Read Crown's Vengeance, The for Free Online Page B

few outright threats, they’d finally reached an accord this afternoon that should make everyone a tidy profit.
    “Lead the way, my friend. But just one. Our flight leaves early tomorrow morning.”
    Erika was at home, packing her bags for a long weekend with him in Boston. Parker had to meet with his old classmate Ben Flood tomorrow when they landed, but after that, he and Erika would be free to enjoy the city. First stop on their itinerary, the Paul Revere House.
    Parker followed his host down the sidewalk, which was jam-packed with people. Businessmen in suits, college kids on skateboards, and bums with trash bags mixed together, some more fragrant than others in the amber sunlight. Parker soon found himself inside a bustling Irish pub, surrounded by dozens of people enjoying a few pints.
    “You’re a real bastard, Chase. Why do you have to bust my chops so hard on our service fees? My boss is going to kill me when he gets a look at those numbers.”
    Rich Patton put his glass out for a cheers.
    Parker tipped his pint. “You got a good deal and you know it.” Each man felt the strain of the past few days. Parker had worked with Rich quite a bit over the past few years, reaching a point in their relationship where they could curse each other out during the day but put those feelings aside and enjoy a drink together at night. It was a solid, profitable relationship.
    “I don’t mean to talk shop after hours, but have you seen all the activity with oil futures?”
    As Parker sipped the blessedly cold beer, he recalled a barrage of e-mails he’d read that morning. “Did some dictator blow a gasket and threaten to shut off the pipeline?”
    He couldn’t remember any volatile news coming out of the Middle East, supplier of a vast majority of the world’s crude. Parker knew that oil futures, which were financial instruments purchased by traders predicting the cost of oil at some point in the future, could fluctuate for any number of reasons. If a war started, or if an oil-rich nation threatened to reduce their production, the cost of oil would likely rise. Should investors get wind of such an event, they could try to profit by immediately purchasing oil futures before they rose in price.
    If a trader could buy an oil future today for one dollar, when news broke that oil might become scarce in the future, the value of that financial instrument, or future, would rise, earning the trader a profit. However, should the expected not occur, and the market value of the oil future remained stagnant or dropped, the trader would lose money.
    Parker knew more than a few speculators who had lost fortunes betting incorrectly on the futures market. It seemed like an easy way to profit until you realized the market could be a fickle mistress.
    “No, and that’s the strange part. There’s been nothing to suggest that so many futures would be snapped up.”
    Patton had been in the business for over a decade. He wasn’t easily spooked.
    “How much activity are we talking about here?”
    Rich’s hands spread out wide, beer spilling onto the floor as he spoke.
    “Ten million contracts, give or take a few hundred thousand. That’s five times the normal amount. Of course, all these trades are sending the price of crude up as well.”
    Which only made sense. As the volume of futures purchased rose, so did their price. “Damn, that’s a lot of oil. Any idea why people are snapping it up so quickly?”
    “That’s the thing. It doesn’t make sense. Nothing is pointing to the cost of oil rising. I mean, it could go up or down a little, but nothing unusual.”
    “So what idiots are buying? Do they know something we don’t?”
    “If they do, they’re not telling. And as to who, that’s actually quite interesting.” Rich leaned closer to him, his voice low. “I have no idea who’s doing the buying.”
    That grabbed Parker’s attention. Having previously worked for a firm in New York, Patton was intimately connected to the