Money Farm

by Clif Miller

  Chapter 4

  The news took a while to break. Just as Peter had hoped, the Doctor swallowed his projectile vomiting and diarrhoea story but admonished Peter for not keeping a stool sample or a sample of the vomited fluid.

  “Didn’t think to do it Doc.” was his lame excuse. But the doctor seemed dubious about the tablets as the possible cause and Peter could not push it too hard. The patient was apparently well again and none the worse for the episode so the matter might well have rested there.

  The Doctor took the pills away and to all intents that was the end of the matter until some patients with similar symptoms were reported to the Health Department from several widely spaced suburbs and even a country location. The Health Department alert picked up the common thread of the identical medication used, apparently, by most of the patients. One patient ended up in hospital on a respirator, and that was enough for a general alert on the medication. The press was advised and the product recall set in motion.

  True to form, in the speculative heat of the moment all sorts of theories were aired and experts canvassed but the cause was unknown and risks had to be averted. Down went the share price of To Your Health. First losses were 20% then 30% and then there was a stabilizing effect that was brought about by a public statement from the company that they were doing everything possible to isolate the problem. Late on the first day panic selling again set in and the share price was over 50% below the previous price.

  Jim’s phone rang three times then stopped. A minute later it rang again three times and stopped.

  The first buy order caught the shares still on the way down but far from the bottom. Then there came an announcement that the government regulator of the pharmaceuticals industry was going through the company laboratory. The share price dived again, now some 75 percent below its average of the last weeks. Jim placed an ‘at market’ price buy order for 200,000 shares and picked them up almost immediately for $1.48 each. A further 180,000 were bought for $1.54. The price fell again the following day and he managed to buy 200,000 shares for $1.45 each and then a further 300,000 for $1.39 each. By the end of that day he had re-purchased all of the short sold shares. He walked out of the house to the local telephone and called Peter.

  “A good result at the races today mate!” said Jim.

  “Told you so. Party time in about three days. I’ll call you” said Peter.

  Three days later the trades were completed and the repurchase funds had been deducted from Jim’s swollen trading account. Peter rang at about 4 in the afternoon and suggested they meet again at Sails on the Dock. This time, Peg was first in with:

  “It’s our treat tonight Pete.”

  “Not the way Angie enjoys the menu, I’ll take this one as well. Next one’s yours” replied Peter.

  Angelique gave Peter a mischievous look and flashed the diamond engagement ring on her left hand. It was a subtle move but certainly caught Peg’s attention. The stone was about the size of a large pea. Peg stopped proceedings while the pair was congratulated on their engagement, and Peter for once seemed albeit briefly to take his focus off the matter of making money. But the central theme was soon resumed.

  “Check with your accountant on the balance of capital gains taxes outstanding on the whole deal and let me know where you stand, Jim” said Peter. “Take your share of the profits, plus the 100K extra we agreed and I think you’ll find my share is now about 16.5 million dollars net of taxes and costs.”

  “Mine will be over a quarter of a million dollars on the shares sold plus the bonus. Not bad for a tense couple of weeks or so, Pete” said Jim. “I could get used to this very easily. But before we go on, how did the tablets get out to so many stores? I thought you were going to be the only victim?”

  Peter placed a finger to his lips signifying the need do keep the voices hushed despite the background noises of the other patrons and busy catering staff.

  “Yeah, well” he said “the first rule in this sort of business is to cover every flank. One report of a problem or even several could be easily dismissed as coincidental. But a dozen or two cases around the city, all from one batch, point directly to the manufacturer. Plant closure is always a possibility. It didn’t happen this time but there was enough of a scare in the market that people thought it might. That’s all we needed to do; scare people out of their holdings” said Peter.

  “But why didn’t you tell me what you were going to do?” asked Jim.

  “I thought you might not want to go along with it. There were always risks. Someone could have been hurt. The less you knew, the better if you get my meaning. You were just a chancer who happened to make some good moves. No link to me. No connection. Let’s keep it that way” said Peter.

  “Are you and Jim pleased with the outcome?” said Angelique to Peg.

  “Yes. The first thing he’s going to do is buy a new Subaru Liberty” Peg replied. “He’s always liked the look of them, and now he can actually own one it’s really fantastic.”

  “Right,” said Pete. “Now for the next show.”

  “Perhaps I can suggest one too, Pete” said Jim. “I just know that global oil prices are about to skyrocket like never before, so why don’t we short sell the two listed airlines?”

  “Good thinking Jim, except every mug punter out there will be doing the same. No, you need to be further ahead of the game when nobody else is aware of what’s going on. How would you and Peg like a trip to California?”

  Once again, Peg thought, crafty old Pete has something worked out and needs their help. Oh, well, she thought, so far so good, why not go with the flow?

  “Tell us more, Pete,” she said, affecting an off-handed note.

  Jim was silent. He knew his brother well and this was the best way to force him to elaborate.

  “Okay” said Peter. “Full disclosure this time. I need a person I can trust to carry a bag of goodies into the USA and deliver it to a particular spot in the Sacramento Valley.”

  “What’s in the bag Pete?” asked Peg.

  “A little live virus commonly known as ‘mad cow’ disease” said Peter.

  “How’d you get hold of that?” rejoined Jim.

  “Remember, the less you know the better. But, let’s just say it fell out of a disease research laboratory all by itself ” said Peter softly.

  “So what’s the plan Pete?” asked Jim, not at all sure he shouldn’t back out now.

  “There are some big feed-lots in California where this is the last thing they want to be anywhere near. They’d lose their markets in Asia and there’d be a panic move away from beef all across the USA” replied Peter.

  “I thought they already had a case or two of mad cow disease in the USA. Wasn’t that why the Koreans didn’t want their beef?” said Jim.

  “Yes, but they think they’ve got it contained and possibly eliminated now. They’re not sure though” replied Peter.

  “So I suppose you’re going to arrange a case or two to turn up in one of their feed-lots?” asked Jim.

  “Not quite. It takes a while for this virus to infect an animal and the best plan would be to arrange it to happen on a dairy farm somewhere in Washington or Oregon. They could then isolate the property and go back to the hope that it will not spread. Which it won’t if the job is done right ” said Peter.

  “How’s that?” asked Peg.

  “Simple vaccination into one or two animals on the farm. No transfer to other animals outside the one property, especially if it’s a dairy farm. It’s not normally contagious” replied Peter.

  “Okay, so why take the virus over from here?” said Jim.

  “Because it’s my only source. They lock it down pretty tightly in most countries but they keep it for reference purposes and that’s how I’ve got hold of some” said Peter.

  “So what happens if we engineer an outbreak?” asked Jim.

  “The stock prices of beef producers will hit the floor. There are also some other advantages for us. You’ll have lots of time to retur
n home and quietly sell down the affected companies because it will be months before the infection is discovered. Do your selling down well in advance and just await outcomes. Possibly up to five or six months” Peter explained.

  “Do you want us to do the selling again?” said Jim.

  “No. Well not from here anyway. You can repay your aunt the money she loaned you. Have a nice trip to America and hand over the little parcel to a friend who’ll make contact with you while you are there. He will get onto the farm property on the pretext of random hygiene inspection and carry out the inoculation when he is not being observed” said Peter.

  “You always seem to have a friend in the right place when you need one,” said Peg.

  “True, I cultivate friends in many places” replied Peter. “You never know when you might need them.”

  Peg reflected that this comment encapsulated Peter from head to toe. He developed relationships that suited his purpose. He had no need of people who could not assist him in some way towards his ever-present drive for wealth. Yet, Peg observed, I’m also drawn to this behaviour; it’s a sort of a turn on. Life has been exciting to say the least in the last couple of months. Perhaps it’s also the price one has to pay for real success.

  “So all you really want us to do is go to California and deliver a sample of this biological material to your friend? Then what, just come home?” asked Jim.

  “Not quite. You’re going to meet my legal representative in the States, and use an office he’ll provide for you to do the sell down. Naturally you’ll have full authorization from me to do the trading. My funds, of course, but you’re welcome to join in again” Peter invited.

  “What do you think you’ll make this time around, Pete?” asked Jim.

  “Probably as much as ten or twelve million after expenses. No big deal. Just enough to keep the motor running. But if you want to go for it also, you could expect to double your investment” he said.

  “Jim and I’ll have a talk about it” said Peg.

  Jim’s response was to shrug his shoulders and indicate to Peter by facial expression that once Peg was in that frame of mind there’d be no changing it. The meal was concluded and Peter suggested they come over to Point Piper the following Monday for dinner.

  The short ride back to Summer Hill was completed in near silence as Jim and Peg digested the plan. But once inside neither was in the mood for sleep and quickly the debate about the ethics of what they were doing was in full swing.

  “You know the United States is much tougher on people who get up to this sort of thing than is Australia” said Peg.

  “Right, but there’s not much chance they’d pick up on what we were doing. Anyway, I don’t believe in this nonsense of growing beef in one country, especially energy-intensive grain-fed beef, and then shipping it all they way across the Pacific Ocean so some poor Asian can get his teeth into a bit of juicy meat. So what’s the harm in slowing down the trade for a bit, eh? You might even see it as a sort of conservation measure.”

  Peg seemed less convinced but didn’t really have a solid argument except that it was ‘wrong’. Jim went on to point out that they had already been complicit in one set of wrong doing and that at any time he wanted Peter could blow them right out of the water.

  “But he wouldn’t do that would he, your own brother?” Peg responded.

  “Pete would do what was good for Pete” Jim replied.

  It made little difference to Peg’s mood and they went to bed not in the best frame of mind. By next day however, Peg was more her old self and seemed as though she could now accept the next level of ‘unethical’ activity as Jim had termed it.

  The meeting at the Point Piper apartment on the following Monday evening was much more relaxed and business-like. Peter outlined how they had the two tasks. First was to carry a small vial of bio-material disguised as a roll-on tube of body deodorant and deliver this to a contact who would meet them at the prearranged truck stop outside Marysville to the north-east of Sacramento. The ‘deodorant’ would remain inside a benign-looking toiletries pack in one of their suitcases until the meeting. No customs inspection would pick the clear liquid encased in a hermetically sealed liner inside the deodorant container from normal body deodorant. They were to arrive in San Francisco by commuter jet from Los Angeles, pick up a hire car there and become mere tourists, stopping at the lay-by for a coffee and wearing Aussie shorts and T-shirts emblazoned with the boxing kangaroo. The exchange would occur when a casual visitor would enquire about the kangaroo, tell them his name was Wally and ask them to explain the difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby.

  After the exchange, they were to head back to San Francisco and make contact with the friendly lawyer who would provide the facilities and access arrangements for the selling of the stock in a leisurely manner over several days or longer depending on the market. This lawyer had been clever enough to find a way around the strict banking regulation that limited foreigners from opening bank accounts in the USA. The accounts were officially identified as belonging to individuals who were locked away in prison for extended periods. The cross referencing system had a loophole and the friendly lawyer was able to set up and deliver the account access while feeding all the bureaucratic details via the false identities. The real individuals behind these accounts would have no knowledge of the use of their personal information in such a manner. After the stock selling, Jim and Peg could take a well-earned break and spend a few weeks where their fancy took them before returning on the late night flight direct from Los Angeles to Sydney.

  Angelique again made her wonderful coffee, dinner having consisted of Peter’s specialty, a char grilled sirloin and salad, and the evening concluded in a more relaxed manner than Jim had anticipated. It was becoming routine. On the way home Peg actually said she had enjoyed the evening. It was as though their coming tasks were as simple as delivering a bag of bananas to a friend in hospital. Jim began to relax also and even to look forward to the long flights across the Pacific.

  Departure time was scheduled for six week’s time and it seemed quite an age away, but what with the need to renew passports, arrange travel insurance, get flu shots as there was a northern hemisphere outbreak of a rather nasty strain of the disease, and various other things that needed to be done, the time flew.

  It had been almost four years since Jim and Peg had had their last trip overseas and many things surprised them from the strict security checks and questioning by emigration officials and customs to the electronic passport system for clearing the queues. Finally, the sheer size of the A380 and its ability to become airborne amazed Jim particularly as they climbed aboard and reached the upper deck to take advantage of their mysterious ‘upgrade’.

  The flight over the Pacific was relatively uneventful if made a little uncomfortable by a constantly crying baby. Tired, but running on adrenalin, they changed terminals in Los Angeles and boarded an air Alaska flight for San Francisco. They’d not been to ‘Frisco before and were surprised at how large the city was. Nevertheless, Jim had previously driven on the Canadian road system and found the US freeways easy to navigate. By the end of the day they were nearing Marysville with a day to spare and checked into a roadside Holiday Inn for two nights. They partook of a swim and spa before evening meal and bed, where sleep eluded them much of the night.

  On the drive towards Marysville they found themselves a little too tense to fully enjoy the mountain scenery although on the short flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco Peg had remarked on how beautiful the snow on the mountains was.

  In plenty of time for the pre-arranged pickup they made their way along the highway to Marysville, located the truck stop on the highway just north of the town and ordered coffee and American donuts. The wait seemed to go on forever, but one consolation was the endless refills of the coffee cups. Finally, after almost giving up, a middle-aged rather heavily built male dressed in combination overalls approached and asked them if they could tell him the difference between a walla
by and a kangaroo.

  “I believe I don’t know the difference but maybe you guys could tell me. By the way, my name is Wally.”

  Greatly relieved, Jim said he had a picture somewhere and pretended to look in his carryall. Not successful, he withdrew a small canister-like cylinder and showed it briefly to the stranger who immediately covered it with his hand and slipped it into his combination leg pocket. Jim tried valiantly to give a description of the differences between the two creatures and the stranger thanked him politely and was gone in a moment.

  “One down and one to go Peg” said Jim quietly, showing his relief. “Let’s go back to the hotel and relax.”

  The following day they headed back to San Francisco and located the legal office and the contact, George Kuidel, whose name they had been given by Peter. Duly ensconced in a separate office with a computer and telephone, Jim and Peg worked into the sell mode on four large meat processing and distribution companies in the western part of the USA. What they hadn’t bargained for was that the time difference with New York meant they had only about an hour of the trading day left and it was insufficient to achieve more than a tiny fraction of the intended sell down. Next day they were back at work by 9 am with some four hours of the day to work before New York closed. This time, things went quite quickly and their trades were taken by the market in good time, although Jim felt perhaps he could have secured higher prices by going more carefully. A similar pattern was followed on the subsequent days so that at the end of three days they had sold some eighteen million dollars worth of the target entities’ stock.

  They had little further communication with the legal representative, other than to thank him for his assistance and be informed that the fee for service was already in hand from a client in Australia. This was, of course, the same client who had just the previous week transferred significant funds into a bank account that was managed by George Kuidel’s legal firm.

  After a 10-day drive down the coast as far as Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula they retraced their route to Los Angeles for their return flight to Sydney. By the time they reached home it was as though such trips were routine and no longer the occasion for any great excitement or anticipation. Home and with hours of daylight on their hands, no sooner had they returned from the grocery trip to restock household supplies than there was the inevitable call from Peter.

  “Have a good holiday mate?” he said.

  “Yeah, Pete. Real good, thanks” Jim replied.

  “Want to come over to discuss where to from here?” said Peter.

  “Sleep first mate. Okay?” replied Jim.

  “Yeah of course. Sorry” said Peter.

  “No dramas. Catch you tomorrow” Jim replied.

  The following day Jim and Peg found themselves again walking the last two blocks to the Point Piper apartment and beginning to wonder if all the security was necessary. Greeted by Angelique at the door, it was to be told that there were some people with Peter and that she thought they were from the Tax Office. Jim’s immediate impulse was flight but Angelique had the wits to grab his arm and insist that he come in and act naturally, which he and Peg then did. They were not formally introduced to the officials but just taken through as though old friends.

  Angelique said they’d go through the main living area to the outside deck and take in the sun with a beer. Jim found himself sweating as though he was under the grill, and Peg was only too aware of the tension in the air. After a while, however, the two taxation officials bade Peter farewell, thanked him for his time and trouble and departed.

  “What the hell was that all about Pete?” said Jim.

  “Not much mate. They were inquiring as to my investing accomplishments including the new boat and the apartment. They explained that their database had picked up various entries to and from savings accounts and so forth and they wanted a face to face interview. They were here before I remembered you were coming over so you walked right in on the interview. Anyway, they seemed pretty satisfied that it’s what I do for a living.”

  “I wonder if they’ll get substantial movements to and from my accounts?” said Jim.

  “Most likely they will. They might just keep a watching brief or they might come and see you as well. But remember what the story was about your Aunt over in America and the Trust Account thing. Lots of people have money in Trust Accounts. Don’t worry, it’ll all work out in the end” said Peter.

  “That’s what I do worry about” said Peg.

  “Okay, time for a celebratory drink” said Peter. “I got a little email from Washington University that said the rat got through the rattrap.”

  “Nice work, Pete” said Jim. “So how long do you reckon?”

  “Probably three months. Just have to sit it out and wait for this one” Peter responded.

  They did not have to wait three months. A cow was found to be ill and showing mad cow symptoms less than a month later. A few anxious days went by while America awaited the prospect of yet another mad cow outbreak in Washington State. Then with confirmation that the cow did in fact have mad cow disease the anticipated quarantine was imposed. Beef shipments were frozen on the wharves, contracts with important Asian customers were cancelled and feedlot enterprises across the United States and Canada were thrown into pending collapse.

  Peter said he doubted if it was their material. But there had been six weeks since the sample was delivered and it was just possible for the virus to do its damage in such a time span. That was the problem. Much was still unknown about the etiology and progress of the disease under differing conditions. Jim had a gut feeling it was their sample at work.

  The buy back of the shares was a leisurely process. Peter operated his own trading account via his American legal friend and just picked them up at bargain basement prices. In the end, one giant feed-lot entity sought Chapter 11 protection from their creditors. Some of the shares went into eschew but by then Peter and Jim had secured the repurchase of all they needed to satisfy the short selling they had done earlier and in effect replaced all the short sold shares at depreciated value for their new and now somewhat poorer owners. After legal fees, financing costs and fees, exchange losses and related costs the profit was considerably greater than that made on the first joint venture. Jim and Peg congratulated Peter for his success and the group determined that a celebration, this time at another restaurant on the waterfront, was well and truly deserved.

  After they had ordered the pre-dinner drinks, Jim lent forward and said:

  “So what’s the next little adventure going to be?”

  “The taxation people have been in touch again. They wanted to know how I had the prescience to be short across so many of the American meat processing firms. I told them that blind Freddy could see the prospects of further mad cow outbreaks since they hadn’t ever found the cause of the first one in a young dairy cow also in Washington State. I’m not sure they believed me but they’ve got nothing to go on and no evidence of anything else I might have been up to. So life moves on. The next project will be here in Oz” said Peter.

  “You’re a slippery one Pete” said Peg quietly.

  “I like your new pendant Peg. Present from my older brother?” asked Peter.

  “Yes, a real surprise. I didn’t know he cared so much. It’s a Burmese sapphire set in diamonds, and of course the necklace is pure gold.”

  “Do you know much about Myanmar or Burma?” asked Peter.

  “Not really. Except that they’ve got a pretty lousy military dictatorship” replied Peg.

  “Yes, and do you know about the gem trade there?”

  “No, I hadn’t thought about it” Peg said.

  “Well, let’s just say it’s not very pretty. There are some gems that are mined and sold outside the military’s control but the vast majority of their gem wealth is in the hands of these officials who have power of life and death over millions of poor people who are exploited and abused like you wouldn’t believe. Anyway, it’s still a nice pendant” sa
id Peter.

  “Actually” said Jim “I got a certificate with the pendant to say it was non-military.”

  “Oh, I’m convinced then” responded Peter with more than a little ironic twist to his mouth.

  “So the world’s really full of pretty lousy places to be” intoned Angelique who’d to this point been characteristically reticent. “That’s really why Pete and I want to build a gated community for very wealthy folk in the inland near Bathurst. We can live there without a care for the rest of our lives” she added, the irony of the situation completely lost as she followed with a sip of expensive imported but unremarkable tipple.

  “Wouldn’t you miss the Harbour and the bright lights?” said Jim, looking directly at Angelique.

  “Oh well, you can’t have everything. The city is not always the nice place it may appear you know” she responded.

  “I agree” said Peg, quietly. “So where does all this leave us?”

  There followed a long pause for reflection before Jim quietly stated that he felt he’d just staked out a share of the good life that to this point he’d been denied.

  “You know” he said “all my working life I never had a chance to really enjoy things. People used to say teaching must be such an easy job because you only had to deal with kids and you get so many holidays. I always found I bloody well needed all the holidays just to recover my health and well being and get prepared for another tough term or semester or trimester or whatever was coming up. I also usually had to do the house maintenance during the holidays because there was never time during term when weekends consisted of endless marking and preparation. Even when I was in the University for the last twenty years of my career the level of demand was so high I could barely get a short week or two each year to do my own thing.”

  “Are we finished with the lecture now Doctor J.?” asked Peg affectionately.

  “Yeah, sorry. I do go on a bit sometimes when I get to think about fairness and equality. All this new Work Place Changes stuff makes me laugh too; if only some of these clowns had a bit more experience of the real world, eh?” said Jim.

  “Right, now, finished with the sociology for today, let’s turn to what comes next for the dynamic team of JJ, Pete and Partners” said Peter, referring to his older brother as ‘JJ’.

  Jim felt strangely relieved that he had let go a little at the mismatch he perceived between effort and reward in the real world. It also was becoming quite apparent to him that he now really wanted to become seriously wealthy almost as if to prove his worth in ways other than the conventional but very modest regard in which the serving ‘professions’ were currently viewed by society.