Chapter 2 – Skimming off the Top

Rose wasn't a snob, she wasn't, honestly.

But did that mean that she was going to drive around in a beat up, dirty little car? No, she had a driver and she was driven around in a limousine when she came to the City. Rose liked to avoid the city for a number of reasons, but if she had to go back to Manhattan, she did it in style. When she stepped out into the curb, the sharp heel of her high heeled shoes clicked against the cement. Ok, she looked like a snob, she would grant her detractors, but she wasn't one if you actually took the time to talk.

"Shall I wait her Mrs. Long?" Her driver asked her politely.

Rose shook her head and reached into her purse to withdraw a 100 Dollar Bill from the money clip she carried, "No, this will take a while, so… go take a nice lunch or go to a strip club, or whatever you do with your free time."

Her driver, who was long used to her sense of humor, grinned and walked around to get back into the driver's seat. Rose sighed and watched as the limousine pulled away. She was going to rip her husband and new one. As she turned and looked at the building that her husband now owned, she sighed. Trevor had arranged this and he had been proud of it, she could only wonder how he was feeling now. The more she thought about the way her husband and treated her son in the past few years. She grew almost red with anger. As she stomped through the doors and into the lobby in a blaze, the desk attendant, a nice young girl putting herself through college, stood up and looked at her in a confused manner, "Mrs. Long, how are you?"

"I'm fine Jessica," Rose told her as she stormed to the elevator, "You tell my, egomaniacal, cruel and somewhat stupid husband that I'm coming up."

Jessica sighed and nodded, "Yes Mrs. Long."

Once she was safely in the elevator, she looked at the panel that gave a description and her eyes immediately went to the top. She shook her head in annoyance when she realized that the top of the panel still read 'Trevor Long – Chief Executive Officer' on the top of the list of the offices that were on the top floor. She had long been taken on a tour of this building and she was familiar with it. Taking off her sunglasses and putting them into her purse, she blew out an irritated breath and put her free hand on her hip.

She had stayed out of Jake and Trevor's spat, she didn't want to take a side, because it was her husband and her son. If she could somehow rip herself apart and give one half of herself to Jake and the other to Trevor, then she would. But she couldn't and she had to remain neutral, until now.

She was going to give it to Jake, she was going to let him have it and then she was going to call her son and chew his ass out for doing the things that he had done today. Through all of the shit that she gave him about pushing Trevor out, their son was still in violation of the law and in that case, she'd always take her husband's side. Rose sighed again, she was truly the glue that held their family apart, otherwise, money with tear them apart.

OOOO

"You son of a bitch," Rose slammed the door behind her.

Jake looked up from his desk with a dry look, "I love you too dear."

Ignoring his response, she charged forward and slammed her purse on the table and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Over the years, she had paid visits to him at work and each visit was similar to the other, everything that they had in common was that Rose was pissed at him, "If you don't explain everything to me right now, and if you mince words when you try to explain this to me, or if you continue to half ass explain all of this to me, the punch line: you die."

"It's simple," Jake said, leaning on his desk, "Our son, allowed the retirement and benefit funds of our entire work force to be invested with John Marcus, John promptly lost all of that money and I put his balls in a vice grip to get it all back."

"And other then doing that, how is Trevor culpable?" Rose asked.

Jake sighed and handed a piece of paper, she immediately recognized the label of the bank that they invested the children's trust funds in, and Trevor's was there was well. Rose snatched the paper out of his hands and Jake watched as her eyes read through the document, "He hasn't touched that account since we set it up for him, but four hours ago, he withdrew $1.5 Million. Now you are a logical person, why would he never touch it, ever, and then today withdraw $1.5 Million, within two hours of getting an Investment License that would take 4 years to get? Tell me Rose?"

"Lawyers, do you lawyers on standby?" Rose said, still reading the paper.

"Five," Jake nodded, "And I have funds set aside for funds and or bail."

"That's all we can do," Rose said, setting the paper down, "What's going to happen to him? I mean, his reputation, his career, what else can we do for him, our son?"

Jake looked to a piece of filler paper that he had written notes on when he spoken to his group of highly paid, highly trained and highly powerful lawyers, "It's highly unlikely that he'll go to prison, but the chances increase slightly if he knows of anything illegal that Marcus has done. Most likely, he'll be fined tens of millions possibly and he'll be watched for years by the Federal Government. As for his reputation, he probably won't be able to do business again. No one will want to touch him because of the SEC looking over his shoulder. It's quite a shame, but I will probably have to bring him back here, if he wants to work in his sector again."

"Make this right Jake," Rose said, "I'm telling you, make it right, or the minute you fall asleep, I'm going to take a rusty spoon and cut it off, I will castrate your ass."

Jake held up his hands, "Hey, I'm doing the best that I can."

"Good," Rose scowled, "Now let's order lunch, there's a Chinese Place close by."

OOOO

He was getting in deep, too deep and he knew it.

If there was one thing that his father had imparted on him, it was to do your business clean and if you were going to do something improper, let it be something that it is the smallest and most irrelevant thing. Trying to skim a few billion dollars off of thousands of investment accounts, that was the farthest thing from 'small' and 'irrelevant' in fact it was one of the biggest things. Besides, there was no guarantee that he would not be getting caught. He was going to lose everything that he had built before he was thirty, but for the sake of his family's company and for the sake of this company too. He needed to do this, "I have a $3 Billion siphoned out, but I'm still running of accounts that I can take money out of."

"Continue," John said, as he sat down in his chair across from Trevor, "You know your father's business practice better than anyone. Will he live up to his threats?"

Trevor looked up from the pages upon pages of financial statements and nodded at John, "First, he'll sue you for ten times your personal net worth, and then he'll sue you for the worth of this firm. He will take you to town and he'll subpoena every piece of paper in this firm, pour over them, give it to the Justice Department and then take every single thing that you have left and have you blackballed. That is after you get out of prison, when in essence my father finally gets done with you."

"He'll chew me up and spit me out," John said, taking the boy's words in.

"That is an understatement," Trevor nodded and looked back down to the books.

OOOO

"Why didn't you say all of these things, and for that matter, why didn't you just stop him from taking the job?" Rose said taking a bite of the eggroll that she had on the small paper plate that had come with the Chinese food.

Jake shook his head, "I thought that he'd get through it, but it was as if he listed every single thing that I hated or disagreed with and did them all."

They had talked and talked more about what had led to this whole ordeal, Jake admitted that blame for this whole situation could be split right down the middle. Though, Jake was clear to make sure that Rose knew that the biggest issue in this situation, short of Trevor being blackballed, was completely Trevor's fault. You didn't go to a casino and put all of your money into the first machine and expect to double it. Odds are that you were going to lose it on your first try and that was the same analogy he used when he debated this issue with him when the account was authorized by Trevor.

"We are in serious trouble if we don't get that money back, I will have to cut $28 Billion Dollars from across the board to cover it and the only way that I'll be able to do that is to hurt some other sector of the company," Jake said and smiled at his wife, "So that's why I plan on taking Marcus to the cleaners for every penny."

Rose nodded, "You understand the pressure that you're under?"

"Do you understand that Trevor was responsible?" Jake raised an eyebrow.

Shaking her head, she sighed, "I really hate to say it and I know you know that I really hate it, but you're right. He is responsible for all of this, and for himself."

"But I'm going to get him out of it when the time comes," Jake said with a nod.

Rose was going to respond to him, but that was the moment when the phone on Jake's desk decided to ring. He leaned forward and looked at the identification of the call. His eyes widened and looked up to Rose. It took him a moment to speak, "That's Trevor."

She contemplated this for a moment before Jake pressed the speakerphone phone function of the phone and before he or Rose could speak, Trevor began to speak with him in a hushed tone, "I'm sorry about all of this, it is completely and totally, my fault."

"41,900 People's wellbeing hinged on your decision and it kicked you in the ass," Jake said and took a drink of his coffee, "Now, I don't know exactly how you're going to get that capital back to the company, but I anticipate that you will find one way to get it done."

"It's what I have to do," Trevor said, "Even if it costs me everything, I screwed over everyone that had ever worked for us and I need to deal with it. I don't think I need to tell you what John is ordering me to do over here."

Jake smiled and looked down, "I have a pretty good idea."

"So when I'm caught you'll come to my rescue?" Trevor kidded lightly.

"Your mother is making me," Jake answered, "But don't worry, I'm standing by with everything you'll need to keep out of prison. I've got lawyers and money standing by. All you have to do is get me that $28 Billion Dollars."

Trevor sighed, he was clearly irritated, "I know, I'm trying to do that."

"Well I suggest you get too it," Jake said, "I have a meeting with all of the departmental and services heads tomorrow morning and I'm going to tell them everything. Trevor, I can't stress the point enough that they would be demanding your head on a platter, yours or John Marcus's, or even both."

He sounded quiet, "I know."

It was only beginning to hit Trevor that he had in fact been responsible for all of this. Investing the $28 Billion Dollars into an investment and securities firm? How stupid could he have been? His father had warned him, but at the time had no power to stop him, "Dad, I'm sorry that I never listened."

"There was a reason that I objected," Jake said, he was feeling silently smug, "It was never to spite you, it's just you were making a lot of mistakes that I made when I was just starting out and I saw it coming. You were strong headed, arrogant and slightly cocky about your decisions, right?"

Trevor, albeit it annoyed with those words, couldn't help but agree, "You took the words right out of my mouth."

"Well," Jake said, leaning forward and placing his hands on the desk, "I should let you know that CNBC is airing a biography on this company later tonight, I want you to watch it, and you'd better get back to your method of giving us our capital back. Remember, I expect it back in two weeks."

"Bye Dad," Trevor said.

"Bye Son," Jake said before he hung up and looked back up to Rose.

"That was the first pleasant conversation you've had in months," She said.

Jake's eyebrows rose into his hairline as he nodded, he too was surprised by Trevor's call. If anything, he had expected Trevor to be prideful and to be dignified about this problem, "This is all going to be over very soon, I'm encouraged by Trevor's call, I think he knows that what he's done is wrong."

Rose nodded, "I think that too."

Getting up from the chair, she put her hands on her hip and just before she was going leave the office for the restroom, she smiled, "And you had better keep this gravy train rolling, I need to be with my diamonds and limos and if those things get taken away from me, I say again, I will castrate you."

"Don't worry babe," He said seriously, "You'll never, ever lose your money."

OOOO

Jake watched as the camera panned in on the reporter that had produced the documentary. It had been assembled from clips of other interviews and one could tell that it had been scratched up in one day. It was nicely put together, and the production was great, but you could tell that it was quickly put together. Not to mention the fact that the company that they were doing the story on was actually their parent company, and he had made it very clear when he had learned about this that if they portrayed the company in any light that would make the shareholders lose confidence, he'd fire them.

In fact his exact words to the President of that particular station were as followed: 'If they make any remarks that could even hint to uncertainty in INGB and have a detrimental effect on the the stock price, I will fire you, them and everyone responsible for it. And I won't send you all a pink slip, I will summon you to my office and fire you all myself, and I will eviscerate you.'

The point had come across, that's what the memo he had received back from the Station President said and he was told that he should expect great things from this story. It was airing across all INGB-Owned Financial Cable Channels and one of its normal cable news channels. The effect was simple, to maintain that sense of confidence in the company. Trevor's departure would no doubt send a shockwave in its stock and overall appearance, but this was the cure, and he had no doubt that it would work:

"International and National General Broadcasting Company –

It is the most powerful broadcasting-entertainment and publishing company in the world, it is the third most valuable company in the world, second only to Apple and Exxon Mobile. When you look at its status within its own sector of the world economy, you will find that INGB is and has remained at the top of the pack for over twenty five years. With hundreds of billions of dollars in cash reserves, assets and its immense grid on which its business operates, it is unmatched. This is the story of how this forth-rate, privately owned cable company that no one had ever heard of became a Broadcasting Empire."

Jake smiled and leaned back in his chair with his coffee in hand.

Oh yes, he quite liked it a lot so far.

OOOO

"It was a complete shock to me," Jake said into the camera, the clip had been shot about ten years ago and they were apparently reusing it, "It was anticipated within my family, that after my grandmother died, she would hand INGB over to my mother or my aunt, but not to me, I was shocked."

"That's not all Mr. Long got on that fateful night that his grandmother's lawyers. We were told later by Mr. Long off camera that his grandmother had, along with the business and titles, but the bulk of her estate and all of her possessions. That included a fortune of over $600 Million Dollars, several houses, a fleet of limousines and a yacht. Mr. Long had planted his flag, and though the sum of $600 Million Dollars is quite a lot of money, it would only be an almost non-existing percentage of Mr. Long's personal fortune which is estimated to be around $31 Billion Dollars today"

"I had no idea what I was doing, I had surrounded myself with the titans of Wall Street and the most powerful men in the universe and that's how I learned and developed my philosophies," Jake said in the clip, he had been sitting in his old office at the old office building a few blocks away.

Pictures began to flash up on the men and women who had taught him everything he knew. He remembered all of them, they were all ultra-billionaires and ultra-powerful. The last picture that flashed up was that of Donald Wilson and at seeing his face, Jake smiled. He had sent that man to prison. He wondered when they would mention that, "The most profiled of these Capitan's of industry that advised the man who would later be called, the Emperor of Broadcasting, Donald Wilson. Later in their relationship, Mr. Long and Mr. Wilson would clash and only one would come out on top."

Ok, Jake chuckled.

Maybe he could be late going home, he wanted to watch this.

OOOO

If his father could live up to his reputation, he would be able to calm the storm that would come against them when this came out. If he were still CEO, he'd be the one informing the employees of this and he'd take full responsibility for it. But his father was CEO and Chairman and in this case, he could actually place blame where it rested, himself and John Marcus. He was confident that he would be shielded from the rage that would erupt from all sides and one thing he was betting on was getting this money back. Even if it was at the expense of other accounts, he had the lively hood of 41,900 working people to think about, not these investors.

Every retirement and benefit account that employees with the salary of $1,000,000 or higher had were in secure bank accounts. Before his foolish mistake a year and a half ago, everyone who earn less than $1,000,000 were in safe account as well. He thought that if he could put that big sum of money somewhere it would grow, that would the best thing, but he didn't even bother to realize that he could lose it all at Marcus's discretion.

If at the end of the day, he had to step out from behinds his parents and take the bullets of the raging employees of INGB, he would, but that was only in the event that he couldn't get this money back. Sighing, he highlighted another fund that he felt that they could skim out of and looked back up the television in his new office. The biography on his family's company had been on for an hour and he was turning in and out, but the next few words caught his attention:

"When we come back," The reporter's voice provided something of a commentary of the next few pictures of himself with his father standing next to him, "Some called him the prodigy to greatness, others called him the failure son, either way it would lead to Jacob Long's resignation as CEO, Trevor Long's rise to the third most powerful company on Earth, and the eventual return of Mr. Long as CEO after his son stepped down. Though it's only speculative in their reasoning, we have the opinion of former insiders."

Trevor shrank back in his seat and looked back to the books.

Was this how history would remember him?

A prodigy to the Emperor of Broadcasting and Publishing, turned failure, and as he looked at the highlighted accounts, crook as well? It was in that moment that Trevor realized, he had lost it all and in by undertaking an action that he needed to do, would have no chance of getting it back. He sighed and picked up the remote to the television and muted the channel. All he had left to do was to bite his tongue and keep highlighting. His family's wellbeing was at stake here, he no longer cared for his own.