Terminal Value Part 28

"Yes, and he might just be our savior in interpreting this information." Dylan breathed a heavy sigh. "But there's more."

"What do you mean?" Heather asked.

"You'll find out in a few minutes." He said nothing more, but sat back and let Rich do his work.

"Hmm," Rich said under his breath. Everyone closed in.

"What is it?" Matt asked.

"Here, look at February. It shows a mysterious infusion of ten million dollars in cash that was spread across February and March to inflate our numbers. Another mysterious infusion of fifteen million dollars in cash was scheduled to dramatically inflate our numbers in April."

Everyone remained silent, unsure of what they were seeing, but afraid to break the spell.

Rich continued, "Looks like from the very beginning, Art and Christine set up Mantric as a way to make themselves extremely rich. This is a cla.s.sic pump-and-dump scheme. They are deliberately hyping the firm's stock and falsifying its financials to drive up the price of the stock so they can then sell it at a huge premium."

"Anything else?" said Matt.

"h.e.l.l, yeah! This shows they orchestrated a ma.s.sive spamming campaign with the media and investors. Oh, and look-there's a list of payoffs to their law firm Daley and Hahn and their accounting firm Hickman and Ross to make everything look legitimate. Jesus! Everyone was in on this scam."

He scrolled further down and saw that large amounts of Mantric shares were scheduled to be sold every month, starting with the IPO. "Aha! So that's how Art and Christine were planning to get their money out! Through the corrupt bankers and into offsh.o.r.e accounts."

Dylan moved further back, away from the table, while Heather and Matt had closed in toward Rich, reading over his shoulder. Rich moved to the next page of the spreadsheet to see an infusion of ten million dollars in February attributed to LC. Then he saw that another infusion of fifteen million dollars in cash had been scheduled to happen in March. It was attributed to Bendeta Corporation, a direct compet.i.tor of another one of Dylan's mobile computing clients. Rich stopped and lifted his hands off the keyboard as if it were on fire. Everyone stared at the screen then slowly turned toward Dylan.

"That's why Tony was murdered."

Later that evening, Dylan sent Matt and Rich home with specific directions not to speak to anyone about the contents of Schedule B. They knew the SEC would want to talk to all of them, and it was important that they present a unified front as to what they knew and what it meant. Matt and Rich would each spend the rest of the next day once again going over the details, while Heather and Dylan undertook an unpleasant task of a different sort.

Chapter 32.

May 19, 8:30 a.m. Boston Dylan rose early and put the coffee pot on, then returned to the bedroom. Heather mumbled in a state of half-sleep, and Dylan remained still, watching her. The discoveries of the night before seemed to fuel their desire to find comfort in each other. Dylan replayed the pa.s.sion of the previous night over and over, trying to capture the intensity of Heather's love. Dylan's life had revolved around the thrill of establis.h.i.+ng his own business. Until recent weeks, Heather was an unreachable star, and not until last night did Dylan awaken to the full sense of her pa.s.sion. She cried in his arms as they talked about the day and closing the final chapter-confronting Tony's murderer. They shared the sadness of remembering Tony, his childish pranks and his adult brilliance. And she fell asleep in his arms, a tear wandering down her cheek.

Dylan looked at the clock. They'd slept late and had not set an alarm. The clock turned over 8:35. He lay down next to Heather and kissed her eyes.

"Mmmf," she mumbled as she stretched and lifted her head, her eyes still closed, awaiting a kiss.

"Morning," he said, kissing her lips.

"Umm-hmm," she returned. Suddenly her eyes opened wide, a look between fear and anger washed across her face. "Oh, what time is it?" Then she looked into his eyes, her glance deteriorating to a dark sadness. "We have to do this thing, don't we?"

"Yep. Coffee's on. I don't think we should let this go any further. Let's get it over with."

"Shower?"

Dylan smiled. "We'll never get this done if we follow that routine!"

"I know," she answered. "But just a quick shower?"

May 19, 10:00 a.m. Boston The Mantric office was quiet; all employees were away for the day and would not return until after the investigation was completed. Dylan sat at his desk and keyed in a number at his computer. He moved close to the screen when Rob's face materialized in front of him.

"Dylan, sorry I couldn't meet with you guys last night. Are you okay?" Rob asked.

Dylan shook his head slowly. "No, Rob, I'm not."

"Me either. The CNBC report and all of those accusations. It's all crazy. I can't believe it!"

"I can believe anything now."

Rob's expression grew concerned. "Dylan. You look very strange. What's going on?"

"The SEC is investigating Art and Christine as we speak, Rob. It's all over."

"What are you saying?"

"I think I just said it, Rob. What you saw in the news. It was true. And the SEC has the proof."

"You mean Rich was right about the reserve for MobiCelus?"

"That's only the beginning. There's been ma.s.sive fraud. It's all coming out now."

"Oh my G.o.d!"

"It gets worse. They've been out to bring me down since the day we were acquired."

"Dylan, no!"

"'Fraid so. Turns out they authorized the leak of Hyperfn to LC."

Rob shook his head in amazement. "This is incredible. Why would they do this?"

"Why do you think?"

"Greedy b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"

"Yeah. Well, at least we'll catch the guy who ruined Joe's business by stealing his Hyperfn model. That's something."

"That's great. Who was it?"

"We don't know yet." Dylan paused and drew a breath. "Christine finally told the SEC the secret accounts are detailed on her computer in her office in Boston. You said n.o.body on our staff ever showed signs of unusual income-right?"

"Right. Nothing. I can't imagine who it could be, except, well-"

"Well what?" asked Dylan.

"s.h.i.+t. I asked Matt to look into that. He might have buried that information himself or deleted it. Jesus, Dylan. Matt must have been the one responsible for selling out Hyperfn, and Tony must have discovered him!"

"That's a strong possibility. We'll know for sure tomorrow. The SEC is sending their people up to Boston to investigate."

"Right." Rob swept his hair off his face. "Sorry, Dylan, but this is an awful lot for me to absorb."

"Yeah."

"When are you coming back from New York?"

"It's ten o'clock now. I'll hop a shuttle around noon. I think we should get together, don't you? There's a lot to discuss."

"Absolutely. Just call me when you land and we'll work something out."

They ended the connection. Dylan sat back and took a deep breath.

May 19, 11:30 a.m. Boston Rob closed his laptop and packed it into his bag. He walked through the halls of Mantric's Boston office. The place looked like a ghost town. The news of the last few days-Tony's murder, the news about Mantric's corruption, the plummeting stock price-had emptied the building like a poison gas. He walked through the empty halls to the elevator, but instead of pus.h.i.+ng the down b.u.t.ton, he continued past it to the corner office: an office once occupied by him, but confiscated by Christine shortly after the acquisition.

He quietly turned the k.n.o.b only to find the door locked. Rob reached into his pocket and pulled out a key, one he had not returned when Christine moved in, and opened the door. The blinds, closed tight, allowed only dim light into the room. Rob bypa.s.sed the light switch and walked to Christine's desk.

Reaching down beneath the desk, he pulled the computer tower out from its s.p.a.ce, unscrewed the pins that held the cover on the side, then slid it back. Reaching inside, he pulled the cables off the hard drive and lifted it out of the computer. With a quiet chuckle, he placed the hard drive in his laptop bag and straightened.

"Don't go yet," said a voice.

Rob jumped backwards, cras.h.i.+ng into Christine's side table, sending a vase of roses tumbling to the floor. A shadowy figure rose from the conference table in the middle of the room and approached him. Rob blinked in the dim light.

"Dylan?"

Dylan switched on the light to see Rob standing on a jumble of scattered roses, clutching his laptop bag to his chest in a pair of gloved hands.

"Yeah."

Rob's glance cascaded around the room. "You were in New York!"

"It's easy to fool someone, isn't?" Dylan strode over to Rob, grabbed his s.h.i.+rt and slammed him against the wall. "You b.a.s.t.a.r.d. You f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You sold us out."

"Dylan, I don't know-"

"Don't!" Dylan said, cutting Rob's sentence off short. Dylan towered over Rob by almost half a foot and easily carried an additional twenty pounds of muscle. He pushed his left arm against Rob's throat to hold him in place and pointed a shaking finger in Rob's face. "Don't even think of denying it."

A look of terror crossed Rob's face. "Dylan, what are you talking about?"

"G.o.d d.a.m.n it, Rob, I know everything." He leaned forward, pressing his face to within two inches of Rob's. "And you've just removed any doubt I might have had by taking the bait and stealing Christine's hard drive." He moved his arm away from Rob's throat, grasped him by the s.h.i.+rt, and pulled him away from the wall, spinning him around. He gave Rob a final push that sent him sprawling across the room.

"Help me out here, Dylan." Rob's voice shook. "I really don't understand what you're talking about. I just didn't want the police to get our files, so. . . ."

"f.u.c.k you! Selling out our Hyperfn work to LC for ten million dollars?"

Rob's face went pale. "What?"

"I've got the files, Rob. The spamming campaign, the cooked books, the payoffs for our mobile computing clients' software, the offsh.o.r.e bank accounts. Everything. You must have known when LC approached you that you couldn't do this without help. I'm sure Art and Christine jumped at the idea of selling out Hyperfn for some quick money. They certainly had no loyalty to Joe. Getting millions of dollars instantly from LC was a lot better than waiting for revenues from Hyperfn. Now I understand why you defended them and their decisions so often. I should have seen that tide turning, but I didn't."

"There must be some mistake," Rob pleaded. "I really don't know anything about any of this."

"You're lying," Dylan said, crossing the room in three bounding steps and pulling Rob's collar tight around his neck. "It was right in front of my nose all the time, but I didn't see it. I know you gave the Hyperfn plan to LC, Rob. You didn't remember that while Hyperfn was our client, way before Mantric, we built our own tags into the system. That was your biggest mistake. That's the mistake that will take you down. No one from Mantric knew of those tags, only you. It was you, not Matt, who was in charge of checking the records between LC and Mantric to see if there was a connection-to see if any of our people had a windfall they couldn't account for. But you didn't check yourself, did you? You had access to the Hyperfn model while we were still at MobiCelus. And the second you heard I wanted Matt to look into it as well, you sent him home to sleep. He was working too hard, you said. He needed some time to rest, you said. So considerate of you. And then you called Art and told him he had to fire Matt. But I never saw it because I trusted you."

Rob's eyes widened, his mouth opened, but the words didn't come.

Dylan pulled the collar even tighter, choking Rob. "G.o.d d.a.m.n it, Rob! Just take the responsibility and admit it, for once in your life!"

Rob's face turned red, and he gasped for air. He nodded, and Dylan relaxed his grip.

"Okay," Rob said, struggling to speak. "You're right. I did hand over the Hyperfn plan."

"That's a start." Dylan stared hard at Rob. "And now tell me about the Bendeta Corporation."

Rob froze for a moment. "Okay," he gasped, sagging against the wall. "I won't deny I was supposed to do that too, but I didn't do it yet. Listen, this wasn't my fault! Art told me to do it. He told me there was big money in it, and if I didn't follow his orders he'd kick me out onto the street. He was holding Hyperfn over my head."

"You little f.u.c.ker," Dylan screamed. He grabbed Rob, pulled him forward, then pushed him back, hard. There was a dull thud as Rob's head smashed against the wall. "Why, Rob? Why did you do it?"

Rob slumped down onto the floor. "For the money. I was broke and I needed the money."

Dylan looked away for a moment then rushed back and kicked him in the gut. "Ten million! Ten-f.u.c.king-million!"

Rob let out a moan and gasped to catch his breath.

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You actually squandered all the money you got when we were acquired? So you did this to keep up the ridiculous lifestyle you created for yourself? Christ, all you had to do was live within your means until the legitimate payday came when your stock vested. You're pathetic." Dylan made another motion towards Rob, who instinctively put up his arms to protect himself from further attack. "Stand up, you piece of s.h.i.+t."

Rob didn't move.

"I said stand up."

Rob slowly took his arms down and stood.

"You think money is that important? It was just something to have because you didn't have anything else. Tony was the boy genius, Heather was the talented designer with the amazing computer skills, and I'm the one who brought in the clients. We all drove the business. All you had was your good looks and your precious Harvard MBA. All you could do was add."

"Dylan, please."

"You wanted to be the rich guy, the guy who made money. You wanted lots of money, and you didn't care how you got it." Dylan clenched his fists.

"I'm sorry." Rob's mind rushed through answers. "It was Heather, man. She has such expensive tastes. Everything has to be the best. You don't know what I went through trying to please her. I was addicted to her, I know. But listen, she's out of my life now. I'll make it up to you. I'll do whatever you say. Whatever it takes."