This woman is an expert at getting past security. She was successful until she came after me and ran into the feds.

Picking up the headset, I pull it on my head and punch in the number. Hear a ring and then a recorded male voice, "Please wait beside this telephone." The connection terminates and I hear a dial tone.

Stare at the paper and then dial the number again.

A female voice says, "I'm sorry. The number you have dialed is no longer in service. Please hang up and dial again."

Disconnect. Slowly, I tear the paper into pieces and toss it in the trash. Stare at the scraps. What have I done?

The telephone rings. I connect. "Yeah?"

The familiar voice with the British accent says, "Hello, Jill."

Recognition is instantaneous. "Hello."

"You're wondering why I wanted you to call."

"Yes."

"A guy took my contract but you can stop him. The client has a nephew whose wife is about to give birth to twin boys. Leverage the safety of her and the twins against handing over the shooter and his bonus to the police."

"Why do you care?"

"I'm not entirely sure, Jill. Never done anything like this."

"You could have told this to the feds. You set up this call and you're speaking with me now. What is it you want?"

A pause, and she says, "It's something to do with the fact that I still feel young. I was retiring anyway but sitting around under what amounts to house arrest for the rest of my life is not what I had in mind."

"What's your name?"

"Alice Hawkins. Please call me Alice."

"What do you want, Alice?"

"I don't know, Jill. It's just that you're all about starting things—full of energy and projects and things going on. I spent my professional life ending lives. You give life."

Open my mouth to speak but cannot remember what I was about to say. I'm full of energy? I give life? Check both premises with your last employer. With no idea of what to say, I ask, "So?"

Alice sighs audibly and says, "I want to do something but I don't know what."

"Pretty pitiful, Alice."

"It is, isn't it?"

"So call when you think of something."

Disconnect and dial Pere. When Margaret answers, I say, "Can you make my home phone ring to the twenty-four hour Pere receptionist?"

"Of course, Jill. Shall we take messages or route the calls to you?"

"I'll take calls from specific people."

"List them."

"Peter Marriott, Bruno, Susan Walsh, Ume, Le, Mei, Sui, Lloyd, you, Tony George and Don Locaccio. Also, anyone from Doc's Place except Kerry, Phil, Max and Paul."

"Your family? Your godchildren?"

"Oh yeah. Them too."

"Everyone else goes into the message queue?"

"Yes."

"How do you want to review messages?"

"How do Le and Ume do it?"

"They have a terminal on their desks. We could set you up with a secure remote terminal into the Pere mainframes. We'll key your messages in and you access them whenever you like."

"Secure?"

"You type in your username and password. Others on the system know your username but not your password. Only you know that, so your access is secure."

"Set up two terminals here in my study—one on each desk."

"We'll set you up with on-demand for now, and move you to ex dot when it's ready."

"What?"

"On demand is a dial-up modem. Uses ordinary phone lines but encrypted so it's secure. Less expensive than ex dot, but you have to wait for the modem to connect."

What is she talking about? "So with ex dot, I don't have to wait?"

"Correct. Ex dot is X.25. The dedicated line is more expensive but it's always on and it's secure. I'll send an IS tech over with the equipment. He'll be there soon."

"IS tech?"

"Information Systems technician."

Disconnect and stare out the window, thinking about modems, X.25, data communications. What was I thinking about before I called Alice and Margaret? Oh yeah, security. Dial the Salt Lake City federal field office and leave a message for Tony George to call me. Call Le's direct line. When she answers, I say, "We need to discuss security."

"And banking," says Le.

"Banking?"

"Hang on. I'll put you on speaker. Can you hear me?"

"Sure."

"Hi Jill," says Mei.

"Ume and I discussed hiring an operations chief to set up a separate company that provides security for everything."

"Those international foundation loans have you worried, huh?" asks Mei. "Ume said they would."

"Yes, they do. This new company will handle security for Pere, Midori and the foundation. When the foundation loans begin going out, we provide security there as well."

Le asks, "Start the search for a security chief immediately, Jill?"

"No. Set up the general ledger accounts and budget for the new security operations chief to begin using the moment he's ready. I may have someone by tomorrow." Pausing, I ask, "What's this about banking? Sounds like your idea, Mei."

"At the moment, we arrange loan terms for Pere and Midori transactions through Midori Bank. I want Pere to buy banks all over the nation and in a few places throughout the world, consolidate them and then contract out the management to a national bank interested in going global."

"I see where you're going but I'm not going to mortgage Pere to buy banks. We did something similar ten years ago with Midori Bank which just paid off the last of its debt. It pays well but it's risky and requires a lot of attention."

"Heh-heh," chortles Mei. "We don't have to mortgage Pere. Besides, these banks are in stressed areas and the owners want out so we buy them out for cash. Once the sales go through, Pere stuffs these banks with millions in real estate transactions—assets that Pere controls—and contracts with an established, national bank to provide management and exclusive loan guarantees at low rates. The managing bank requests an audit, Midori Bank's guarantee to back all loans and Pere's guarantee that the assets will stay put for the term of the contract. Pere and Midori Bank agree to all the terms. The audit finds both Pere and Midori Bank solid and completely solvent with two hundred million in assets'almost all of it yours, but they won't know that. Once the audit is complete and the management contract goes into effect, Pere begins borrowing billions of dollars against those assets, mostly from Asian banks, which the managing bank must then arrange, manage and guarantee. The Asian banks will agree because they're looking for ways to penetrate the US market.

Once Pere has leveraged those borrowed billions into much larger holdings, we sell the poor performers and keep the best performers. For ten years, we pay only the interest on the loans while continuing to borrow heavily. By the way, interest rates will drop by ten percent over the next twenty years. About ten years from now, we pay off the principal, withdraw our assets and sell what we don't want."

"Is that legal?"

"It's not illegal," says Mei.

"How long will it take the regulators and the feds to react?"

"Years, if ever, but it doesn't matter," says Mei with a chuckle. "Whatever they tell us to do, we'll do. More than likely, the government regulators will do nothing; however, other global banks will begin trying to duplicate what we are doing after ten years or so, thereby reducing the scheme's profitability. Meanwhile, we're using other people's money without taking Pere public."

"I'll never take Pere public, Mei."

"We never have to, but we can take this enormous profit only once, and then no bank or business will ever do it again because no global bank will ever take such a management contract again—unless idiots are running it."

"What are the risks?"

"We will make bad investments."

"We won't do that."

"Damn right we won't. We'll buy and develop enormous tracts of real estate—deals we've never been able to afford before. We can turn around and sell most of it within months and then just keep borrowing, buying and selling. As I said, it's other people's money."

"Le, what do you think?"

"It's a risk, but do it. Ume told us to proceed if you approve."

I'm still trying to realize that Ume is on vacation.

"What's the payoff and when?"

"Three orders of magnitude," says Mei, "in ten years."

"This will make Pere worth billions within ten years?"

"That's right. Look at it this way, Jill. Ten years ago, Ume and you took a risk and Ume turned 5 million into 200 million. Today you take another risk and within ten years, we turn that into four or five billion—more if you and Ume bring in a CEO smarter than me. After ten years, we'll no doubt propose another risky deal."

"Can the managing bank handle that much capital?"

"Oh yes," says Le. "The managing bank is a well-known financial institution here in the West. It's closely affiliated with one of the wealthiest corporations in the world."

"Ah. The managing bank won't lose money on this deal, will it?"

"Far from it. In ten years, they will be quite happy with their holdings. The only thing they will not be happy about is that they didn't think of doing this first."

"How soon can the managing bank back out of the contract?"

"They won't sign the management contract unless we agree to ten years. By the time they realize the risk we're imposing upon their assets and by the time the feds and the courts begin reacting to their complaints, someone inside their organization will show them the revenue stream and tell them to shut up. They will begin stalling the investigative process. By then, Pere will be operating in the stratosphere."

Curious, I ask, "What do we do with our banks then?"

"Sell them to the managing bank, withdraw and form a banking group that spreads our real estate transactions and loans across multiple, foreign and domestic banks to reduce our exposure. We both get what we want: Pere walks away from the ten-year deal with billions in profit and the managing bank walks away as a global bank worth twice what it was. Of course, Pere's worth will be 20 times what it was."

"Pick up the phone for a second, Mei. Stay there, Le. This will just take a second."

Mei picks up and asks, "Yes?"

"You told me when I hired you that you would start your own business when you found the right opportunity. This sounds like it. Why don't you resign and run with it?"

"I've done the math a dozen times but I cannot swing this deal without huge loans," says Mei. "I have discussed it with Le and my parents, Jill. We agree that I should stay under the Pere umbrella."

"Why?"

She pauses and sighs. "Security. Checking on the loans woke up a dragon, as we say in China. A couple Chinese kids approached my father Saturday night. They want payments to provide him protection. Once they get it, that's only the beginning. This is the way it works in the Chinese community."

So, we're back to security. "Does Le know about this threat?"

"Yes."

"Put us back on conference." She does so.

"When do your parents have to pay the protection money, Mei?"

"Three days, Wednesday night."

"Are the Chinese kids out of California?"

"Oakland."

"Do you and your parents want to pay?"

"Hell no! We want to run them off. Will you help, Jill?"

"Le?"

"Tell Kuzuo?" asks Le, anticipating my request.

"Yes. Put a couple SIA operatives in the restaurant starting today. Charge it against Pere security. Mei, tell your father to call Reno PD. Lodge an official complaint about the extortion demand. Write up every detail you have on this gang in Oakland and message it to me. I will be getting a terminal today."

Mei asks, "What will you. . . ."

"Mei, I approve preparations for buying the banks. When all is ready, Ume will pull the trigger. Le, what did Ume budget for security operations chief?"

"A hundred grand a year, plus bonuses and benefits."

Hesitate. Something Mei said bothers me, but I don't know what it is so I disconnect. The phone rings immediately.

Margaret says, "I had you on ring-back, Jill. Agent George? Here's Jill."

"This is a first," says federal agent Tony George. "You never call me."

"Quit your job and come work for me as chief of operational security."

"You shittin' me? Got a promotion coming and six years until my thirty."

"What will your pension be, with the promotion?"

"Full. That's forty-kay per year. Quit now, I'll barely get half that."

"I'll pay you eighty . . . for the rest of your life if you give me ten years."

"Thousand? A year?"

"With bonuses and increases based on achieving objectives you negotiate."

"When?"

"Now. Be here tonight. Start tomorrow morning."

"Can't do it. Got cases. Need six months to a year at least."

"Nine o'clock in the morning."

"Why the hell are you doing this anyway? You and I don't even like each other."

"You execute ops like no one I've ever seen."

"You sure you wanna hire this Negro?"

"You sure you wanna work for a girl?"

"Fuck it. I'll take it but I'll come tomorrow afternoon. Shit I gotta do."

"A driver will pick you up and bring you up to the house. Need cash?"

"Yeah, family budget's kind o' thin right now."

"Ten grand cover it?"

"Is this coming out of my paycheck?"

"It's your signing bonus. Call Margaret back. Tell her your checking account number. Anything else?"

"I report directly to you."

"Wrong," I tell him. "No one reports directly to me except my Chairman of the Board of Directors—a woman."

"Bullshit," says Tony, "I ain't reportin' to no woman."

"What am I?"

"I question whether you're human."

"My chairman scares the shit out o' me, Tony."

"Jesus," he whispers, "That's pretty fuckin' scary."

"Admit it," I tell him. "You can't wait to meet her."

He sighs and says, "I'll pitch it to my wife as an offer. She'll kill me if I decide without consulting her."

"See you tomorrow, Tony." Disconnect and call Margaret. "Transfer ten grand into Tony George's account after he calls you with the number in a few minutes. Advance on his annual bonus. Buy him a first-class ticket from Salt Lake to Reno at the time he says tomorrow. Find out his wife's name and help her sell their house, find a house in Reno and move here. Alert Ume . . . when she returns."

"Roger that."

The doorbell rings.

"I hear that," says Margaret. "It's probably the tech to install your terminals."

"Tech? Oh, the technician?"

"Mm-hmm," murmurs Margaret, obviously bored with my slow progress along the learning curve.

"Tell me when Tony will arrive as soon as you know." Disconnect and stand slowly, pulling on sweatpants and a tee shirt. Snatching up my cane, I walk to the front door.

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