nodding as Lacey spoke, as if she’d just been researching the same information. “They’re trying to get approval to provide new security for New York’s financial center.”

“What?” Gretchen said. “That doesn’t make any sense. Aren’t they the company that was involved in all those scandals involving Iraqi prisoners?”

Sandra nodded.

“And torture?”

Sandra nodded again.

“They provide military security,” Gretchen went on. “They’re aggressive as hell. We did an article on how they were responsible for more civilian casualties in Baghdad than anyone else.”

“They’re being invited by the Mayor to secure Wall Street,” Lacey said. “They’re arguing that with all the protests and with the risk of terrorist attacks, that New York’s financial heart needs the kind of security that is usually reserved for a military situation.” She looked at Sandra.

Sandra looked back at her, levelly. “Lacey, how did you get this information?”

“There are senate hearings being conducted in Washington,” Lacey said. She was silently thanking Claudia for the research she’d done. “The information is publicly available.”

“It is publicly available,” Sandra said, “but only if you know where to look for it. Nothing’s been announced about this project. Even the senate hearings are being conducted behind closed doors. They don’t want any media coverage of this issue.”