Chapter 107

I had liquidated the one hundred billion dollar fund last year after deciding that our New York firm could handle five hundred billion at most. Therefore, at the beginning of 1998 the New York firm had five hundred and nine billion dollars. Still, after only eight months, the total was seven hundred eighty four billion dollars now.

-Jonathan’s and My Personal Funds: 88 billion -> 255 billion

-Hedge Funds Total: 12 billion -> 17.4 billion

-Pension Funds Total: 490 billion -> 511.7 billion.

The changes had been like that, and the notable thing was that our own funds showed over a 200% profit while the hedge funds were at 45% and the pension fund was at 25%. While Jeonil had taken a quarter of the Korean stock market using a “mere” twenty billion dollars, we had earned this much in New York. The difference in scale was shown here.

Things did not end here, as the firm would receive a quarter of the profit the hedge funds and the pension funds earned. That would be about 28 billion dollars, and that meant our own funds were nearing 300 billion dollars in New York. Adding Jillian’s London funds and Jessica’s Isle of Man funds would bring the total to at least 500 billion dollars. I had done this in two years, and things were going quite well.

**

We were now in the middle of the dotcom boom, and that meant now was the time for us to be careful. I had invested my funds gradually and quietly into the New York IT market, so my profits had to be harvested gradually and quietly. As the daily transactions in this market were about thirty billion per day, cashing out the funds suddenly would be too noticeable. I was planning on Jillian and Brian Kim to lead this operation by adjusting the various transaction amounts in the portfolio and luring in those who would buy them. If we were caught by rival firms or the selling amount exceeds the market limit…

History could change, and the dotcom bubble could burst next month instead of April 2000. Then, we would lose more than half of our profits in London and New York. It should be said that there had been rumors that the dotcom bubble would burst soon. While the general public ignored those warnings, most of the internet firms had not found a profit model that would meet the expectations riding on their stocks. Only illusion and mass hysteria raised the stock prices, keeping the bubble afloat and companies like us had led them on, encouraging the delusional. Such unsustainable businesses could only eventually crash to the ground.

Then, the last buyers of the market, the general public, would be left holding the hot potato called Dot-Com stocks, and they would suffer the consequences of the global IT boom crashing, starting from New York.

“Let’s clean up.”

Jonathan smiled at my words. While I would have liked to short sell the stocks, I did not know when the bubble would break. However, because our investments were so big, getting out first would affect the market, and the stocks we short sell may accelerate or delay history.  As I could not predict how the market would react, I was focusing on how to bring our estimated profits out safely with the least shock to the New York stock market. (EN: Short selling is an investment or trading strategy that speculates on the decline in a stock or other security’s price. It is an advanced strategy that should only be undertaken by experienced traders and investors.)

“All right, our work is done.”

Jonathan spoke after stretching his arms. Three hours had passed after we had gone over our portfolio and checked the data. Now it was dinnertime.

“You’re not going back to Seoul yet, right?”

“School starts soon.”

Jonathan should be used to this now, but he laughed like he heard a funny joke. This would be the last time, as I would not go to school after this year.

“When is it?”

“On the coming Monday.”

“There are still three days left. I know a place.”

“All right.”

“All right?”

“Let’s go.”

**

Last night had been loud, bawdy, and the booze free-flowing. We went to a luxury penthouse with a small number of male VIPs who had come to have a night of escape. It was all right, and I had a lot of expensive liquor. Thanks to being awakened, I did not have a hangover. I had come to the lobby and was waiting for Jonathan while reading the Wall Street Journal when an article caught my interest.

[Unicorn places a takeover bid for Predict]

[Unicorn has offered the Predict stock owners 6.55 dollars for each share in a takeover bid. Predict’s current stock value is 3.96 dollars per stock…]

Unicorn was the fund that had succeeded in the gambit I had made during the Russian financial war, and the mission I had given Jonathan with that fund was now nearing the end. It seemed that Predict’s founder did not want to sell, and he had refused our offer that went over twice the market value. Things had come to a battle, and Predict was a company I had to have since it meant so much in the future. Every guild and government had used its database system in my past life and would probably do so in this one.

I did not know who was leading this, but Jonathan would have chosen one of the best since I had shown how much I wanted it. Jonathan came in after a while with a smile.

“Last night was fun. I’m hoping we can do it again.”

I showed him the article instead of an answer.

“Don’t worry about that.”

“Who’s doing this?”

Jonathan then named one of the four best accountant firms in America. However, if we had to make a takeover bid, things were fifty-fifty at best.

“Raise the amount to ten dollars a share maximum.”

Jonathan looked surprised at my determination as he spoke.

“That would take some hours to act.”

“Just do it today.”

Jonathan nodded as he smiled as if he was thinking of yesterday’s party.

“We can’t work all the time, can we?”

As Jonathan said, yesterday’s party was nice. Since he was now one of the world’s richest men, worse temptations would come at him. Yesterday was acceptable…

Since we were in the lobby of a famous hotel, people recognized Jonathan. I had thought the man approaching us was one of Jonathan’s fans at first, but he reminded me of John Clarke as he came to us and spoke to Jonathan.

“Please, could I have a moment?”

“I’m with a friend.”

Jonathan politely refused at first but could not do so at the ID card the man held out. It was from the White House, and I stepped back until the man would feel safe. However, I could overhear them using my Perception stats.

“This is from…”

That would be the U.S. president, and the man left after giving Jonathan an envelope. Jonathan went to the elevator instead of rejoining me and sent me a message.

[Come to my room.]

Jonathan looked serious as he held out the envelope to me. It seemed like this had not been his first time.

“Look.”

I saw that the man had left an almost blank sheet of paper with only a single line of text.  The text was only a date, the date of September 18th. That was next month, and I looked at Jonathan in surprise. He also nodded as we both understood this was a warning, or rather an ultimatum, that the government would come after us with tax audits if we did not follow their orders.

“Since when?”

“For a while now.”

“What do they want?”

Jonathan sighed and pointed at me with his forefinger.

“You, of course.”