Infinite Exposure (23 page)

Vladimir heard the distinct sound of a soda can being opened and someone swallowing.

“How much are you looking to transfer?”

“I won't have an exact number until later this morning. Need to do lots of small transfers to avoid suspicion. I'd like to
put about half a billion in play if I can.”

“There is no way to do that through a personal account. Even through a dozen personal accounts. This would have to go through
one of my contacts back home that has an investment firm like yours. I could only handle about $5 million spread across 4
accounts.”

“What kind of margin would your contact be looking to make?”

“This wouldn't be the kind of contact you could sue if they tried to hang onto the money.”

“I pretty much figured that given the life you lead or at least used to lead. I was hoping you were set up to handle it yourself.
Played correctly, we could be looking at a return of over $20 per share in less than 6 weeks.”

“How certain is this Lenny?”

“Certain enough I can't risk making the play here. I've made too much this year to remain below radar much longer. I have
one off-shore company I set up to do plays like this, but there is a possibility it could be tied back to me. I will have
to keep the play there rather small. Two to three million shares tops.”

“Do you still have a passport?”

“Yes, why?”

“Will you have this phone with you a few hours from now?”

“Yes, but why are you asking about a passport?”

“I will run this past my contact. If he is up for it he will want to meet you face to face and hash out the terms. When you
get to the office in the morning, call your travel agent and have them arrange a business trip to Nuremberg, Germany. Have
them book you a suite at the Maritim Hotel in Nuremberg.”

“Why am I booking the travel before you know they are interested?”

“You will have to get a 1-3 day business trip visa so best to slam it through a travel agent. They will need the morning to
push it through to get you on a flight out tomorrow. Above all, don't lie at customs. Tell them you are here on business to
talk with another investment firm. Be sure to have your business cards with you and that your company pays for the flight.”

“They will probably want more of a cut than you are willing to pay unless you have more than this play for them to run with.
If I still know you this is one of a series of plays you have orchestrated, but they have become too successful so now you
need to spread the income around to avoid going to prison, correct?”

“Nice to hear from you again, too, Vlad,” Lenny laughed into the phone.

Vladimir laughed as well. “Bring some company letterhead with you so you can print up some kind of letter of intent for exchange
of business analysis information. Nothing binding, just something which can be signed and placed on file in case there is
some issue later with the authorities.”

“This won't be a German firm will it?”

“Goodness no! That would be too risky ... well, too risky on such short notice. Bah! Couldn't risk going through the German
legal system. Don't worry, the company will be Russian. The courts there are too busy prosecuting murderers and drug dealers
to bother with people who made money in the American stock market.”

“See you soon then.”

“Looks like.”

A few short hours later, Lenny arrived at the office and sent an email to the travel agency his company used. He retrieved
his passport from his personal office safe and put it in his briefcase. While he had the thing open he went out to the receptionist
desk and got some company letterhead and put it in a big manila envelope to protect it.

With that out of the way he began checking the cash position of the company. There was over $500 million cash on hand in the
general fund after last night's clearing. The various other accounts had lots of cash as well.

Jeremy arrived while Lenny was still going through the cash positions.

“You're in early,” he said as he walked into Lenny's office.

“Glad you are here!” said Lenny. “I'm going to be flying to Germany later today to meet my cousin and someone who can help
us.”

Lenny opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out some legal forms, then handed them to Jeremy. “We need to go to the bank
and get these forms taken care of as soon as possible. The manager usually gets in around 8:30. Call over there and make an
appointment for us.”

“What is this about?”

“I will be in Germany closing the deal, so I will need to authorize you to sign for the wire transfer. We will have to get
these forms signed and notarized there this morning, and they will have to get a user ID, password, and authorization code
for you. Our bank won't let this kind of transfer go out without an authorized signature.”

“I already have an account to do transfers, I do them all of the time.”

“That account has a $100K limit. We will be sending $500 million out to be put into play. I'm assuming our new business partner
will need the transfer to complete before I leave. If you haven't guessed, yes, I heard from my cousin and the play is too
big for any of his accounts. He has contacts at a firm much like this one in Russia. To make it all legal like we will issue
a letter of intent to invest in their company and let them put money to work for us.”

“We aren't going to handle the play through our off-shore company?”

“A small portion of it yes. The other accounts will all make small plays as well. I hate to admit it, but that Ivy League
boy was correct.”

“Which one?”

“There's a difference?”

Both men laughed.

“When he said this play was too big to avoid scrutiny, he was correct. A Russian investment firm making a big play is outside
of the reach of the SEC. We will get a much smaller return, how much smaller I do not know yet, but we will avoid prison and
trial. I'm still worried about the off-shore company we set up. The lawyer who did it was a putz. I honestly believe he got
a job there because he was someone's brother-in-law.”

Jeremy laughed.

“I'm serious!” Lenny said, still bustling around gathering things up.

“Perhaps your cousin knows a reliable Russian lawyer who can set us up a corporation in a country without a U.S. extradition
treaty.”

That stopped Lenny in his tracks. “I hadn't thought about that. You know, this new investment firm might be able to do it
for us as part of the deal. It will give them a clean place to park our money.”

“I just hope they have better lawyers than we had doing it,” said Jeremy.

“Isn't that the truth! I still cannot believe I let him do it.”

“Well, I had best go call the bank.”

“Yes, yes, off with you now.”

Critical Momentum

The team in India had located both the trainer and the recent trainee. They lived in the same housing complex built by some
American company or its off-shore wing. They found a building which was suitable to use for headquarters, but not for interrogation
purposes. Some members were looking around for an abandoned shed out in the country. The problem was housing in the city was
so abysmal that people who didn't have money were going out into the country side and pretty much stealing the materials of
any building that didn't have someone there defending it.

Even though the team was told to observe from a distance, they tailed both men to find out where they worked. It turned out
that the trainer worked at a newly built data center which seemed to be hiring a lot of people at very low wages. That was
about to change though because the workers voted to unionize.

The person running the new email hub worked at a call center a little farther away. How either of them was paying rent here
given what their companies paid for wages should have been indication enough they were working a side job. You cannot make
$200 per month and pay $300 per month in rent.

Since the man in the suit was still back at the old Pakistani headquarters, they decided to take matters into their own hands.
Two members had fake backgrounds generated for them. One applied for a job at the call center and the other applied at the
data center. The person at the data center was told the company was not going to be hiring until they had hammered out a deal
with the union. Could be a day, might be a month, may not happen at all.

The rest of the team was beginning to worry about the member who applied at the call center. He had been gone 14 hours without
reporting in. Finally he showed up at headquarters and said he was headed back to his apartment for sleep. He was hired and
started that day. He was working on the same floor as the suspect and only a few aisles away from him. The team had dipped
into the operational fund to set several members up with their own apartments in the same complex as the two suspects.

Three members shared an apartment, which allowed them to observe the entry to both suspects' apartments. One of the apartments
they had gotten for a member just happened to be directly above the apartment where the new email hub was running. They obtained
some tools and equipment to install both video and audio surveillance in the apartment below. Because this person was also
now a coworker of that man, they had to hide the wiring and recording equipment. This meant they actually had to put the carpet
back down and the cable under it once they had drilled through the floor and tapped into the overhead lights of both the living
room and the second bedroom where the computer was.

While the team was checking out the video equipment, they noticed the man actually had a land line phone in his apartment.
This was quite unheard of in India. They cobbled together an extension cord, an AC regulator, and a gator clip; then accessed
the main phone panel for the building. Only four phones had actually been hooked up. They didn't want to risk a tap being
discovered at the site, so they went to work with the AC regulator while one team member stayed inside on a cell phone watching
the surveillance equipment. On their third try, they found the phone line.

Most phone systems had been based on the American standard of TIP and RING. A land line phone actually only uses two wires.
The TIP is always positive and the RING is rather odd. When the ringer on the phone is idle, this line has -48 volts DC. To
make the phone ring 90 volts of 20hz AC current is superimposed on the line. To find out which phone line went to this apartment,
they simply put the correct current on the ring line for a second and waited for a report on the cell phone. When the person
observing the surveillance equipment heard the phone ring, he reported it.

As the men returned to the apartment one of them asked the man who built the ring generator, “Why are the lines called TIP
and RING?”

“They are names which stuck around long past their usefulness.”

“You sure you're not an MBA, because you gave me a response, not an answer and that is exactly what they do.”

“Have you ever seen old black and white photos or newsreel footage, on the History Channel or any other place, of women wearing
these big headsets sitting at a funky table with a lot of cables sticking up, and a big board to plug them into in front of
them? The old telephone operator footage?”

“Yes, so?”

“Each one of those retractable cables had a special pointed connector on it, much like the connectors you see for AC adapters
to power 12-volt or lower DC equipment, only much larger. Inside of the cable was two wires. One wire went to the tip of the
connector and another wire was connected to one of the rings on the larger part of the connector. You've noticed how some
of those pointed adapters have those ridges going around them haven't you?”

“Yes, but I thought it was just to keep them in place.”

“In part it is, but it also makes for a different connection point. That is why they have different colorings. At any rate,
most telephones still use two wires and most people still call those wires TIP and RING.”

With all of the prep work done, the team set in for a long boring surveillance routine. At least now they were doing it from
an apartment where they could keep food in the fridge and easily use the bathroom. They had heard what a team was going to
have to do to observe the new email hub in Pakistan. None of them wanted any part of that duty. Oh, it wasn't just the lying
in the sun under desert temperatures, the bug bites, scorpions, and having to shit in your own den to keep from making any
more footprints — it was the region itself. There was no telling when a drug caravan would come along and kill you simply
because you were there.

At last they wrote up a summary of their work and all current information they had on the two suspects. The summary was attached
to an email which was sent to both Hans and the man in the suit.

***

Stacie returned home to her roomies after nearly a month in France. To some it sounds really nice to say it out loud, but
Stacie didn't want a trip like that again. Three grueling weeks moving from location to location staying in a different hotel
each night and packing each morning. It didn't help that she had the vocabulary of a second grader in French and most of the
tellers they were training wanted nothing to do with the PC that showed up at their window the day before.

There was one bright spot though. Because First Global had to obtain a standardized computer and get it installed at each
teller window in each location, they had agreed to shut locations down as the roll-out progressed. Each location would be
down for about half a day while the new computers were installed and the first bit of training happened. The rest of the day
was spent walking around answering questions as best she could. Thankfully she had been assigned a Pytho training person who
spoke French natively.

On her next to last day in France, Stacie emailed Jeremy.

Jeremy,

It has been a long grueling road trip. We work until the bank closes every night, then drive to the next town with a bank
location or as close as we can get where there is still a hotel. Wake up at 5AM local time and arrive at the bank to begin
a training session at 6:30AM.

This weekend we ARE going to Salish. Make the reservation and be sure to book a two hour session in the Spa for me on Saturday.
Massage, mud treatment, the works!

Miss you

Stacie

Part of her was worried about putting the little affectionate closes on these email messages, but the other part of her knew
that if they turned up in an audit it would be better for both of them to be dismissed as young lovers using the company email
rather than what they were really doing.
Then again,
Stacie thought,
if he makes anywhere near the money I think he is going to make from this information, he should be setting me up as at least
a 'Kept Woman' if he doesn't have the mettle to make an honest w
oman out of me.
That last thought really shocked Stacie. She hadn't thought about getting married since she was a little girl. Stacie wanted
it all. The good life, the expensive clothes, the international travel, and the career. She was in no way looking forward
to totaling out her body by having someone's kid.
It must have been something I ate which made me think that.

When Stacie's roomies got home from their jobs, they couldn't wait to badger her for all of the details. Of course Stacie
had to fill them in on the grueling pace first and they dutifully listened, considering it the toll that must be paid to travel
this road. Then Stacie pulled out the road map of France she had bought. On it she had marked every town and put a number
by it. In a document on her notebook she had a trip diary that she planned on sharing with Kathryn. It listed the date and
each location as well as the hotel they stayed at the night before.

On those rare occasions when they were in a city large enough to have more than one branch, the girls actually were taken
out for supper by the branch manager. One branch manager decided that these ladies had eaten in too many restaurants and actually
took them to his home for a meal prepared by his wife and mother-in-law.

Little was done in the way of sightseeing except on Sundays. Many branches were open on Saturday so this was a six day work
week. There were only four locations in Paris and Stacie wasn't senior enough to pull rank for those. She had gotten to see
some smaller museums and tour some wineries. Her roomies took the opportunity to thank her for the bottles of wine she had
sent. They had all been torn between trying it and waiting for her to return so they could share. When she was finished one
of her roomies said, “Wow. Sounds like you didn't have a good time.”

“It was a working trip, not a vacation,” responded Stacie. “Besides I'm taking Friday off to fly out for the weekend. Won't
be coming back until Monday.”

“Where are you taking off to now?” her roomies asked.

“Salish Lodge for a weekend of pampering and incredible sex. I've got two hours in the spa on Saturday afternoon for massage,
mud bath, the works.”

Total jealousy filled the room. It was the honor of those achieving a new plane of womanhood to feel an elevated level of
satisfaction and achievement from such a swell of jealousy, much like a surfer riding a wave. It was the duty of all girls
who claimed to have achieved some level of womanhood to provide said jealousy in the air when another of their rank scored
such an achievement.

Stacie looked right into their eyes with a smile, laughed lightly and asked, “What?” Their eyes screamed back the phrase “I
haven't had good sex in over a month you bitch!” but outwardly one of them asked the question they both wanted to know: “Same
guy as the restaurant?”

“If you must know, yes.” Of course they must know! Asking is part of the unwritten law of womanhood!

“You must have him totally whipped!”

“Guess we'll see,” smirked Stacie and the rest of the girls laughed. “If you are still working him over at Christmas you should
have him bring friends and take us all out on New Year's,” suggested one of her roomies. “Hear! Hear! I second that!” chanted
the other roomie. “You've dipped into the wealthy and eligible pool, time to share the pool pass.”

“Ladies, this is only the second weekend away with the guy. It's not like I own him yet!” laughed Stacie.

“It's your second FANTABULOUS weekend with the guy!” one of her roomies exclaimed. “New Year's is only four months away so
tell him this weekend. You know how long it takes guys to get organized for something like this.”

Stacie got a wicked gleam in her eye as she became silent and looked at them. They sensed something was up and got quiet,
too. Finally Stacie broke the silence by saying, “So ladies. Are you both telling me that you agree here and now to sleep
with whomever we bring for your dates from his pool of friends?”

Glances went back and forth. Cheeks blushed. Heads nodded. “Is that a yes or a no?” asked Stacie to stretch out the tease.
“Yes,” they both said in unison. “Does that mean you're going to do it?”

“Get me some digital pictures of yourselves and I will email them to him tonight. Then you ladies need to think about what
hotel you want to have sex in on New Year's. I believe he still has quite a few good looking single friends.”

Both girls hugged her and scampered off to copy some pictures of themselves for Stacie. Neither of them had ever managed to
be dating a great guy who had both the resources and desire to take them to one of those all-inclusive, grand hotel New Year's
Eve parties. Stacie knew this would be special for them. She also knew that both girls had done a few one night stands in
their day, so this wasn't going to be that difficult for them. She didn't bother to tell them that she knew some of Jeremy's
friends from college. This should be an easy setup. Jeremy wasn't about to turn down guaranteed great sex with her on New
Year's and his pool of still-single male friends weren't the type to get tied down so they would be able to commit to a sure
thing. Four months lead time would give them time to put away some cash for the evening, perhaps even get themselves better
suits.

***

Hans had just finished hooking up the satellite Internet connection and satellite phone system in the new headquarters. He
booted the main server, then, when it was done, booted his laptop to check email. It had taken him all of six hours to get
this far. He still had to set up the wet erase board in the room they would use as a war room and set up what would serve
as an office for the man in the suit. When it comes to the assignment of office space in a new temporary headquarters, rank
was irrelevant. If you expected others to set things up for you, then you got what they gave you. Hans' office was a full
six square feet bigger than the one for the man in the suit.