5

For seven long days and even longer nights, they did not hear a word from Jack Wiley. He ignored them completely.

But he was anything but ignored by them.

On day four, the gang at TFAC, CG’s contract security outfit, eavesdropped on an incoming call to Jack’s house phone. The call came at eight in the evening. The caller vaguely identified himself as Tom. No last name, just Tom.

There was a moment of empty pleasantries before Tom came to the point. “I just want to clarify our offer,” he told Jack, never quite identifying what firm he represented. “We’d really like to get a deal nailed down.”

“Make it better than what I heard this morning and we might,” Jack answered a little coolly. “Three of your competitors are offering more. Considerably more,” he emphasized, sounding like a man who was holding more offers than he could count. “You’re the bottom of the barrel, Tom. Step it up a notch, or this is a farewell call.”

A long, awkward pause. “How did you enjoy Bermuda?”

“It was nice, thanks.”

“Nice, Jack? Jesus, that was our five-star treatment. The private jet, that glorious estate on the beach, the boat, the big party.”

“I told you, it was nice.”

“We spared no expense, Jack. The CEO and half the board flew in to meet you. You looked like you were having a ball.”

“Okay, Tom, it was very nice.”

A brief pause, then trying to sound more upbeat, “I spoke with the CEO and board this morning. They want this deal.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“They want it very badly, Jack,” Tom said. “They like you, and they love the product. I’ve never seen them this excited.”

“Good. Now remind them how to spell ‘excited’-twenty percent ownership for me. Not a percent less.”

“Jack, Jack, don’t be greedy or nearsighted. Focus on how quickly we can bring the product to market. How much we can sell. How many doors we can kick open. We’re big and powerful, and we’re prepared to make you a very rich man.”

“I’d rather be greedy, Tom. In fact, it’s fun.”

“Then focus on our resources and reach. We didn’t get this big by thinking small.”

“Give it a break. A firm of idiots will have the polymer on the market inside a month. You know that, and so do I. The product sells itself. I’ll say it again: twenty percent. Are you listening, Tom?”

“Look, Jack, you’re putting me between the rock and hard place. Left up to me… hell, you’d have it, the full twenty percent.”

“But…?”

“Well, sadly, the board just doesn’t believe your part’s worth that much.”

“So now we’re down to good cop, bad cop. Don’t patronize me, Tom.”

“Look, it’s-”

“No, you look. My role’s worth whatever I say it is. I’ll make some other company a boatload of money, and you’ll stand on the sideline and watch.”

“All right, all right.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Give me time to canvass them again.”

“Fine. Call me at ten tomorrow morning, at the office. Unless your board doesn’t meet my demands, then don’t bother.”

“Jesus, Jack, that’s impossible. It’s after eight. There are twelve board members, mostly old men. They need their sleep.”

“What makes you think I care? This is what you pay them for. After ten, I won’t be taking calls from you.”

Bellweather and Walters listened to the tape with growing horror. By the sound of it, Wiley was rolling in offers, pitting at least four companies against one another and having a ball. A bidding war, and a rather brutal one, plain and simple. And Jack, holding all the cards, was clearly going for the kneecaps.

“Why hasn’t he called us back?” Walters groaned. The past week he had been miserable to live with. His mood alternated between despair and rage, favoring the latter. He banged around the office bullying everyone in range. He’d fired an assistant, screamed at the head of the LBO section, and broken two phones after flinging them against a wall.

None of it made him feel the least bit better.

“Settle down, Mitch. He’ll call,” Bellweather, the older sage, assured him. It wasn’t his tail on the line, after all; he could afford to stay cool and unruffled.

“What’s he waiting for?”

“What would you do in his shoes?”

“I don’t know. I’d want to have the best offer in my pocket, I guess.”

“So there’s your answer.”

Walters loosened his tie and fell back in his chair. “He’s a real smart boy.”

“We already knew that.”

“Yeah, but it’s not nice to see it in action.”

Bellweather moved across the office and leaned casually against his old desk, the same desk shaped like an aircraft carrier, now manned by Walters’s rather ample rear end. “Give him two more days,” the old man said, looking and sounding quite sure of himself.

“And then?”

“Then we’ll make him call. Then we’ll order our friends over at TFAC pull out the stops and turn up the heat. What is it this time?”

“Five pounds of marijuana, planted in his garage.”

“Nice.”

“We debated whether to use the dope scheme or the child porno scam. I opted for the dope. Fits his profile better, I think.”

Bellweather grinned his approval. “So in another two days he gets a nasty little visit by our friends at TFAC. The usual routine.”

Walters bit back a smile and nodded: the “routine” nearly always worked like a charm. Four of five times, the targets had collapsed like bowling pins. The more they had to lose, the faster they dropped-and Jack had a great deal to lose. Oh yes, it was a perfect little trap.

They avoided each other’s eyes a moment, and both dreamed of how it would go down.

As easily with Jack as it had with the others, both men were sure. A few of the TFAC boys would arrive at Jack’s doorstep, late at night, unannounced and unexpected. Out would come the authentic-looking search warrant and genuine DEA identifications. They would show up dressed as undercover cowboys: unmarked cars, shabby clothes, cute ponytails, earrings, tattoos, the whole nine yards. Before Jack could stop them or call his lawyer, they would push their way inside, he would be shoved up against the wall, patted down, and slapped in cuffs. Next a hurried search that would finish up, inevitably, in Jack’s garage. “Hey, looky-looky what I found,” one of the phony agents would declare, gleefully holding up five pounds of high-octane Mary Jane. “My goodness, Jack here’s been a naughty boy.”

Jack would be understandably shocked; he would rail and scream, protest his innocence, the whole act-that he was legitimately innocent would only add to the fun. But he would eventually grow tired of being ignored, shut up, and insist on a lawyer.

Once Jack brought the “lawyer” word into the discussion the TFAC boys would retreat into a quick whispering huddle. Eventually, one would approach him and, with a knowing grin, initiate a hard-edged, intimate conversation. From a “tip” they knew Jack was a big-time peddler, a two-bit pusher in a fancy suit. All that money, and yet, for whatever perverse reason-perhaps thrills, perhaps to act young and hip-he had chosen an unhealthy little sideline.

And five pounds of marijuana shoved him clearly beyond the legally mild user gallery, into the far more dangerous territory of big-time distributor.

Ten years was the max. Five was the usual, especially for first-timers, but who knew how the judge or jury felt that day. Rich boys don’t elicit much sympathy or mercy.

The case was ironclad-two reliable informers had fingered him. Both swore they had bought from him on multiple occasions. They testified to the quality of his “supremo shit”-the Juan Valdez of the dope business, they called him. They identified him by name, knew his address, and described him and his house to a tee.

Plus, DEA now had the goods. Incontrovertible evidence. Five pounds of it, high-grade stuff packed in a nice big sack located in his garage. Oh, you’re going down hard, Jack.