Bette frowned a little, seemingly unconvinced.

“Repaying a favor is understandable, Tycho,” she observed, “but agreeing to insure someone’s exposure to a gold shipment … I’m guessing that’s what you basically did, right? … is serious business.”

“There must be something else. Something more,” she said, frowning at him.

He stood up slowly, and began to pace on the carpet behind his chair, rubbing his chin.

While she continued to observe him, from time to time, Bette glanced at another message from Brom: he was advising Bette to head back to New York. Tyler was already checking with the travel agent they’d all used to advance their bookings on the return flights to New York.

She responded, “Let Diane go. Will advise asap on whether Tyler and I can return tomorrow also.”

She set the phone down when Tycho finally answered, leaning on the back of the chair he’d been sitting on as he did, “Alright, Bette. I’ll tell you but this is all confidential firm information, and I’m doing so only because I can explain, later on, to our lawyers, that these are exigent circumstances.”

She raised her eyebrows at that.

He pressed on, having reached the decision to tell her the confidential information, “there was a trio of firms, one based in Spain, another in Iceland, and a third in the Middle East, who regularly did business with one another, and were, it was thought at that time, reputable firms with solid assets on their books.”

“When the financial crisis hit, these firms fell quickly into big trouble. And they began to fight amongst themselves. All told, by the time their feud had exploded out into the open, it came out that they’d owed over $25 billion to over 130 banks and financial institutions all over the world.”

“Two of the firms appeared to be the consignees of the 17 cargoes of gold that were shipped to London, New York, and other places from South Africa and Australia. The third firm, the one from Iceland, appeared to be both a consignee as well as a supplier, acting as one or the other on some of the shipments.”

“The amounts paid for the gold were drawn down from lending facilities with the bank guarantors, which were in turn financed by the third parties, and some of which were, in turn, hedged with firms like ours. For years after these firms imploded, those borrowings were not repaid.”