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“Could be the Chinese,” the vice president of the coh Hong Kong are way up They could be selling paper options contracts to drive the price down for their bullion purchases Nobody wants to pay top dollar, and they’re sitting on a trillion dollars of currency they want to unload So they buy bullion, pay the loss on the paper contracts with dollars they don’t want anyway, and bolster their bullion holdings to wind up net even”

Griht away “Doesn’t matter We’re the ant and they’re the elephant The bet’s run the wrong way Time to cut our losses and , we’ll have to temporarily reduce our prices to drive demand”

“We can’t We’ll lose money on every shipment”

“I’d rather lose ten million this quarter with full ships than twenty with the unused”

The discussion went on, but Gri the events in the Soloht hours and, as far as he could tell, so The predicted e had fizzled, and there were troubling local reports that the government had declared the unrest the direct result of a plot to advance a nationalization agenda, which sounded precisely like hisbefore his eyes

The implications for his personal fortune were dire This had been a winner-take-all proposition, and if it was cratering, he’d be left with nothing Or at least, by his standards, nothing Perhaps ten old in his oversized floor safe, a few hundred thousand here and there But his yacht was a liability, not an asset, as was his hoed, and his vacation condos had been pledged as collateral for bridge loans he’d been forced to secure over the last feeeks As with most entrepreneurs, most of his net worth was tied up in his company’s stock, and the day he sold his first share, the second share would be worth half asdecimated when he filed the mandatory disclosures in advance

The situation in the Solo in real ti and he was fully exposed, his personal fortune at risk

“Gentle company,” Grimes said “I want to divest ourselves of that albatross as soon as possible It was a good bet when oil was high, but with all the volatility lately, it’s dead money and we need to—”

He was interrupted by three sternthe conference room door open

Grimes’s heart rate increased rapidly as the lead man looked around the room and then settled his stare on him

This can’t be happening

“Jeffrey Grimes?”

“Who’s asking? And how dare you interrupt a corporate ?” Grimes demanded

“Chief Inspector Collins with the ACC—Australian Crime Commission You’re under arrest”

“Arrest?” Gries?”