Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
HUDSON
I hope Juliette is doing ok. I’ve thrown her to the wolves, hoping she would be able to fend them off. The only people who can give her too much trouble are Frank and Elizabeth, and thankfully, I’ve pulled one away from her. Frank leads me down a hallway where the sounds of the party slowly recede from us until I can’t hear it anymore. Then he opens a door, and we step into what I assume is a smaller hall like the one hosting the dinner. We go through that hall and into the dark night into the open, where I can hear the gentle lapping of the beach only a few feet away. We head to a park bench and sit. He gets a Cuban cigar out and offers me one. I’m not one to smoke much, but I take it anyway. I didn’t know he smoked.
He takes a lighter out of his pocket, lights it, and then lights mine. Frank and I have never had the chance to sit down and discuss this for long. The first time I had a conversation with him was when he showed up at my company to talk to me about buying me out. After that, we discussed it through our lawyers.
So, this is the first time I’m sitting alone with Frank and so close. I can see the lines on his face, the bags underneath his eyes, and the wildness in his look. He looks like a tiger—a very old but very tired tiger, but a tiger, nonetheless.
“Hudson,” he says after letting out a long smoke. “I knew your father,” he finishes.
“My mother mentions it sometimes.”
“He was like you, stubborn as a mule. He told me there was so much money in the sea, we just were looking in all the wrong places. He would find the right place. He was confident of it, and all his life, he chased it. Fishing with large ships. I never believed in him, and I felt justified when the company he started tanked. I like it when I’m proven right.”
That much I had gleaned from his stories that are public.
“But what I hate more is when I am proven wrong,” he continues.
My success has proven him wrong.
“The world has come far, though. This isn’t the day of your father. You have better equipment, better fishing methods, and better marketing. But that doesn’t explain why a fish company is making so much money like you are doing. I was curious. My people said you are probably skimming. The Mexicans need people to move their drugs here; you have a license to have ships in their waters. How much of the waters can the Coast Guard cover? Your ships pack tons of fish every day; it isn’t hard to hide some items with them. I made some calls, had you searched some more, just hoping to find something.”
I was aware of it and back then, I thought the Coast Guard was being more careful and tactical in their war against drugs, but I had long known it was all just Frank Dubois, sniffing around, asking questions about it.
“I wasn’t shocked when they found nothing. You’re your father’s son, and I expect you to be clean. There must be something else. So, I dug deeper and found the truth. It was you all along—always you. Your vision, your ability to lead, and your desire to help others see that vision and make it come alive. I recognized something I hadn’t seen in a long while. I recognized myself in you. It was absolute.”
“But you didn’t like it,” I say, watching him, waiting for my time to chip in on why I’m here. He had the ground now and I must let him speak.
“Of course not. Having someone like you around is dangerous. You’ll get hungrier. It is guaranteed, and then you’ll come for me. The more you hunt, the more you’ll see that money is exactly where money is—in finance. I couldn’t let that happen. I must prevent it. You’re making that hard.”
“I’m just fighting for survival here.”
“Rakeem called me,” he says. “I knew you’d see him. I know all that you’ll do because I am exactly like you. This game you’re playing, you can’t win. I have the money and the time. You might have the time also, but you will run out of money soon. You can’t keep it up.”
“My father taught me never to give up and to always find new ways to fight.”
“Sometimes, giving up is the best thing to do. The wisest.”
“I don’t see why I should. We’re both on even ground for now. You’re losing money, and so am I.”
“How much can you afford to bleed off?”
“As much as it takes.”
“Don’t be a fool. You have people working for you that you must care for. If you keep this up, how do you intend them to feed their family?”
“I’m not in this battle alone,” I tell him. “Everyone who works for me knows we are in it together. They want me to remain at the helm.”
“And I will ensure that happens. You’ll have total control of everything: Hiring, processing, every day running, everything.”
“But it won’t be mine.”
“What difference does it make? You’ve made your mark, you’ve made your name, and you’ve achieved more than your father could have hoped for.”
“But it’s not enough,” I tell him.
“What is enough then?”
“I have a proposal,” I tell him. This is my chance. “My office will send you the details of it tomorrow, but I can give you the gist of it now.”
He watches me and smiles. “Go ahead,” he says, taking a long drag from his cigar while mine burns away.
“You’ve offered to buy me out entirely and to transfer full ownership to you for three billion dollars. I think we can do one better.”
“Way above the company’s current valuation,” he says.
“Potential is what you’re looking to buy,” I tell him. “Potential is why I’m unwilling to sell. So, we make a deal. We both become owners of the company. You buy out a portion. A billion dollars. I buy out a billion dollars also and we put the rest out for public sale. We are both major owners, and whatever I stand to gain in the future, you stand to gain also. And then, you go on with your life, and I continue running the company. You’re making money without having to worry about anything. It’s a good deal.”
“No doubt about it. You’ve thought it out. Have your people send out the details. But you must know I have no intention of agreeing to it.
Goddamnit, I feel like strangling him. Why must he make everything so hard?
“I have never stepped into a battle and called a truce. That isn’t the Frank Dubois way, but no one has ever offered me a deal as sweet as the one you just gave to me. That is why I will take it into consideration, but I won’t agree to it.”
“We’re both losing money, Frank. You should agree to this and be done with it. Like you said, it is a sweet deal. You lose nothing at all.”
“Except a billion dollars,” he says in mockery.
“If you buy me out, you’ll lose three. Think about it this way, Frank. If you succeed and buy me out, I won’t work for you. I’ll retire, leave the business, and go settle down. If you don’t have me at the helm, you won’t have the returns you’re so hungry for.
“Are you threatening sabotage?”
“Of course not. But you’ll never find someone like me who can run it as efficiently as I do. In the end, it bleeds money, and you lose. Maybe then, I’ll return and offer to buy it back from you, for far less. Maybe a billion dollars or less. Then, you’ll have no choice but to pay and count your losses. I do have time, Frank. I have time to step back and make that happen. I am younger than you are. Three billion is enough to retire and never work again in my life. But you’re old. Death lurks in the corner.”
“Now, you threaten me,”
“With a win,” I tell him. “I threaten you with the win you want. You want to have my company, don’t you? I’ll fight you tooth and nail, but if I lose, you lose. Or rather if you win, I win.”
If what Jasmine says is true, then I know Frank can’t afford to have two sinking ships losing money. “Think about it Frank, you really do not want to play this game anymore.”
“The girl,” he says suddenly. “The one you brought with you. That was a nice play. You made it impossible for me to make a counter play and ask you to marry my daughter. You know I love her. You know I’ll give up all of this for her, but I can’t ask you to marry her when you have one already, you can’t make her happy.”
Good thing he figured that out on his own.
“I’ll win this, Hudson. I’ll win and harness the company's potential. You forget what I said at the start. You and me, we are the same.”
“Maybe. But you don’t know fish.”
“I don’t have to. I just have to know people.”