“But he bought a month’s worth.”
“Yes.”
“And so, where are the rest of the pills?”
“That is the question.”
A moment passed. “You mentioned that the medicine cabinet was open. What are you thinking? That someone removed them from his house?”
“We’ll have to do some checking — his car, at work, maybe at any gyms he had memberships at to see if he kept any meds there. But yes: who removed them from the house. I’m having the pharmaceutical firm verify the lot number. I want to see if there were any other reported suicides from people taking this medication, specifically this lot number of it.”
“You said reported suicides.”
“Yes. Because if someone did remove the rest of the pills from Corey’s house before the police arrived—”
“His death might not have been a suicide. And there might be other victims out there just like him.”
“For now, that’s the line of inquiry I want to pursue. Yes.”
“Hypothesize, evaluate, test, and revise.”
She knew me pretty well after all.
“Exactly.”
I checked the time and saw that Lien-hua should have her cast on by now, so after ending the call with Margaret I left to meet her, fill her in and let her know we were ready to have her do a little profiling on the case of Corey Wellington’s death.
Keith stared out the window of the Boeing 757 at the ocean far below him.
Vanessa sat beside him with the law brief from one of her clients laid open on the tray table in front of her. However, rather than review the papers, she was taking a break and was coolly observing the flight attendants as they served the people ahead of them, studying them one at a time as if they were specimens and not fellow human beings.
Keith still hadn’t seen her sleep at all on this trip.
She was a woman who seemed to want nothing more than to please their employer, Valkyrie. The longer she worked for him, the more it seemed to become her obsession.
Not a woman Keith wanted to get on the bad side of.
He had not enjoyed this trip to India, and he was glad to be on his way back to America. At last it was all coming together. And by the weekend this assignment would be over.
The shipment should be arriving in just under forty-eight hours, but in the meantime he and Vanessa had a few people to visit to make sure the drugs would enter the supply chain and be shipped to the pharmacies.
Their plane would be landing tonight at Logan International Airport in Boston at 9:39 p.m. local time. Then they could get a hotel room, lie low, and, at least in Keith’s case, catch up on some sleep.
He imagined that Vanessa might rest for an hour at the most before being ready to go out and do Valkyrie’s bidding again.
And although Keith said nothing to her, he hoped that whatever that might be, this time it would not involve the pruning shears he had in his checked luggage.
40
Because of the electronic trail it might leave, Valkyrie avoided online trading and instead made all his financial transactions through a certain very reliable broker in Dubai.
It was after office hours there, but that wouldn’t make any difference to the woman who managed his investments. She was a discreet lady from whom he had kept his identity hidden and whom he had paid well not to ask any questions that either of them would end up finding awkward. A recent law in Dubai allowed for the nondisclosure of the client’s name in some financial transactions, and Valkyrie had taken advantage of the somewhat expedient legislation.
When she picked up, he greeted her, then said, “I would like to buy some put options in PTPharmaceuticals.”
A pause as she typed, no doubt checking the company’s recent performance. “I’m not sure this is the time for that, they’ve been performing well lately.”
“Regardless, I’m not confident that they’ll trend in this direction for long.”
A put option is the right but not the obligation to sell the underlying share at a fixed price. An option, whether that’s a put option or a call option, is essentially a bet, and he was betting that the stock value of the company was going to drop. Locking in a price now that was below the current market value, one that he could then sell the options at when the stock dropped below that price, he would be able to sell at a profit. In this case, a substantial profit.
It was the same strategy Al Qaeda had used to raise millions for their cause on 9/11.
And he would use it to raise money for his cause as well.
“How much?” his broker asked him. “How many options?”
“One million struck at a hundred.”
A beat of silence. “One million. I’m not sure that’s possible.”
“It is. I looked into it.”
“What price are you suggesting?”
“Half of what it’s trading at. And I want a three-month expiry.”
“Half?”
“Yes.”
“As your broker, I have to say I would suggest you rethink this investment.”
“Of course, and that is one of the things I respect about you. In this case, my mind is made up.”
“So you’re certain about this?”
“I am.”
“And you know what this will cost you on this premium if the stock price remains the same, or continues to rise?”
“Yes.”
When he exercised the option at expiry, he planned to cash settle rather than physically settle. It would be harder to track, since, in essence, no one would be buying or selling the shares, and the transaction would be completed without his actually owning the underlying shares. He was confident he wouldn’t have to let the option expire worthless. Confident enough to bet millions on it.
“Alright, then. I’ll send you an e-mail confirming the specifics.”
“Thank you.”
They ended the call and Valkyrie set down the phone.
Some people confused short selling with buying put options, but they were entirely different kinds of transactions, and in this case, put options were definitely the more prudent choice.
After everything went through, after the counterfeit Calydrole was shipped and the suicides began, he would make known who had already taken the medication. That would help even more with the investment he’d just made and with the expected returns, which he estimated to be upward of sixty million dollars.
Money he was going to put to good use.
He received a message from Alhazur Daudov, his Chechen contact, that he would be arriving in DC on Friday night.
That was unexpected, but undoubtedly Alhazur was interested in the progress of the shipment, and it did make sense that he would want to meet with Valkyrie.
Alhazur never traveled alone, so Valkyrie knew that he would be accompanied by at least one or two of his soldiers. Freedom fighters. Suicide bombers dedicated wholeheartedly to the cause.
Valkyrie also knew that they always traveled with explosives when they were overseas, but he wondered if they would be so bold as to smuggle suicide vests into the States — particularly DC. Though he didn’t want to rule it out, he considered it most likely that they would not.
In either case, he didn’t anticipate any problems, but he was willing to deal with enhanced negotiation procedures if necessary.
41
Lien-hua felt optimistic.
The chest tube had been removed, she was out of ICU, her leg was in a cast, and if all went as planned, she would be leaving the hospital tomorrow.
Yes, she was still in a lot of pain and it would take her weeks or perhaps months to fully recover, but she was feeling markedly better than she had a couple of days ago. Already she was anxious to get out of the hospital and start on the path back to her typical routine.