The Bad Work

“What did Gorko say, Jacob?”

“He said a lot of things Sal.”

“Don’t play me. What did he say about the 10 or 15% price for all of it? He can scrounge it out over time, pull whatever he wants out of it. But things are only getting tighter here, and I’d rather be done.”

“How do you mean, tighter?”

“The loose one that got away from us; we haven’t found him yet… at least not sure… but the three guys’ friends are in town looking for them. They were already here today.”

Jacob heard everything, but “at least not sure” was what clanged most loudly in his head. “What do you mean by you’re not sure? You think you know where he is?”

“Yes, we think we know. The boys had been covering the desert and the highway, and they just kept creeping out a little more, figuring if the guy ain’t dead in the desert, he may have found some help. So, Leonard thinks he may have found him. About the very first small ranch headin’ to town.”

“Well, go get him and your negotiating power ramps up.” Not to mention, Jake French will feel much safer… all those contact points to any detonation… eliminate them all when you can. Old rules of survival.

“We got something goin’ on tonight. Don’t worry. But still, I want out, if Gorko wants to deal. Ask for 20% if we get the guy, but still push for the deal…” And she changed direction, “So what are you doing right now to make us money with the Pollack?”

Jacob found Big Sal obnoxious, and that last question distasteful. He was beginning to like the idea of this window closing.

“What am I doing?... Well, first I have been able to identify no activity in Yankovich’s accounts, means he is not in a place of good health or circumstance. That’s a plus. I have also put locks on three of his larger accounts. While bank digital security tries to unwind it, I started dripping deposits from them into the Virgin Island accounts, and those will be moved soon. Untraceable, and unstoppable until they figure out how. It’ll still take a while. We’ll end up with 50% or better…”

“Why settle for that? Can’t you take it all?” Big Sal was acting like she was at an all-you-can-eat buffet. She was frantically stuffing her cheeks full of desserts because she knew they were going to be pulled away. Big Sal would make sure she squeezed everything out of the assets just in case she had to abandon Pahrump

“If you want the banks to put every resource into things, then go big, and get caught. Or the bank spends enough resources to solve the problem, knowing it’s theft instead of it might be a glitch or malware shit. And then we don’t have enough time to back out. Sally, you should do what you do, and let me do what I do.”

“What else then?”

He breathed heavily, having the power of authority swing heavily in his favor, “Whatever Gorko is working on, and he and I have set up fake real estate operations, digital homepages, all the shit. And we have posted the guy’s hard assets at attractive list prices. Everything but his personal home. Two of them actually. But two warehouses, a couple small business strip malls, all are being shopped right now. I’m negotiating on one in Indiana right now.”

“How? How can you sell his stuff?”

“Technically I can’t, but the work to arrange for sales can draw significant escrow deposits, and sometimes we can close on something. Now it’s gonna throw a lot of shit around when the real ownership gets out… but we’ll be long gone.”

Big Sal almost gasped in orgasm… that which she might have remembered. “That’s good stuff, Jacob.”

“Yes, I know. But don’t get overly excited, Gorko is gonna have a share of our original cuts.”

“Why?”

“You don’t need to ask that, Sal. Look around you. You fucked things up… and he’s not happy. At… All.”

“So, he’s gonna chip us down and take a greater share of the immediate money? That’s fucked!”

“You can tell him that yourself. I wouldn’t recommend it.” Sally Burroughs was huffing in anger on the end of the call. “Especially now, because he’s sending over some advisors to help sort things out.” This sounded pecuniary in nature, “advisors”, so he knew Big Sal would just absorb the impact. But he knew full well she had no choice because the term in this case was more along the lines of military “advisors,” who came with weapons and bad intent.

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“I know, Gorko. I know. But she thinks she can flush him. Says she’s got something going on tonight. Maybe even while we’re talking.”

“She iss not working, Jacob. This was all good, easy. I have no trouble, how I like things. But when things start bad.”

Jacob was in no mind to defend Big Sal, in fact, he’d be happy to see her gone. It would just be so hard to reproduce this snake-pit environment and the rapturous abuses for the sake of money… Not like this anyway. And all this going to hell meant that money would end for Jacob.

“What if I could get someone else to run it, Gorko?” Silence on the line.

“First things first, Jacob. We do nothing till we have a dead Polish man. Only I decide next. But you pick up Yusef when?”

“Soon. He’ll text me. I’m already here in Vegas waiting for his text.”

“Good, you help Yusef and his people. Not much more time.”

“And so, I can tell Big Sally, are you okay with a full buyout of all his information and resources?”

“We buy if we need to buy.”

Gorko signed off with no other words… And it was that finality that sent a chill through his bones… “We buy if we need to buy.” Like the only choice would have been Big Sal’s… and nothing of a money decision. It was about a beating heart.

He only wondered how closely Gorko thought Jacob was bound to the fat and obnoxious partner, Sally Burroughs. That was what really worried him.

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