The Financial Terrorist

by John Gubert

  “There could be. But we’ll see.”

  It was at that moment that he saw the man. And he recognised him immediately. He was one of Di Maglio’s people. He was the one Maddy had attacked in the house near Geneva. He didn’t seem to realise that Charles had recognised him, or even noticed him. Charles eased Jacqui casually off the path and they headed across the grass. He could see the man out of the corner of his eye. There was now no doubt he was following them.

  “We’re being tracked by one of your father’s men. But he seems to be on his own. Yes. He’s definitely following us.”

  Jacqui frowned. “Unusual, they never use one man. Could he be here by chance?”

  “Do you believe in chance? He’s the man who Maddy beat up in Geneva. He could want revenge?”

  “My father would kill him if he acted freelance. Why would he want revenge on us? Surely, he’d try to take out Maddy?”

  “He’s approaching. Be careful. Watch for others.”

  The man approached. He now realised they had seen him. He kept his hands in view and walked slowly. He wanted to talk, or at least that was the impression that he was giving. But why would that be? Why did he want to talk to them?

  Charles reached inside his jacket. He was carrying a gun. He always did. Jacqui watched the man and Charles carefully. The man didn’t react. He made no attempt to draw a gun. If he tried now he would be dead. Was he alone or with someone else? He could be just a decoy to keep them occupied.

  Jacqui and Charles had worked together often. He kept his eye on the approaching man and she scoured the area beyond. Her hand was in her coat pocket. She would have a small gun in it.

  The man came closer. They watched him carefully. But this was a lousy place for any ambush. There was too wide a space between the trees and them. Juliet slept on. The man approached. He was about two or three yards from them.

  Charles called, “Stop. One step more and I shoot. If you have something to say to me say it now. There’s nobody around. You’ll not be overheard.”

  He stopped, “I have a deal. I still need to broker it to Carapli and Veranski, but that won’t be a problem.”

  They waited for him to continue.

  “We’ll buy out our side of the business. That’s the extortion and prostitution side. Your heart isn’t in it. We’ll pay top dollar.”

  “Talk to Miss Brown if you have any proposal. She’s your boss.”

  “You’re the boss.”

  “No. Maddy Brown is. And she’s not going to be pleased when she hears what you’ve done. Nor will Di Maglio be. Nor will your bosses, unless you are telling lies about broking the deal to them and they really sent you. So think up some excuses. And get out of here.”

  The man made to say something, but Charles brushed him aside. He would have liked to know who his associates were, but he had no doubt Maddy would find out. She was already running his area. He wondered what she’d do to him. Di Maglio would have had him killed and he’d have been right. Discipline was important. He wondered if Maddy would do the same. She should. He, somehow, felt that she wouldn’t have the stomach to make an example of him. He should help her. So he asked him if he was alone. He said he was and Charles felt he was most likely telling the truth.

  “Do you have a gun?”

  He looked surprised at the question but nodded.

  “Then come with me, I have a job for you.”

  Charles took him by the arm and led him away. They got to some trees. They were hidden from view. Charles allowed the man to get slightly ahead and then grabbed the gun that he had seen in outline in the man’s pocket. The man realised what was happening and struggled until the gun went off. The coat muffled the noise. The bullet passed downwards through his thigh and into his leg. At least he grabbed hold of his knee in agony as he fell sobbing to the ground.

  “Don’t try that stunt again. And remember it wasn’t that I am soft. That wasn’t why I didn’t kill you. The reason was quite simple. I didn’t want to take the risk of killing you here. I may have been caught. But, if I see you again without my permission or Maddy Brown’s, you’re dead. And tell your pals, the rackets are mine and the exit rules are the same as always.”

  The injured man groaned and grabbed his knee again. Charles laughed openly, “Remember one thing. I’ll put you on the list. You know what that means. If anything happens to me or to my family, you’ll be history.”

  With that Charles turned his back on him and walked away. But a few steps later, he spun round to see the man fumbling with his gun. He saw the finger as it eased onto the trigger and moved quickly towards Jacqui as he fired. In his pained and weakened state, the man missed by a mile. But Charles did not and the silencer on his gun made it almost soundless. The first bullet took the man in the chest and the second. He twitched and then lay still.

  Jacqui and he fussed with the pushchair. They woke Juliet and comforted her as she cried. The only noise had been from the man’s gun. Bystanders had looked in that direction to see where the gunshot came from and they now ran towards the man. Someone called out that he was a doctor. He was let through although they knew that it was too late. They made their way to the edge of the crowd and looked on. The doctor had a newspaper and covered the man’s face with it. It looked comical for it was a tabloid with a panicky headline about the latest crime figures.

  The police came across the lawn on motorbikes, sirens screaming. Some people hadn’t seen anyone, others imagined they had and described strangers to the police. Charles and Jacqui said nothing. Their names were taken and that was all. They wondered how long it would be before Delaney called. They knew he would and that would be the end of the story.

  He would understand why Charles had killed the man. He would understand, just as Jacqui did. And Di Maglio would approve. Ironically the man’s death would be a great help. Delaney would be aware of the murder and cover it up, he would understand the danger that Maddy would have been in if the man had not been taken out. That made it dangerous for him in the future, as he became a co-conspirator. And Di Maglio would be pleased; he would feel Charles was reacting with the brutality he would have used and would, therefore, feel he could trust him that bit more.

  They walked down to the road and called a cab. Jacqui shook her head, “One day we’ll get away from it all. It really stinks. I’ll be so pleased when we get rid of it.”

  “Then get our island. We need the clean air and the fresh breeze.”

  She nodded. She would do that. Somehow it was all getting closer. The scam was well underway. The bank results would be out in two months or so and then they would sell it to the public. There only remained their last big moves in the scam. And those were the most risky.

  Maddy would be fully in charge in a week’s time and then they would plan for the Empire’s limited future. But between then and now, there would be incidents. They would have to be far more ruthless than they had ever been before. For this time they could not afford any laxness. This was the prelude to the big game. Their lives were in play from now on.

  It took about an hour for Delaney to ring. “I am right that it was you? He was one of the Di Maglio team.”

  “Yes. The rot is starting already. He wanted to buy out the prostitution and extortion business. He needed to be treated as Di Maglio would have treated him. Otherwise, Maddy would have been at risk. They would have seen us as a soft target. I had to take him out. I was unsure if she could.”

  “Wouldn’t Di Maglio have organised that?” queried Delaney.

  “He would only have done it if Maddy failed. But it still would have weakened her. And I couldn’t afford that.”

  “I thought you did it for Maddy?” he responded.

  “Our needs happen to be the same. I only do things like this when it’s imperative.”

  “How often have you killed, Charles?”

  “Commander, I doubt as often as you. Perhaps I’ve killed just this once. Perhaps it’s more than once. W
ho knows? And who cares? But I want to stop the risk of killing again. That’s part of what this is about.”

  He phoned Maddy in New York, “You know the little shit you beat up in Geneva. He’s dead. He got shot in Hyde Park of all places. They are dangerous things parks these days. He wanted us to sell the extortion and prostitution side.

  He had partners. Find out who they are and warn them that you’ll finish them off if they even think about it in the future. And warn them quickly. Get to them before they know of the shooting. Ask who’s closest to our pal in the park. And then tell him to organise the funeral service. Carry a gun. You may need it in self defence. So cover your back as well. Tell me what happened.”

  “You killed him for me?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

  “Be careful Maddy. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “I’ll be careful. Don’t worry.”

  He knew she would check out with Delaney but he would only give the same message. So he calmly went back to their Christmas routine and watched a video with Juliet and Jacqui. As they watched the Disney film and heard the excited laughter of Juliet, he longed for the end game. He wanted to be with his family. He knew that it was now unlikely that he would be able to spend another five full days with them until the whole business was over. But then they would have their freedom.

  The phone rang. It was Maddy. She sounded strained. “I did what you said. He had a brother. He drew a gun on me and I killed him. Then there was silence. All the men looked at me. They hate me.”

  “Good. That means you scare them. That’s how it’s got to be, Maddy. The more they smile, the more dangerous it is. Watch Di Maglio. They hate him too. Not one of them loves the bastard. Mind you, he doesn’t love them either. But they do as he says. And they wouldn’t harm him. They know the price of disobedience, and you’ve shown that you intend to continue the penalties. That’ll give you the power to run things your way.”

  She was still upset. He could hear it in her voice. “I know how to kill. But I never have before.”

  “Maddy, it was you or them. This is a dirty game. But the end justifies it. Pull yourself together and keep vigilant. Oh and tell Di Maglio what has happened and ask him to pass the same message onto the drugs arm.”

  “When should I do that?”

  “Do it now. It’s not Sunday. Mind you, Di Maglio doesn’t exactly belong to the keep Sunday sacred brigade.”

  She laughed and he knew that she had recovered. The voice was then firmer. The joke, banal as it was, had broken the spell.

  “I’ll do it now.”

  “Good. Be careful, Maddy.”

  He rang off and waited for the next call. Di Maglio would get his people together for an incident like this. And he would also call him first. Sure enough the phone rang.

  “You killed the fucker. Have you sorted it out at your end?”

  “There was nothing to sort out. I left my name with the police. There were no witnesses. The killer disappeared into thin air. I look innocent. So does Jacqui. And we were with Juliet. She was asleep in her pushchair.”

  “You did well. It’ll be a lesson.”

  “And Maddy killed the brother. That’ll show she means discipline as well.”

  “Yeah, she did OK. Mind you I’d have preferred her to shoot as a punishment rather than in self defence. When she does that, I’ll believe she’s as good as you say.”

  “Happy Christmas,” said Charles as he rang off, thinking uncharitably ‘And may you rot in hell.’

  The New Year came and went. January came and went. The auditors were hard at work on both sides of the Atlantic. They would publish results soon and their books were being vetted. Charles knew their profits would easily exceed a billion dollars. He also knew how much of that was phoney. But he had reckoned that they could produce a forecast of well over one and a half billion dollars for the next year ahead of the sale to the public. And the market was still going wild on bank shares and IBE was outperforming them all. The fact was that the scam was getting bigger and more profitable by the day.

  It was on a cold wet, windy Sunday in February that they all sat down and once again reviewed their progress. They were not sitting in the same room as on that Sunday so many months ago. They were in a secret location in Liechtenstein, the little princedom stuck between Austria and Switzerland. They had some companies registered there, its rigid secrecy laws were like manna from heaven for them.

  The location may have been different but the group was almost identical. There was Maria, Jack Ryder, Giovanni, Jacqui and Charles. Di Maglio had been invited but had declined. Stephens was presumably still reclining in the deep waters of the English Channel.

  Charles banged on the table to draw their attention. “Gentlemen, ladies, I thought it important to run through where we are and also to tell you how we plan to progress. The good news is that all is running smoothly. And it’s going better than we expected. Jack Ryder will give you details of where we are on our stock market and other dealings”

  His father smiled broadly, “We have done better than I ever anticipated. We estimate we will make five point two billion on the investments we sold to the US funds. I have to say your sales people in the US were incredible; mind you so were the sales commissions you paid them. They had no qualms, any that they had were bought out by our generosity. They would have sold any junk we created for them.

  We’ve stopped creating fake investments now, although we are still manipulating share prices. So the profit has stopped from this activity.”

  Our trading positions show a profit of just over two point eight billion; that’s for us and not the bank by the way. We’ve slowed down there since Stephens left. It was getting difficult to push out too much more as there is always a risk that some bright young business graduate works it all out.” He knew that was not quite true, they had actually made much more than this. They had skimmed off a large portion of the profit on the later deals for themselves.

  Charles then talked of the loans they had written for the bank, “The loan position is going fantastically and we look as if we are going to make around five billion from that source. All that money has now been banked, obviously not with IBE!” Charles did not mention that he was about to complete the process with a jumbo loan. This would go to a Di Maglio company and would reach them by way of a Di Maglio bank account. That loan would look like an in-house fraud by one of the known Di Maglio henchmen at the bank. That would bring yet more pressure on his father in law.

  “That means we make around thirteen billion before the proceeds from selling off the bank to the public. And on the estimate of the bank’s value, Jacqui has some good news”

  “Indeed,” said Jacqui. “I have been talking to our advisors and things have improved for us even further. On the basis of the rating the analysts expect for us now, especially given our apparent growth rate, we should have a market value of around fifteen billion.

  We should also be able to reduce our stake further than originally planned. There are loads of so called ethical investors in the market these days. They want us to show we will not control the voting in the company meetings after we sell down to the public. We therefore need to sell about three quarters of the bank to satisfy them. That’s no hardship as the rest is not going to be worth much once we’ve finished!

  If I am right the share sale will personally gross us around eleven billion net of the exorbitant fees of our advisors. That, of course, is not of interest to most of you. But I want to be open about all our operations.”

  Jack Ryder interrupted her. “If you feel there are strange things happening to our shares after the sale to the public, you will be right as we plan to manipulate them.”

  He believed that they could make around a billion by this but saw no reason to admit it. He continued, “We shouldn’t lose money on this exercise although it will be almost impossible to make anything. The aim is
to hold up the price and help it rise; it would be dangerous if it lost ground in the very early days. Nobody else must touch the shares, for that would be too dangerous. Quite bluntly, we know how to keep insider dealing under wraps and you do not.”

  “The total profit from the scam so far is the thirteen billion I mentioned earlier,” added Charles. “That gives a pot to share of one point three billion. It goes four ways, as agreed, and that means three hundred odd million for each of you. I hope you like that, Maria, and you too, Giovanni. Welcome to the world of the super rich.”

  Charles stopped. They all smiled at the news. After all it was twice as much as they had expected in their wildest dreams.

  Charles’ take, with that of his parents and Jacqui, was around twenty billion before allowing for the three billion or so they had creamed off the profit and the expected billion they would make on insider dealing. They would have a family fortune of close to thirty billion dollars. Even if they just deposited the money, and there were better ways of dealing with it than that, they would make megabucks every minute of each day of the year. A pleasant thought.

  They still also expected that they would sell the rump of IBE and, all the time, their other fund operations continued to make money, especially with all the opportunities they had for insider trading. They were well on track to being some of the wealthiest people on earth.

  Charles, though, had to consider other things beyond the bank and those meant that they were still at risk. Everywhere they went now, they had guards. And those guards were armed and ready, hopefully ready enough.

  From the plane he talked to Maddy, who reported all was going smoothly. The business was continuing to produce about four hundred million a month before expenses and around two hundred after them. Charles was amazed at how little the drugs cost to produce and prepare. It was the bribes to the authorities that really cost money. That web of corruption swept across government and law. It took in police and the judiciary as well as customs and border police. It included local and national figures, too. Indeed, some were even users.