The Term Sheet: A Startup Thriller Novel (18 page)

“
C
an’t
we just show them our badges?” asked Brandon.

“It’s not like this is an approved mission. Plus that would alert Doug. What’s wrong with you? We don’t have time to discuss this. Just go,” said Shawn.

“I’m really sorry, boss, but I don’t think I can do this,” said Brandon.

“Just get it over with,” said Shawn. Seeing Brandon’s hesitation, Shawn slapped him hard across the face.

A burly Samoan sat at the front desk working intently on a crossword puzzle when he noticed the two men out of the corner of his eye. The wind was blowing the rain against the windows in sheets. Through the blur, the two men appeared to be drunks looking for cover and stumbling into each other. Then one of them slapped the other and pushed him into the glass. This made a low echoing vibration. He came back and punched the older man in the face. The older man fell to the ground and the younger man began kicking him in the gut over and over again.

The guard put down his pencil and just watched for a while, cracking a slight smile.

“Fuck,” yelled Shawn. “Stop it. Stop it. This isn’t working, he’s not coming.”

Brandon kept punching.

“Stop it! We need to try something else.”

Shawn got up. He was bleeding from the mouth and eyebrow and his eye was starting to swell. He looked around and walked away. The guard picked up his pencil and chuckled to himself as he started working on the crossword puzzle again. A few moments later with a garbage can lifted completely over his head, Shawn started running toward Brandon and the building.

“Oh no. Not on my watch you don’t,” yelled the guard. The guard got up and started charging toward the door.

“Oh shit, stop! No!” yelled Brandon, squatting into a fetal position.

As Shawn approached, the front door swung open.

“Hey! You! Put that dow–aghhhhhhhh,” yelled the guard as he fell to the ground like a log.

Brandon shocked the man once more for good measure and gave the thumbs-up sign to Shawn, who put the trash can down. Then Brandon helped Shawn up.

“I’m really sorry, boss,” said Brandon.

Shawn smiled with blood running down his face. “For some reason I believed you more the first time you told me that.”

Shawn grabbed the keys off the slobbering security guard’s belt and helped Brandon through the door. They ran to the elevator and swiped the guard’s card. When they got to the top floor, the receptionist looked at them in shock.

“Who are you?”

“Secret Service. Where’s Doug Kensington?”

Khelli reached under her desk. Shawn pulled his pistol and aimed right at her forehead. It had been a while since he had aimed this gun at another human being, but it was just like riding a bike.

“Put your hands where we can see them. I will only ask one more time. Where is Doug Kensington?”

Khelli slowly put her hands flat on the desk in front of her. Her face relaxed into resignation.

“He’s not here,” she said.

Shawn went to the door behind Khelli, but it was locked. “Open this door right now.”

“I can’t,” she said. “It’s locked from the inside.”

Shawn rolled his eyes. He shot the lock twice and kicked down the door. The room was empty.

“Fuck,” yelled Brandon. “Where did they go?”

Khelli ran to the elevator. Shawn turned to go after her, but changed his mind and asked Brandon to check on the Cryptobit bank account. Brandon pulled out his phone and a few moments later showed the screen to Shawn. In bold red letters it showed a balance of $760,000.

Shawn tore Brandon’s phone from his hands, punched in a number, and pulled it up to his ear. “Sir, we need to talk.”

T
he swelling made
it difficult for David to open his eyes, but he tried anyhow and only found darkness. He couldn’t remember anything that happened after the guy at Doug’s office had punched him. As his senses slowly returned one by one, he could feel cold, wet concrete under his bound hands. He heard pounding rain on what must have been a tin roof. He realized he wasn’t blind, there was just a bag on his head. The ringing in his ears started to subside and he could hear echoes of tapping. Then a voice came from what sounded like a distance.

“He’s waking up.”

“Go string him up with his friend.”

He heard heavy boots swiftly approaching and then felt another punch in the face.

When David came to again, he found himself bound to a chair in a small room with one door, one window with a dirty blind on it, and an old rusty table. Both his eyes were swollen and he struggled to keep them open. Doug walked in, right up to the table in front of David.

“Where’s Andrew?”

“David,” shouted Doug. “Why the fuck did you have to make me do this the hard way? Damn it. We were so close. You would get your money and I would get your company. Easy. People were counting on this, you know. Do you realize how stupid this makes me look? But you had to go play the hero and complicate things. Why couldn’t you have just taken the fucking money?”

“Where’s Andrew?”

A loud blast of thunder shook the building.

“In good time, David. We have some business to attend to first.”

David squirmed in his chair.

“What kind of host am I? How can I ask you to sign these papers with handcuffs on?” said Doug. He reached behind David and unlocked the handcuffs.

“Nothing you make me sign will be legal when I explain this situation.”

“Who says you will be able to explain anything, David? Look, this is all just a silly formality. Your company was going to go under one way or another and this could have played out a lot easier for all of us. But unfortunately, I ran out of time. Doesn’t it always happen like that? Man plans and God laughs.”

Doug laid a thin manila folder of papers on the table in front of David.

“I guess you could consider this a hostile takeover,” said Doug.

David reached for the papers and began leafing through them.

“You’re not doing this acquisition for the System, are you?” asked David.

“So you
are
smarter than you look. But you’re not doing this startup for the money, are you?”

David shook his head.

“What do you want Cryptobit for anyhow?” asked David. “It’s un-crackable. Why not just steal my code?”

“I’m no thief, David.” He pulled up a chair and sat uncomfortably close to David. David could smell his expensive cologne in the wet air. “I am just a simple businessman, and I prefer to keep it that way whenever possible. I like my privacy and I don’t like oversight. These days, protecting those rights is getting harder and harder.”

“What do you get owning Cryptobit that you can’t get by just using it?”

“I run the world’s largest security firm. He who owns the system controls the system. If you haven’t already been approached by every three letter acronym government agency in the world, you soon will be. They all tell you the same bullshit story: let us in, let us in or we’ll blow your house down. I need control before someone else gets it.”

“In order to kill the president?”

Doug jumped to his feet.

“So the big bad wolf has been to your house already. No matter. Sign this now and I will ask Gabriel to take care of things quickly for you.”

Doug shoved the papers back into David’s face. The papers spilled to the ground. David didn’t move. Doug turned to leave the room.

“Fine, have it your way. How’s Heather doing anyhow?”

A pang of panic flew through David’s heart.

“Such a shame, too. When Gabriel came by to visit, she was so surprised to see him. It’s unfortunate that she fell while getting out of that bus. Gabriel tried so hard to help her, too. I suppose when you’re out of the picture, she’ll inherit your worthless equity. Then we can replay this little charade with her at the other end of this table.”

“Wait,” shouted David.

Doug turned around slowly.

“I’ll sign if you tell me one thing.”

David reached down and began collecting the strewn papers. Doug carefully picked up his chair and sat down again.

“Well?” asked Doug.

“Why?”

“Who do you think provides the security software that most of the government uses? Who do you think provides the security software that most foreign governments use? Everyone wants their back doors and everyone wants to be assured that nobody else has any back doors. Selling secrets used to be for small-time spies who often had to work undercover for years before they gained access to the information. We just figured out a way for the secrets to come to us. Everything would have been fine if Snowden would have kept his fucking mouth shut. Now that everything and everyone is under scrutiny—the president and Congress have started a witch hunt. This government is as antiquated as the fireplace. They’re a relic of the past that does more harm than good. We just keep them around because they make us feel good, while the gas and electric heaters quietly hum along in the background. It’s time to change the logs on the fire, David.”

David looked down and shook his head.

“Pen,” he said.

Doug pulled a Mont Blanc fountain pen out of his breast pocket and handed it to David. David scribbled his name.

S
hawn’s call
to his boss lasted only a few moments.

“What happened?” asked Brandon.

“He told me to come downstairs,” said Shawn.

Brandon followed Shawn sheepishly toward the elevator. The lobby which had been so quiet just moments before was now flooded with Secret Service, FBI, CIA and local police. Khelli and the Samoan were handcuffed at the security desk being questioned.

“Shawn,” said Richard with a knowing smirk. “I was furious when Debbie called me last night and told me what you had asked her to do. But when you work with someone long enough…well, you know. She persuaded me to take a chance on you, but to do so with an eagle’s eye. We’ve been watching this whole thing play out. Seeing the two of you duking it out was about the funniest thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life, and when you went at him with that trash can…”

Shawn interrupted, “So you know where Doug and David are?”

“I thought they were upstairs with you.”

“No, when we got there they were gone.”

Richard started barking orders to close down roads and set up a perimeter. As chaos ensued, Brandon pulled Shawn to the side.

“Hey boss, on the way down the elevator I pulled down the tower signals for David’s phone. Apparently the last time it pinged they were near the docks.”

Shawn looked at Richard, who was still barking orders. For all the crap he gave, he sure seemed to be reveling the opportunity to act like a field agent again. He paused to consider for a moment what to do with the information. Then he made his choice.

“Sir, I think we’ve got a lead.”

A
fter David signed the agreement
, Doug left and Gabriel entered. He bound David’s arms in the back with a zip tie. The man looked equal parts geek and thug, with a black hoodie underneath a thick black leather jacket that smelled of cigarettes and sweat. David wondered if musk was the last thing he would ever smell.

“You can still let us go and we won’t say anything,” said David.

“Shut the fuck up.” He dragged David to the hallway like a wet dog where he saw a badly beaten Andrew. His face looked like a raw piece of meat.

“I’m sorry,” said Andrew in a whisper. He wasn’t looking David in the eye, but rather staring blankly. “He made me sign my shares away.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said David.

David felt guilty that he had signed over his part of the company without more of a struggle. But just as quickly he wondered why Andrew had put up such a fight in the first place. Why should he care about the company in a situation like this? Cryptobit was going under one way or another.

But then the man kicked David, knocking him to the ground. David realized that maybe Andrew wasn’t playing hero after all. Maybe this goon had just been beating Andrew for fun.

“Get up,” the man said. “Both of you, stand up and start walking.”

They walked outside, out of a large hanger toward endless rows of shipping containers stacked three levels high. He could smell oil and rust in the air. Andrew was limping, so David leaned closer to give him support, but it didn’t help. They hopped and stumbled through rushing water and a maze of containers until they reached a large rusty one with the door wide open.

“Get in.”

David struggled to focus his eyes inside. It appeared empty. David knew that if they got in, they were never getting out.

“Get in,” the man repeated in a shout. “Ahh shit. You’ve got to be kidding me.”

David turned to Andrew, who had fallen.

“Well that makes my choice that much easier.”

The man raised his arm and, without any hesitation, shot Andrew in the back. Twice. But David was confused because Andrew didn’t seem to move. Had he missed? Then two dark red dots appeared and began to grow. The man walked up to David, stuck the gun in his pants, and brought out a large knife. He grabbed David’s arm and violently turned him around, pushing him up against the open door.

“Pick up your friend and put him in the container.” David felt the cold blade brush against his hands as the man cut him free from the zip ties. David rushed over to Andrew’s side.

“I’m sorry,” whispered Andrew.

“Stop that, you’ll be fine,” said David. “Everything’s going to be okay. Just stay with me, buddy.”

Andrew’s eyes rolled to the back of his head. David picked him up by the shoulders and Andrew came around. He cracked a smile. “I don’t have a cunning plan, this time.”

David felt a knot in his throat tightening up. He dragged his friend to the back of the container and leaned him against the wall, trying to make him as comfortable as possible. David felt a strange peace flow over him. It seemed like the world had slowed down. Though it was dark, he could see things more vividly than at any other point in his life. The floor of the container had a thin layer of old grease and muck floating on the storm water, but even in the dark, David could see the clumps of muck so clearly. He could see small pieces of wood from the countless crates that had been taken in and out of this container for years. He could see hints of the remnant grain in those small pieces of wood. He had never noticed before that the grains of wood were like a man’s wrinkles.

David saw Andrew’s face and it felt like he was looking at a stranger. It was familiar but different. Andrew had more wrinkles than he remembered. David wondered when was the last time he really saw his friend. It seemed like just the other day that they were in middle school together, climbing fences.

David stood up and faced the man. His eyes were wide-set and thin, almost like a squint. Time slowed even more, like molasses. The man was moving his mouth, but David couldn’t make out his words. He just saw a deep sadness in the man’s face. A sadness masked by anger. David’s arm began to rise as if it was attached to a helium balloon. He didn’t want to lift his arm. In fact, he didn’t even feel like he was connected to his body. He was merely an observer of his own actions. Raising his arm aggravated this sad man further. He could see the sides of the man’s mouth curl into a deeper frown. David’s legs began to move as well. The sad man didn’t like this at all, and David felt a vibration in his chest immediately followed by a loud bang.

David looked down at his chest and wondered when he would start seeing a small dot turn into a large red spot. He turned his head to see his friend. Andrew looked so peaceful leaning against the wall. He looked back down at his chest.

Then he looked at the sad man, but he was gone. No, not gone. He was just on the floor. Maybe he was tired from killing so many people, exhausted from being so angry. David realized how absurd that sounded about the same time he heard the sirens blaring. All at once time sped up again. A flood of men with large guns swarmed the shipping container, and one of them grabbed David by the hand and yanked him out into the light. He was shuffled into a large black van where he heard a familiar voice.

“David, David. Are you okay?”

Shawn walked up next to him wearing a bulky bulletproof vest.

“Never thought I would be happy to see your face again,” said David.

“Neither did I,” said Shawn.

“How’s Andrew?”

Brandon walked up to join them.

“He’s going to be fine,” said Brandon. “EMTs say the bullets missed vital organs. He’s one lucky guy.”

“You didn’t follow the plan,” said Shawn.

“I didn’t have much of a choice.”

“No, not that. The money.”

David smiled.

“You promised you would pay it back. Where is the money?”

“I’m no longer the owner of Cryptobit, including the bank accounts or outstanding debts. You are going to have to take those matters up with System.”