Dixon smiled ruefully. “I can just see him.” He added two more to the pile, grinned and offered his hand to Entenza.
“Looks like a stand off.” Harriman decided to say nothing just yet about seven telestated contracts now locked in his desk—after going to bed the night before he had been quite busy on the phone almost till midnight. “Jack, how much did you pay for those things?”
“Standish held out for a thousand; the others were cheap.”
“Damn it, I warned you not to run the price up. Standish will gossip. How about you, Dan?”
“I got them at satisfactory prices.”
“So you won’t talk, eh? Never mind—gentlemen, how serious are you about this? How much money did you bring with you?”
Entenza looked to Dixon, who answered, “How much does it take?”
“How much can you raise?” demanded Harriman.
Dixon shrugged. “We’re getting no place. Let’s use figures. A hundred thousand.”
Harriman sniffed. “I take it what you really want is to reserve a seat on the first regularly scheduled Moon ship. I’ll sell it to you at that price.”
“Let’s quit sparring, Delos. How much?”
Harriman’s face remained calm but he thought furiously. He was caught short, with too little information—he had not even talked figures with his chief engineer as yet. Confound it! Why had he left that phone hooked in? “Dan, as I warned you, it will cost you at least a million just to sit down in this game.”
“So I thought. How much will it take to stay in the game?”
“All you’ve got.”
“Don’t be silly, Delos. I’ve got more than you have.”
Harriman lit a cigar, his only sign of agitation. “Suppose you match us, dollar for dollar.”
“For which I get two shares?”
“Okay, okay, you chuck in a buck whenever each of us does—share and share alike. But I run things.”
“You run the operations,” agreed Dixon. “Very well, I’ll put up a million now and match you as necessary. You have no objection to me having my own auditor, of course.”
“When have I ever cheated you, Dan?”
“Never and there is no need to start.”
“Have it your own way—but be damned sure you send a man who can keep his mouth shut.”
“He’ll keep quiet. I keep his heart in a jar in my safe.”
Harriman was thinking about the extent of Dixon’s assets. “We just might let you buy in with a second share later, Dan. This operation will be expensive.”
Dixon fitted his finger tips carefully together. “We’ll meet that question when we come to it. I don’t believe in letting an enterprise fold up for lack of capital.”
“Good.” Harriman turned to Entenza. “You heard what Dan had to say, Jack. Do you like the terms?”
Entenza’s forehead was covered with sweat. “I can’t raise a million that fast.”
“That’s all right, Jack. We don’t need it this morning. Your note is good; you can take your time liquidating.”
“But you said a million is just the beginning. I can’t match you indefinitely; you’ve got to place a limit on it. I’ve got my family to consider.”
“No annuities, Jack? No monies transferred in an irrevocable trust?”
“That’s not the point. You’ll be able to squeeze me-freeze me out.”
Harriman waited for Dixon to say something. Dixon finally said, “We wouldn’t squeeze you, Jack—as long as you could prove you had converted every asset you hold. We would let you stay in on a pro rata basis.”
Harriman nodded. “That’s right, Jack.” He was thinking that any shrinkage in Entenza’s share would give himself and Strong a clear voting majority.
Strong had been thinking of something of the same nature, for he spoke up suddenly, “I don’t like this. Four equal partners—we can be deadlocked too easily.”
Dixon shrugged. “I refuse to worry about it. I am in this because I am betting that Delos can manage to make it profitable.”
“We’ll get to the Moon, Dan!”
“I didn’t say that. I am betting that you will show a profit whether we get to the Moon or not. Yesterday evening I spent looking over the public records of several of your companies; they were very interesting. I suggest we resolve any possible deadlock by giving the Director—that’s you, Delos— the power to settle ties. Satisfactory, Entenza?”