Page 4 of Fool’s Gold

“For the most part, sir. I don’t suppose the assignment is to pick off the executive team one by one?”

Levi huffed out a little laugh. “Everyone involved with the decisions has been shuttled off to prison. They’d be like fish in a barrel to you, and where’s the fun in that? Besides, Five Star isn’t in the assassination business. We’re in the protection business. That’s what you said you wanted when you joined.”

Damn it.“I’m willing to make an exception.”

Levi snorted. “Well, I’m sure no one in the country would blame you. However.” He pressed a button on his keyboard, and Jack’s phone pinged. “Your assignment has been delivered to your phone and tablet. How much have you been following the case?”

Jack took a breath. It wasn’t hard to figure out he’d be protecting someone involved. He wouldn’t be protecting Dr. Darrow, the hot young CDC scientist who blew the lid off the plot. Ken Irvine had drawn that lucky straw, and they were shacked up somewhere in Atlanta making out like bunnies.

“Minimally, sir. I feel like it will just piss me off.”

Levi chuckled. It turned into a yawn. “You’re probably not wrong. But you need to know it now, so buckle up. I’ll summarize. Basically, a bunch of the executives thought they had a good treatment for influenza in development, but they needed test subjects from across the socioeconomic, gender, and racial spectrum. So rather than do this the normal way, they engineered a super flu with the help of a disgruntled former DoD employee and deployed it all over the country.

“They got found out. Everyone involved is going to prison, and we’re looking at a whole wide wonderful world of charges. In the meantime, we’ve got the problem of Besse. They’re one of the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturers, and they’re the only ones currently making treatments for most basic childhood illnesses. They also make most of the medicines the military uses. So—it’s not in anyone’s best interests to let them go under.”

“They could force them to sell off those portions of the business.” Jack shrugged. He knew exactly enough about corporate affairs to fake it on an assignment. He didn’t want to know more.

“Well, it’s certainly an option, but the State of Georgia is a little reluctant considering how many people Besse employs. And I’m not talking people at the top either. All that’s above my pay grade.

“Their chief financial officer only came on board a year ago and wasn’t involved with any of the shit that went down. His name is Matthew Taggart.” Levi spun one of his monitors around to show a formal corporate face shot of a handsome, dark-haired man in his thirties. He wore a suit and tie, like any other corporate shill. “The board and regulators agreed that Taggart would take over as interim CEO until the company had recovered from previous leadership’s missteps. Part of his mandate is to implement controls to ensure none of this happens again.”

Jack snorted. “I’m sure. The guy’s probably in it as thick as any of them. Remember Enron?”

Levi laughed but sounded exhausted. “Who could forget? But he’s been thoroughly investigated, and so far, he’s clean. He’s offered victims even more than they’re asking for in terms of settlement, and from what I hear, he’s exactly the right man for the job. He’s the youngest guy to take on the role, either CFO or CEO, in the company’s history. Dude lives with his grandma, for fuck’s sake.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “She a Scarlett O’Hara type?”

“I dunno. I never met her. Anyway, the guy’s in a pretty vulnerable position. He’s getting threats from both sides. He’s now the visible face of the company, so survivors and family of people killed want him dead just because he’s the face of the people who killed Aunt Sally.”

“I can’t imagine why.” Jack kept his tone mild.

Levi ignored him. “Most of those folks are harmless, but obviously not all. And then we’ve got the other side.”

“There’s another side that counts?”

“Average Americans grieving relatives don’t typically drop bombs in coffee shop trash cans.”

Jack sat up straighter. “Excuse me?”

“Right. The Feds are keeping this one quiet, just because they don’t want to encourage copycats. This morning, just before the morning rush, someone put a bomb into a trash can in the coffee shop in the lobby at the Besse Pharmaceutical office building. It was a fairly sophisticated device. Want to take a guess as to what our guy’s morning routine was?”

Jack sighed. “Probably involved dropping something into that specific barrel.”

“Bingo. Ever since he took over and people started harassing him, he hasn’t been going into the coffee shop. But the amount of firepower in that thing would have been enough to make the building extremely unstable.” Levi raised an eyebrow. “The Feds are saying it’s investors or board members who aren’t happy about some of Taggart’s proposed changes.”

“He probably planted it himself, to draw suspicion off of him. These corporate types are all the same, Levi. They’ll kill anyone to make a buck. Believe me. I’ve seen it a hundred times and had to clean up the consequences.” Jack shook his head. “There’s something wrong with their brains.”

“In most cases, I agree with you. I spoke with Irvine and Kingston, who’ve met him. And I spoke with Spencer Wilde, the attorney representing most of the victims. They all agree that he’s the real deal. For one thing, according to Taggart, no one in the C-Suite is drawing a salary for the rest of the year.”

“No one?” Jack couldn’t believe it.

“No one. Regular employees will still get paid, but money to fund fines and victim settlements had to come from somewhere. This was part of how he did it. Look, I’ll put you in touch with Wilde. You can call Irvine and Kingston. They’ll fill you in.”

Jack looked down, then back up. “Let me guess. I’m guarding Taggart.”

“I always said you were a smart cookie.” Levi yawned again.

“Isn’t that a kind of... public role for me?” Jack knew it sounded desperate, but he had to try to get out of it somehow.

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