Fox Play

by Robin Roseau

  "No."

  I took a breath. "I don't know if the other kids know this or not. If it ever comes up, I don't expect you to lie. But I don't want you to bring it up. I don't have any formal education past the eighth grade."

  Angel stared at me. "How do you know everything you know?"

  I gave her the one-minute overview and then told her what we were doing about it.

  "You're a student and a teacher." She was grinning.

  "We need to go find in the library all the textbooks from the ninth grade math and science classes and you can show me how to check them out." We headed upstairs, security detail in tow, and Angel helped me find all the books I needed, then she showed me how to check them out, and we carried them back down to my office.

  "Michaela, if you ever need tutoring, or just want to hang out and study, you can call me."

  "Brat." She laughed. "Thanks for your help, Angel. And please don't mention this around."

  "Michaela, I am happy to tease you in private. Well, and in public, too. But you also know you can trust me."

  I did know that.

  "Okay, go on back to class and if it's a good time, send down the next student."

  * * * *

  At 2:45 I received a text. "Head over to Lima Consulting's base." I sent back an "omw" and chased Jeremy out of my office. "We'll finish in the morning, Jeremy."

  I walked to the house that used to be David's old house and now served as the on site headquarters for Greg Freund's team from Lima Consulting.

  Lara and Elisabeth were waiting there along with a number of enforcers. Gia was scurrying around, collecting last minute data, and Hadley Smith was there. I was surprised to see her. I didn't see anyone from the council beyond Lara and Elisabeth.

  I got a kiss from Lara and inquiries into how my day was going. Then, as soon as Gia finished printing out handouts for us, we collected in what had been the living room but was now equipped as a conference room. A large computer screen was set on the end of a table, and I took a seat next to Lara.

  "We can start, Greg," Lara said, "If you're ready."

  He nodded. "All right. I'm going to give an overview, then we'll discuss the two basic sides of what we're dealing with. Of those, Durian's enforcer team is the first side, and the economic side is the other. First, the assumptions that were made have all turned out to be dead on. The pack finances are in terrible shape. Durian and Avery are at best, horrible businessmen. Jared is a different story; we'll come back to him. The pack holdings are all in complete disarray. Durian has been skimming from them to support his own lifestyle, and they are now all heavily leveraged. He has a complete house of cards, financially speaking, and a light breeze will blow it over."

  Lara smiled at me. "You nailed that one."

  "Durian and Avery's private holdings are even worse or non-existent entirely. The pack is being run on what anyone would agree are egregious tithes. There is evidence that Avery made a run selling drugs, but from what I can tell, he screwed even that up. I'm not sure, but I believe he's paying off the drug cartel's in an attempt to avoid them collecting on debts he owes. I don't have any solid proof of that, just hints."

  "If Durian and Avery aren't the ones selling drugs in Chicago, who is?" I asked.

  "Looks like humans. It looks like for a while, the wolves were shaking them down, but that appears to have changed. We're not positive, but we believe the wolves have grown afraid of the drug dealers."

  He looked around the room before going on. "The wolves in Chicago are at wit's end. I've been putting a few things together, and it looks like there may have been some attempts to take out a hit on Durian. The people doing the asking don't know how to find a hit man capable of taking down a wolf. I would bet that anyone with a small business in Chicago, like a restaurant, would be happy to pack up and leave given half a chance, and we've found several wolf-run businesses up for sale. The professionals, doctors and lawyers, are not quite so mobile, but these are the ones who would be happiest with a regime change."

  "In other words," Lara said. "Exactly as expected."

  "Yes," he said. "So, let's talk about the power structure."

  For the next forty minutes, Greg talked about Durian, Avery, and their enforcers. We looked at pictures of all of them. At the end, he said, "The enforcers are the only wolves in Chicago that seem happy. Durian pays them well and turns a blind eye to anything they do as long as they don't steal from him. They will fight to maintain the status quo, and there are several who would immediately challenge any alpha who stepped in and wished to change things. There appear to be twenty-two total. I recommend a clean sweep. It won't be easy."

  "We can take out Durian and Avery and let the rest fight it out. They'll be weaker before a leader emerges, and then we can decide what to do," I suggested.

  "That's worth considering," Greg said. "I'd rather take them all out, but that may be a larger military operation than we want to attempt."

  "We?" said Lara. "So you're in for that part, too?"

  "Yes, unless you don't want us." He grinned. "You won't spend your five million without some combat, unless you sit back and let me bleed you dry for a long longer than I think you should."

  "We'll appreciate the help, Greg," Lara said.

  "However, your plan is to make him bleed financially first. And this is where it gets fun." Greg gave us an overview of the wolf-owned businesses in Chicago. Then he said, "Of course, a good share of the wolves in Chicago work at other businesses. We believe there are one hundred and thirty seven wolves in Chicago working for human businesses or local government, representing forty percent of the tithes."

  "That would be a lot of wolves to absorb into Madison," Lara said.

  "I have ideas about that," he said. "Now, let's look at the businesses. Five restaurants, two bakeries, a medical clinic, three law firms, and one multi-national. I think we should lure away the small businesses first."

  "Why?"

  "Because they're run by nice guys. The guys at the multi-national are crooks, and I would rather just make sure the FBI knows more about them. I could just send them my information, anonymously of course, and let the FBI make life difficult for them."

  Lara laughed. "All right, but wait."

  "Yes, agreed. We need to take care of the little guys first. They don't deserve to be in the crossfire. And I think we should start with this business."

  Greg brought up a photo of a place called Bailey's Steak and Wine. "This is Durian's favorite restaurant. He eats there three or four times a week. Bailey is a good restaurant owner, but the tithes mean the restaurant finances are in a shambles. He'd sell for a hundred thousand and plane tickets for his family to anywhere far from Durian."

  Lara smiled. "All right. I'd like to send him somewhere safe for a while but then have him reopen elsewhere. What do you recommend for me to talk to him?"

  "I don't. I'd recommend a human buyer broker and one of your shell companies."

  "I have fourteen set up so far," Hadley pointed out, "and I guarantee they won't trace back to us."

  "I know that Steamboat Springs just lost a good restaurant when the chef died in a helicopter accident," Greg said. "The Colorado wolf pack are friends..."

  Lara laughed. "You seem to have a lot of friends."

  "That's part of the reason you hired me."

  We made plans to one in fashion or another buy out the five restaurants and both bakeries. Greg also indicated it's easy to offer lures to medical professionals. That left the law firms, which we decided to leave alone.

  "This will start to put pressure on them. Then if we can start luring the other wolves away with jobs across the country, we can do a real number on their finances."

  Then he smiled. "And then we call the IRS. The local IRS office is corrupt. Durian has been paying them off, but he doesn't declare his tithes. He is living well beyond any possible means from his reported income."

  "Tax evasion." Lara left. "Al Capone paved the way on that one."

&
nbsp; "That's what I have so far. I can have specifics for you by end of the week and we can begin approaching people immediately."

  "Do it," Lara said.

  "We haven't talked about Jared."

  "Ah, Jared," Greg said. "He's hiding his business interests from his father. Daddy dearest doesn't know it, but Jared is quite the businessman. I think he'd be very hard to go after. But he isn't paying tithe, and when the time comes, we could tell Daddy all about dear Jared's holdings."

  "I think we should consider who is running Chicago when this is all over," I said. "Do we want to leave Jared there?"

  Everyone looked at me.

  "It's a reasonable question," I pointed out. "He doesn't seem at all like his father."

  "I don't know if he could hold it," Greg said.

  "The Chicago pack has always been run this way," Lara explained. "Durian isn't the worst they've had. It's the culture of the pack, and it's not something we can change from the outside."

  "Why are we so different here?" I asked.

  Lara turned to me, grinning.

  "What did I say?"

  "You said 'we'. It pleases me to hear you consider yourself pack."

  I returned her grin. "I guess I do."

  "To answer your question, we started as an extended family, and no one was interested in us for a long time."

  "Couldn't we be taken over, though? If all you need to do is challenge the alpha to take over the entire pack?"

  "Theoretically," Lara said.

  "Except if any outsider challenges Lara and wins, he needs to be able to challenge every enforcer in the pack, because one by one, immediately after each other, we will challenge him. No one can take that. One of us would wound him and the next one will kill him. The only way you could take over is if you bring enough enforcers in to immediately deal with all of us. A lone wolf couldn't do it, and we make sure anyone who sniffs around knows it."

  "So it takes a pack like Chicago to do it."

  "Yes, and this isn't the first time they've tried," said Elisabeth. "The last time, they killed our father."

  I stared between the two of them.

  "How many enforcers did it take before you could give the pack to Lara?"

  "None," Elisabeth said. "She was the first to challenge him. He was big and fast, but Lara was faster. It's not always size that matters." She looked over at Lara with pride in her eye. "I was so angry at her. I should have been first. But he would have beaten me just like he did father. She was right to challenge before I could."

  I reached over and took her hand. She squeezed my hand briefly before we turned back to Greg.

  "We can table this part of the discussion for now. I want to begin siphoning their financial resources. We need to identify businesses and people that can be relocated with minimal investment on our part."

  "We're working on it. Do we want a complete list before we start implementing plans?"

  "Unless you advise otherwise, I'd like to start immediately. Even a small drain will hurt them."

  He nodded. "I've identified a dozen well-paid technology geeks. I can get them better jobs elsewhere. We don't even need to offer them raises, as anywhere else they go is automatically a fifteen to twenty percent savings in tithes. However, will you sweeten the pot for some?"

  "Yes," she said.

  "I intend to offer jobs to two who are computer security experts, with your permission."

  "I would prefer they do not know about our arrangement until this is over," Lara said.

  "Of course."

  For the next half hour, Greg provided his initial recommendations. We would start with Durian's favorite restaurant.

  "Is a pack member allowed to sell a business outside pack?" I asked. "What would Durian do to a human who bought a bakery formerly owned by a pack member?"

  "If he harassed the human, he would have the elders from every North American pack on his ass the next day," Lara said.

  "Find human owners, then, and we can supplement the purchase prices enough to make them viable choices to buy. That reduces our cost. Then offer business loans to anyone starting new businesses in our territory."

  "That last part is a little direct," Lara said. "But Hadley, could we hide the origin of the loans and allow them to start over anywhere they want?"

  "Yes," she said.

  They went around that idea for a while.

  "I will tell you this," Greg said. "None of the other pack leaders will directly interfere, but most of them would happily accept transplants from Chicago, probably to the point of helping get new businesses started. I haven't directly asked anyone about it, but I have friendly contacts in several packs." He paused. "Down the road, you understand I could easily be coming to you and asking if you would take new members, perhaps under similar circumstances."

  Lara nodded.

  "We'll spend the money we must for the smaller businesses. I can flat out buy them if we have to, but if we can finesse it, all the better."

  And with that, we had a plan. I sighed.

  "What's wrong, little fox?" she asked.

  "There's nothing for me to do to help."

  She laughed. "This is all happening because of you, and you've been offering good suggestions. There isn't much for me to do, either. This is why we're paying Greg such an insane amount of money."

  Greg was grinning. "Yep. And it's been a long time since I've enjoyed a job this much, either."

  "You're earning your money," Lara said.

  "We always do." He laughed.

  "Anything else we need to do?" Lara asked.

  "Are we actually going through with the poker game you offered?" I asked.

  They all looked around the table. "Can you beat him this time?" Elisabeth asked?

  "Last time, we had to lose. I was just trying to slow it down for my own selfish reasons. If you let me win, yes. Especially if we can get Jared out of the game."

  "I'll engineer a crisis in his companies," Greg said. "No promises, but maybe he'll be too distracted to come."

  "Then it's not a lot of money, but yes, I think we should do the game," Lara said.

  "Then I'll need a stake. Lara, you need to talk to Janice and get me invited."

  "Damn it!" said Elisabeth. "I've been winning lately."

  I grinned at her.

  Building a Program

  I interviewed all the kids who were interested in my program. I tied their goals, as best they knew them, with the current curriculum that Francesca taught and identified additional opportunities for classes I thought the kids would like. It took me a week, and even then, most of the class descriptions were only a few words. Then I got together with Francesca.

  "Correct me if I am wrong," I said. "But it strikes me that the traditional program is designed for some sort of average."

  She smiled at me. "Yes. Even programs designed for college bound students are aimed at the 60th percentile or so."

  "But these kids are 90th percentile or even higher," I said.

  "Yes."

  "So we can cover the core material faster."

  "Yes. And these kids could be more driven to spend time, meaning they can shove more in. They will do the homework faster, too."

  "The state does not dictate how we teach the material, just that we teach the material?"

  "Right. If we were a public school, that would be different. But we're private."

  "All right," I said. "That's what I thought." I gave her a sheet of paper." This is what I am recommending for fulfilling the core requirements." I accelerated everything so that the kids were completing all their senior year requirements by some time in their junior year. Francesca looked it over. "This could be tighter."

  "Yes, for these kids. But I wanted to leave a little room."

  "All right."

  "Can you do something similar with the courses I'm not teaching?"

  "Yes."

  Then we discussed each of the students and what I was proposing. Francesca had good suggestions, including r
estructuring when I taught some of the classes so as to not be teaching a particular class to only one student.

  "All right," I said. "Do we present this to the parents individually or group?"

  "Pack play night is this Saturday," Francesca said. "Let's get them here in the afternoon and they can join us in the evening."

  * * * *

  During that time, I also worked my way through the ninth grade textbooks. I'd actually had to study some of the material. There were holes in what I knew. At lunch on Wednesday of the first week, I asked Francesca when I could take the math exam. She grilled me verbally for a few minutes. When we were done, she grinned. "You really did study."

  "Just a few chapters. It seems, I don't know. Stupid."

  She laughed. "Yeah, I know. But it helps some kids understand the material better, so the standard exam includes it. Why don't I invite my household for dinner tonight? You can take the exam while I'm cooking."

  I frowned. "All the kids will see me working on it. It will be difficult to hide what I'm doing. Unless you weren't serious about supervising me."

  "I'm sorry, no, I wasn't kidding about supervising you. But the kids already know about it."

  I sighed.

  "It isn't Angel's fault, and she came to me in tears about it. Sophia asked her mother why you pushed the alpha off the boat. Harper told her the gist. So Harper asked Angel if she knew anything about it, and she did it in front of all the other kids."

  "Angel shouldn't have been that upset," I said. "I'd asked her not to bring it up but told her to be honest if she had to say anything at all."

  Francesca nodded. "By the time they understood everything that was going on, according to Angel, Derek stood up and said, She is going through high school for us! No one better tease her about this. She is doing it for us."

  "So I guess it's okay if they see me taking the exam." I sighed, then smiled. "Francesca, thank you for this opportunity. I always wanted to go to high school. Do you think when I take my last senior year exam, I can attend the prom?"

  She laughed. "Yes. Bring a date. We always need chaperones."