Chapter 6 – I'll Destroy Him

Jake looked over and smiled at the sight of his son scribbling down notes, oh yes, Jake knew that he had found the person that he was going to groom to take over for him. He then looked down to the folder on his desk. It contained the entire package of all the information that Rose faxed him on the Attorney General. They made quite a team when they worked together. Jake made a mental note to team up with his wife more often, perhaps she should have been in this meeting – she was the very best at intimidation and he knew that he'd have to be at his very best right now.

"This had better be goddamned important," Attorney General Paul Erickson stormed into the office. Apparently he had gotten the hint and left his entourage outside in the lobby. Good, they wouldn't need to see this shit, "I have a meeting with the the Cabinet back in Washington in 3 Hours."

He looked up and was pleased to find the man's face was as red as his hair, then he followed his line of sight as they landed on his son, "What-…"

"He can be here, he's my son," Jake grinned and motioned for him to sit down, "Please Attorney General Erickson – have a seat."

The Attorney General scowled as he saw the thick folder on the desk, he had a bad omen about this. It was a general opinion that if you did anything to put yourself in disfavor with Jacob Long – you'd better be looking over your shoulder at every turn. After all the politicians, spiritual and religious leaders came the business men and Jacob topped that pack, making him one of the most powerful men in the world – far more powerful than him and he one of the chief legal officers of the United States, "Paul, you know that I like you right? I've always respected you and liked you."

"You helped me get my job at the treasury," Paul smiled weakly and shrugged, "You were at my daughter's wedding – I know that."

"And you know that I respect your position in the Government, right?" Jake questioned him, he was only getting started.

Paul nodded and Jake smiled and reached over a piece of paper that was sitting right next to his folder, he turned it and slid it to the Attorney General, "Well – I know that you want to clean house on Corporate Corruption and I salute you, I cannot stand it and I have a zero tolerance policy for it, but when you start targeting corrupt organizations that have a large amount of capital that belongs to this company, I have to insist that you give me enough time to get that capital out of that organization before you have at it, because I know that it would take years to get it all back."

He had already picked up the document and his eyes widened, no one was supposed to get this, this wasn't confidential, but this was an official letter to the US Attorney here in New York City to begin his investigation into Marcus and Associates. How Jake got his hands on it, Paul would never know, but he had it and he got the point of the meeting almost instantly, "This was an inter-departmental memo, how did you get this?"

"I have friends in high places," Jake answered with a smile, but then it dropped into a deep scowl, "The mistakes that my son made are coming back to haunt us, he invested the entire general plan for retirement and benefits for our domestic workforce in Marcus. I want you to back off for the time being until I can get that cash out of Marcus, and also, I want you to back off of my son when you raid Marcus, do we have a deal?"

Paul shook his head with incredulous laughter, "I don't think so."

"Well," Jake said, turning his gaze to his son, "What do you think of this development Shawn?"

Shawn shrugged and leaned back in his chair in a similar fashion as his father, which made the AG groan inwardly, there were two of them now for the world to deal with, "The Government has half the money and half the power, it looks to me as if they're trying to get the other half of both."

Jake smiled, "You hit the nail on the head."

"What do you want from me Long?" The Attorney General finally hissed.

"I was hoping that you'd do me this favor," Jake said, opening up the folder and withdrawing the first photograph, "But you've forced my hand and now I'm going to have to do something that I had doing and I like to call it blackmail. Now, what you're seeing in this photo, is the vehicle of one Paul Erickson, Mr. Erickson shortly before wrapping his car around a tree, struck someone walking across a sidewalk – he was dead drunk."

The Attorney General turned pale, "I-I h-had this expunged, I settled with the victim."

"Or how about this Army Incident Report," Jake side, pulling the document from folder, he hated doing all of this, he loved to do his business cleanly and he didn't want to threaten someone's lively hood and this material was livelihood killing – he'd be fired at once, "One Lieutenant Paul Erickson – returning from Vietnam, was found to have a key of pure powdered Heroine stuffed where the sun does not shine – that again was expunged, how did you manage that?"

He looked as if he was about to have a serious conniption, he looked as if he was about to pull his hair out by the roots in an effort to make sure that this was real. His past – which was heavily riddled with things that he wasn't too proud of and things that could get him fired. He had lived a wild life before he cleaned up and as he entered politics and public life, it was always a fear of his that his expunged offences and embarrassing issues would never come back to bite him, but they had now and he had to deal with it. There was no better way to keep shit silent then to just give in, no matter how much you wanted not to, so he'd play along, "What do you want exactly?"

"I want you to back off of Marcus and Associates until I can get the $20 Billion Dollars safely out of the company," Jake answered him sagely and crossed his hands together over the desk, "Also – I want to make a deal, when you finally do raid Marcus and Associates, you're going to find that my son Trevor is in the upper echelons of the company and he will be willing to testify for your case so long as the record is sealed and he is granted immunity."

Like he had a fucking choice but not to agree, but he was going to hold on to his dignity, "What do anticipate he'll be charged with?"

"Fraud," Jake said, getting up from the desk and moving the other side to sit on the corner, he folded his hands in his lap and looked down at the AG, "And if you intend on backing out of this deal – you'll have no idea who you'd be dealing with, and I'm not just talking about me, or my money, or my power, or my reputation, I'm talking about my life. My family and my company is my life, and I will take down anyone who threatens either of them – I will take you down further then you thought you could ever go if you go after my company or any member of my family – do you understand Mr. Attorney General? Here it is simplified: I lose, you lose, and if I win your world keeps spinning."

He reached over and picked up folder once before tossing it in the Attorney General's lap, "Take it, I had a copy made of it, you agree to my terms, it's all destroyed and no one will ever know about it."

"Fine," The Attorney General said, picking the the folder and standing from the chair, "Mr. Long – you win."

Jake smiled and nodded, "Good, now get out."

OOOOO-OOOOO-OOOOO

"Do you think he'll do it?" Shawn asked, taking a sip of the orange juice that had been delivered to the office.

Jake chuckled and flipped through standard daily departmental reports, he honestly didn't know if the Attorney General was going to go back on his deal, but he did expect him to waiver on the second term, DJ's immunity deal. If that were the case, he'd release all of the contents of the folder to press and Paul Erickson would lose his job. He turned and grinned at his son, "I don't know – I can't expect him to ignore my warning, when I promise something, he knows me, I'll follow through with it, I always do. Same with my threats – that's a lesson direct from me to you, if you're going to promise something to someone or threaten someone, you follow through – don't just talk about it."

Watching his son write down that little bit of information, he smiled once more before turning back to his paperwork, without looking up from the paperwork he added, "He knows that if he doesn't, I'll destroy him."