by Nathan Allen
Each negotiation began by implying that the target could walk away from the situation – for a price – but they held back on giving an exact amount. This allowed the men to conjure up all sorts of intimidating figures in their heads. Their imaginations would naturally go to the worst-case scenario, whereby emptying their life savings would be the only way to keep them out of an orange jumpsuit and off the sex offender’s register. Their relief was palpable when they learned it would only set them back a small fraction of that imagined figure. The majority were only too happy to pay up if it meant they could immediately leave and never see these people again. One guy even offered up his Rolex in addition to the cash, insisting they take it as a gesture of goodwill. Travis later pawned it for seven thousand dollars.
A couple of years earlier, the daughter of a wealthy businessman was kidnapped and a two million dollar ransom demanded. A protracted period of negotiation followed, before it all fell apart in a barrage of police bullets and decades-long prison sentences.
Watching on from home, Travis kept a close eye on the case as it unfolded. Straight away he could see where the kidnappers had gone wrong; namely, they had been far too greedy. Regardless of how rich the family was, a two million dollar ransom was always going to be met with resistance. If they had settled on a more realistic figure, something in the low-six figure range, the family probably would have paid up. The kidnappers would have received a significant amount of money, the daughter would be freed unharmed, and everyone would be happy. Instead, they expected too much too soon. They demanded maximum return for minimal effort.
Travis learned from their mistakes, and the mistakes of others who had attempted similar plots. Rather than go for one big high-risk venture that brought in a lot of money, he saw that it was smarter and safer to pull off multiple low-risk hits that reaped a small amount each time. He knew problems would inevitably arise if their demands were unrealistic. There would be resistance, or possibly even retribution, and that was far too much trouble for everyone involved. The value was set just low enough so that chasing after the money would not be worth the effort. Besides, if the asking price was too high the men might try negotiating a lower price. The minute you engage in any sort of haggling, the other party knows you’ve lost control of the situation. The relatively small amount of cash gave their victims an easy escape clause, and it was one they were always happy to take. They knew the best thing would be to pay up and be grateful their punishment wasn’t a lot worse.
Once the money was handed over, the men were allowed to leave and were never contacted again. There was the odd occasion where Travis had been tempted to track down some of his wealthier targets to extort a few extra bucks out of them, but that was an urge he always resisted. It was important they stick to their rules and keep their word. Even if they were breaking the law, he still wanted to operate with a certain degree of honor.
The second rule, and one that was every bit as essential as the first, was that each target must be treated with courtesy and respect. Even though they would eventually deprive these men of their money, they would still be allowed to leave with their dignity intact. That may appear to be a minor detail, but its importance could not be overstated. Had they gone in with all guns blazing, roughing them up and threatening to turn them in if they didn’t do exactly as they were told, it would create an atmosphere festering with animosity and hostility right from the start. More to the point, it may cause the target to behave in an erratic manner, and that was the last thing they wanted. Allow them keep their dignity and ninety-nine times out of a hundred it all went off without a hitch.
Everything about the scam was just about flawless. No weapons were required; not even the hint of violence was suggested during these confrontations. They didn’t have to worry about their identities being exposed. They kept their faces covered the first few times, but this only put the men on edge so they stopped doing it. Sometimes they didn’t even bother filming or recording their encounters. They just told the men they had incriminating evidence in their possession. No one ever thought to ask to see it. They weren’t worried about the police, since none of the men could report the crimes without implicating themselves.
Even though he knew he was technically committing a crime, Travis believed he wasn’t really doing anything that immoral. He was simply doing what many successful businessmen before him had done, which was to identify a money-making opportunity and take full advantage. If he wasn’t shaking these guys down, someone else would probably be doing it – and they were unlikely to be anywhere near as civil about it. He was performing a valuable community service by scaring these men straight. He had even convinced himself that he was doing them all a favor, since he was giving them the deal of a lifetime. By turning up to meet an underage girl, they had potentially ruined their lives. He was offering to restore it for just a few thousand dollars.
He had reached a point where he was considering expanding the business, hiring more girls to be the bait and more guys as the enforcers. He was curious to see just how far he could take this whole concept, and how much he could milk from this cash cow. It probably wasn’t a realistic long-term project, so he had to make the most of this opportunity while he could.
Besides, he wasn’t crazy about those creeps putting their hands all over his girlfriend who, at twenty-three, wouldn’t be able to pass for a fifteen year old for too much longer.
“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” Aimee declared. “No arguments, no negotiation. That’s our final offer.”
“Gregor”, who it was now known used the legal name Martin Gregor Krauth, could only laugh at such an outlandish demand. “You’re not serious, are you?”
“Do we look like we’re joking around?” Travis said.
“We know who you are, Martin,” Blair added. “And it wasn’t hard to find out how much money you have, either.”
In the short time they’d had to investigate Martin Krauth’s background, the three of them had unearthed an abundance of incredible facts. They discovered that he was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, and the owner of a backstory fast becoming the stuff of showbiz legend. Here was a guy who had spent close to a decade toiling away on movie sets, mostly in low-level positions on the production crew. He had worked as a grip, a prop master, a production assistant and a clapper loader, among other fairly menial roles. He was in his late twenties when he started, significantly older than many of his contemporaries.
After several years of long hours and low pay, his tenacity, work ethic and dedication to his craft saw him promoted to positions with greater responsibility and longer hours (but only slightly better remuneration) such as line producer, unit manager and production coordinator.
Those who knew him from this time recall that while he may have been a highly ambitious worker, there was nothing particularly remarkable about him. The same could be said of the films he was involved with. They were mostly poorly-made B-movies with shoestring budgets and non-existent production values, starring washed-up sitcom stars and aging action heroes too obscure for The Expendables. Nothing he was involved with ever threatened to set the world alight. Despite his hard work and passion for the industry, few foresaw Martin Krauth’s career progressing any further than the straight-to-DVD ghetto.
Until two years ago when, out of the clear blue sky, he was named as the new chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures.
To say the appointment came as a surprise would be a colossal understatement. Most industry observers had never heard of Martin Krauth. The few who had could not fathom how the reins to one of the major Hollywood studios could be handed to such an inexperienced and untested novice. Some thought it must have been an elaborate joke, while others suspected some sort of criminal negligence was at play. At the time, the once-powerful film studio was tumbling towards bankruptcy following years of poor management and a devastating string of box office disasters. Rumors quickly spread that the board were deliberately running the studio into the ground to
manipulate the share price, a strategy that would allow them to take full control by purchasing a huge slice of the company at a vastly discounted rate.
But against the odds and defying all logic and reason, the appointment has since proven to be nothing short of a masterstroke. Martin had somehow managed to reverse Paramount’s ailing fortunes and guide the studio toward a succession of films that enjoyed both box office success and widespread critical acclaim. He was catapulted into the spotlight, his name becoming almost as famous as the ones up on the big screen. The press hailed him as a miracle worker, the man with the Midas touch. He graced the cover of Time magazine, and was the subject of a glowing 60 Minutes profile. He dined with Hollywood royalty and Washington powerbrokers, and had been romantically linked to a bevy of starlets and supermodels.
And now Aimee, Travis and Blair were inside his luxury automobile, struggling to wrap their minds around the fact that they held the life and career of someone with so much power and influence in the palm of their hands. All three tried to keep their cool and not allow this remarkable turn of events to affect their end goals. They had to maintain control of the situation and remind themselves that this was no different from any other job, only on a larger scale. Despite the perceived power imbalance between the two parties, they still had the upper hand. If anything, they were in an even more powerful bargaining position – Martin Krauth had a lot more to lose than “Gregor”, or anyone else they had previously dealt with.
“A quarter of a million dollars means nothing to you, Martin,” Aimee said. After a long period of silence in Gregor/Martin’s presence, she had rediscovered her voice. She also had the best poker face, and was the least intimidated in the presence of a celebrity. “You’ve probably run up bigger bar tabs. And if you consider what you stand to lose if you don’t do as we say, I think you’ll agree this is the wisest investment you’re ever likely to make. If this becomes public it’ll be the biggest scandal in years.”
“And if it becomes public, none of you will get a cent,” Martin said.
“Then we all agree,” Blair said. “None of us want any of what’s gone on tonight to be made public.”
Martin shook his head slowly. “I can’t just snap my fingers and make two hundred and fifty thousand dollars appear out of thin air. You understand that, don’t you?”
“We know Martin, but we also know what a resourceful guy you must be,” Travis said. In the last few minutes they had taken to saying Martin’s name aloud whenever addressing him, perhaps as an unconscious reminder of who they were now dealing with. “I’m sure you’ve had to resolve insurmountable problems like this before. I doubt this is the first time you’ve had to scrounge together a large sum of money to get yourself out of a tight spot.”
“Even if I could get that much, it’s the middle of the night,” Martin said. “It’s not like I have bundles of cash lying around my house for moments like this.”
“It doesn’t have to be cash,” Aimee said. “You can pay us in goods of equivalent value. Be creative.”
“We accept jewelry, watches, credit cards,” Travis said. “Anything, really. We’re not fussy.”
Blair leaned forward, moving close to Martin’s ear. “And we really like your car.”
Even though this violated their own rules, Travis, Aimee and Blair had come to an unspoken but unanimous agreement to squeeze as much out of Martin Krauth as possible. The moment they found out who he was and what he was worth, they stopped thinking about the four thousand dollars they were about to receive, and they started thinking about the hundreds of thousands they were potentially missing out on by letting him go for such a pittance. They were hellbent on getting that money. They deserved it. Maybe it was because they didn’t know how much longer they could keep this scam up, and tonight could be their one and only chance at striking it rich.
Or maybe they were still embarrassed by the way Martin had managed to deceive them for as long as he had. They all went into this under the misapprehension that he was “Gregor”, some lonely, depressed, vulnerable man desperate to make a connection with another human being. Instead he was “Martin”, and he was just another obscenely wealthy pervert looking to slum it for a night on the wrong side of town. He had spun them a story, and they swallowed it hook, line and sinker. It was only due to luck that they uncovered the truth.
It was a blow to their egos that they could be so easily duped when it was supposed to be the other way around.
Chapter 12
“I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this guy before,” Blair said. He had been draining his phone’s battery for the past couple of hours, gathering as much information as he could about Martin Krauth. “He’s responsible for some of the biggest films in recent years. He was ranked number eleven on The Hollywood Reporter’s list of the one hundred most powerful people. He has a thirty million dollar Malibu mansion, and a whole fleet of Lamborghinis and Bugattis.”
Aimee ran her finger along the exquisite woodgrain ornamentation on the dash. “This must be what he drives when he wants to go incognito,” she said.
“He flies around in his own private jet – a Gulfstream IV. And he once dated Skylar Valdez.”
Travis raised an eyebrow. “The Sports Illustrated model?”
“Yeah. No offense Aimee, but it makes you wonder what he was doing here tonight.”
“Oh, I’m glad you put ‘no offense’ in there Blair,” Aimee said. “That instantly negates any insult that comes after it.”
Blair scrolled further down the page. “It’s strange though, isn’t it? I mean, why would a guy like that be trawling Tinder when he can get just about any woman he wants?”
“A lot of these Hollywood types are into weird stuff,” Travis said. “The bigger they are, the more money they have, the greater the chance of them being some sort of deviant. It’s the Hugh Grant or Anthony Wiener effect. For them, the risk of getting caught with some random trick is probably a bigger thrill than scoring with a swimsuit model.”
“You were meant to say ‘no offense’ before you described your girlfriend as some random trick,” Aimee said.
Travis offered a semi-apologetic shrug, then looked at his watch. It was late, coming up to two a.m. Fatigue and restlessness were rapidly bearing down on them all.
Martin had been gone so long they were starting to wonder if he was ever coming back. He said he had to go make a few calls to arrange their payment, but for all they knew he was on the phone to his lawyers and publicists, preparing to unleash the full force of his power and influence upon them.
Travis shifted around in his seat. There was something about Martin’s prolonged absence that unsettled him. This was different from all their previous jobs – there were never any surprises with those, and very little deviation from night to night. Here, they were swimming in uncharted waters. None of them really had any idea of what to expect.
It was only now, during these quiet moments when he had time to think things over, that he realized they didn’t hold quite as much power as he initially assumed. He didn’t know the first thing about leaking a damaging video to the press. They had never gone public with any of their scams, because they’d never had to. Every target had immediately agreed to pay up. In any event, their only ammunition was a muffled voice recording and some blurry out-of-focus footage, shot from a distance. Martin wasn’t clearly identified in the vision; it could be anyone sitting in the car. Besides, would a scandal like this even hurt his career that much? He may have a high profile, but it wasn’t like he was a politician or the star of a family-friendly television show. It might be a news story for a day or two, but with an entire media conglomerate at his disposal he could surely find some way to spin the story and minimize any damage.
Even if they could successfully leak the footage, it would probably end up hurting them more in the long run. Once word of their antics got out, it would be so much harder to lure anyone else into their trap. Everyone would be wise to their scam. They would effectiv
ely be shooting themselves in the foot, destroying their own lucrative form of income just to punish this one person.
Travis was beginning to suspect that Martin had called their bluff. Maybe he had seen some angle the others hadn’t.
“We could have gone higher with our demands,” Blair said. He had moved on to a Forbes article, and was practically salivating as he read about Martin’s heady, indulgent lifestyle. “A lot higher. This guy is richer than God. We could have squeezed more money out of him.”
Aimee glanced over her shoulder. “Are you saying a quarter of a million dollars isn’t enough for one night of work?”
“I just think we should have gone for the full million.”
Travis coughed out a laugh. “Oh, please. You’re delusional if you think that’s even remotely possible.”
“Do you have any idea how rich Martin Krauth is?” Blair said. “He’s worth at least four hundred million. We could have got it, easy.”
“No, we couldn’t,” Aimee said. “That’s far too unrealistic. Besides, where is he going to get a million dollars from at this time of night?”
“Try thinking outside the box, Aimee. This doesn’t have to be a one-night job like all the others. We can give him a few days to get it all together.”
“What, you expect him to just hand over a briefcase full of cash?”
Blair shrugged. “Well, why not?”
“For one, it’s pretty difficult to withdraw a million dollars without drawing attention to yourself.”
“Okay, so he doesn’t have to pay us in cash. He can do it some other way. A bank transfer or something.”
“Oh, so now you want the FBI involved too?”
“What does the FBI have to do with anything?”
“Any large sums of money shifted into an account are immediately deemed suspicious. The FBI red flags transactions like that since there’s a high chance of it being drug money.”