Fate Surprised Her by David Lindsey

Author:David Lindsey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: David Lindsey, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Psychological
Publisher: David Lindsey
Published: 2024-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

LYON, FRANCE

Felipe Matta kept a small footprint in Lyon. Restaurant Pierre Orsi in the 6th Arrondissement where Annalise met him the first time was only a few minutes away from his elegant home on a tree-shaded avenue just off Boulevard des Belges. And in what must have been an irony he privately relished, it was only a few more minutes away from the international police agency, Interpol’s headquarters on the banks of the Rhone.

Matta’s driver picked up Manette Nerval at her hotel and took her to Matta’s residence late in the afternoon of the day she arrived in the city.

“My people have spent a good deal of time with your information,” Matta said after they had settled in one of the sitting rooms off the main entry. “It looks promising to us. Kepler-Schön. That’s impressive, as is the fact that their anti-counterfeiting packaging security is multi-layered. We didn’t expect redundancy.”

She smiled and nodded accommodatingly.

“How much do you want?”

She was ready for that.

“These formulas will allow you to reproduce the packaging for all of Kepler-Schön’s major drugs—drugs that net them $33.3 billion annually, and that’s not even accounting for their COVID-19 meds?”

They stared silently at each other.

“I suspect you already knew that,” she said, “or some figures close to those. I don’t know who did your research, or how they did it. But I’m guessing we’re close. With these formulas, you’ll have a wide-open field to integrate your counterfeit products into the international supply chain for two years, and then an undetermined long tail after that.”

“That depends on how fast I can get my products into the system,” Matta said. “I’m assuming as soon as we have an agreement, I can have everything within hours.”

“Yes, that’s correct,” she said. “And, of course, your profit margin will be a hell of a lot better than those top ten companies because you don’t have any R & D or costly manufacturing regulations and guidelines to maintain. Your net take could far exceed the $66.6 billion they expect to net during the two years in those five categories.”

“How much do you want?” Matta repeated.

“One percent of your anticipated profit for the first year.”

Matta’s face was blank. Nothing. Then a slow smirk.

“I have my overhead too,” she said. “This was no small task for us.”

“‘Us’?”

“Yes. After all my overhead is met, I still have to split what’s left with my partner.”

“And what did he, this ‘partner’ do to deserve this ‘split’?”

“She was my gateway to Kepler-Schön,” she said “Without her security . . . material, I couldn’t have gained access to . . . the necessary security technology inside the system.”

She deliberately kept his incorrect assumption about her partner’s gender. The same all-woman idea of it that she had used with Nate Geller. It was good security. These guys were all alike. Discovering that women had conceived and executed such a high-level scheme of deception was so . . . novel to them.

Matta looked at her coldly as he judged her story.

“You’re walking away with $330 million,” he said.

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