Thomas Hoover - The samurai strategy

"Huh?"

"Besides, down the line it'd probably impress hell out of Noda. The man admires initiative."

"What was it you said about a score?" He was blinking in erratic bursts, still flying on uppers.

"Forget it. Just a crazy idea that crossed my mind." I turned and walked back into the office… where Tam was waiting.

"What was that all about?"

"Tam, did you hear what those bastards did?" I was steaming. 'They blew my daughter's college money."

"I heard."

"Well, it pisses me off like I can't begin to describe."

"I gathered that." She looked at me strangely. "He finally got to you, didn't he? Noda finally pulled your cork. No more Mr. Cool."

"You got it, lady."

She continued to study me, and into her eyes crept a kind of affection I didn't even know they possessed. "Guess that makes two of us, Matt. He found out how to get to me, and now he's found out the one thing you care about."

"Guess he did at that."

"Well, now you know how I feel."

"He broke the rules, Tam. That's not part of the game. But do you understand what this means? Now I'm free to do anything I want. Honor is out the window."

"This isn't a game."

"You're right. It's a battle. But even battles have rules."

"My God, macho to the end."

"Call it what you want. But I am now going to destroy them both, totally. Wipe them out. They've given me no choice."

"How exactly do you propose doing that?"

"I made the opening move just now. Next I'm… later." I glanced up to see Jim Bob approaching. He was staring at me, glassy-eyed.

"What was that you were saying a while ago?"

"Don't remember, Jim Bob."

"Something about a score."

"Oh, that. Nothing really."

"Don't start getting cute, Walton." He sighted his Uzi around the office.

"Nobody screws with you, right?"

"Better believe it, sport."

"Well, I was just wondering, since Noda's tied up at the moment, if you might want to go ahead and make a little money on the side."

"I'm not doing so bad."

"Fine. Since you're not interested anyway, we can just skip it. No big deal."

"Hang on a second." His eyes seemed to be trying to focus as he stared through his gunsights. "What's the play?"

"Merely a wild idea, that's all. I was wondering what would happen if you bought a few call options on those stocks already in the portfolio, then boosted the prices on those too?"

"You mean on those high-tech outfits we were supposed to start selling?"

"Well, the setup's just sitting out there. You've got all that Japanese pension money and Noda's computer. No reason not to kite those high-tech issues a little and pick up some pocket change. Fun and games to while away the time. But then maybe you've already made all you want to."

"Hey, asshole, there's two things you can't ever get too much of, and one of them's money." He was rocking mechanically. "Matter of fact, this action we're generating is driving up the March calls for our new buys to the point where the price is getting way out of line."

"Had to happen. Everybody else in town has figured out somebody's driving the market. They're getting on the options bandwagon too, bidding them up. So why not play a little market shell-game with those issues already in the portfolio, buy some calls and then kite the price on them as well? Show Noda a thing or two."

"Kind of stick it to the boss man." He paused.

"Think of it as insurance. Just to make sure you come out of this play whole. Tell you a secret about Noda. With that guy, you know you've got a deal when the check clears."

"He's a crafty fucker, grant you."

"You might want to give it some thought. But if you're going to make a move, it's probably now or never. Be the early bird or forget it."

All this time Tam was looking at me as if I'd gone over the edge. I began to deeply regret not having filled her in on the fallback scenario.

The door to Noda's office was now closed, his two guards posted outside. Guess even a samurai needs some rest and tranquility after flying halfway around the globe in a chartered Concorde.

"Well, gotta admit it's an idea." Jim Bob continued to weave unsteadily. His motor mechanisms were now on automatic, along with his venal corn-pone brain.

"Matt, what in hell are you doing?" Tam was pulling me back into the office.

"Stay cool. Swordsmanship is like Zen. You can't ever let your mind get attached to anything. Do that and you're stuck; your mind stays with the past and makes you neglect what lies ahead. So I figure the best thing to do here is to adjust to the new 'prevailing conditions.'" I glanced out at Jim Bob, now just beyond the door and absently humming some Waylon Jennings tune as he swayed solo.

"Well, I want to know what you're up to."

"Okay, here's the play. While you were setting up your sell-off scheme, I did some fiddling on my own. Remember back when we started out, I fast-talked Noda into giving me power of attorney? Well, it finally paid off. Last week I convened an instant shareholders' meeting for every company where DNI owns a majority of the stock and personally voted through a new set of resolutions."

"Mind filling me in on what they were?"

Before I could reply, Jim Bob came dancing in, licking his pale lips. "Walton, tell you what. Think I'm gonna go for it."

"What?" I looked up.

"That options play. Comes a time you gotta look out for yourself and fuck everybody."

"That's the kind of thinking made this country what it is today, Jim Bob. Right on."

"Fuckin' A, baby." He did a quick dance step. "Go for the gold."

"You know, as long as we're at it, how about a little piece of the action for me too? Nothing big. Just a couple of bucks for old times' sake."

"Why the hell not!" He let out a whoop as he turned and headed for a terminal. "Give you sloppy seconds on this one, ace. Just long as I get first pop."

"Matt, I don't know what you're up to, but I'll kill you if you start helping him." She looked like she would too.

"You know, you once said you wanted to drive a stake into DNI's heart." I turned back. "Well, this is your chance. But we've got to get moving and do it before Noda catches on."

Whereupon we joined Jim Bob in front of his monitor. He was now busy pulling up quotes for March calls on the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the CBOE. He checked them over, then got on the phone directly to the market makers on the floor. When you're operating in hyperdrive, you don't dawdle around with brokers.

"Jim Bob, while you're doing that, I think I'll just start setting up the buy orders for the stock. If we want to move prices, we've got to have coordination."

"Yahoo. Let's kick some ass." He'd just entered a wholly new dimension of exuberance. "Shit fire and save your matches; fuck a duck and see what hatches."

My sentiments precisely. I started scrolling up DNI's portfolio of high-tech securities, looking for the biggies. If things went as planned, our screwing of Matsuo Noda was definitely going to be memorable.

Now Jim Bob was chortling quietly to himself as he punched up more numbers, moving on to bilk options traders on the AMEX.

"Matthew, you'd better finish explaining what you're up to." Tam was standing behind me, her hand gripping my shoulder.

"Look, we have to do this fast. Switch a beat on Noda, break his rhythm. Just trust me."

"My favorite word." She didn't move.

"Now"-I pointed to a column of green numbers on the left-hand side of the screen-"are those the percentage holdings DNI has?"

"Looks correct."

They were about what I remembered. DNI's positions varied from around fifty percent to the low sixties.

"Okay." I turned to face her. "Which of these do you want to knock out first? There may not be time to torpedo them all."