The Retreat Read online

  “Hi!” Melanie said, “my ten associates and I are seeking emergency temporary Canadian citizenship. We really only need it for about a week. I have the necessary documentation, photos and required investment forms. Olympus capitol will be purchasing a brokerage house in Calgary and we will be seconded by the requisite number of Canadian citizens at the required pay scales.”

  “Ma’am,” the Immigration offer began, “you just can’t buy Canadian citizenship on a whim.”

  “I completely understand,” Melanie said, “but if I can refer you to Section 325 subsection 4 of the Canadian Immigration Act you will notice the provision that applies and states that temporary Canadian citizenship may be granted if the applicant demonstrates that $1 million Canadian dollars will be invested in a Canadian corporation for a period no less than 5 years and the applicant has a designation in a specific class of occupation. I am an accountant and a lawyer; Mitch is a registered stock broker with an international ticket and Devin is a registered stock broker and the remaining Olympus staff here are all stock brokers. Duncan and Angus fall in a different category Section 176 subsection 6 as they are dual citizens of Great Britain and the United States and were both born in Britain and have living relatives there and they will also make the required investments.”

  The Canadian Customs agent piped up, “You do know that that the investment must be made in Canadian dollars and that the US dollar is trading at something ridiculous like $35,000 to one, Canadian law states that only $20,000 in currency can be brought across the border without declaration. I don’t know what $10 million Canadian in US currency would look like but I’m pretty sure you could not carry it, ma’am.”

  Melanie turned and nodded and each of the ten people pulled a gold bar out of their packs and placed it on the table. “Gentlemen, I do not know the exact spot price of gold today in Canadian dollars but my calculations and rough estimates show it at around $3,500 dollars per ounce. Now I know those are troy ounces and you use the metric system but each of these bars is worth 1.4 million Canadian dollars.”

  “You can’t just bring gold bricks into Canada,” the customs officer stammered.

  “International currency traders may move gold bricks across whichever border they choose under Section 23 subsection 12 of the rules governing the International Monetary Fund policies of which Canada is a signatory,” Melanie explained.

  “Where did you get these bricks, ma’am?” the customs agent demanded.

  Devin stepped forward and handed out his business card showing he was the CEO of Olympus Capitol. “Hi guys, I really appreciate the hospitality you guys are showing us. Everyone was right, the Canadians sure are friendly and helpful. Listen, I am the CEO of Olympus Capitol and as you can see here,” Devin said while handing over some paperwork, “these are Olympus Capitol gold bars and we are opening a trading business here in the great country of Canada. I am pretty sure you guys can figure out a way to get us what we need. I am sure Melanie here has done her homework and you will find she is right on the money if you will excuse the pun.”

  “It says here you bought 22,500 gold bars, sir,” the customs agent said.

  “Yes sir, and 20,000 of them are right behind us waiting at the border to be placed in the Bank of Canada gold depository in Calgary just as soon as you can figure out all this paperwork business,” Devin said while in full blown salesman mode.

  “I need to make some calls, if you will excuse me.” The immigration and customs officers quickly got up and sped from the room.

  The Olympus team quickly got on their laptops and let out a little cheer when they were able to get on the internet; it had been a few years for them. Mitch paced behind them taking in all the screens while Melanie paced in the opposite direction. Mitch would stop every few minutes and lift his head up and stare at the ceiling while Melanie would put her chin down and start mumbling.

  Devin was off to the side where his secretary was feverously working on her computer. Duncan held out his hand and the secretary gave him a cell phone. It was like a sixteen-year-old getting their first car; Devin almost kissed it. Devin looked at the computer screen and his secretary pointed at a listing. Devin was on the phone in seconds; the group only heard one side of the conversation.

  Devin was talking and pacing, similar to Mitch and Melanie.

  “Bob, it’s Devin at Olympus….yeah, I barely made it….it’s been really bad….doing great, how are Marcy and the kids?....look, Bob, things have been tough for everyone. Are you still trading, what does your cap look like?....well, I made it to Canada and was thinking about Calgary, it is beautiful out here….only fifteen staff and thinking about closing it down?....care to spin it off?....yeah, I know what that is like….understood, still under contract?....well here is what I was thinking, I’ll take over the lease and keep your people on….no, I appreciate the offer but Mitch is here too and he has his ticket….that sounds a little rich, Bob, I was thinking 100K for the platform…well, I appreciate you taking the call, I have to get back to Harvey….100K, yeah Bob, sounds good, send the paperwork over to the Calgary office and tell your people I’ll be over there in a few; next time you are over this way I’d love to see you and Marcy….thanks Bob…hang on a sec, who was that guy we went fishing with from the Royal Bank?...yeah, get him to give me a call at the Calgary office…cheers."

  Devin turned to Mitch, “What’s our chip stack look like?”

  “$30 billion Canadian, Devin,” Mitch answered. “Canada’s GDP is around $1.7 trillion pre-bankruptcy and the US was their biggest trading partner. I’ll bet you have a passport in your hand in the next twelve minutes.” It took nine. There were four limousines waiting for them to drive them to their new offices in Calgary. Devin was working on a suite of rooms at the Four Seasons while the Royal Bank of Canada was on the other line working on a line of credit, cash, credit cards and most importantly of all, leverage. Their security for the leverage was simple, it was backed by the most liquid security instrument in the world, physical gold in a national repository. The Canadians eagerly provided armored cars and security to get the gold to its destination.

  After a long shower and a steak dinner, the Retreat people went to bed without worries of being hunted. The next day was shopping for clothes other than camouflage and a trip to their new offices. The Olympus crew each had a new counterpart and the battle stations were set up; Mitch was going to war.

  “OK, Mitch,” Duncan asked, “Angus was wondering if we were here to buy an army of Mounties to run off the Chinese. He says Canadian soldiers are some of the best in the world but their equipment is crap.”

  “No, Duncan,” Mitch explained. “The Olympus crew will work here while You, Angus, Mel, Devin and I go to London. The plane is waiting but I wanted the team here to get set up and make sure they had the capacity they needed.”

  “What the hell is in London?” Duncan asked while Angus gave a mighty “Humpf.”

  “We need to go to Europe because there are some places there that we need. We are going to London because there is a very special place there where we have to be to make this work,” Mitch explained.

  “Listen, Mitch,” Duncan said, “I’ve been to London many times and the only thing there of any interest is the Queen, decent beer and good fish and chips. Angus hates Englishmen more than Army officers.”

  “Trust me, Duncan,” Mitch said, “we need Angus and you to keep an eye on us. There are some people who are not going to like what Mel and I are about to do and we will be too busy while doing it to watch our backs. Angus is with Mel and you are with me. Devin will be doing Devin things but he will not be in the line of fire.”

  “OK but why London?” Duncan asked.

  “You’ll like this, Duncan. There is exactly one square mile in London where the people are not subject to the Crown; it has been in existence since before the Magna Carta was signed and it is called the City of London Corporation. It even has its own tax policy and is London’s financial center and the center of inter
national banking. It is the clearing house for many countries because its tax laws extend to other countries that are well known tax havens like the Grand Cayman and Panama. Any other country could throw sand in our gears with regulations but the London Corporation will not. Think of it like Hong Kong before it reverted to Chinese rule. It is in China; it is run by Chinese people but it had British rules. More money flows through the City of London Corporation than anywhere else in the world. It could even technically have its own police force if it wanted to but it flies low on the radar and doesn’t thumb its nose too much at the Queen or Parliament. Come on, the jet is fueled and ready to go, we can talk on the plane.”

  The plane was a shiny new Gulfstream-V that was waiting for them on the tarmac. Devin just shrugged and said they needed the wider body because Angus would want a wider seat. Duncan lay on the couch gladly sipping some scotch while Melanie and Mitch put their heads together and began working on laptops for the ten-hour flight. Mitch woke the rest of the crew as the plane started to descend.

  “Ok, guys, here is the plan. Mel, Angus and I will move into the Royal Bank offices where we should already be set up while Devin and Duncan head to the Embassy. The Ambassador is key Devin; you need him to come here or get us an audience to see him; after you have done that then find us a London Times reporter to come here. Mel and I will be trading for the day; then the SHTF. Mel and Angus will be going to the Netherlands while Devin, Duncan and I stay here. The plane will stay with Mel and Angus. The three of us will not step foot outside the one-mile ring in London, we’ll crash in the offices if we have to; Mel and Angus will stay at the Hague until the mountain comes to Mohammed.”

  “Who is the mountain?” Duncan asked.

  “The iron bank of Braavos,” Mitch said with a smile.

  The plane landed and the time difference worked in their favor for once since it was only 6AM; the Calgary traders got the short end of the stick and had to work during the middle of the night. Devin and Duncan grabbed a prepositioned limo and headed off to the US Embassy while Mel, Mitch and Angus went to their new offices. The Royal Bank of Canada lent them a beautiful conference room and three offices in a suite. Angus did a security sweep, closed the blinds in all the windows and grabbed an office swivel chair and parked it at the door to the suite. No Englishman was getting in here! Mitch and Mel went to work in the same office standing side by side each facing a monitor with a split screen and they tapped into the Calgary office.

  “Ok, folks,” Mitch said. “The London exchange opens in one hour, show me the currency exchange…OK, we’ll trade in yo-yos.”

  “Yo-yos?” Mel asked.

  “Euros, make it happen right at the bell.” All their gold money and leverage would be converted into Euros and out of Canadian dollars.

  “Our first target is the US dollar,” Mitch said. “Equities are with me and the T-bills will be with Mel, she does derivatives faster than I do. We want a full spread of options and use every global prime broker out there. Wire them funds directly if you have to but don’t concentrate with any one brokerage, we are flying in the weeds on this. The US dollar is trading at the $42,000 per Euro level, our target is the Peso minus 50%; the peso is at 500 per euro so our target is $750 per Euro. Call the options as they come through. Do not buy US dollars or T-bills; I doubt T-bills are even trading but we will be into the credit default swap market. Call out the options for swaps. We need to hedge both sides staying in perfect equilibrium with the US dollar. Once we have the US picket fence up, we will move to the Russian ruble and the Chinese yuan. Same thing on perfect equilibrium between currency and debt but everything will be options down. There is the bell!”

  Melanie and Mitch traded in unison and had purchased an incredible 300 billion Euro worth of options at varying exercise prices and length of terms in equal proportions between currency and sovereign debt. Their gun was loaded and they were ready for war. Options contracts were between private parties so while the options markets were on fire that day, the source could not be traced.

  Devin and Duncan arrived with the US Ambassador with Great Britain an hour after the closing bell. The Ambassador was a tall, nattily dressed, late 50s gentleman with perfect dark hair streaked with grey. He walked with confidence into the conference room, sat at the head of the table and addressed the group.

  “I understand that you people have something of grave importance to tell me. I am Ambassador Heath and I do not have a lot of time; the Saudi Embassy is having a cocktail party in an hour. If the Canadian Prime Minister had not personally called, then I would not have come. You have three minutes to explain. How five Americans from Idaho,” which he managed to say with a sneer, “managed to get to London is beyond me.”

  Mitch began, “Well sir, how would you like to be the man who saved the United States and got all the foreign troops to go home? You would go down in the history books as one of the greatest Americans in history. You are the right man, in the right place, at the right time.”

  “The United States occupation was a negotiated bankruptcy with foreign creditors. You probably heard the President yourself,” the Ambassador insisted. “It is only for a short period of time and the occupation has been peaceful; the foreign troops will leave once the debt has been paid.”

  “And what is the source of your information, Mr. Ambassador?” Mitch asked.

  “UN neutral observers have been on the ground and the global press has been kept informed,” the Ambassador insisted.

  There was a tap on the door and a journalist was shown in who quietly sat at the table. Mitch nodded to Melanie who ran an hour-long tape. It showed the marauder advance, the Chinese occupation and the summary execution of Idaho citizens. The hangings of the Beverly Hills families in the church were particularly disturbing.

  “Oh my God!” the Ambassador exclaimed. “The President must be informed at once and NATO must be called. We also need an emergency meeting of the UN security council. I need to go right now.”

  “Sit please, Ambassador Heath,” Mitch said. “That’s spelled H-E-A-T-H, isn’t it? The President is sitting on a beach somewhere that does not allow extradition and you have plenipotentiary power and authority as an agent of the United States. We have a better way; NATO must be complicit in this scheme and the UN is a paper tiger. We intend to have the foreign invaders gone from the United States but we need your help and we need it now. My wife will take you into the other room and walk you through the process; we are only asking you to do what the President said he had already done.”

  The Ambassador left the room with a smiling Mel to go to their other office. The Ambassador had a lot less pomp than when they walked in. Mitch turned to the journalist and asked, “Did you get all that, mate? Can I assume you would like the story? I do not know what the Russians are doing but I can give you an intelligence briefing on what the Chinese are doing and what they have done.”

  The journalist was feverously taking notes while Duncan and Mitch walked him through what was happening. At the end of the briefing the journalist turned to Mitch. “Two questions: who are you and why are you here?”

  “I’m just a guy from Idaho who wants to be left alone,” Mitch sighed wearily. “You can have the story and I’ll toss in the tape for authentication if I can get the Ambassador to stop staring at my wife’s chest and sign her piece of paper.”

  “Need any help?” the journalist asked.

  “For what?” Mitch replied. “Staring at her chest or getting the Ambassador to sign her piece of paper?”

  “Both, but what I really want is a look at that piece of paper,” the journalist said.

  “Well, you’re English so this red-bearded mountain of a man will turn you into a pretzel if you look at my wife’s chest and I tell you what, I might consider an exclusive on the aftermath of the piece of paper if the guy signs it,” Mitch said with a smile. “It would help if, on the way out the door, you said goodbye and handed him a business card, no peeking at boobs or papers and Angus will go
with you to make sure.”

  “You are on, mate!” the journalist said. “I’ll get the BBC to do the video and I’ll do the print; you’ll be on the wires in about two hours.

  “I am excited to see how it is received,” Mitch said.

  Melanie had the Ambassador’s signature ten minutes later. Melanie came into the conference room and gave Mitch a kiss; she then pointed her finger at Angus and beckoned him to follow her. All Angus gave was a mini “Humpf” in reply.

  Mitch, Duncan and Devin went to the pub down the street after Mitch confirmed it was within the mile square zone to have some dinner and a pint. They let Duncan do all the talking so they did not stand out. Nobody pays attention to a lowland Scot.

  Devin asked, “What did Mel charm the Ambassador into signing?”

  Mitch replied, “It is a weapon of mass destruction.”

  Devin asked, “Aimed at who?”

  “The whole world,” Mitch declared.

  The three sat in the pub until the story broke and were excited when the, “Hey, turn that up!” call came from the bar. A hush fell over the pub as everyone watched the story. “Bloody shame what’s happening to the Yanks” was the most common phrase heard at the pub. The trio returned to the bank to crash out, fortunately the bank had an exercise room with a shower.

  Duncan asked, “What happens tomorrow?”

  Mitch replied, “I don’t know.”

  Chapter 15

  The Chinese and Russian markets limited down at 3AM London time. The Canadian authorities were dispatched to Olympus in Calgary and saw the traders unwinding their options contracts with their counterparties. All gains were immediately converted to gold and credited to their Bank of Canada account and a new account at the Corporation of London depository account. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant asked them to stop what they were doing and they had a warrant for all trading records. The Olympus group handed over copies of all their trades.

  “Are we being charged with a crime?” one of the traders asked.