Gardener: The Roots Of Ancient Evil (12 page)

              “Hello, my name is Tom Ricker, calling for Mr. Prieto,” Tommy said as professionally as he could. He’d purposely taken lunch just so he could make this call.

              “May I ask what this is pertaining to?” his assistant asked. Tommy didn’t recognize the voice.

              “He contacted me before about a certain matter, and I’d rather only discuss this with him. If he’s not available, just let him know I called, and that I have some more information,” Tommy said.

              “Yes sir, I’ll let him know,” she said.

Tommy picked up the menu, wondering what he was getting himself into. Prieto was interested in some guy that was a favorite of the conspiracy crowd. While there was a lot of truth to the stories of the famous Rothschilds, they weren’t much more than one successful banker who happened to have five sons, all of whom became equally successful bankers. That they realized this and took advantage of it was really nothing more than a combination of shrewd business skills and good parenting. If one was a successful pitcher, and you happened to have five sons who were all equally successful pitchers for five different major league baseball teams, would that mean that there was some kind of pitching conspiracy in baseball?

Tommy chuckled, knowing that most conspiracy theories were mostly to fill in the gap of very powerful people simply taking pains to maintain their privacy. Although it would be kind of cool if Shea really was from an ultra-powerful and wealthy European family, and that he would be so impressed with Tommy’s work he’d adopt him and bring him into the family, including all their secret wealth and power. Tommy’s cell phone rang, surprising him and bringing him back to the reality of needing to decide what to eat for lunch.

              “Yes?” he answered, not recognizing the number.

              “Mr. Ricker, this is Mr. Prieto returning your call,” he said.

Tommy sat up and quietly waved the approaching waitress away. “Yes, Mr. Prieto, I’m surprised you called back so soon,” Tommy said, realizing he hadn’t really thought of a specific thing to tell Mr. Prieto, or rather how to tell him what he wanted to tell him.

              “You said you had some information?” he asked.

              “Yes, I had a colleague do some research on both you and Mr. Shea, and to be perfectly blunt, I don’t want to proceed any further unless I know precisely what it is you’re after,” Tommy said, hoping Prieto wouldn’t be upset.

              “Are you still employed by Mr. Shea?”

              “I am.”

              “Have you developed any loyalty to Mr. Shea, or are you calling on his behalf?” Prieto asked, surprising Tommy.

              “No, what do you mean by that, exactly?”

              “To tell you the truth, I don’t know very much about Mr. Shea at all, and I’m interested in him for more personal reasons,” he explained.

Tommy decided to take a huge gamble. “Well, I don’t feel comfortable digging for any information for only potential remuneration; in fact, unless there is a specific reason that you’d like me to continue to find information on Mr. Shea without any more specificity, I have no other choice but to terminate our relationship. Unless, of course, you would like me to end my relationship with Mr. Shea and establish a relationship with you in that regard.”

Tommy’s heart rate significantly increased as he spoke. He’d just offered a “take it or leave it” business deal to one of the richest men in America, playing his current relationship with one of the richest families in Europe as leverage. He waited, and was surprised when Mr. Prieto continued to speak instead of hanging up.

              “I understand your predicament. Are you open to a face-to-face meeting?” he asked.

Tommy’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. “Um, yes, I suppose that would be OK, however, I am not really in a position to do any traveling,” he managed to reply.

              “That’s fine. I’ll come to you. You’re in Colorado Springs?”

              “That’s correct.”

              “I can be there tomorrow, I’ll let you know when I’m settled in, and we can figure things out from there. Is that acceptable?” he asked.

              “Yes, yes, that would be fine,” Tommy said. After he set the phone down, he could barely contain himself. He’d just had a conversation with a self-made billionaire and he actually felt he’d had the upper hand. And now he was coming to see him. He would definitely give Marco a call and get his input. And if Marco could swing it he’d definitely like him to be present at his face-to-face meeting with Prieto. Tommy signaled the waitress and picked up the menu, giving him seconds to choose.

              “I’ll have the Cobb salad,” Tommy said, smiling to himself. After she left, he sent a text to Marco to make sure he would be free, and relatively sober, for their Skype meeting later this evening.

Then he began to get a little bit worried. If Shea was really some secret European power broker, what would his response be to his meeting with Prieto? One of the things Tommy had learned in business school about the Rothschilds was that one of the main reasons they were so financially astute, able to take advantage of global economic events, was that their information network was vastly more advanced than any others at the time, including the major world governments.

Tommy briefly glanced down as his phone, wondering if Shea was recording his every conversation. He shrugged that off as ridiculous. Old families were rich simply because they kept it in the family. If one would simply leave a few thousand in the bank, it would double every ten years or so, based on interest rates. But if a family kept passing their wealth down from generation to generation, it would never stop doubling.

Tommy opened his spreadsheet program, and imagined if Shea’s ancestors started with only a thousand dollars in today’s money. In just three hundred years, if the original money was simply invested conservatively so it doubled every ten years, in three hundred years, one thousand dollars would turn into over a trillion dollars.

Tommy sat back, amazed. He’d known about the magic of compound interest, but he’d never calculated how much it would grow if one just kept it in the family. Tommy recalled some of the complicated laws various governments had had over time regarding wealth transfer. Perhaps that was the reason the Shea family had kept so secretive. By staying behind the scenes as much as possible, they were simply protecting their family fortune from greedy governments that tended to always go broke over time.

Tommy’s salad came and he began eating slowly, thoughtfully. Maybe Shea was just a super-rich guy who wanted it kept secret. That would explain why he was in no hurry to acquire all that property. If you had a trillion dollars lying around, you wouldn’t be in any hurry to buy up a whole neighborhood. On the contrary; if you bought all of the houses at once, it might invite unwanted attention. Tommy opened up a text file on his laptop and wrote down all his thoughts, intending to bring them up with Marco tonight. He was in the middle of typing when his cell buzzed. Number unrecognized.

              “Yeah?” Tommy answered.

              “Mr. Ricker, Jamie Drake here, got some information for you.”

Tommy sat up, his mood and thoughts immediately shifting. Drake was the PI he’d decided on. He’d given him only the website and Laney’s access information to work with.

              “Yes, go ahead,” Tommy said.

              “Well, we ran all the basic hacks on the account info we got, which was used by the individual who contacted Ms. Berg, and it appears there were some sophisticated encryption programs used to hide the identity. But we also found some information from her emails regarding some gifts that were sent, as well as the tuition that was paid, and by running an advanced algorithm on all the different accounts at once, we may be able to narrow things down a bit. We haven’t gotten anything solid, but I just wanted to let you know we are making progress. My guy, my hacker, he says he’s confident that within another week, we’ll be a lot closer,” Drake explained.

              “What’s the likelihood of getting an actual piece of information we can provide to the authorities?” Tommy asked.

              “Well, my guy is fairly confident we’ll have some solid info on an identity, but it may not be within the United States. Meaning this guy may be operating internationally, or he might be part of some group. I’m saying it’s very likely we’ll find out who it is, but it’s also a possibility that the authorities might not be able to do anything about this,” he said.             

              “I see, well, I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Keep looking, please,” Tommy said.

              Tommy was back at his desk, busily poring over the names and financial records of the members of the community. He wanted to do some more research into the angle Marco had suggested, of buying several of the city’s bonds from the developers. His plan was to see if anything like this had been done before, and if so, under what parameters. Then he would likely hire a real estate attorney as a consultant before making any official offers to the city. The neighborhood was bound by certain restrictions of their homeowner’s association, but the rules didn’t appear to be legally binding. He was finding many cases where the rules stipulated by the homeowner’s contract had eventually been overruled by a higher court in favor of city ordinances. It was certainly a tricky situation, one he fully intended to wade into slowly. He glanced up, surprised that Mr. Shea was approaching the outside glass door to his still empty office. He walked in and stopped short.

              “Mr. Ricker, how goes the acquisitions?” Shea asked. He looked around. “You are eventually going to hire some support staff, yes?”
              “Yes, I was just going through a list of consults I might need to bring on board. I was thinking of doing some kind of bond deal with the city, to give us some leverage, and the laws on that seem to be particularly tricky, we definitely need some legal assistance,” Tommy said.

“I was out walking the grounds, just thought I’d pop in, not checking up on you or anything,” he said. “Although, if I can give you some advice, avoid hiring particularly attractive support staff. It may seem like a good idea, but they just end up being a distraction for everybody involved. Trust me, I know from experience!” Shea said, enjoying a laugh. Tommy laughed as well.

              “Say, Mr. Shea, I had a concern, and I wondered what your opinion was on the subject,” he said.

              “Shoot,” Shea said, facing Tommy, hands in his pockets.

              “Say I purchase a couple of properties above market value. People start talking, rumors get started, and there’s a sudden very small housing bubble, which may attract other investors,” Tommy said.

Shea nodded, grinning. “That, Mr. Ricker, is a problem people have faced for a long time. You want to corner a market, which is essentially what we are doing, in a very local way, but you don’t want to alert anybody that you’re doing it,” he explained.

              “Yeah, I see,” Tommy said, realizing that. It frequently happened in commodity markets, where certain players tried to buy a large enough percentage of the available commodity that they could effectively move the prices at will. They always ended in failure. “That’s why you want to go slowly. Maybe one per quarter, maximum,” Tommy said.

              “Exactly. In times past when we’ve done things like this, it’s helpful to set up shell corporations through which to buy the properties. You’ve set those up before?” Shea asked.

              “No, I haven’t, but I’m familiar with how they work. I suppose that’s another reason to bring a capable attorney on board,” Tommy said, nodding.

              “Now you’re thinking. Remember, slower is better. Take your time, make a move, step back, watch what happens, and slowly plan your next move,” Shea advised. “Always think long term, you’ll never fail,” he added. “I’ll leave you to it.” He gave Tommy a nod and wandered back outside.

Tommy sat, allowing himself to daydream. Would it be possible to slowly grow a large real estate empire under Shea’s tutelage?

              “Max, when you have a moment, I’d like to speak with you, face to face,” Shea said into the speakerphone.

              “Yes sir, I’ll be there momentarily,” Max said immediately. Whenever Shea wanted to speak in person, it meant he was going to receive a very special assignment. One that Shea required he understand the first time, as it would never be spoken of again, and that would almost always require various illegal activities. This was Max’s forte. Give him a complicated plan with a specific outcome, and leave the details up to him. Max loved working alone, he loved thinking outside the box, and he relished acting outside the law.

              Shea smiled when Max came in, waiting for him to close the door behind him. Shea had installed a state of the art anti-recording device and anti-transmission device. Any kind of recording equipment or transmitting equipment would be scrambled. He suspected Max suspected. One of the reasons he had hired Max was that he never needed to write anything down.

              “Here’s what I’m thinking,” Shea began. “I’d like to acquire GenSpan completely, within the next five years. Whether you buy the shares from the other investors privately or publicly is up to you, and how you do that is up to you. However, before that takes place, I’d like to have Ms. Berg replaced. Ideally, you’d find a suitable student of genetic research that is in the process of getting a PhD. You’d contact them, and take the next year or two grooming them to be completely loyal. How you do that is up to you,” Shea said. Max nodded. “I want all research that is done in that facility, which will very soon be the most state of the art in the world, to be owned solely by us. I want us to not only own all research, all patents, and all scientific breakthroughs controlled by GenSpan, but I want to direct it as well. I’ve done a little bit of research on this and I believe that genetic research is going to lead to the next evolution in human thinking and understanding. I want it to be controlled and directed by Shea Industries,” he said.

Max nodded. “Time frame for the replacement?” he asked.

              “Find one and start grooming them. No less than one year’s time. Once he or she has proven their loyalty, as well as their research skills and academic record, you will install them into GenSpan after having removed Ms. Berg.”

              “And for Ms. Berg’s removal?” Max asked.

              “As you see fit, but with extreme prejudice,” Shea said. Max nodded.

              “And if there are any developments in her relationship with Mr. Ricker?” Max asked.

              “I think I can control Mr. Ricker. In fact, if it’s possible, wait until their relationship is sufficiently solidified, by marriage if possible, before liquidating Ms. Berg. Perhaps then Mr. Ricker, the grieving widower, will throw himself into his work. He may prove to be much more aggressive. Real estate does require a certain amount of ruthlessness,” Shea said, smiling.