Chapter 41 #2
Mitchell Mason made the introductions, and I shook Wendt’s hand.
He was tall, thin, and not dressed down in the way wannabe tech billionaires favored.
He was clad entirely in black, which nicely complemented his slicked-back steel-gray hair and deeply tanned face.
He carried a black Zero Halliburton attaché case in his left hand.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Wendt?” I asked.
“I’d like ten minutes of your time,” he said.
“Sure. Follow me.”
The four of us headed toward my office. Wendt slowed to look at the cage as we passed.
“A Faraday cage,” he said. “Very smart.”
I nodded.
“Thank you,” I said.
I entered the office first, followed by Wendt. He started to close the door, leaving the Masons outside.
“Sir, I think we need to be in the room to hear what is said,” Mitchell said.
“No, you don’t,” Wendt said dismissively.
He closed the door on Mitchell’s reddening face. He then turned back to me. I pointed to the chair in front of the desk as I moved around to my own seat.
“So… what brings you here, Mr. Wendt?” I said.
“You do know who I am, yes?” Wendt said as he sat down.
“Of course I do. I did a deep dive before I sued your company. I’m sure your lawyers told you that I tried to sue you personally, but the judge wouldn’t allow it.”
“Yes, I heard. So, tell me, Mr. Haller, did that deep dive reveal why I called the company Tidalwaiv?”
“No. I thought that was obvious.”
“This technology, Mr. Haller, will soon engulf our world like a tidal wave. It can’t be stopped. Not by a lawyer. Not by a jury.”
“I don’t doubt that. But I’m not trying to stop it. I’m just trying to make it safer.”
“What do you really want, Mr. Haller?”
“Your attorneys know what I want. What my client wants. She wants her child back, but you can’t give her that. So she wants public accountability and an apology.”
“She is standing in front of the wave. She has to get out of the way before it’s too late.”
“Is that a threat?”
“It is a fact.”
“Is that what you would tell the jury if I called you as a witness?”
Wendt didn’t reply. He just stared at me with what looked like both surprise and disappointment in his eyes.
He then brought the briefcase up and put it down on an uncluttered corner of the desk.
He unsnapped the locks and opened it, then turned it so the contents were facing me.
The case was lined with bundles of hundred-dollar bills.
The paper wrap around each bundle said $25,000.
There were two rows of eight, and my math was strong enough to know there was $400K showing. But it was a thick briefcase.
“The stacks go five deep,” Wendt said.
Two million. In cash.
“I’m sure your lawyers have told you that my client has turned down twenty-five times what you’ve got there,” I said.
“Of course they have,” Wendt said. “This is not for your client. This is for you. Get her to take the fifty.”
“So it’s a bribe. You realize I have a camera recording this whole meeting?”
I pointed to the camera in the corner of the ceiling behind him. Wendt didn’t turn to confirm its existence. Instead, he smiled like he was dealing with a child.
“Your cameras will show no record that I was ever here,” he said. “This is between you and me, Mr. Haller.”
“I don’t want your money until a judge and jury make you pay it,” I said.
“Are you sure about that? I understand your ex-wife underinsured her house in Altadena, and what little money is owed her for rebuilding may not come for quite some time. You could help her get things moving with this.”
He gestured to the money. I stared silently at him for a long moment, trying to contain my anger.
“Did you fly your G-five all the way down here just to bribe me?” I finally asked.
Wendt said nothing.
“Sorry to waste all that fuel,” I said. “But I need to get back to work, Mr. Wendt. Take your money and your lawyers and your bodyguards and get the fuck out of here.”
I saw a dark red flush come into his smooth, tan face. He was angry and embarrassed at his failure. My guess was that it didn’t happen to him too often. He closed the briefcase as he stood up. He walked to the door, then turned back to me.
“I’ll never pay her,” he said. “Even if we lose the case, I’ll hang it up in appeals forever. She’ll never get a dime from me and neither will you. I’m going to leave you high and dry, Mr. Haller.”
For some reason I nodded.
“We’ll just have to see about that,” I said.
He walked out, leaving the door open and me embarrassed by such a weak comeback.
We’ll just have to see about that. It was a pitiful response.
But quickly those thoughts were crowded out by outrage over the move that Wendt had just pulled—that he had come into my office with his bag of money, thinking he could buy his way out of the case.
In that moment I made a vow that it was Wendt who would be left high and dry.
I could tell by the clicking of his heels on the polished concrete floor out in the garage that Wendt was walking fast, his entourage falling in behind him. I heard Mitchell Mason ask how it had gone in the office. He didn’t get a reply.
After they left, Lorna hurried back to see me.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “He offered me two million in cash to convince Brenda to settle.”
“And you told him no way?”
“Words to that effect. Will you reboot the cameras?”
“What’s wrong with the cameras?”
“I think he knocked them out before they got here.”
“Holy shit, they can do that?”
“They seem to be able to do anything… anything but stop me and this case.”