by David Kersey
"Hi Bill, this is John Christianson."
"Hey there, haven't heard from you in a while," said Bill Brown, John's stockbroker.
"Been busy with this and that, but I have a question about my former company, the ACC."
"Sure thing John, what do you want to know?"
"Well, I'd like to know the closing price yesterday, the opening price today, the number of shares traded and if you see a pattern in the trading sequence. Is that too much to ask?"
"Piece of cake, hang on. John, it closed at 41, opened at 45.68, with 11 million shares traded and it just closed today at 50.23. Wow, that is quite a spike from its usual trading pattern. Whoa, John upticks were six times higher than downticks, and one market maker had only market orders for asking price, no lower bids. That's highly irregular, sir."
"In your opinion, was it an orchestrated bid up?"
"Looks that way, John. Appears the same buyer kept bidding it up."
"Have any idea who that buyer might be. Just wondering if a takeover is in the wind." John fibbed but he had other ways of finding out who was buying.
"No sir, no way for me to tell. I'll try to find out if you wish."
"No, but thank you Bill. Someday I'll come in there and give you a nice order, ok?"
"Look forward to that John. Good to hear from you."
The phone rang. "John, this is Sheriff Chip, I'm in your driveway."
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"Thanks for coming Sheriff, are you on duty, or would you like a drink?"
"On duty John. What brings me out this way?"
The two gentlemen sat in John's den. "First, I received a call from Murray at Homeland Security. The FDA has isolated a source of the cyclospora outbreak, found it in Mexico."
"I know about that John."
"Do you know that not far from the source they found thousands of decayed acacia Senegal logs?"
"Whoa, didn't know that. I can use that information to pry more out of my prisoners."
"Well, that's the good news, but I'm afraid I've got something distasteful to tell you. My former company, the ACC, is shipping hundreds of thousands of pesticide gallons to combat the threat."
"Isn't that good news?"
"At first blush it is. Chip, I think there may be collusion perhaps with our own government. I don't know who kept buying the stock today, but the price set an all-time high and at the same time the government is involved in a top secret mission. How would anyone know to buy the stock today but our own people?
Additionally, no other pesticide company's stock moved an inch today, which is normally the pattern of trading for ACC. That tells me that those competitors don't have the product to sell......all purchases are going through one source. Chip, ACC was under strict orders to share the formula with all pesticide companies once they got it right. You know what that means?"
"Uh, not really, what?"
"ACC doesn't have the capacity to handle a national crisis, Chip. If someone or more than one in our government is buying the stock, letting it run, then waiting to dump at a huge profit, it means the rest of the country that ACC can't supply goes without a solution during a crisis. I don't know how many laws are being broken, but racketeering and violation of interstate trade come to mind."
"Oh God, John. What do you think I should do?"
"Detective work, Chip. Find out who the buyer of the pesticides is. I wouldn't bring in the FBI if I were you until you know for sure. Keep in mind that there is another possibility."
"What would that be?"
"The buyer could be coming from an Iranian party, or other foreign interest, not someone in our government. You have the authority to examine ACC invoices, but I think I'd put that off and go through back channels for the time being. I think I'd step lightly, you never know how tight a situation you could find yourself in. ACC could be considered as being a contributing party to terrorism."
John was watching the Sheriff's SUV leave his driveway when his cell rang. It was the vet's number.