‘What?’
The finance guy breathed in. Stared at his employer. Saw a small, crumpled man in a ridiculous British suit sitting at a desk that alone was now worth a hundred times the corporation’s entire net assets.
‘You asshole, I told you not to do this. Why not just take a page in the Wall Street Journal and say, hey, people, my company’s worth exactly less than jack shit?’
‘What are you talking about?’ Stone asked.
‘I’ve got the banks on the phone,’ the guy said. ‘They’re watching the ticker. Stone stock popped up an hour ago, and the price is unwinding faster than the damn computers can track it. It’s unsaleable. You’ve
sent them a message, for God’s sake. You’ve told them you’re insolvent. You’ve told them you owe them sixteen million dollars against security that isn’t worth sixteen damn cents.’
‘I didn’t put stock in the market,’ Stone said again.
The finance guy nodded sarcastically.
‘So who the hell did? The tooth fairy?’
‘Hobie,’ Stone said. ‘Has to be. Jesus, why?’
‘Hobie?’ the guy repeated.
Stone nodded.
‘Hobie?’ the guy said again, incredulous. ‘Shit, you gave him stock?’
‘I had to,’ Stone said. ‘No other way.’
‘Shit,’ the guy said again, panting. ‘You see what he’s doing here?’
Stone looked blank, and then he nodded, scared. ‘What can we do?’
The finance director dropped his hands off the door frame and turned his back.
‘Forget we. There’s no we here any more. I’m resigning. I’m out of here. You can fix it yourself.’
‘But you recommended the guy,’ Stone yelled.
‘I didn’t recommend giving him stock, you asshole,’ the guy yelled back. ‘What are you? A moron? If I recommended you visit the aquarium to see the piranha fish, would you stick your damn finger in the tank?’
‘You’ve got to help me,’ Stone said. The guy just shook his head. ‘You’re on your own. I’m resigning. Right now my recommendation is you go down to what was my office and get started. There’s a line of phones on what was my desk, all ringing. My recommendation is you start with whichever one is ringing the loudest.’
‘Wait up,’ Stone yelled. ‘I need your help here.’
‘Against Hobie?’ the guy yelled back. ‘Dream on, pal.’
Then he was gone. He just turned and strode out through the secretarial pen and disappeared. Stone came out from behind his desk and stood in the doorway, and watched him go. The suite was silent. His secretary had left. Earlier than she should have. He walked out into the corridor. The sales department on the right was deserted. The marketing suite on the left was empty. The photocopiers were silent. He called the elevator and the mechanism sounded very loud in the hush. He rode down two floors, alone. The finance director’s suite was empty. Drawers were standing open. Personal belongings had been taken away. He wandered through to the inner office. The Italian desk light was glowing. The computer was turned off. The phones were off their hooks, lying on the rosewood desktop. He picked one of them up.
‘Hello?’ he said into it. ‘This is Chester Stone.’
He repeated it twice into the electronic silence. Then a woman came on and asked him to hold. There were clicks and buzzes. A moment of soothing music.
‘Mr Stone?’ a new voice said. ‘This is the Insolvency Unit.’
Stone closed his eyes and gripped the phone.
‘Please hold for the director,’ the voice said.
There was more music. Fierce baroque violins, scraping away, relentlessly.
‘Mr Stone?’ a deep voice said. ‘This is the director.’
‘Hello,’ Stone said. It was all he could think of to say.
‘We’re taking steps,’ the voice said. ‘I’m sure you understand our position.’
‘OK,’ Stone said. He was thinking what steps? Lawsuits? Prison?
‘We should be out of the woods, start of business tomorrow,’ the voice said.
‘Out of the woods? How?’
‘We’re selling the debt, obviously.’
‘Selling it?’ Stone repeated. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘We don’t want it any more,’ the voice said. ‘I’m sure you can understand that. It’s moved itself way outside of the parameters that we feel happy with. So we’re selling it. That’s what people do, right? They got something they don’t want any more, they sell it, best price they can get.’