“Nice to see you, Jack,” Powers said. “Why all the hush-hush?” She placed her folio at one end of the enormous mahogany table. Seated at the other end was Deputy Director of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission Louis Gottlieb and Deputy Director Logan of the SEC Office of General Counsel.
“Before we get started, ma’am, I’d remind everyone in this room this meeting is confidential,” Gottlieb said. Powers took her seat and the lights dimmed.
“Sixteen months ago, a foreign corporation based in the Republic of Worech bought all the shares of a Nevada corporation called Realm Holdings IV. RH4 owns 100% of a Delaware LLC known as KNC Technologies. The reason these transactions came to our attention is because Sharewatch flagged six exercised options and seven stock transfers from a new public company called Fairly Unusual Games. FUG did an initial public offering last month. Their share price is up more than 210% since the IPO.”
“Sounds like the latest success story in the American Dream,” Powers said.
“Their market capitalization is now north of $770 million. As of this morning, there are $280 million worth of shorts on their shares. Nearly one out of every three outstanding shares in this company is now parked on the Do Not Pass line.”
This time, Sheila didn’t interrupt.
“Meanwhile, Fairly Unusual Games just issued its third series of bonds. One out of four shares of their company are now pledged as collateral. Now it’s not uncommon for a tech company to borrow heavily, especially in the lead up to a big product release. The only problem is the entirety of the borrowed funds has been paid to RH4 as a dividend. FUG kept none of the proceeds.”
“Sounds like they’re selling their company while keeping their shares with a side of pump and dump,” Powers replied. “Who’s orchestrating all this?”
“The guy that shows up on television and the web the most often is Garrett Wyland, CEO of Fairly Unusual Games. They are expected to release one of the most highly anticipated multiplayer fantasy games of the year in about a month. With all the hype surrounding this thing, our analysts would expect this company to do very well over the next 24 months.”
“So you’re wondering why they look like they are frantically staving off Chapter 11,” Powers concluded.
“To put it bluntly, ma’am. These guys are draining every spare cent out of this company. Yesterday, Wyland sold 70% of his stake in Fairly Unusual Games stock,” Logan said. An audible gasp was heard.
“A month after an IPO, the CEO of the company sells 70% of his stake?” Powers asked. “Why doesn’t he just walk into a convenience store with a shotgun and smile at the camera?”
“None of us can figure out what the angle is here, ma’am. By all objective measures, Wyland engineered a nine-figure IPO. A month later, his balance sheet is wrecked, the company is weeks away from running out of cash and he has all but publicly announced he is either engaged in insider trading, or he’s the stupidest human being alive.”
“Where is their board in all this?” Winchester asked. “This is a near billion-dollar company without a single first-year law student in the building? The board would have had to approve such a massive sell-off, wouldn’t they?”
“That presumes Wyland doesn’t own his board,” Logan replied. “They might just be a rubber stamp.”
“What happened when this hit the press?” Powers asked.
“Fairly Unusual’s stock didn’t drop much, so the practical impact of it wasn’t all that significant. It was reported on, but most of this company’s stock is owned by video game enthusiasts. As far as they are concerned, this guy is untouchable.”
“What about the borrowed money?”
“In the wind. RH4 and all the upstream entities are private companies. Our only clues are in Fairly Unusual’s quarterly reports, and we won’t see anything new for at least another ten weeks,” Gottlieb said. “My guess is they’ve built a closely-held cash pipeline and funneled every dime out of the country to the no-extradition home of a company called ‘FU Unlimited.’ Namely the Republic of Worech.”
“Catchy name,” Powers sighed.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say this guy is framing himself,” Winchester muttered. “What could he possibly stand to gain? He already had all the money he could spend! Then he turns around and poof! All his cash is debt!”
“What do you need from me, Mr. Gottlieb?” Powers asked.
“This guy is a hair’s breadth away from violating the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and SEC rule 10b-5. We need to get ahead of this, because this game of theirs is the talk of the Internet. Some media outlets are estimating this company is getting ten million dollars a day in free publicity. If this thing goes up, it’s going to be like setting fire to a Himalayan mountain of gasoline-soaked gunpowder, and the first asses that will get burned are all gathered in this room.”
“He hasn’t broken any laws yet, Mr. Gottlieb,” Powers replied. “I need to see whatever this guy is trying to avoid before I have a case. As long as his company is making money hand over fist, his defense will be that he was just taking profits.”
“We’ve assembled 999 pieces of a puzzle, ma’am. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t bring this to your attention.”
“Profit is legal, Mr. Gottlieb. Why us?”
“The reason we’re here is because the Western District of Texas is home to our best state-level investigators. RH4 owns property in this state, and FUG has a satellite office in Austin. We can run a nationwide investigation from this building, if necessary. In the meantime, if this thing goes bad, we need to be Johnny on the Spot or the next time we look for this guy we’re going to find him on a no-extradition-treaty beach in the South Pacific.”
Powers sighed. “Very well. I’ll convene a Grand Jury this afternoon. I’ll need you to coordinate with Mr. Winchester’s office so we can get the relevant information in the right hands. Let’s adjourn until Monday the 21st, at which time I’ll expect your office to provide me some evidence a crime was committed, Mr. Gottlieb. Agreed?”
The assembled officials nodded and began packing up their materials.
“Ten million a day?” Winchester said with an exhausted look.
“Video games are bigger than Hollywood,” Powers replied. “And apparently one hell of a lot stupider.”
Chapter Eleven
“Game Company CEO Target of Federal Probe” – Miami Examiner
“I Want My Money Back!” – Fantasy Network
“No Wrongdoing: Fairly Unusual Spokesman” – Dallas Herald
“Fairly Unusual Stock Down in Heavy Trading” – Finance International
“Wyland’s Company Considering Bankruptcy?” – Enterprise Magazine
“Whither the Crowdfunding?” – The Gamer Report
“Garrett Wyland in Hiding?” – Total Celebrity News
“We’re all Fucked” – Orbit’s Gamer
“Biggest Game Crash in History Looms” – Los Angeles Post
“Sue! Sue! Sue!” – The Zoo Crew
“Bastards!” – Oregon Today
Chapter Twelve
A butter commercial was abruptly halted on television screens across the American south.
“This is a WZBO-TV Breaking News Bulletin”
Newsroom personnel ran in all directions. The station control room looked like a firehouse with alarms going off. “Main camera! Main camera! Charlie! Give me a thumbs up! Lights! Studio is go! Green lights everyone!”
The CHANNEL 6 JACKSON station logo came up on the main screen over a white block-lettered BREAKING NEWS announcement. Xylophone and low brass-heavy dramatic TV news music blared. The sonorous voice-over announcer’s words filled the airwaves. All they had was the stock intro, so they went with it. Seconds mattered.
“This is WZBO TV Channel Six, the number one station for news in Jackson and greater Hinds County. With Charlie Thompson, Teresa Baker, Loretta Flowers weather and Dan Brown sports.”
“We are go! We are go! We are
going live in Five! Four! Three! Two!”
The assistant floor producer flashed a “number two” hand signal and held one hand to his headphones as he pointed directly at Charlie Thompson, 5PM anchor for WZBO TV News based in Jackson, Mississippi. Superimposed in the shot to his left was the Fairly Unusual Games logo composited with a lights-flashing police car.
“This is Charlie Thompson reporting live from the WZBO TV newsroom. We have unconfirmed reports of a police standoff with a man witnesses have identified as Fairly Unusual Games CEO Garrett Wyland.”
The coverage switched to a live shot of a blocked interstate highway from the vantage point of a nearby helicopter. At least a dozen police vehicles with lightbars flashing were gathered across all four lanes of traffic. Shops and homes could be seen in the distance. The LIVE bug was displayed in the upper corner of the shot with the lower third chyron headline “GUNMAN SOUGHT BY POLICE.”
“We have no official confirmation at this time, but it appears the standoff followed a routine traffic stop by a Mississippi Highway Patrol unit on Interstate 20 near the 468 junction. Apparently at least two other individuals have been spotted inside the vehicle.”
“According to at least one witness, a suspect pointed what appeared to be a weapon at police before officers opened fire, striking the suspect at least once. Wyland then fell from the off-ramp into a nearby flood control channel. Although no body has yet been recovered, police believe the suspect died as a result of injuries sustained in the fall.”
“Again, we have unconfirmed reports Garrett Wyland, CEO of Fairly Unusual Games, has been shot and killed by officers of the Mississippi Highway Patrol after a brief standoff on Interstate 20 near the 468 interchange. We now switch live to Ronaldo Martinez at the scene of this breaking news story...”
Chapter Thirteen
“People who use ‘whilst’ instead of ‘while’ in everyday conversation are like people who whistle in the men’s room. They need to be beaten with a pipe.”
Jordan wasn’t listening. He was staring at the only message in his recently cleaned-out email. Robb finished his soda and clacked out a reply to the other channel he was monitoring.
“Dude, what are you staring at? Are you adding your tenth princess or something?” The incoming text alert tone went off on Robb’s phone. Jordan saw him replying to it through the video call.
“You’re not going to believe this, so I’m just going to show you,” Jordan said as he set up his client to display his desktop on Robb’s screen. There was a pause. Jordan saw the color drain from Robb’s face.
“You’re making this up,” he said weakly.
“No I’m not. Look at my e-mail.”
“It’s a promo. It’s fake. It can’t be real!”
“Get everyone and get them now. We meet at Location Delta in thirty minutes.”
“It’s 11:30 at night!”
“Now, Robb!”
Jordan didn’t even bother to turn off his equipment. He grabbed two pieces of paper from his printer, his phone and wallet and burst out the front door at a full run.
Location Delta was the one donut shop in Jordan’s home town that was not only open late, but was a reasonable distance from the homes of all the other No Name Games producers. Jordan’s relatively crappy hatchback got there in record time, but still managed to make him the last to show up. Amy, Robb, Marc and Dave were all gathered at their regular back table, which was the only white econo-plastic sugar-resistant food station in the “dining” area without at least one permanent stain from fruit filling, coffee or chocolate. Amy was wearing her bear ears hat and yawning uncontrollably. Marc just stared at his coffee. Dave was playing on his phone and Robb was powering down a stale cinnamon roll.
Jordan slapped a printout of the e-mail he had received on the table. “Someone explain this to me, because so help me if one of you did this I’m going to–”
“Do we look like we’re in any condition to play practical jokes?” Robb mumbled through a mouthful of 500-calorie fancy donuts.
Amy managed to rip the e-mail out of Marc’s hands, since he was in no condition to read anything. She quickly scanned the document, then realized she was looking at something worthy of far more than a cursory glance. In short order, she was carefully reading words at about one a second, desperately trying to understand what she was seeing, yet unable to convince herself it was real.
“Did you try to log in?”
“Hell no,” Jordan replied. “Wherever that link goes, it’s guaranteed to be a phishing site. My bank account would be drained by breakfast.”
“All sixteen dollars!” Robb said before taking another bite.
“What is it?” Dave asked without looking up from his phone.
“A 100-year pre-paid subscription to Kings and Conquests.”
“Bullcrap. Fairly Unusual is going out of business. Their stock is trading at like eight dollars or something,” Dave replied as he leveled up his nine-pixel-wide frog.
“There’s a map,” Jordan said. That got Marc’s attention. He looked over Amy’s shoulder as she flipped to the second page.
“Safekeep? What is this supposed to be a map of?”
“Some location in Kings and Conquests,” Jordan replied. “Apparently so treacherous even high level players are warned not to go there.”
“Oh big deal, it’s a video game,” Robb said dismissively. “Oooooh, don’t go there!”
“It takes months to level to 75, Robb. If you die, you get to start over with nothing,” Jordan said. “It is a big deal. Wherever that area is on the map, it’s dangerous enough the developer is warning people to stay out.”
“What developer? Fairly Unusual is kaput! Half their management was indicted for insider trading!”
“The only way we can verify this is by logging in to whatever is at the other end of this link,” Amy concluded. “Then we’ll see if we can redeem this subscription and find out what’s going on.”
“Who sent you that e-mail?” Dave asked.
“Garrett Wyland.”
“Okay news flash, Mr. Space Cadet. Wyland has been dead for two months,” Robb said. “Now it’s guaranteed to be fake.”
“My laptop is in the car,” Amy said. “Let’s find out what this is all about.” By the time Amy returned, the group was in a full-fledged debate.
“Okay look, look!” Dave half-shouted. “They found money in his car! They found a fake ID in his car! They found an airline ticket! He stole the cash and was in the process of skipping town when he was shot!”
“Why would a guy with a billion-dollar company and a billion-dollar game run out the back door with a few thousand bucks!?” Jordan replied angrily. “It makes no sense!”
“What kind of an idiot gets shot in Mississippi?” Rob added. “Where was he going? Kansas?”
“Hey, I’m from Kansas!” Amy snapped.
“Exactly,” Robb replied with a ridiculous grin.
Amy rolled her eyes. “Alright, let’s see if this thing is real first. Then you two gorillas can beat your chests at each other.” Amy booted up her machine and configured a new user with no permissions in an isolated file system. She carefully typed the URL in Jordan’s e-mail into a text-only browser and hit enter. An innocuous-looking official page for Fairly Unusual Games appeared with what at least resembled a standard sign-up page for a new account.
“Looks harmless enough. No scripts. No redirects. All their code is server-side. There’s nothing on this page that can affect the client,” Amy muttered. She swapped the URL into a regular browser. All of her filters activated the moment it opened, but none produced even a single warning. No malware. No cross-domain warnings or ads. The Kings and Conquests logo filled most of the screen. Underneath was a single input field to redeem a reward code.
“Alright, type that code in,” Jordan said.
Amy carefully entered the 14-digit combination of letters and numbers. The browser paused for a moment, then the screen went black. Another Kings and Conquests
logo appeared, but this one was the opening for a full-screen video. The face of Garrett Wyland appeared. He was impeccably dressed in a gray suit and was standing in the press room at Fairly Unusual Headquarters in Malibu. To his left were the lights of the nearby bay and the beach. To his right was a comfortable looking reception area.
“Hello, Jordan,” he began. All five No-Name producers gasped. “I’m sure you’re wondering what’s going on. I’m afraid I won’t be able to offer you many clues, as by now circumstances have probably progressed far beyond my control. What I can tell you is my game is up and running, and you have a Founders-level account with an unlimited subscription.”
Amy looked up at Jordan with wide eyes.
“Everything I told you at GamesWest is true, but I left one thing out. I did this because I wanted to share the information with you privately. The answers to all your questions are in the Safekeep. If you reach it, you will own a controlling share of my company and Kings and Conquests itself. I strongly recommend you not divulge this information to anyone. If you do decide to enlist help, choose people you can trust. As a Founder, you have virtually unlimited power to grant accounts and occasional level rewards to your friends. I cannot offer you any advice except to say if someone else finds the Safekeep first, it will be theirs. Your opportunity to own a piece of gaming history will be gone forever.”
Jordan felt his throat tighten. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. It didn’t work.
“What you have in your hands right now is worth well in excess of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Naturally, you can sell it and walk away. It’s a lot of money and if you manage it properly you’ll do well. On the other hand, if you redeem the subscription and enter the world of Kings and Conquests, you will be in a race with millions to find what I have hidden.”
“This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Robb said in a faraway tone.
Overpowered: A LitRPG Thriller (Kings and Conquests Book 1) Page 5
