Питер Джеймс - Billionaire

‘Morning, Alex.’

‘I’m sorry about Sarge,’ said Rocq.

‘Yes, yes,’ said Elleck, ‘everyone is. Now, I wanted to see you about the gold situation. As of this moment, gold is $549 — that’s a rise of $51 in a day and a half. This is an unbelievable rise — it seems there is some very heavy buying going on, and it isn’t in this country. But no one seems to be able to pinpoint the source. It’s having a strong impact on the world market — people are starting to panic buy.’

Rocq was taken aback for a moment that Elleck didn’t seem to be affected by what had happened to Sarge Bantry. ‘This is nothing to do with your syndicate?’ asked Rocq.

‘No — well — unless they’re playing some game they haven’t told me about, it isn’t. I just don’t understand it — I don’t understand it at all.’

‘Do you think I ought to start buying for the syndicate now — and not wait until Monday, sir?’

Elleck shook his head. ‘I don’t think so; this buying must subside during the next day or so. There’s nothing to sustain it. Have you heard anything at all? You boys down there often hear far more than I ever do.’

‘Nothing at all.’

‘I don’t know what to make of it; 549 is too high — we must wait for it to go down before we start. It should be at 500 to 510 — that’s the right price — no more. Don’t buy any until it has dropped back to at least 510.’

‘Even if it is higher still on Monday.’

‘Even if it is higher still — unless I tell you. Is that clear?’

‘Yes, Sir Monty.’

‘Good.’

Rocq went back to his office. In the five minutes it had taken him to go and see the Chairman, gold had risen a further $4; by the time he went to lunch, gold had topped 560, and at the second fixing of the gold price that day at Rothschild’s at three that afternoon, the price of gold was fixed at $568 an ounce.

Whatever the power, authority and influence of the men from the largest bullion dealers in the world, within an hour of their fixing, people were eagerly stumping up $5 above it. In Rocq’s office, the death of Sarge and the burglary of the building had already become a thing of the past. There was a gold rush on, and nothing mattered any more except the price people were prepared to pay for those long, thin, dull-yellow metal slabs, over which a thousand wars have been fought, and a million fortunes made and lost, and with which a trillion teeth have been filled.

By nine o’clock Friday morning, the price of gold had soared over the 590 mark, and was soon nudging 600.

In the first hour’s trading in London, the price rocketed to 604 before dropping back to 598. At lunchtime Friday, it stood at 609, and at two o’clock in the afternoon it hit 612. At the Friday afternoon fixing, at 3.00 p.m., the price was fixed at 616; by the close of the London market, gold was at 621, and strongly tipped to go over the $650 mark on Monday morning.

Mozer and Slivitz engaged in a heated argument about the continuation of the boom, and Rocq listened.

‘As long as people keep buying, it will keep rising. I reckon it can stand another hundred, maybe hundred and fifty dollars.’

‘You’re full of shit, Mozer; everyone got caught with their pants down last year when it was up in the early 700s. There were billions bought in the early 700s; the moment the price gets back up there, it’s going to pop like a balloon: bang! There’s going to be so many people bailing out of gold they won’t be able to give the stuff away by the end of next week — just like coffee.’

‘Don’t talk rubbish, Gary — what do you think they’re going to discover — that gold fillings make people’s tongues drop off?’

‘I’m not letting any chick with gold fillings give me a blow job if that’s the case.’

‘You’re disgusting, Slivitz.’

‘At least I know it, Mozer; you’re disgusting and you don’t know it. You’ve got B.O., bad breath, and every orifice in your body is plugged with something nasty.’

Rocq got up from his desk, and closed his briefcase. ‘Night girls, have a sweet weekend.’

‘What’s your hurry?’ said Slivitz. ‘Got to get the suit back to Moss Bros, or the Porsche back to Avis?’

‘No — I just want to go to the lavatory before you two block it for the weekend.’

Shortly before 5.00 p.m. Friday, French time, Viscomte Claude Lasserre’s secretary was put through, by Globalex’s switchboard operator, to Sir Monty Elleck’s secretary. As usual, Lasserre’s secretary spoke in English, and Elleck’s secretary spoke in French; in spite of this, the two men were promptly connected.

‘Good afternoon, Monty, how are you?’

‘Well, thanks, Claude. Very enjoyable dinner on Monday.’

‘Thank you. You had a good flight home?’

‘No problems — the airways still aren’t as congested as the roads. To what do I owe the honour of this call?’

‘I was talking with Jimmy and he asked me to call you. We must be making out pretty good with the gold already, no?’

There was a pause. Elleck scrabbled in the box of Havanas for a cigar: ‘Well — er — sure — I — er — can you hang on?’

‘Yes.’

Elleck put the receiver down, cut the end of the cigar, and put the cigar in his mouth; he pulled out his gold Dupont and lit it slowly; all the time he was thinking hard. ‘Hallo, Claude?’

‘Yes, I am here.’

‘I’ll have to check how much we have actually bought so far.’

‘You haven’t bought it yet?’ he sounded incredulous.

‘Oh, no — sure, we must have bought some — as you know — I’m not doing it directly myself. We didn’t want to draw attention, right?’

‘That’s what we agreed.’

‘But I just don’t know how much we have — got to be careful buying in a bull market — I think this is only a temporary bull—’

‘Bull?’

‘Oh — it’s a — er — trade expression — a rising market.’

‘Okay.’

‘My personal view is that the gold price could drop as quickly as it has risen — and we don’t want to get stuck having paid top dollar.’

‘I see.’ The Viscomte didn’t sound at all convinced. ‘Then it is not our purchasing which is causing this rise?’

‘Good lord no, Claude; if we’d banged ours in all at once, it might have pushed the price up ten dollars or so — but our sort of money could never create a bull like this.’

‘Now if the price — does not — er drop — you are going to have to pay this new price for our gold?’

‘If it steadies out at this new level, then yes, we will have to; but if it steadies, then it will not affect our plan — because our plan will still push it up. But first we must see if it steadies. I am certain it won’t. It must drop. A lot of punters are going to start selling. You’ll see, Claude, it all will start changing at the beginning of the week.’

‘We only have until next Friday — is that going to be time enough?’

‘I’m not a clairvoyant, Claude — we’ll just have to wait and see what happens and play it by ear.’

‘Why didn’t you buy the moment you saw it rising?’

‘Firstly, we agreed we had to keep this whole thing quiet. We didn’t want anyone tumbling what we were doing — and that means buying in small amounts here, there, a bit in Tokyo, a bit in Toronto, a bit in Amsterdam; buying through different dealers, some Krugerrands from here, bars from there. A bit of this and a bit of that. Opening bank accounts in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and perhaps elsewhere. A thousand million isn’t much in gold terms, Claude, but it’s one heck of a lot of money to have to spend in a hurry without anybody noticing.’

‘I understand.’