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turning to page one
turning to page one
There are four people sitting at the table. They stand. Everyone says their somber hellos and shakes hands.
ALL PRESENT
Slight hellos, etc.
They all sit down and at each place setting there is a pad of paper, a pencil, and an empty binder. Sitting at the head of the table is JARED COHEN. He is a blond boyish looking 43 year old, although carries himself with intense confidence. He is the head of all fixed income securities, and oversees roughly 25,000 employees. Next to him is his chief risk management officer, SARAH ROBERTSON, the same woman from outside the building earlier who had the run in with ERIC. Next to her is her right hand man RAMESH SHAH, a sixty year old number cruncher and next to him is a firm lawyer. They are all dressed sharply for a new day. Long silence.
SETH COUGHS.
ALL PRESENT look down at him.
JARED COHEN
So Sam, what do you have for us?
SAM ROGERS
Well... it should be here in a minute.
Finding someone in the copy room at this
hour was a little bit of a challenge.
JARED COHEN
Well why don’t we start by introducing
everyone then.
SAM ROGERS
OK.
JARED COHEN
This is Sarah Robertson who you know, our
chief risk management officer, Ramesh
Shah from upstairs, and David Horn one of
the firm’s in house counsel.
SAM ROGERS
Nice to meet you all. This is Will
Emerson my head of trading, and this
is...
WILL EMERSON
Peter Sullivan, and Seth Bregman. They
work in our risk department.
JARED COHEN
Where is Eric Dale?
SAM ROGERS
He was let go today.
JARED COHEN looks at SARAH ROBERTSON as it would have been her call to let ERIC go, she nods yes.
JARED COHEN
So who’s left in your risk department?
WILL EMERSON
As of today that would be Peter and our
junior analyst Seth...?
Everyone looks down the table at PETER and SETH. Their inexperience glares back.
JARED COHEN
Really?
JARED looks back at SARAH, then the room goes silent again. Finally a COPY ROOM STAFFER knocks on the door.
COPY ROOM GUY
Will Emerson?
WILL EMERSON
Here. Please just give one to everyone,
thanks.
The COPY ROOM GUY hands out the packets to everyone in the room.
SAM ROGERS
So apparently Eric had been working on
this for some time but was unable to
finish it, as he was leaving the building
today he gave the program to Peter here,
and told him to see what he thought.
Peter figured a few things out that Eric
seemed to be missing and this is what
came out.
JARED COHEN
Where is Eric Dale now?
SAM ROGERS
He’s been unreachable since he left the
office.
JARED COHEN and the others open up the printout in front of them and start reviewing. SAM, WILL, PETER, and SETH just sit in awkward silence staring at the other side of the table as they all read. This goes on for a full very long minute. Finally:
SARAH ROBERTSON
Peter this is your work?
PETER
Mainly Mr. Dale’s...
SARAH ROBERTSON
But this draft is yours?
PETER
Yes. Again, derived from Mr. Dale’s
original model. But yes.
SARAH ROBERTSON
And what is your background?
PETER
Background?
SARAH ROBERTSON
Your CV.
PETER
I have been with the firm for two years
working with Eric that whole time... But
I hold a doctorate in engineering,
specialist in propulsion, from MIT, with
a Bachelors from Penn.
JARED COHEN
What’s a specialty in propulsion?
PETER
Well... in laymen terms my thesis was a
study in the way that friction ratios
effect steering outcomes in aeronautical
use under reduced gravity loads.
Long silence.
JARED COHEN
So you are a rocket scientist?
The whole table looks over at Peter with some awe.
PETER
Um... I was... yes.
JARED COHEN
How did you end up here?
PETER
Well it’s all just numbers really, you’re
just changing what you’re adding up...
and if I may speak freely the money is
considerably more attractive here.
JARED looks down again at the numbers in front of him and his tone suddenly switches to serious, testy even.
JARED COHEN
What time is it?
RAMESH
It’s 2:15.
SAM and JARED just look at each other in silence for a bit.
JARED COHEN
What do you have in exposure right now,
tonight?
SAM ROGERS
I don’t know... between 900 and 1.3...
roughly.
RAMESH
If Mr. Sullivan’s numbers are correct...
RAMESH looks down at the sheet in front of him to go through the numbers and takes a beat too long.
PETER
1.215 Trillion.
RAMESH checks his number.
RAMESH
Yes.
JARED COHEN
Fuck me... fuck me... And I’m guessing by
the fact that you two haven’t said
anything that the math checks out?
JARED looks over at SARAH and RAMESH. SARAH then looks to RAMESH. She looks back.
SARAH ROBERTSON
Look we’d need a little more time to go
over this, but Mr. Sullivan here seems to
know what he’s doing. And I don’t have to
tell you that this is a problem.
JARED COHEN
Thank you for that. What time is it?
RAMESH
2:16.
JARED COHEN
Fuck me!
Jared stands up and walks around the small room. The rest of the room goes silent. Finally:
JARED COHEN (cont’d)
Sam how long under normal operations
would it take your people to clear that
from our books?
SAM ROGERS
What?
JARED COHEN
The 1.2 trillion.
SAM ROGERS
All of it?
JARED COHEN
Yes.
SAM ROGERS
I don’t know, a couple weeks?
JARED COHEN
Weeks?
SAM ROGERS
Yes. But as you certainly know our
business is selling AND buying. It
doesn’t work for very long without both
components. If we suddenly stop buying
for a day or two that just doesn’t hide
under the rug, it gets out and this whole
this thing comes to a end... and right
quick.
JARED COHEN
I understand.
SAM ROGERS
Do you?
JARED COHEN
How many traders do we have left between
your floor and Petersen’s?
SAM ROGERS
I don’t know, sixty.
RAMESH has been looking down at the numbers while this conversation has been taking place.
RAMESH
Jared I’ve just been looking here a
little closer, and it’s these VAR numbers
that are really setting this thing off.
JARED holds up a hand to interrupt Ramesh. Jared nods his head, his eyes are perfectly still but his brain is racing.
JARED COHEN
Excuse me, I need to make a quick call.
JARED calmly stands up and steps out of the room for a long moment. The room stays completely quiet the whole time he is gone. We hear nothing. It is awkward to say the least. He comes back in and sits down without missing a beat.
JARED COHEN (cont’d)
Please...
RAMESH
I was just saying, and just speaking
completely off the record here, it won’t
be long before someone else starts
putting these in and sees the exact same
thing we are looking at here. If they
haven’t already.
Pause.
JARED COHEN
Understood... And Sarah, what value would
you allow to be placed on those assets
that might be left on the books, if they
had to be?
SARAH ROBERTSON
Why would they still be on the books?
SAM ROGERS
Because suddenly no one wants to buy
them.
JARED COHEN
Oh fuck you Sam... give me a fucking
break, all at once?
SARAH ROBERTSON
Without an active market, it could take
weeks, months for me to value them
correctly. You’d have to go block by
block.
SAM ROGERS
It’s a very simple business Jared. You
and I talked about this last year...
JARED turns around suddenly and cuts him off.
JARED COHEN
Sam.... Will, Peter, and..??
SETH
Seth.
JARED COHEN
Seth, Could you please excuse us for a
few minutes.
They stand up and start to exit the room.
JARED COHEN (cont’d)
Oh and Peter? Who else has seen this?
PETER thinks that through.
PETER
No one... besides us here.
JARED COHEN
And Mr. Dale.
PETER
Yes.
JARED COHEN
And can it really be that we don’t know
where Eric Dale is?
WILL EMERSON
I’m afraid so. His wife tells us he
hasn’t come home yet...and the firm shut
off his phone today.
JARED COHEN
Perfect. Well, I need to know where he
is.
WILL, SETH, and PETER leave the room and close the door behind them.