The Piranhas (23 page)

Alma nodded to me. “You have a deal.”

“You heard her,” I told Bradley.

He said to Judge Gitlin, “What do you think, Judge?”

Judge Gitlin smiled wryly. “There’s something screwy in this deal, but we fell into a pool of piranhas. Take the money and run.”

I rose from the table. “Thank you, gentlemen. Now I’ll ask the attorneys to draw up the agreements as quickly as possible. I have the money already in an escrow account for you.”

Bradley looked at me, his face flushed and angry. “You screwed us, didn’t you?”

I was silent.

“I thought that you had come in to help us,” he said.

“I did,” I said. “But I didn’t know that you were already dead in the water. Jarvis had shoved the harpoon up your ass. If it wasn’t for me you would have absolutely nothing. Now you can go back and put your own house together.”

Silently Bradley left the room with Judge Gitlin. I turned back to the table. “Alma, you and Mr. Kinnard begin putting your papers together.”

Alma nodded. “We’ll arrange it.”

“Thank you,” I said. I watched them leave the conference room. Peachtree and his assistant were staring at me.

“Daniel,” I said, “you’re still the president of the company. I have faith in your knowledge and ability even though you are a son of a bitch. I’m transferring one hundred million dollars to the company operating account, and I expect you to keep production moving smoothly. I have also appointed Jim Handley as executive vice-president and chief financial officer of the company. I ask you both to go through the company and clean it up. I expect you both to live up each other’s asses.”

Peachtree looked at me. “Thank you, Jed. But as you know, I do not have a contract as yet.”

“Okay, you’ll have one tomorrow morning,” I said. I met his eyes. “How much money do you want?”

Daniel shrugged. “I haven’t thought about it yet.”

“Then think about it,” I said. “And we’ll sit down and work it out.”

“I need ten million dollars tomorrow,” he said. “I have the opportunity to take the distribution of
Star Island.
Every studio in town has the hots for it, but the producer is an old lover of mine. He knows we’ll give him a fair share.”

“That’s your job,” I said. “Do it.”

“What about Jim Handley?” he asked.

“Jim will handle the finances—you both work together.”

“Good enough,” he said. He rose from his chair. “I have work to do. I’ll get back to the studio.”

We shook hands. “Have a nice day,” I said.

He laughed. “You, too,” he said and left the conference room with his boyfriend.

I leaned back in my chair and lit a cigarette. “Jesus,” I said. I felt as if I had gone through a wringer. I was still waiting for Uncle Rocco’s money.

Jim Handley leaned toward me. “What do we do next?”

“Borrow,” I said. I turned to Ron Schraft, who headed the three-man delegation from D.B.&L. “Can we market a billion dollars of high-yield bonds?”

Ron was young, but he was bright and very close to the source. He came directly to the point. “No chance,” he said. “Mike says the numbers don’t work out.”

“We have the assets,” I said. “Real estate is worth at least four hundred million and earns us forty million a year. One hit movie and we’ll be swimming in money.”

“Millennium has lost almost two hundred million during the last two years,” Ron said. “There was no hit movie. Besides, Mike doesn’t have any faith in the movie business.”

“I think he’s wrong,” I said.

“But Mike likes you and wants to do business with you. If you merge Millennium into General Avionics, he thinks he can sell five billion high-yield bonds for you.”

I stared at him. “That’s shit,” I said. “General Avionics doesn’t need any money, I’m not going to be put into hock for the picture company.”

Ron was calm. “It’s just an idea,” he said. “Mike just wanted to help.”

I rose and held my hand out to him. “Thank him,” I said. “This is not the kind of help I need.” We shook hands politely and they left the conference room.

“Sons of bitches,” Handley said.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” I said. “It’s just business for Mike.”

Sherman Siddely turned to me. “I was talking to McManus and we agreed that B. of A. isn’t going to help.”

I laughed. “When did you ever know of a bank that would lend you money if you really need it?”

McManus said, “You’re right. But B. of A. has forty million of negative loans in movies that died.”

“Come on, Mac,” I said. “B. of A. has blown hundreds of millions in negative loans in the film industry over the years. Forty is a drop in the bucket. Besides the only reason you made the loans to Millennium is because you thought that Shepherd would transfer his oil company’s accounts over to you.”

McManus grinned. “Smart ass,” he said.

“Why don’t you be a sport and split the Star Island negative deal with me? Five million isn’t that much.”

“And what do you give me for it?”

“New business from General Avionics,” I said.

“Do you mean that?” he asked.

“I keep my word,” I said. “And besides that, I will guarantee you the first money out of the picture if it pays out.”

McManus turned to Siddely. “What do you think?”

Siddely nodded. “Peachtree knows what he’s doing. I’ll put my money on him. If Shepherd ever had production men as good as that fag, he wouldn’t have fallen into the shit.”

McManus said to me, “I’ll check it with my home office. I think it’s a deal.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Every little bit helps.”

Siddely turned to me. “Jarvis knew what he was doing. He had Peachtree really checked out.”

“Too bad he wasn’t smart enough to check out his car,” I said.

“Jarvis chased the wrong girl,” Siddely said. “She had a Las Vegas gangster boyfriend.” He looked at me. “I didn’t know that you had known Mrs. Jarvis.”

“She was married to a cousin of mine a long time ago,” I said.

“I tried to get in touch with her,” Siddely said. “But she would never even talk to me.”

“I don’t know anything about it,” I said. “I hadn’t even heard from her until she contacted me about this deal.”

“That was a stroke of luck,” Siddely said

“Not bad,” I said.

Siddely looked at me. “Jarvis offered me the job as vice-president and general counsel for Millennium.”

I met his eyes. “If you’re still interested in it, you’ve got it.”

He hesitated, then held out his hand. “We’ll do well,” he said.

I smiled. “I know we will.”

Finally, the meeting was over, and I went back to my office. I walked over to the small bar in the corner of the room and had myself a scotch on the rocks.

Kim watched me. “How do you feel?”

“Tired,” I said. I downed half the drink in one swallow. “Get Uncle Rocco for me.”

“What do you want him for?” she asked.

I stared at her. “He promised me five hundred million dollars and I haven’t seen a penny of it.”

6

HE WAS SITTING
in my office when I returned from lunch. He rose from his chair and smiled at me. “Mr. Stevens.” He held out a business card.

I read it quickly. It was a European type card, much larger than an American business card.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Director Financial Transactions

Super-Sattel EuroSky Broadcast Corporation

Canale 2
1
       
Liechtenstein

I looked puzzled.

“My apologies, Mr. Stevens,” he said. “I did not mean to intrude, but Mr. Di Stefano assured your secretary that it would be all right.”

Silently I walked to my desk and called Uncle Rocco on the speed dialer. “Congratulations,” he said. “I heard that you completed the deal.”

“What do you have? Spies in my office?” I snapped. “First, you know about the deal by the time I come back from lunch, then you send an emissary to my office unannounced. I thought we agreed that I was to have some privacy in running the studio.”

“It’s family,” he said. “There is no such thing as privacy with a family. Besides this has nothing to do with privacy. Leonardo is only there to balance our finances.”

“Okay,” I said. “How?”

“Relax,” Uncle Rocco replied. “Just leave it to Leonardo.” The receiver clicked off and I put down the telephone.

Da Vinci was a tall man, about six three, broad-shouldered like an athlete, blue-eyed, with black hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He wore a black silk suit, Italian cut, white shirt and black tie. He held out his hand. “Just in case you’re wondering,” he said, laughing, “I have no talent as an artist.”

I laughed with him. “Then how come the name?”

“I thought it would be a more interesting name than Leonard Davidson,” he answered. “Something about the name Da Vinci always impresses people.”

“It impressed me,” I said.

He took an envelope from his inside breast pocket and gave it to me. I opened the envelope and quickly scanned the accounts listed on the paper it contained. It held all the advances I had made to Shepherd and all the new commitments I’d made for Millennium. The total added up to five hundred and ninety-five million.

He looked at me. “Do you find the figures correct?”

I nodded. “Yes. But I don’t understand how you discovered them so quickly.”

“It is part of our business,” he said. “Now that you have agreed with the amounts, we’ll begin to settle our accounts.”

“Good,” I said. “Then I’ll ask Jim Handley, my financial vice-president, to join us. He can help us direct the money into the correct account.”

“Excellent,” he said.

“By the way,” I asked, “will the checks you give us be drawn on U.S. banks or foreign?”

“Checks are old-fashioned,” he said. “We’ll transfer the money directly into your bank accounts.”

Handley came into the office just as Da Vinci opened a thick, clumsy attaché case and placed it on my desk. Quickly Da Vinci set up a lap-top computer and connected it to a ten-inch satellite disk, both powered by four six-volt batteries. He flipped the power switch, and light spilled onto the screen. The screen was blank until he turned the disk direction, and then letters in blue appeared on the screen:
EUROSKY CANALE
21.

He turned to me. “We’re ready for business.”

I introduced the two men. Handley was curious about what was going on, but clever enough not to ask questions. Quickly I told him what was being done.

He turned to Da Vinci. “Isn’t this against the law?”

Da Vinci shook his head. “Not if you notify your bank in advance that you will make certain deposits in this fashion. After all, banks transfer and deposit between themselves in that manner all the time.”

“What connection does Mr. Di Stefano have with EuroSky? And why does EuroSky want Millennium?” I asked.

“As far as I know,” Da Vinci answered, “Mr. Di Stefano is one of the investors in EuroSky. And EuroSky is a new company created for the new open market of international television in Europe. EuroSky has already placed four satellites over Western and Eastern Europe, and they are in direct competition with the British companies of Murdoch and Thames for the continental European market. And Millennium is one of the last companies that has over fifteen hundred feature films plus many other film subjects for distribution.”

“Is it clean money?” Handley asked.

“Yes,” Da Vinci said. “The money is coming from Lloyd’s Bank of London and Crédit Suisse in Geneva.” He paused for a moment. “In order to transfer the money to your accounts, I would appreciate it if you gave me the account numbers of each of the banks you want money transferred to.”

I looked at Jim. “Okay, give him the numbers.”

Jim was still nervous. “If we give you the account numbers, wouldn’t it be possible that you could make withdrawals from these accounts without our knowledge?”

Da Vinci smiled. “No, not if you notify your banks that this method is to be used only for deposits into your account.”

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”

The whole transaction took only about fifteen minutes, and then Da Vinci said, “You’ve got your money.”

Jim looked at him. “How do we know? I don’t have any confirmation.”

Da Vinci laughed. “Call your banks, they’ll tell you.”

“Okay,” Jim said and walked over to my desk and picked up the telephone. It took him another twenty minutes to verify the deposits. He looked impressed as each bank confirmed that the money was already deposited into the accounts.

Jim turned to me. “The first eighty-five million dollars you advanced to Shepherd is your own money, and I have authorized that money to be placed in the reserve account.”

“Good,” I said.

Jim continued, “We will then pay the other sums agreed to at the meeting.”

I listed the payments to Jim. “The payments to Mrs. Jarvis and Mr. Shepherd will be paid as their paperwork is completed. As was agreed with Peachtree, one hundred million dollars will be put into the production account and a separate amount will be deposited for the acquisition of distribution rights to
Star Island.
”

“Okay,” said Jim. “I’ve got it. Now I’ll get back to my office and start getting things organized.”

Jim left, and I watched Da Vinci put his computer and his equipment back into his attaché case. He placed the attaché case on the floor and asked, “Are you planning to stay on with the studio?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I know nothing about the entertainment business. It’s another world.”

Da Vinci commented, “It’s no longer an entertainment business. It’s now communications. It’s becoming a new world.”

I looked at him. “General Avionics is a big enough world for me. I’m not greedy.”

Da Vinci shrugged his shoulders. “That’s up to you.” He looked at his watch. “It’s late, almost five o’clock. If you don’t have any plans tonight, why don’t you join me for dinner?”

“I have no plans,” I said.

“Good. Suppose we meet at the Palms on Santa Monica Boulevard at eight
P.M.
”

“It’s a date. I’ll bring a girl.”

Da Vinci smiled. “And so will I.”