The Trade (5 page)

"So, if you want to go to a ball game or you
need a jogging buddy to slow you down sometime, give me a call, no
commitment, okay?"

Tonia finally looked up from the spot on the
ground where she'd been staring. She moved closer to him. Her navy
blue eyes focused in on his. Her blonde hair, pulled back by a
runner's head band, shone a dull gold in the tree filtered morning
sunlight. Joggers and cyclists and roller bladers streamed past in
bright Lycra or dull grey sweats. She took another step toward Jay
and reached out and pulled him towards her, gathering him into a
tender, then quickly frantic embrace. She held him and put her head
on his shoulder for what was just an instant but what Jay
remembered as being much longer. Stepping back, she broke the
contact. Tears seemed to be welling, she was struggling to keep
them from bursting out of her incandescent eyes. She looked
straight into his tired baby blues.

"I can't,” she said evenly. "I can't,” she
repeated, more slowly with sadness in her voice and tremors in her
lower lip. "I can't.” And she was gone. She turned and ran away.
Leaving him standing there with his heart that had been so newly
awakened now slowly breaking. Jay walked back to the hotel, mile
after lonely mile through the suddenly desolate streets of the big
city that he was learning to love and hate at the same time. Only
miles later did Jay notice that somehow Tonia had managed to slip
the note with his phone number from his damaged hand.

In a non-descript van, parked only thirty
yards from where Tonia Taggert and Jay Calloway had embraced and
parted, a man poured coffee into a mug for his partner and then for
himself.

"She's really something ain't she?" the one
man asked.

"Yeah. I'd do her,” the other answered.

"The boss ought to love these pictures,” the
first said.

"No shit,” the other answered. The two men
finished their coffee then slowly stored the camera equipment
they'd had focused on the two joggers. They set off after Jay at a
slow pace. They figured they knew where he was going so they laid
back a long distance. The rest of their day was going to be very
easy.

Jay arrived back at the hotel. He was
ravenously hungry, despondently lonely, and near exhaustion from
the walk. He ate, showered and spent half the day in bed watching
baseball and listlessly looking at his offer sheet from MacKenzie
Lazarus. The other half he spent down in the arcade, racking up
high scores on his favorite machines. As he played, he worked the
numbers on the offer sheet. The numbers cheered him up a little,
and so did the benefits. Three weeks’ vacation to start, full
relocation expenses, a 401K plan that he was eligible for
immediately with one for one matching. MacKenzie Lazarus would pay
for his first and last month's rent and the deposit on an apartment
in Battery Park City, the nicest neighborhood close to his work.
The one thing he noticed that was missing, however, was a job
description. They'd told him what he'd be doing and who he'd be
working with, but there was nothing in the offer sheet about his
duties. He made a note about it.

Back in his room, Jay lay back on the bed and
thought about whether he really wanted to come to New York. His
only data points were what he'd heard and what he'd seen the last
few days. Jay liked to have a lot more information before making a
decision. Finally he decided to postpone the decision until after
the negotiations. He also decided to play hard to get.

Jay added twenty percent to the starting
salary MacKenzie Lazarus offered. He changed the three weeks of
vacation to four and added a first class round trip plane ticket to
anywhere in the world once a year. His negotiating plan was
starting to take shape. He added two more notes, a single office
with a window and a view and access to the corporate fitness club
and personal trainer.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Jay said
to himself.

The game he was watching ended and Jay
clicked off the television. He reached for the phone, picked
through his papers, and dialed the number Rick had given him out
west. After ten rings, he hung up.

Jay Calloway brushed his teeth and went to
bed.

In the room next door, one of the two men
who’d been listening and taping nodded at his partner.

“
Did you get the number?”
he asked.

“
Yes.”

The tired watcher nodded again, and the two
men shot rock, papers, scissors. Scissors cut paper, and scissors
went to bed.

Chapter

"That's 20% more than we offered. I don't
even get four weeks yet,” Dan Landford scowled across the table at
Jay Calloway. The Monday morning negotiating session was off to a
tense start. Bill Beck's face remained calm. Jay deftly shifted his
chair to face Dan and Bill more directly. He had carefully planned
his next move, rehearsed it in his room, thought it was worth a
try.

"Gentlemen, you've given me a generous offer.
I appreciate it. But we all understand how this works. If I come to
work here you're going to make a lot of money from my work. If
there was job security on Wall St. I'd probably take your offer as
is. However....” Jay looked around the room.

"All it takes is one reorganization and I'm
out on the street. One trader screws up or screws around and the
firm loses $200 million overnight and we're all finished. Guys like
you and me don’t get golden parachutes. We just get screwed.” Jay
paused for effect. He saw that some of the faces hadn't thought
about their vulnerability lately.

"If I take this position, I'm taking a risk.
Betting my whole life on a roll of the dice,” he paused again. Dan
Landford was fuming. Bill Beck was patiently waiting him out.

"You know I have other offers, less money but
more security, locations closer to home,” he lied. "If you want me,
convince me I'm wanted and I'm not some bargain-basement
brain-for-hire that you plan to abuse, burn out, and throw on the
trash heap," Jay finished. “I know programmers don’t last. I know
the next whiz kid is right around the corner. So, I’ve gotta view
this like a baseball career. I have a few good years to make some
good money, and then I’m out.” He hoped he hadn't sounded too
rehearsed.

Jay felt sweat start to roll down from his
underarm and drip down his side. He felt his forehead flushing and
prayed sweat wouldn't break out on his face.

Dan started to come back right at him but
Bill cut him off. Dan glared at Bill. Icicles seemed to form in the
spaces between the two men. It was a battle of wills, and Bill won.
Dan backed down.

"Jay. We want you. You know it and I know it.
But we can't go this far.” Bill pointed at Jay's counter offer
sheet. His face took on the look of an exasperated elderly
grandfather who wanted to make a deal with an obstreperous child.
“You’ve got other offers, we’ve got other candidates.”

They locked eyes, trying to see who would
flinch first.

“
Dan, why don’t you show
Jay around a little, maybe the server room? Get a bite down in the
Winter Garden? Then meet me back here in an hour?” Bill suggested.
“It’ll give me time to run this counter-offer by some
higher-ups.”

“
Sure,” Dan
answered.

“
And this is the largest
concentration of computing power on the face of the planet,” Dan
said.

Jay was staring. He’d had no idea. After his
days in New York he knew that ML ran on computing power, but he’d
had no idea. Like most people he had never thought about all the
computing that goes into trading. He’d just assumed it was a bunch
of guys screaming at each other on a trading floor and a bunch of
frat boys taking people to play golf and collecting commissions.
“We have about one hundred times the computing power of all the
armed forces combined. We have more computing power than all but
three countries in the world. I’m in charge of the programmers that
use about 20% of that power. You’re going to be one of those guys.
And then you’re going to be me.”

Not likely
, Jay thought.

“
That’s incredible,” Jay
said. “I still remember the first time I saw a computer,” Jay
started. “Even though I’ve seen this, it’s still hard to get my
arms around it,” Jay said. Dan warmed one percent to the kid,
remembering the first time he’d seen the server room, felt the
power.

"We can’t go as far as you want. So what can
you back off on? Even a little," Bill asked. It was the classic
negotiating tactic. Get someone else to move first. Get someone to
start negotiating against themselves. Jay turned to face him, now
cutting Dan out of the negotiation. After a tense moment, Jay
flinched first. He was new to Wall St. and hardball. And, he wanted
a crack at all that computing power.

Bill and Jay haggled back and forth for
fifteen more minutes. Dan excused himself and then returned a few
minutes later. Finally Bill and Jay had a deal ironed out.

"So, you're willing to take the jobs on these
terms? Ready to sign today? Right?" Bill asked, trying to finally
pin Jay down.

"Pending one last detail,” Jay responded.

"What now?" Dan Landford lamented. He sounded
exasperated. Bill cut Dan his hardest look yet.

"Well, I promised my mom I'd talk to her
lawyer friend before I signed any deal. She's known the guy for
forty years and doesn't do anything without asking him. I
promised,” Jay said. He was telling the truth. Devoted to his
mother and fully aware of her mistrust of "East Coast Sharpies,”
he'd promised her to let the long time family lawyer look over any
offer he received. Jay had also recognized the opportunity as the
negotiating tool it was. So did Bill.

Dan nearly lost it. His face took on the look
of a pot of pasta boiling over on the stove. Froth was forming
around his mouth, little dribbles of spit running down the side of
his face, his breathing was an angry staccato.

"Holy shit kid. You come in here and bust our
balls for more money, a frickin' window office and four weeks of
vacation and now you won't sign?” Landford rolled his eyes and let
out a loud sigh. His face was eight shades of red. Bill was trying
to stare him down, shut him up.

Jay stood up and made leaving sounds.
Landford stopped in mid-sentence, he didn't believe the kid would
walk, not after seeing the server room. Bill wasn't so sure. He
felt his candidate slipping away. Maybe they had misjudged Jay
Calloway? Maybe the profiles were wrong? Maybe there was a side to
this kid they knew nothing about?

"Jay wait,” Bill said. "We have no problems
with the lawyer thing. Everything's above board here. I want you to
come in feeling you're on solid ground, no doubts, no worries.
Here's what I ask though. We need a firm yes or no, in writing, a
fax is okay, by Thursday noon at the latest. Alright?"

"Sure,” Jay answered. Bill shook hands and
walked him to the elevator.

"Just one last thing Bill. Between you and
me. There's no way I'm going to work for Dan,” Jay said.

"I don’t think you have to worry about that,”
Bill said. They looked at each other for a tense moment and then
broke into laughter. Jay shook hands and got in the elevator. Bill
went back to the office, feeling lighter and more confident about
his candidate.

"What a prima donna!” Dan started. Bill cut
him off.

"Way to go asshole,” Bill shot. "The best
candidate in five years and you piss him off. He's exactly the
right profile. A loner, no close friends, no girlfriend, poor
family. We get him and within six months we own him. And you have
to piss him off?” Bill's face was getting red. Spit was starting to
fly from his mouth with each hard word. His hands balled and
unballed, he looked like a large cat ready to pounce on Dan
Landford. Dan shrank back into his chair.

"You know what we can do with him. Why'd you
do it? Why?” Bill glared at Landford. The coward cowed. No answer
was forthcoming from his trembling lips. Landford stared back as
long as he could and then meekly averted his eyes. Bill stalked out
of the room, wondering if it was the last time he'd seen Jay
Calloway and if it was, what he was going to do to Dan
Landford.

Chapter

"Redmond was pretty cool, lots of
opportunities, but I don't know,” Rick Hewlett said over coffee in
his apartment. Jay Calloway was sitting across the table sipping on
a diet coke. Jay had never picked up the coffee habit.

"What's not to know?" Jay asked. "Good money,
chance to be a millionaire with those stock options. You get to
work for the richest youngest genius in America. I know you like
Seattle.”

"Yeah I like Seattle, but I loved this place
in Oregon.”

"Why?"

"It's in a small town, about ten miles from
the coast, right on a nice little river. It's fifteen minutes from
the ocean and fifteen minutes from the first of the big peaks.
Clean air, clean water..."

Jay cut him off. "Okay, okay Mr. Audubon, but
what's the job?" Jay demanded. "And what does it pay?"

"The job is a little of everything. Database
design, programming, field work, data modeling, even data
entry.”

"Sweet Jesus Rick, data entry? You're going
to do data entry with a Ph.D.?"

"Well there's only three guys so far, so I'd
be THE computer guy, call all the shots, make all the decisions.
And the three guys are all real cool. Two of the guys have Ph.D.s
in environmental science and the other guy is a lawyer. I can see
this being the top environmental consulting firm for the whole
Northwest. I'd be getting in on the ground floor. And, there would
be lots of data entry done in the field. That means in the
mountains, on the beach, in the forest. Not a bad place to do data
entry…”

"Alright already, you sold me. But what's it
pay?" Jay demanded. He set his foot to tapping, waiting for the
piece of data he knew he could attack. For some reason he was
jealous of Rick. Maybe Jay was upset at how he had limited his
choices to the CIA, the Navy, and MacKenzie Lazarus. Rick seemed
genuinely interested in his work, not just what it could get him.
Jay realized he’d missed that part of the job profiling
process.