Free F Paul Wilson - Sims 03 by Meerm (v5.0)

Russo recovered first. She cleared
her throat. “Are we going to have a serious discussion or not? Did you call us
here to waste our time or—”
                 “Whoa,” Patrick said. “First off, you
called us. Secondly—let me check with my assistant here.” He turned to Tome. “Didn’t
they say, ‘Name a figure, any figure’?”
                 The sim consulted his steno pad and
said, “Yes, Mist Sulliman.”
                 Tome had been instructed to say that,
no matter what Patrick asked him.
                 “There, you see? ‘Name a figure.’ And
I believe a billion is a figure.”
                 “You can’t possibly expect a small
company like Manassas Ventures to come up with a sum like that,” Russo said.
                 “Why not? It
owns billions worth of SimGen stock. But maybe it doesn’t have the stock
anymore. I’ve learned that it’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Meta Ventures,
based in Atlanta , so maybe the
stock went there. Or perhaps it traveled further up the ladder to Macro Ventures,
a Bahamian corporation. But Macro Ventures is owned by Metro Ventures in the
Caymans. Maybe that’s where the stock ended up. Wherever it is, we know one of
these companies has the financial wherewithal to pay Ms. Cadman’s ‘magic
number’ in a heartbeat. So don’t cry poverty to me.”
                 “This is preposterous!” Redstone
sputtered.
                 “Not as preposterous as you two
trying to keep me from having my day in court,” Romy said.
                 Patrick had instructed her to play it
sincere, and she was doing fine, because she was genuinely outraged.
                 “Oh, please—” Russo began but Romy
cut her off.
                 Here it comes, Patrick thought.
                 “All I wanted was a little
information,” Romy said. “Nothing complicated. I simply wanted someone to
explain why a truck leased by Manassas Ventures in Idaho was driving around the SimGen campus in New Jersey .”
                 He scrutinized the two attorneys,
watching their reactions as Romy dropped her bomb.
                 Patrick had gone half crazy trying to
ferret out the principals in all the subsidiaries behind Manassas .
Only the discovery proceedings of a lawsuit would give him a chance to pierce
their multiple walls of secrecy. But it still might take him years to reach the
end of their corporate shell game, and even then he might well come up empty.
So he’d decided to shake things up by tossing a live snake into Manassas ’s
corporate lap.
                 But neither Russo nor Redstone showed
even a hint of surprise or concern. They either were clueless or had nervous
systems of stone.
                 Damn.
                 “Write that down,” Patrick said
irritably, pointing to Redstone’s legal pad. “It’s important.”
                 “What?”
                 “Your clients will want to know about
those trucks. Trust me.”
                 As Redstone made a note with a gold
mechanical pencil, Russo said, “Can we stop playing games? A billion is out of
the question.”
                 “Out of the
question?” Patrick said. “Gee. And we haven’t even discussed punitive
damages yet. I was thinking at least another billion—”
                 Russo slammed her hand on the table
and shot to her feet. “That’s it. I see no point in prolonging this farce. You
two have an opportunity to be set for life. You’ve been offered the moon, but
you want the stars.”
                 “Very poetic.”
                 She glared at him. “When you and your
client come to your senses, Mr. Sullivan, call us.”
                 “It won’t be a call, it will be a
subpoena. Many subpoenas. A blizzard
of them. The first are already