Reckless (2010) by Gross Andrew

Author:Gross, Andrew [Andrew, Gross,]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-14T19:20:42.359000+00:00

Chapter FORTY-SIX

News of the impending collapse of the American banking system was met with a grin of amusement and even pride by Dani Thibault, who watched it in his midtown Manhattan office.

Pacific-West, the largest bank in California, had just failed.

His pride stemmed from the fact that behind the scenes, he had helped put it all in motion. And he was amused because with all the world's eyes focused on the causes--the housing bubble, CDOs, credit-default swaps, overleverage, regulators looking the other way--no one had any idea what was really happening.

The treasury secretary was appearing before Congress, stammering like a first-year loan officer trying to explain a risky loan.

The Dow had just hit a six-year low.

Yes, the system had already been weakened, the banks leveraging up their balance sheets with tiers of worthless assets and debt. Sure, the two desperate traders he had lured with the promise of millions, millions they would no longer be able to receive from their firms, had simply been the final, artfully conceived nudge of the rotted carcass off the ledge.

Ultimately, Thibault knew, there was some larger purpose to the small but profitable role he played in this. His was just to put the plan in motion. The whole system, already foundering, was just waiting for the right flick of an invisible finger to send it off the edge. And he had found them! Borrowed up to their dicks against their own company's tumbling stock. A margin call away from extinction. Yet still controlling billions of their company's assets. Traders who with one push of the button could sway the fortunes of a large bank.

And who had put it all in play? A simple hog farmer's son. Who had shoveled shit out of the pens until he was seventeen. Yes, he definitely took some pride in that. And at the same time he had carried his deception right into the bed of one of the most wealthy and desirable women in the world. He had used her to reach his ends, like he had used everyone and everything he had encountered along the way.

Now he was known in the most elite circles. The press referred to him as an "international financier." It was just like that royal Belgian slut had done for him. Only better! Merrill had opened more doors for him than the head of a multinational corporation. Soon, he'd be moving on anyway. He had gotten about all he could out of her. And there were younger, fresher fields for him to sow.

Dani put his feet up on his desk. He couldn't help but admire how it all had worked since, on the run, his path had crossed with that faggot Belgian banker in a bar in Lyon. How he'd driven out into the country on the pretense of finding a secluded spot to fuck him. Stopped the car along a lake, then smashed his head with a rock, with the guy's pants down and his dick out and ready. Threw the body into a leechy pond.

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