How soon, I wondered, was "presently"?
"But haven't you forgotten somebody? Bill Henderson. The man's no fool. The minute he figures out your play, which he surely will, he's going to start blowing word all over the newspapers. You'll never get away with this."
Noda smiled lightly. "It would be helpful if he were here now. Perhaps you could be good enough to arrange for it."
So with Matsuo Noda standing over me, Uzi next to my head, I called Henderson on my speakerphone. He picked up after eight rings.
"Bill. Getting rich?"
"Walton, what time is it? Goddam, you woke me up." He yawned into the receiver. "Jesus, I feel like hell. What's going on? Everything still looking okay?"
"Couldn't be better. Quite a party around here. Want to come back down and help us celebrate?"
"Well . . . what the . . . ! It's after eleven already. Hey, let me check out the market first. Be down there in a little."
I looked up as Noda fingered his Uzi. "Just come on over now. Don't putz around with the market. We could use the company. And Bill . . ."
"Yeah?"