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that a secret assembly project was underway. And then?”
    “I’m sure you’ve already guessed the rest,” Samantha said demurely,
sipping tea. “I quietly went in and picked up an option on a little restaurant
situated right in the middle of the area Buchanan needs. That was several
months ago, after I’d determined the general area of Phoenix that Buchanan’s
people were working in.”
    “I see.”
    She could read nothing in his stolid words. Resolutely Samantha
continued. “Buchanan’s real estate people have begun to move. Quietly, of
course. They’re using a variety of dummy corporations and a lot of different
attorneys and real estate brokers to cover up who is doing the buying, but the
buying has started.”
    “But as far as the general populace of Phoenix is concerned,
what’s taking place are simply a bunch of small, individual real estate deals.
No one knows one developer is behind all of them.”
    “Nope. Except you and me,” she said cheerfully. “Only we
know how absolutely crucial that little restaurant is going to be. Without that
piece of property a major development project which has been on the drawing boards
for at least two years will have to be canceled. I can’t see Buchanan letting
his plans for downtown Phoenix be frustrated by one tiny Mexican restaurant.”
    “You’re going to wait until he’s bought up almost everything
and then confront him with a ridiculously high price tag?”
    “Ridiculously high,” she agreed happily.
    “But you need me,” Gabriel pointed out softly.
    “I’m afraid so.” She sighed.
    “Because your time is running out on the option for the
restaurant, right? You need cash and a lot of it to close the deal with the
present owner?”
    Samantha raised one eyebrow above the frames of her glasses.
“I need a financial angel to help me close the deal. I simply don’t have access
to the kind of cash or credit it will take to buy a restaurant. As a
professional venture capitalist, you do. You make your living by financing
ventures like this one.”
    “You think Buchanan’s people will pay your asking price
rather than wreck the whole project?”
    “Of course. They’re committed financially to the development
project. They can’t back out now, not without losing a tremendous amount of
money, far more than I’ll be charging for that damn restaurant!”
    She could see him taking it all in, grinding it up, rearranging
the facts into little patterns in his head. Samantha would have given a great
deal to be able to read his mind. As it was, it was like watching a blank brick
wall. Was he even interested? She decided to press a bit further.
    “I will make a tidy fortune out of this, and you will receive
a healthy percentage of return on your invested money. As my silent partner I
promise you will be amply rewarded, Gabriel,” she told him earnestly. “It should
be a quick, clean kill. When the big developers run into a snag just as they’re
nearing the end of a site assembly like this, they’ll pay unbelievable amounts
to buy up a crucial chunk of land. You know that as well as I do. I’ll do all
the work. All you have to do is put up the money and forget about it until the
payoff.”
    Finally an emotion flared briefly in the hazel eyes, and
Samantha cringed inwardly. He was laughing at her. God, she mustn’t come across
as naive; that would be the kiss of death as far as he was concerned. He wouldn’t
risk his money in the hands of a naive businesswoman. “Just how long will I
have to forget about my money?” he inquired gently. Too gently.
    “Buchanan is starting to move. I’d say someone will make an
offer on the restaurant in the next few weeks.”
    “Tell me something, Samantha. You knew when you picked up
the option to buy that restaurant that you were going to need a source of cash
to close the deal with the owner when the time came. What was it you found in
your computer data banks which led you to choose me as a potential