"No, but nobody’s ever shot at you before. I was just coming to talk over some security measures. I was out in the hallway when the patio door shattered, so I hustled in."
"Good thing the guy was a bad shot," Chase said, standing up.
"I wouldn’t say they were bad. To get as close as they did from a boat took some pretty good shooting, really. It’s hard to hit anything at that distance from a rocking boat, and he came far too close. The bad news is that the hit man hightailed it out of there after the second shot. He got away clean since we didn’t have anybody out on the water to chase him. He’ll probably try again."
"You see, Chase?" Janice said. He couldn’t tell whether she was angrier with him, or the situation. "You’re in over your head. You should call this off now."
Chase thought about it. A smart man, or a saner one, might have done just that, but getting shot at only made Chase more determined. It looked like Vassily was dead serious. Now it was more than just competition for a landfill. Now it was personal. "Sorry, Janice, but Vassily doesn’t get off that easy. I’m going to make sure of that."
"Yeah, and in the process get yourself killed. I don’t know, Chase, it seems to me that this is never going to work. It’s a lot harder and more expensive for Vassily to do this the way you want, rather than to simply try to kill you."
"I have to admit that I didn’t expect this reaction from him. Well, not so soon, anyway. At least not before he became desperate. Maybe it’s my own fault. I did push him pretty hard. But I do know him, what he'll do, and this will work. I just have to figure it all out."
"So you admit there’s something you might not have thought of?"
"Maybe," Chase said, and sighed as he looked at Janice’s grimacing face. With her eyes scrunched up and her forehead in a frown, she no longer looked beautiful, and a bit dangerous. He had never seen her this angry. "Look Janice, maybe I am in over my head, but we can’t turn back now. We’re too heavily invested. If we give up now, this whole scam will work in reverse and destroy Ransom Industries. We’re stuck now, so if you have any better way to get Vassily involved in this, I’m listening."
Chase relaxed as Janice’s features softened. "I have a few friends that I think can help. I’ll take care of it."
"What friends?"
"Let’s just say that they’ll be able to convince Vassily to at least start buying up property. They probably won’t be able to stop him shooting at you, but that’s no surprise. Sometimes even I want to shoot you."
"If I’m going to be running this thing, then I have to know everything. No secrets."
Janice laughed. "Since when has that been the case? Why just recently I seem to remember a secret about Gary that you kept from me."
"So that’s what this is about? You’re trying to get even with me about not letting you in on Gary’s landfill right away? I did tell you, you know."
"Yes, you did… eventually. And eventually I promise you’ll know everything about my friends, too, but for now, take my word for it that it’s not something you need to know to get Vassily where you want him."
"Okay, I trust you, but I’m going to want to know." Janice didn’t answer, and started walking toward the door, smiling. Chase couldn't resist one last comment as she opened it. "Eventually."
###
Chase didn’t know what Janice had done, or who her mysterious friends were, but within a week, Vassily started competing for property with him. At the same time, Janice continued to buy up more and more property. Vassily used threats and intimidation on property owners, while Janice used good will and gifts for persuasion. Vassily sent goons door to door, breaking heads and harassing homeowners, and Janice sent candy and gift cards with offers too good to be refused. In the end, more people sold to Janice.
Chase didn't interfere. Instead, he stayed out of sight and hid from the world, not wanting to give Vassily any more opportunities on a hit. Since he had a lot of time on his hands, he took control of Ransom Industries completely to free up more of Janice’s time. It was harder than he had expected. Most of it was stuff that she had been taking care of, and stuff that he had lost touch with, so it kept him busy.
Everything was going smoothly. Too smoothly, as it turned out. Just twelve days later, Chase received a notice delivered personally from the Gary City Council that changed everything.
###
Janice quietly read the notice while Chase looked on. When she was done, she looked directly at him with that I- told-you-so look. "Well, I guess you were wrong about government moving slowly. It looks like this requirement of approval of all property sales by the Gary City Council is designed to keep anyone from buying up any new property."
"Yeah. I loved the part, to protect the citizens of Gary from unscrupulous real estate investors. That meant us, of course. This would never hold up in court, but we don’t have time to fight it. We’re sitting on a huge amount of debt that grows every day from what we’ve already purchased but have no income from. We can’t stop buying property, either. That’ll tip Vassily off. If we don’t figure out what to do with this, I’m afraid we might get stuck with all this Gary property we don’t want, and be broke on top of it."
"Okay, so now what?" Janice asked.
Chase just looked at her, eyes opened wide and mouth sagging, trying to find something to say. "I… I, really don’t have any idea."
"Chase Ransom, I don’t believe it. Since when have you ever been short on ideas?"
"Now, I guess. I didn’t expect this and I don’t see any way out of it."
"Well I do. Let’s start with this notice. Now what does it really say the City Council is going to do? Does it say that they won’t allow sales to go through? No, all it says is that the City Council needs to approve all sales. So, all we need to do is to get them to want to approve sales, but not to us."
"Huh? How’s that?" Chase asked.
"Well, we've already bought up a lot of property. Enough that one way or another, Vassily will want it, right?"
"Yeah, that's the idea."
"So what do you think Vassily is doing right now? I mean, he must have gotten this notice, too. What will he do about it?"
Chase snorted. "Nothing subtle, that's for sure. I guess he’s going to send some goons over to threaten some City Council members. That would be his style."
"Sure, and what happens then?"
"My guess is that the City Council will want to cooperate, and then…" Chase stood up, and grabbed Janice by her shoulders, kissing her hard. "Janice you’re a genius. Vassily will start buying again while we’ll be stuck trying to get a sale through. This is perfect. We can stop buying because we'll have an excuse, while Vassily will think he's won. It's perfect."
"Leave it to a woman to keep things in perspective," she said, looking quite proud of herself. Chase felt so good, he didn't mind a bit.
###
As expected, Vassily put some pressure on the Gary City Council, and they buckled, allowing Vassily’s sales to go through, while Chase’s were held up. After another month, Vassily had outpaced Chase’s purchases, and was well in command of buying up Gary. Chase made a good show of it by calling Vassily everything he could think as often as he could. He also made a public display of himself before the Gary City Council to plead for his sales to go through, but they didn’t budge. All in all, Chase was happy with his acting performance.
###
"So did you get the report?" Chase asked, as Janice came in.
"Yup, and I think you’re going to like it," she said waving a few sheets of paper in front of her. "Vassily’s not only broke, he’s mortgaged to the hilt. Seems you were right in how much it’d cost to get Gary, and that’s with only a third of all the real estate over the landfill bought up."
Chase nodded. "Just as I’d hoped. Vassily’s overextended. He’s out of money and
running out of time. The mob won’t like that he’s got so much debt. Most of it’s likely their money, so now they’ll be pushing him to finish this."
"How can you be so sure? I mean, that it’s the mob’s money?"
"You know that I come from a long line of garbage men, but what I’ve never told you is that my grandfather was a mob man. My dad never really held much to it, and distanced himself from it, so I’m not a mob man either, but I know how they work. Garbage and the mob have always been close friends. Most of the garbage industry used to be run by mobs, and my grandfather liked to tell me stories."
Janice smiled. "So, you have a checkered ancestry. I always thought there was something criminal about you."
"Disappointed?"
Janice laughed. "No, not at all. My only question now is how do we get out of this?"
Chase laughed. "Simple. We set up a meet with them and give up. Claim we’ve had enough and just want out. I think by now they’ll buy it. Besides, they’re probably ready to deal and get back to business as usual, too. I’ve already told Manny to set it up."
###
"Let’s get this over with. I’ve had enough of Gary," Chase said, walking into the conference room.
Inside the room, there were three people waiting. A man Chase didn’t know dressed in a Chicago mob standard Armani suit, Vassily, and one big, beefy bodyguard. Chase couldn’t help but notice the grin on Vassily’s face, smug and superior. It was hard not to smile back, or to get in his face and tell him everything, but Chase managed to keep his mouth shut and face grim.
"Ah, Mr. Ransom, please, would you and Ms. Sterling have a seat so we can conclude our business," the Armani dressed man said, pointing to a couple of chairs.
"Yeah, okay," Chase said, trying to sound surly, and wondering if he was pulling it off. Acting was not his strong suit.
After sitting, the man continued. "I’m Ramon Castello, and I believe we’re here to finalize the sale of the property that Ransom Industries has to Mr. Vassily and Waste Recovery International."
"It’s all detailed here with the final figure on the last page," Chase said, holding up a set of papers, and shoving them across the table at Vassily. "A certified check will do."
Vassily grabbed the papers, flipped to the back page, and turned white. Chase watched in satisfaction. Chase couldn’t say that he was that surprised. Vassily wasn’t known for being the best businessman. "You’ll get your money, just not right this minute," Vassily growled.
"No money, no property, but I’m here to work out a deal, so deal. I’ve had enough of Gary and just want out."
Vassily looked smug. "You want a deal? Okay, here’s a bargain. I won’t kill you, and you leave Gary and give me the property."
"Now, Mr. Vassily," Mr. Castello interrupted. "Let’s hear what kind of offer Mr. Ransom has in mind. Perhaps it'll be good for everybody."
Vassily grumbled, but didn’t say anything. It looked like Chase was right about the mob pressuring Vassily.
"I’ll give Mr. Vassily a good deal on the properties already bought," Chase said. "In fact, I’m willing to take a loss on them as long as he throws in Newark."
"What?" Vassily yelled, standing up.
"Mr. Vassily," Castello said, with a rough edge, and then stared at Vassily until he calmed down. "I think this is a fair and good faith gesture on Mr. Ransom’s part. I suggest you take it. Your partners would want you to. Remember, a deal is to be reached today."
Vassily grumbled. "Well, all right. It doesn’t matter anyway. Newark is a pittance compared to Gary."
"Good. It’s settled then," Chase said. "I’ll let Ms. Sterling here handle the rest of the details. I’d just as soon forget this whole ugly loss and be back to where I belong." Chase stood, turned to Janice so his back was to the other three, winked, and left.
###
A couple of hours later, Janice came back to Chase’s hotel room. "It’s all taken care of," she said, showing him the papers. She dropped down onto the couch, plopped off her shoes, and sat back.
"You look like you could use a drink," Chase said.
"Yeah, a double," she said. "Boy, am I glad this is over. You know Chase, I was thinking that Vassily might have gotten the better end of this after all. I mean, there is a huge landfill under Gary, and it’ll be worth many more times what it costs to recover, even with the huge expenses involved."
Chase laughed. "I’m sure Vassily thinks so, but he doesn’t see the big picture."
"And that is?"
"Janice, how many more years do you think we can continue to recover landfills?"
"I don’t know," she said, sitting up and plumping the couch cushion. "I never thought about it."
"I have. Ten years, at the outside, then there won’t be any more waste. Even now, everybody recycles everything they use because they get paid to do it. You know, both my father and grandfather ran garbage collection services. In those days, people paid to have their garbage carted away. Now we pay them."
"Okay, so ten years, but that still doesn’t explain why Gary’s such a bad deal."
"Because not only will it cost a lot, it’ll take too long. Vassily is committed to Gary now. It’ll keep soaking up all his resources and capital because he’s convinced, just like you, that it’ll be worth it someday. By doing that, he’ll put more and more time and effort into Gary, and less everywhere else.
"Ransom Industries, on the other hand, will continue to locate the landfills that can be recovered without great costs or effort. With Vassily out of the way it’ll make it that much easier. By doing so, we’ll be able to recover many times more than Vassily ever will before all the landfills are gone."
Janice shook her head. "You never fail to amaze me. You’re a magician, changing garbage into gold and gold into garbage."
"You know, there’s only one thing I can’t get out of my head," Chase said.
"Oh, and what’s that?"
"Just how did you get Vassily buying up property in Gary? I was sure I’d blown the whole thing."
"Well, Uncle Ramon was a big help."
"Uncle Ramon? Castello? That mob guy was your uncle?"
"You didn’t think you were the only one with unscrupulous relatives, did you?"
Chase was speechless, and then thought of something else. "But you knew it was a scam. Did you lie to your uncle to get him to go along with it?"
"Nope, I told him everything. He knew it was a scam all along. He went along with it to get even with Vassily. It seems his partners haven’t been too happy with him."
"Seems like a pretty expensive lesson."
"Not really. Like I said, there is a landfill under Gary and it will make money eventually, but to be honest, Uncle Ramon wouldn’t go along with it at first, either."
"What changed his mind?"
"I told him that you were going to marry me, and he’d be keeping it in the family, anyway."
Chase sputtered out his drink, and looked at her with wide, opened eyes. After coughing, he started laughing. "Well I guess I don’t have any choice now, do I?"
"Nope, none at all. Now come over here. There’s some unfinished business we have to work out."
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