by Blake Banner
“Name, description…”
He made a face like things just kept getting worse. “Oh, man. Nobody knows his name. We call him the Mercenary. He looks kinda military, old, forty maybe, but hard. Short gray hair. He has a Seal tattoo on his arm.”
“The bar.”
“El Chupacabras, twenty-four fifteen Slauson Avenue, Park Mesa Heights. Please, don’t make me go there, man. He’ll kill me.”
“No he won’t.”
I wasn’t sure if the Taurus was loaded with shot or .45s. I pulled the trigger and found out. It was loaded with shot. It made a very ugly mess. I squeezed Kilobyte’s hand onto his gun, and then Pony Tail’s onto his and left a nice mystery for LA’s finest to try to unravel. I put some Scotch tape over my fingertips, searched through Ted’s desk and found my file with a half-written report, some photographs and a couple of memory cards. I checked Pony Tail’s ID and found his name was Charles Oswald Jones. And he thought Ben Dover was funny. I bet they loved C. O. Jones down in Mexico.
I wiped any surfaces I might have touched and made my way down to the Silverado. On the way I thought about Ted’s family. I tried not to imagine how they would feel in the morning, when they found out he was dead. I wondered if it was my fault that he had been killed. I didn’t think it was, but I wasn’t sure.
I climbed into the truck and headed for the parking garage where I had my Zombie. I had twenty-four hours before the Mercenary started worrying about the Pony Tail and Kilobyte, but he was a loose end and I was going to have to address it sooner or later. One part of my mind was telling me I could let him slide, another told me that would be sloppy and careless. Right then I didn’t have time to think about it. I had twenty-four hours. Right then, that was good enough.
At the garage I changed back into my suit, slipped the Maxim 9 into my holster and got into my car. Then I called Ahmed.
“Hey, Ahmed, how’s it hangin’?”
“Mr. Franklin, look, I really…”
“I am here at the airport with Mr. Giacalone, and he is really enthusiastic to make your acquaintance, know what I’m sayin’? So we are gonna come right on over to your office, and I think you will be very interested in the proposals he is gonna put to you. This is something you are going to want to hear. I hope I am not being too subtle for you.”
“No, Mr. Franklin, you are being very clear. I’ll be here when you arrive. I’ll leave word with security to let you in.”
“Do that.”
It was a short drive from Jefferson Boulevard to the Intelligent Imaging Consultants offices on Figueroa, a fraction of the distance from the airport. He’d be surprised that we’d arrived so early. But that was fine. I was happy to keep him disconcerted. The last of the day was fading from the sky as I arrived, and the lights were coming on in the streets, spilling from shops, bars and restaurants, coloring the blacktop and the sidewalks and lying luminous but oddly dead across hoods and windshields that crawled through the dying dusk into the night.
I left the Zombie at the Jack in the Box and walked to the Ernst and Young Plaza. The main door was still open and the guy on the security desk didn’t say anything to me, so I made my way to the elevators and rode to the top floor. The shining receptionist had gone home. It looked like everybody had gone home, but the doors were open and lights were still on. I stepped in, closed the doors behind me and walked quietly to Ahmed’s office. I could hear him talking inside, but I couldn’t hear anybody answering him. I opened the door softly and stepped in. He was saying, “Fine, I’ll see what I can find out from him, but this is getting out of hand…” He trailed off as he saw me, stared at me a moment, then said. “I’ll get back to you.”
He hung up. I smiled.
He said, “Mr. Franklin, I didn’t expect you for another…” His eyes flicked to the door behind me. “Mr. Giacalone…?”
I pointed over at the leather chairs and the sofa. “Let’s sit. Mind if I fix us a drink?”
He stood, frowning, hesitating, aware that something was wrong. “Um… martini, vodka, thanks. What’s going on? Where is Mr. Giacalone?”
“I have no idea. I owe you an apology. I think I’ve thrown you all into a bit of a flap.”
I smiled blandly over my shoulder. I had dropped the Goodfellas act along with the accent. He’d noticed it and he was disconcerted, searching for an explanation. He came to the coffee table and sat, folding himself carefully into the chair, like if he sat too fast everything would go wrong somehow. But that ship had sailed for him. I handed him his drink and sat opposite. He set the glass on the table with that same worried, careful manner. I continued to smile blandly and waited.
“What is going on, Mr. Franklin?”
I sipped my whiskey, chuckled and made my play. “How much has Aaron told you about us?”
He went very still. I watched the thoughts flit across his face. Now, this made sense to him. It would explain my odd behavior, the incongruent claims and my knowledge of the company’s activities. But he was cautious. He was a very cautious man. He said, “I don’t understand. Who is ‘us’?”
“You don’t understand, and yet all your body language says that you understand only too well. How much has Aaron told you about your employers, Ahmed? Omega, the organization that owns your company. The people that Aaron represents. How much has he told you about us?”
Seven
He stared at me in silence for a long while. I studied him, trying to read what was going on in his mind. A couple of times he twitched like he was going to make some excuse to go over to the desk, maybe to call security, or Fenninger, but each time the impulse failed. His curiosity was getting the better of him, as was his greed. What I had banked on was that if he believed I was Omega, he would see an opportunity to advance his own career behind Aaron’s back. My reading of his face told me I had been right. Finally he said, simply, “Omega?”
I crossed one leg over the other and sipped my drink. “Please don’t insult my intelligence, Ahmed. I know you are aware of our existence. What I am interested to know is, once again, exactly how much Aaron has told you.”
He dithered a moment longer, then committed. “Not very much. Only that he represented you, and that you had the power to further our company’s interests.”
I gave a small laugh. “Oh, yes. We can certainly do that. Which brings me, incidentally, to another point, you have a broker…”
I waited and he filled the void in a rush of words. “Yes, Elena manages the finances. She is very skilled. She engaged a broker because we need to balance the books, explain for the IRS the fact that…” He sighed, closed his eyes and started again, more slowly. “You supply us with a very handsome budget that covers our research and development programs. The problem is that the money you invest in us far exceeds our declared income. The fact that you are not an officially recognized body means that we cannot explain that income to the Internal Revenue Service. So Elena employs a broker who invested the surplus capital we had when we established the company, and the revenue from that covers our R&D program.”
I nodded. “I gather we advise you on where to invest.”
He smiled. He was beginning to relax. “Of course, and I have to say, it never fails.”
I gave a small laugh. “How could it?” I frowned. “So how do you explain to the IRS that despite the fact that you are investing in R&D, you still have surplus to invest?”
It was his turn to give a small laugh. “We don’t. We have an account in Belize where we hold the surplus capital.”
“Of course.” I stared at him with dead eyes until he started to become uncomfortable and shift his gaze around the room. Then I said, “Are you aware that we have a vacancy in our cabal?”
He froze. His eyes glittered. “I had no idea about that. Why are you telling me…?”
“Did Aaron not suggest to you that we might have an opening?”
He thought about it for a moment. “He did hint at something, but I never thought…”
“We have an
opportunity coming up, Ahmed. You know that our experts are predicting a global drought, and we are going to use that drought to trigger a very profitable war. It will amount to a world war, but it will be fought in the Middle East.”
He nodded. “Yes, Aaron spoke to me about that, we are looking for movie makers…”
I smiled benignly and raised a hand. “Leave that to others, Ahmed. It’s time for you to raise your sights and move on. There are billions of dollars to be made from this crisis. I am going to need you to make some phone calls. I need you to instruct your broker on where to invest your company’s funds. Get him out of bed if you have to. Tonight, Ahmed.” I put a big, friendly smile on the right side of my face. “Tonight you join the club. You see now why I needed you here alone.”
He swallowed three times without saying anything. “I am overwhelmed. I don’t know what to say…”
“Here’s the thing, I need you to say and do exactly what I tell you to say and do. Can you do that?”
He nodded once.
“Yes, of course you can. That is why we chose you. Now, can you instruct your broker directly, or do the instructions need to come via Elena Sanchez?”
“They would have to be issued by Elena and one other partner.”
“Good, so here is the first thing you are going to do. You are going to call Elena and have her join us here.”
He nodded and stared as though he was waiting for something more.
I raised an eyebrow. “Now, Ahmed.”
He jumped. “Yes! Yes, of course!”
He fumbled for his phone and as he dialed I said, “Tell her nothing except that it is imperative she drops whatever she is doing right now and joins you here immediately. She is not to discuss this with anyone. Put it on speaker.”
It rang a couple of times and an attractive voice answered. “Ahmed, what can I do for you?”
“Elena, I am going to ask you to trust me. I can’t discuss this over the phone, but I am going to ask you to drop whatever you are doing and come to the office immediately. This is really very important. Imperative, in fact.”
She didn’t answer for a moment. Then there was a frown in her voice. “Are you serious?”
“I have never been more serious, Elena.”
“Is this to do with your visitor, Mr. Franklin?”
“Indirectly, yes, and with the project. I really cannot discuss this with you any further on the telephone. I must insist that you come and see me now, at the office.”
Her voice became serious. “All right, Ahmed, I’ll be right over.”
“And, Elena, for the moment I would ask you not to discuss this with anybody. That is vital.”
“Ahmed, this is all a little unsettling…”
“It will make perfect sense to you when you get here, believe me. Just stick precisely to my instructions, please.”
She was silent a moment longer, then said, “All right, Ahmed. I hope you’re right. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. I’m on my way.”
She hung up and I drained my glass, smacked my lips and sighed. “Don’t look so worried, Ahmed. You’re about to join the Forbes One Hundred.”
His expression had changed, like he’d suddenly come to his senses and reality was looking all wrong. “I…”
“What is it? What’s troubling you? You stepped outside the box, so what? You know what separates the real winners from the mediocre and the losers? Real winners dare to try. Who dares wins, my friend. And you have just taken a very courageous step.”
He shook his head. “I don’t even know who you are.”
I laughed out loud. “What do you want? You want to see my passport? My ID? My driver’s license?” I laughed again.
He shook his head again. His skin had gone pasty and he looked like he might throw up. “But how do I know…? I should talk to Aaron…”
“I wouldn’t do that. Aaron doesn’t know it, but he’s on his way out.”
His eyes went wide. “Aaron?”
“He’s fucked up one too many times.” I raised an eyebrow and seemed to study him for a moment. “I’ve been studying your career for a while, Ahmed. I have liked the steps you have taken. I have liked the fact that you have known what to leave behind. I also like the fact that you are ruthless.” I pulled a Camel from my pocket and lit it with my old, brass Zippo. I inhaled deep and blew the smoke at the ceiling. “Aaron has gone soft. Did you know he’d become a multi-billionaire? On the strength of our help and guidance. But as soon as that happened—the mansion in Malibu, the wife and kids, the office on Sunset Boulevard…” I chuckled. “He went soft, he lost his edge. Omega is a club for killers, not for nice daddies.” I raised my eyebrow again. “Are you a killer, Ahmed? I had you down as a killer. Was I wrong?”
He gave his head several short, rapid shakes. “No. You were not wrong.”
I nodded. “I was not wrong. That’s because I am always right.”
“Yes.”
“Contact your broker, Ahmed, set it up and tell him what you are planning to do. Then we’ll get Elena’s confirmation when she arrives.”
“Shouldn’t I wait…?”
“You want her to take the initiative?”
“No! No, I’ll see to it right away.”
He rose and hurried to his desk. He pressed a button, a computer terminal rose out of the desktop and he began to type. I stood and walked over to him. I pulled a white envelope from my pocket and held it up for him to see. “This, right here, is probably the most valuable information available on the planet at this moment. What is contained in here is worth tens of billions of dollars, and I am giving it to you. I hope, once I hand this over, that I can count on your loyalty, Ahmed.”
He stared at the envelope like it might explode. Then his big brown eyes shifted to mine. There was unfathomable greed in them. “Yes,” he said.
I handed it to him and he took it. I didn’t let go. “Understand this, Ahmed. You will become a billionaire, but from the moment I let go, you give yourself to Omega. Are you prepared to do that?”
Again the big-eyed stare. “Yes.”
I nodded and let go. In that moment I could have told him to leap out the window and he would have done it. He opened the envelope and took out the single sheet of A4 it contained. His fingers were trembling. He studied the list, glanced at me and clicked the mouse. I heard a ringing tone from the computer, then a voice said, “Ahmed, working late?”
“I’m sorry Lenny, something pretty urgent came up and I need to make a few large capital investments straight away. There’s a lot riding on this.”
“Sure, no problem. It’s my wife’s birthday, but they can spare me for a while. What’s it about?”
Ahmed stared at the list again, then at me, then back at the screen. I want to put everything we have spread equally over the following…”
“Everything, Ahmed?”
“Everything. Sell whatever you can sell and reinvest it in this. Trust me, my advice is good. Ready…? Thai Rice Futures, for November. Ukrainian wheat, September, Spanish grapes…”
The list went on. It would have been obvious to any man not blinded by greed that they were all crops that were going to fail in the drought. He knew it, he could see it, but he had committed himself, sold himself to Omega, and he told himself he must be wrong and he must have faith.
Lenny’s voice came from the computer. He sounded skeptical. “These are futures. You’re buying at today’s price, whatever their value may be in September, October or November...”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
There was a frown in Lenny’s voice. “I’m at a bit of a loss here, Ahmed. There is nothing very remarkable about these investments. You might win a bit or lose a bit, but I could recommend a hundred different…”
I was shaking my head and Ahmed interrupted him. “I appreciate what you’re saying, Lenny. But I have reason to believe the market will change soon, in our favor.”
“You’re the boss. I’ll need the OK from Elena.”
“Of course.”
He hung up and Ahmed sat staring at me. I held his eye and blinked slowly. “Have we ever let you down in the past, Ahmed?”
He shook his head. Then his gaze traveled past me and I heard the door open. I turned and Elena Sanchez was standing in the open doorway, looking at us. She said, “What’s going on?”
I said, “Come in, Elena. You need to hear this.”
“Who are you?”
I looked her hard in the eye and said, “I am Aaron’s boss. Please come and sit down.”
She glanced past me at Ahmed. He must have given her a nod, because she closed the door and came to the coffee table, where she sat on the sofa. I said, “Can I offer you a drink?”
“A dry sherry, thank you.”
I turned and looked at Ahmed. He rose from the desk and went to pour her wine. I sat.
“Elena, the information I am about to share with you is need to know only. If you share this with anyone outside this room, the consequences will be severe. Please don’t ask me what that means, because we really don’t want to go there.”
She frowned, looking alarmed. Ahmed handed her her drink and I kept talking.
“There are some things that, as of now, you need to know. Your company belongs to an organization called Omega. Aaron Fenninger has been acting as the liaison between Omega and yourselves, and it is Omega who has given you the information to guide your investments until now. The purpose for all this is far more complex than you can hope to understand, but to put it at its simplest, we need the research that you do.”
She was still frowning. “Aaron had told us some of this, not quite in those terms, but the general gist. He never used the name Omega…”
“Now, there are two things I have to tell you.” I held up a finger. “One, Aaron is being axed. He has fucked up once too often. So we now have two openings in what we like to call the cabal. We have been observing Ahmed for some time, and also you, Elena.” I raised two fingers in the peace sign. “Two, the second thing I have to tell you: as you already know, we are about to experience a very severe, global drought. There will be widespread famine and the Middle East will become seriously destabilized. We will go to war and that war will spread. This will be an opportunity for people with foresight and, above all, foreknowledge, to make vast fortunes. Now, Elena, the choices you make in the next fifteen minutes will determine whether you become one of those people or not, and whether we offer you a permanent position in Omega.”