Page 34 of Tangled

A woman’s voice said, “Tristan King, it’s so good to talk to you. And we do need to have a conversation.”

18

Outside the Box

Tristan

Sweat collected on the back of Tristan’s neck.

“Tristan King, it’s so good to talk to you. And we do need to have a conversation.” Mary Varvara Bell’s voice was a rapid alto, a little girlish despite the rasp of maturity. Tristan detected a bit of New Yorker in the wordtwalk,just like he’d noticed the first time when he’d called to confirm that he’d received the letter and would be doing what they’d told him to.

Tristan spun in the chair and turned his back to where Colleen was talking on her phone. “Yeah, sorry I missed your first call. I was away from my phone.”

“Yes, of course, you were. I would like a progress update on your project.”

“Uh, I’m working on it.”

“That doesn’t inspire much confidence,” she said.

Tristan felt his jaw click and rubbed his cheek to try to reduce the grinding so he wouldn’t pulverize his molars. “I have been gathering information from sources inside GameShack about their operations. I’ve found a particularly knowledgeable source who has intelligence about a chink in their financial armor.”

“And this information source is Colleen Frost?”

The skin on his face and the back of his neck turned cold, and he didn’t answer. “After some critical funding fell through—”

“And why did that funding fall through?” Bell asked.

“My financial planners have been working with GrazBank. It appears that the Butorin bratva influenced GrazBank to decline my loans so they could put in a competitive offer. They meant it to be an offer I couldn’t refuse, but I escaped the kidnapping attempt.”

“Oh, you poor dear.” Her offhand comment held no sympathy. “But the Butorins should not have been bothering you.”

“I don’t think they got that memo.”

“I’ll look into that. In the meantime, I have not seen much movement in the stock price of GameShack.”

“It’s fluctuating within its normal range. It’s pretty hard to buy a bunch of a stock, which creates demand for it, and simultaneously depress the price.”

“So, have you begun the stock purchases?”

“Not as such.”

A slap echoed through the line as if a sheaf of papers had been dropped on a desk. “I do not like the trajectory of this project, Tristan. I have been managing people since I graduated from Wharton with my MBA when I was twenty-four years old, and if there is one thing that I have learned, it’s that sometimes you have tomotivatepeople. Your project needs to wrap up. Instead of six weeks from now for your deadline, I would like this project completed by the end of next week.”

Tristan dropped his voice.“That’s impossible.I’ve been setting up the stock trades and other maneuvers to occur over a three-month time frame. If I try to buy that much GameShack stock in a little over one week, the price will gothrough the roofas everyone who owns some raises their asking price to see what they can get for it. There would be no way to drop the stock price to where you want it.”

“All that is your problem, not mine. Be creative. Think outside the box.”

Tristan’s stomach churned at the platitudes, and the sugary cereal he’d eaten turned acidic. “Is there any way you could convince the Butorins to back off of GrazBank and us? That funding was crucial for the overall plan.”

“I’ll see what I can do about the Butorins, but GrazBank is probably a lost cause. Banks get skittish if they think you’re on the wrong side, and their friends, the Butorins, seem to have told them that they shouldn’t do business with you. Once they have that impression, it’s hard to change their mind, even for us.”

“I’ll need to secure a different source of funding, then.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out. After all, you have much motivation. Not only would you lose everything that you have worked so very hard for over the years, but things could get very dangerous for you and your informant inside GameShack.”

No.

The freezing chill on Tristan’s neck engulfed his body. “What’s the long game here? I feel like GameShack is part of a larger puzzle. If other projects are ongoing and I’m operating in the dark, there’s a chance we’ll trip over each other.”