Go Make Your Call

 278.

"You will have to accept my apologies," Goldson begins, "we are doing a comprehensive internal investigation as we speak."

"No need to apologize," Sharkey replies, "Considering the outcome, it could have been a lot worse. Those guys are regulars?"

"No, we have already discovered that they are part of a small LA syndicate, taking a junket vacation to try their hands at a game way out of their league. We don't shake down or intimidate our partners, much less outright rob them at gunpoint," Goldson continues.

"And I will assume that by 'partners' you mean not only those you choose to do business with but those that gamble as well?"

"Where would we be if our customers didn't feel safe? But let's leave all that to our security and marketing departments, respectively, and get to our business at hand, shall we?"

"Security will lead, I assume?"

"At this point, and we have a ways to go, the computer hack you somehow managed to install seems to have worked flawlessly. We have our team of IT experts going over the code changes and down-stream ramifications, but we can save ourselves a lot of time and trouble if I can get your programmer to de-install the program, clean the code and return the operation of the system to its former status." Goldson levels.

"I should then assume that you are satisfied with our demonstration and wish to proceed with Phase Two?" Sharkey asks, already knowing the answer, "Because if you are, I am pretty sure we can have the system booted back to its pre-test state in about an hour. I can make the call from a secure line and get started as soon as we have your word that we are a go."

"I have one question before we do that, If I may."

"Absolutely."

"Why us? You could have picked any number of equally successful gaming enterprises, but you came knocking at our front door? Why?" Goldson asks in a somewhat menacing tone.

"It's complicated, but your former boss, as you are aware, had contacts in a number of areas, many having absolutely nothing to do with gaming, hospitality, entertainment, or any form of soft commerce. We needed him from both a financial perspective and as a celebrity sure to legitimize our sales and marketing efforts. We also knew his Achilles heel, so we authored the strategy with that trait foremost in mind," Sharkey confesses, as a nervous Bess watches him dangerously tip-toe on the thin sheet of ice.

After a pause, Goldson asks, "And that one trait, would you care to share?"

"I can best illustrate it by using a true-life example that I had with a former NFL player, a great guy, MBA from Washington, All-Pro but at the end of a long and relatively injury-free career. He was giving me a ride to the airport in his cherry-red convertible Mercedes 450SEL during the negotiation of what was to be his final contract with his sole professional football duty to be the long snapper on field-goal attempts. Fairly easy duty. So I asked him why he doesn't simply retire and call it a career, do some golfing and build a cabin on the lake," Sharkey, onstage and in the spotlight, almost sings.

"You know what he said to me?"

Goldson AND Bess answer in unison. "What?"

He said [pause]: "Because a million dollars is hard to walk away from." [pause]

"Go make your call."