Norma Lavin commented, “I suppose he’s right, Mundin. They’ve stopped us so far, one way and another. The only real change is that now these people know we’re alive and think they can take us to the cleaners.”
“Please,” said Hubble and Nelson unhappily.
Coett, grinning, assured her “You are absolutely correct For the first time I begin to doubt that we can do it.”
Mundin interrupted, “Why bankruptcy?”
They all stared at him. Finally Hubble asked diffidently, “Ah—how would you do it, Mr. Mundin?”
Mundin said, “Well, I’m no corporation lawyer, gentlemen —I leave that aspect of it to my colleague, Mr. Ryan, who is a member of the Big Bar. But it seems to me that our first step is, obviously, to form a stockholder’s committee and request an accounting from the present board. We can back it up, if you think it necessary, with a notification to the S.E.C. I know, naturally, that Arnold’s group will stall and attempt to compromise, probably offer us some kind of board representation far less than our holdings entitle us to. But that’s simple enough to handle; we simply enter protest and file suit in——”
Hubble and Nelson said, “Risky.”
Coett said, “It’ll never work. Look, youngster, that wont get us to first base, I remember when the Memphis crowd tried——”
Mundin interrupted, “The who?”
“The Memphis crowd. Arnold’s group. They took G.M.L. away from the Toledo bunch eighteen years ago through due process, the way you’re talking about But it took six years to do it, and if the Toledo bunch hadn’t been caught short in Rails they never would have made it And they’re still strong; you saw how Arnold had to put Wilcox on the board to placate them.”
Mundin, who did not know what in hell the man was talking about, said desperately, “Can’t we at least try?”
“Waste of time! When Arnold took over, G.M.L. had assets of less than ten billion. We have before us an immensely larger mass of capital. It has inertia, Mundin. Inertia. You can’t move it with a feather; you need dynamite. It’s going to take time and it’s going to take money and it’s going to take hard work and brains to budge it. I’ll tell you how.”
And he did. Mundin listened in growing bewilderment and-something that came close to horror. Bankruptcy! How did you put a corporation worth fourteen billion dollars, eminently solvent, unbelievably prosperous, into bankruptcy?
He didn’t like the answers when he heard them. But, he
told himself, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few golden eggs.
Coett, enjoying himself, was planning in broad, bright strokes: “All right, Bliss, you get your chaps on the petition for composition and arrangement; well spring that one ourselves, before they think of it and well want it ready. Then——” Mundin, grimly taking notes, stuck through it to the end. But he wasn’t enjoying the practice of corporate law nearly as much as he had always thought he would. He wished urgently for the presence of old Ryan. And a nice full tin of yen pox.
It was nearly midnight Mundin had never felt so bone-weary hi his life; even Norma Lavin was slumped in her chair. Coett, Hubble and Nelson were bright-eyed and eager, skilled technicians doing the work they best knew how to do.
But the work was done. Mundin, yawning, dragged himself to his feet He said tiredly, “So the first tiling for me to do is set up offices, eh?” ,
There was a pause.
Harry Coett sighed. He said, “Not quite the first thing, Mundin.”
“What then?” Mundin peered at him.
Coett said crisply, “Call it a matter of personal satisfaction. We’ve all heard rumors about young Lavin. I don’t sjiy they’re true; I don’t know if they’re true or not But if they’re true we don’t get off the ground.”
Mundin blazed, not quite quickly enough: “See here, Coett——”
Coett said quietly, “Hold it. WeVe all had a look at that paper of yours. It’s a power of attorney, all right, and I’ve no doubt that it’s as valid as it can be. But it isn’t a stock proxy, Mundin. It doesn’t mention G.M.L. stock in it anywhere, except in the affidavit at the end, and Don Lavin didn’t sign that himself.”