Read The Icarus Prediction: Betting it all has its price for Free Online

close we’ll be rich, etc. Then she sat down, glossing over the fact that no cash was generated this month.
    Then the pecking order continued—underwriting, private wealth management, foreign exchange trading, and equity trading. Finally Utley said, “Energy trading.”
    Jarrod rose and began. “Sixty days ago, we identified some anomalies in the oil markets and a domestic security issue deep in the interior of Saudi Arabia.”
    With a smooth, matter-of-fact delivery, the partners were at first curious and then enthralled at how he pulled together the disparate threads of data, jawboned the tanker crews in the bars, mined out the Saudi situation from his spy buddy in Dubai, cranked the numbers, placed the bet, and rode the upward arc of the reverse parabola.
    “This resulted in a net gain for the month of $90 million,” Jarrod concluded, and then he sat down.
    Awed silence followed as the partners realized that the downward arc of the reverse parabola would come in the next thirty days or so, and he’d be back next month with another ninety million. They further realized that Jarrod Stryker was a shoe-in to become general partner and now could likely receive the mantle of heir apparent to William.
    It began with Warren Menefee at his elbow, but a ripple of spontaneous applause echoed in the room, in recognition of the most lucrative month in the firm’s history.
    Jarrod nodded modestly in acknowledgement, then turned to William to receive his accolade. But the general partner’s face was crimson as he stood and brought his fist down on the ebony table. “This is unacceptable !”
    A stunned silence fell on the chamber as the outburst washed over the table like a tidal wave. No one said anything, trying to absorb what had just happened.
    Blackenford drew a breath and unleashed a second salvo. “I brought you people from nothing, and you are nothing without me! I’ve paid you millions, and what have you brought me? Nothing !”
    The shock was still in full bloom when he looked at Jarrod and grudgingly said, “While the results from energy trading were…adequate…the rest of you are not worth a sack of shit! Do you hear me?”
    How could they not?
    “You have one week to bring in results that are tenfold better than this. Do you understand? Tenfold, or you are all on the street!”
    And with that, the general partner stormed from the room, leaving an astonished group of limited partners in his wake.
     
    *
     
    “Got a minute?”
    Sergei Dobrinin looked up from his computer screen. “Da.”
    “My office.”
    Sergei walked next door, where Gwen had already taken a chair.
    “What is up?” he inquired.
    “We all know what William can be like,” Jarrod began.
    Everyone nodded in reply.
    “He can be short-tempered, irascible, goading, and God knows what else. But there is always a method to his madness. That is to say, I’ve always seen through his behavior for the act it was. It’s just a management style to keep a bunch of bright, oversized egos focused on the goal line.”
    More nods.
    “Well, I’m not sure what happened, but I’m thinking maybe William has had a stroke.”
    “A stroke?” echoed Gwen.
    Jarrod nodded, then recounted the scene in the boardroom where William had blown a gasket. “Seeing as it was the best financial performance for any month in the firm’s history, everyone was taken aback. And what’s worse, the whole room was looking to me for some kind of explanation, and I had none. In fact, I’m at a loss as to what to do. Something like this can make a small firm like this come apart at the seams.”
    Sergei leaned back, trying to calm his younger boss. “Well, let us not to conclusions jump. We can speculate into infinity. Perhaps this a solitary episode. Perhaps some health matter. We need better information. Gwen, see what find out you can from your secretary network.”
    She nodded. “Will do.”
    He then turned to Jarrod. “Why don’t you go to Bridgemount this evening?