The Last Hedge

by Green, Carey

  Dylan jogged back through the chain of events that had transpired. It all made sense. He had been placed with Matland for no particular reason except to spy on him. They had used him to catch a rat, then discarded him along with the trap. His explosion at Matland had not helped the situation. He had ostensibly created his own demise.

  “Does the FBI know this?”

  “I don’t know. But T-t-hey might. They are the FBI. Of course, they could be using you to get close to Corbin. Just like your old firm did.” Dylan looked at the stack of papers, then at Adam on the floor. He threw the papers at Adam. He turned and exited the room without speaking. Adam followed him as he left the room.

  “Are you going to help me?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Here,” Adam said, thrusting a piece of paper towards Dylan. “Skype me, find you changed your mind.”

  Dylan snatched the piece of paper and turned in one fast move. He exited the room without turning back, and slammed the door loudly as he exited the apartment.

  Chapter 21

  They were huddled in Highland’s office. Vanessa sat across the desk from Dan, while Conroy stood in the corner.

  “You needed to talk,” Highland said. “So how are we looking?”

  “Our native is getting restless,” Conroy said. “He wants to fly the coop. I spoke to him an hour ago. He wants to get out. He doesn’t want to tarnish his career.”

  “He works on Wall Street. He’s already tarnished.”

  “We know that. But still, he thinks he should just cut his losses and get the hell out of there. He claims the guys are weird: They’ve been hit by heavy losses and the boss is giving him the willies.”

  “Heavy losses?” Highland ears perked up. “What happened?”

  “One of the traders went haywire and lost a bundle. Something with their systems.”

  “But not Cash?”

  “No,” Conroy said. “He’s actually making money. Corbin even gave him a bonus. I told him he was crazy for wanting to quit.”

  Highland leaned back to interpret the information. He then leaned forward with his arms stretched across his desk.

  “Did you stop him?”

  “I told him to calm down; to come in and talk to us.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “On his way home, I guess. I told him to call me or Vanessa tomorrow.”

  “Good,” Highland said. “Smart thinking, Timmy.” Highland leaned back in his chair and glanced at both of them. “So now what?” Highland asked.

  “Don’t know.” Conroy said. “That’s why we’re here.”

  “Dan,” Vanessa said, “the naked short selling piece is not working out.”

  “Nothing?”

  “There’s been a few short sales without locates, but nothing that the S.E.C. would even raise an eye over.”

  “Is he looking closely?”

  Conroy shrugged his shoulders. “Seems to be. He’s found a few things that we’ve found useful, but not widespread naked short selling.”

  “Tell him to look harder.”

  “What if they find out?” Vanessa asked. “We can’t just force him to be a spy for us.”

  “Why not?” Highland countered. “He’s done it so far.”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he has to continue. We push him too far. He’s out of there.”

  “That is true,” Highland said. “So brainstorm a little bit. Can we somehow pressure him? Maybe we can just twist his arm a bit.”

  “We could try it,” Conroy said.

  “He’s worried about his job,” Vanessa offered. “It’s not exactly a picnic out on the street.”

  “Are you paying him?”

  “Not yet,” Conroy said.

  “Throw that out there,” Highland said. “Entice him.”

  “I don’t think a few thousand dollars is going to really impress Dylan Cash.”

  “We’ve gone higher at times.”

  “But,” Vanessa asked, “What if the Corbins are legit and he’s snooping around in their business? They could fire him and he’s out on the street.”

  “Life is full of ‘Buts’, Vanessa. But what if they’re not? That’s the thing he has to worry about. Tell him if he’s in there, we’ve got his back with full immunity. If he doesn’t cooperate, and the Corbins go down,” Highland said, “well, that could be a very different story.”

  “We don’t have anything on him. We can’t just coerce him without a reason.”

  Highland smiled as he got up and went to the whiteboard in his office. He erased the board and picked up a blue marker. He wrote one word and underlined it for emphasis.

  Madoff

  “I’m going to give you two a little inside information that no one in this office is really privy too. Thanks to Mr. Madoff, Thompson is practically having a wet dream with all this Ponzi scheme stuff going on. The scope has changed now. With all this hedge-fund fraud activity, we need to get closer. I’ve gotten more information on Corbin from my source. We just need to get a look at his balance sheet to see what his positions are and if they are real. We want to match those up against actual client reports. If they match up okay, no problem and Cash is free. If not, we got a problem. Can he get us the balances sheets?”

  “But,” Vanessa said, “we were looking at naked short selling, not fraud.”

  “I know,” Highland said. “All the more reason why you need to keep Cash in there. I want the balances from all the Corbin accounts and the positions. Can he get them for us?”

  “What?” Vanessa asked. “That’s not why you sent us in there.”

  “It is now?” Highland said. Conroy looked at Vanessa, than back at Highland.

  “Vanessa has a point, Dan. We can’t turn this into a grab bag. The guy could seriously get nailed if he starts stealing proprietary information.”

  “Use a little trickery. You say his friend is good with computers, just ask for it casually. See what he says.”

  “We can try it.”

  “I don’t think we should do this,” Vanessa said. Both men’s eyes shone on her like spotlights.

  “Any particular reason?” Highland asked.

  “We’re lying to the guy; making up stories. It just seems like we’re looking for ghosts under the bed.”

  “The bad guys aren’t always so forthcoming with information, Vanessa. Sometimes we have to use obtuse methods to find out what we need.”

  “Understood,” Vanessa said. “But we gave him our trust. We asked about naked short sales. Now we’re going to hand him a laundry list of things to look for?”

  “Unfortunately,” Dan said, “this time we are. Besides, Conroy told me you and Cash hit it off.” Vanessa shot a glance at Conroy.

  “We just had dinner.”

  “And that’s great. Be friendly with him. Take him out. Just see if you can get more information out of him. Got it?”

  “Okay,” Conroy said. “Understood.”

  “Good,” Dan offered. “You have my full authorization to do whatever it takes. Understood. Vanessa?” Highland asked quietly.

  Vanessa shook her head belatedly and quietly murmured “yes.”

  Chapter 22

  Dylan waited inside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal for Vanessa to arrive. The sun was still beaming in a sky whose summer imprint had been more rainy than hot. Dylan had removed his jacket because of the humidity, and the back of his shirt was wet with sweat. He was disheveled from the day’s activities and was impatient for her to arrive so that he could escape from the heat. He looked at his watch, and saw Vanessa approaching as soon as he looked up.

  “Hello,” Dylan said. “Conroy promoted you? You’re solo now?”

  “Nothing like that. He got a call on something and had to run out.”

  “Want to take a ferry ride? Grab a beer on board.” Dylan asked.

  “Sure,” Vanessa said casually. “We could be tourists. Just for a few minutes.”

  Dylan laughed. “Sure. Why not.” They began to
walk towards the mouth of the ferry entrance, and embarked amongst the myriad of travelers.

  On board, most people were huddled inside, faceless and expressionless, happy only at the prospect of heading home. Dylan purchased two beers at the ferry concession. They then made their way up top towards the open deck at the front of the ferry, which soon departed, leaving the backdrop of Manhattan behind in the distance.

  The wind and breeze of the ferry ride was a welcome relief from the torpor of the heat. Both of them took healthy swigs of beer, as they stared in the direction of the Statue of Liberty.

  “Nice day for a ferry ride, huh?”

  “Yeah,” Dylan said. “Not what I had in mind for the evening, but pretty cool.” He took another sip of beer.

  “I can remember the first time I took the ferry. It was Christmas break. I had come down from Boston to visit a friend at Columbia. A bunch of us were in his dorm room, drunk at 3 a.m. They had this great idea to take the ferry at night. So in ten degree weather, we took the Number One train all the way downtown and stood near this very spot, drunk and laughing in the freezing cold.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  “It was fun. Of course, we didn’t realize that at three in the morning in the winter, when the ferry doesn’t make a straight loop. We had to wait around for about an hour or two for the ferry to return.”

  “What did you do?”

  “We looked for a bar, but they were all closed.” Dylan paused and shrugged his shoulders. “College life. At the time, school seemed so tough. Looking back on it, it was all so carefree.”

  “I know the feeling.”

  Vanessa took another healthy drink from his beer. She turned towards Dylan with a concerned look.

  “Conroy said something came up, that you were thinking of quitting.”

  “Yes, something came up; that’s one way to put it. The guy I’m working for had a panic attack, and I just met a crazy man claiming that the guy who had my job before me was murdered.”

  “Who was this person?”

  “I have no idea. He got my email and my IM and started sending me crazy messages. After I met wet with Conroy, he called. After the meltdown at work, I decided to investigate. The guy was some crazy psychopath living in an apartment full of cats.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “I’m not creative enough to make this up.”

  “So what did he say?”

  “He told me this strange story about this guy Luke being killed. He had some dates scribbled down, basically gibberish.”

  “Did you get a copy?”

  “I got the hell out of there as fast as I could.”

  “Are you telling me the truth?”

  “Why would I lie to you? You think this is fun for me?”

  . “No,” she said.

  “But this guy seemed to have some case files about me and my old job.”

  “Like what?”

  “There was an S.E.C. investigation, regarding my old colleagues. I quit before it went down, but what he said, and what the document said seemed to be real.”

  “How would he have accessed the case files?”

  “He says he hacked into a database. Is that possible?”

  “I guess. I have no way of knowing.”

  “Could you go to the S.E.C. and find out if what he showed me is real?”

  “Uh, maybe, but I would need some reason. I can’t just start poking around with no justification.”

  “Isn’t that what you’re asking me to do? Isn’t it?”

  Vanessa shook her heard. Though what Dylan said was ostensibly true, Vanessa tried to frame it in a different light.

  “Completely different things. White-collardcrime, especially with hedge funds, is rampant. We’re pursuing as many cases as is reasonable. That’s different than just looking at random individuals.”

  “And I am the bait?”

  “You are not the bait. Our boss, Dan Highland, doesn’t want you to quit just yet. He thinks that with all this Madoff stuff, that something else may be going on.”

  “No shit. But I haven’t seen any fraud.”

  Dylan exhaled and stared off into the distance. Another ferry had just passed in the opposite direction. A group of kids on board were doing the wave.

  “Highland thinks the Corbin is money laundering. He’s trying to build a case that the Corbins are moving money through Antigua.”

  “Do you believe it?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I believe. Highland is making the decisions.”

  “Okay, but I want your opinion.”

  “I’ve already told you more than I should have.”

  “Meaning?”

  “I have my loyalty to the Bureau.”

  “And none to me?”

  “What does that mean?”. The ferry was picking up speed now, leaving the city in the distance as they sped towards Staten Island.

  “I’m not asking you to tell me everything. Just, in your opinion, is this money laundering?”

  “I think it’s possible that’s what this is, but the evidence is not clear. Could it be true? Yes. Could Highland be grandstanding? Possibly.”

  “You think he and Conroy are full of shit?”

  “I didn’t say that. I just mean that he might be a little eager to push this.”

  “And I’m the guinea pig?”

  “No, Dylan you’re not. If you quit, you quit, and you’re out. But it could all blow over. Besides, Highland will protect you. He’ll also pay you if necessary.”

  “Pay me?”

  “It’s part of the process.”

  “What about my career? If I get implicated in something like this, I’m screwed.”

  “I understand that. But you will get full immunity if you work with us. Besides, you’ve done nothing wrong. We’ll protect you as much as we can.”

  Dylan looked out at the water. Manhattan was now shimmering in the distance, a huge piece missing where the Towers once were.

  “What if these guys find out and whack me?”

  “It’s not like in the movies;.I don’t think you need to worry about that. If you’re in danger, we’ll go back to Highland.”

  “Highland? That’s funny. I was hoping you were going to say that you were going to protect me.”

  Vanessa smiled as he took her hand.

  “Is that a wish?”

  “Yeah,” Dylan said. “Maybe. I wish we had met under these circumstances.”

  “Under different circumstances, we wouldn’t have met.”

  “I know.”

  Dylan took Vanessa in his arms and kissed her. Afterwards, they turned away from each other and stared out over the water. They finished their beers just as the ferry was pulling into the station.

  Chapter 23

  The trading day had just ended. Ray Corbin walked into his brother’s office and shut the door behind him. He did not bother to speak. Josh was in his usual position, reclined back in his Aeron chair, his feet propped upon his desk while he stared into three computer screens. Ray pulled up a chair and placed it in front of Josh’s desk. Josh kept working until his brother finally spoke.

  “Josh,” Ray said. “I got your email. So what does it mean?”

  Though Ray Corbin had not been up on his technology in recent years, he knew what a firewall was and its importance. He and Josh had barely communicated in the last week, so when he received an email marked urgent he knew that it was time for a chat.

  “It means that there’s been a security breach.” Ray paused for further explanation. Josh Corbin slowly removed his heavy legs from the desk and planted them firmly on the floor in front of him. He swiveled his chair to face his brother.

  “I’m not sure yet. But the firewall has been breached. And that’s not a good thing.”

  “The firewall, huh?”

  “Yeah, and that’s just the tip of it.”

  “What else has been breached?”

  “I’m not one hundred percent sure.”

  “Meani
ng?”

  “I just realized in real-time that this was happening. I haven’t had the time to do a complete assessment.”

  “What are you waiting for?”

  Josh’s face turned red. Ray watched him as his breathing increased and his words slowed down.

  “I wanted to speak with you before I took action.”

  “Okay, I’m here. We’re talking. What exactly was hacked into? Can you at least tell me that?”

  “Server NYC1102.”

  “Do I look like R2D2? What the hell is that?”

  “It’s where we store confidential client and trade data. I’m still looking into it.” Josh’s nostrils were flaring. Ray got up from his chair and began to pace the room. For a moment he stopped and peered out onto the trading floor. After a minute or so, he sat down in the chair and placed his head into his cupped hands.

  “Who did it? Any ideas?”

  “I think it was probably one of those two geniuses you hired.”

  “Who? Dylan and Binky?”

  “Yeah,” Josh said, “Batman and Robin. I’m not sure which one. We haven’t had any issues like this until they got here. And they pressed me to grant them access to everything. Which you forced me to give them.”

  “Do you know which one?”

  “I don’t know. Whoever did it was smart enough to suppress their IP address,

  leaving no trace of which machine it came from. If I had to guess, it was probably the little one. He seems to be pretty bright. However, I would guess that he wasn’t acting on his own.”

  “So you think Dylan had him do it, huh?”

  “Yeah,” Josh said, bobbing his head up and down like a piñata. “I would guess so.”

  Ray stared at the mess on Josh’s desk. There were open books, stacks of papers in no particular order, and even several half-eaten meals. For a man as a fastidious as Ray, even being in such a place disgusted him beyond measure.

  “Why don’t you clean this sty up? How can you even think in here?”

  “I manage to think, even while this place is sinking faster by the day.”

  “Sinking?”

  “Ray...The P and L. We lost over two hundred million dollars last week, and you’re complaining about my desk.”