The Parking Lot Attendant Who Controlled the Stock Market

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: The Partial Copy

Felix drove through the night with the voice recorder in his pocket and Chloe's words echoing in his head.

She used to have a coin too.

That meant he was not the first. That meant there were others out there. People who found the old man or someone like him. People who saw three seconds into the future and used it to climb out of the gutter. People who climbed too high and fell too hard.

He wondered if Chloe's coin was still out there somewhere. Under a seat. In a drawer. Waiting for the next hungry person to find it.

He pushed the thought away. That was a problem for another day.

Tonight he had Victor.

Felix pulled over on a side street and took out the voice recorder. He listened to the first ten seconds. Victor's voice was clear. Cold. Confident.

"I do not care about the investors. They are sheep. I tell them what to buy and they buy it. That is how the world works. The strong take from the weak. That is not a crime. That is business."

Felix stopped the recording. That was enough. That was Victor's voice admitting to fraud. That was Victor's confession in his own words.

He copied the ten seconds onto a new device. A cheap phone he bought from a corner store. Then he erased the original from the recorder and put the recorder back in his pocket.

The partial copy was ready.

The sun was coming up when Felix walked into Victor's office.

The accountant was not at his desk. The scarred man was not against the wall. The office was empty except for Victor sitting behind his desk with a cup of coffee and a thin smile.

"You are early," Victor said.

"You said one week," Felix said. "I do not like waiting."

Victor gestured to the chair across from his desk. Felix sat down. The suit was getting tight. He had been wearing it for three days straight. He needed to buy his own clothes. His own car. His own life.

But first, he needed to survive this meeting.

"I found something," Felix said. "Not the whole recording. But enough to prove I am telling the truth."

He placed the cheap phone on the desk.

Victor picked it up. He looked at it. Turned it over. Then he pressed play.

Victor's voice came out of the tiny speaker. Cold. Confident. Admitting to fraud.

Victor listened to his own voice and his face did not change. He looked like a man listening to a song he had heard a thousand times.

When the ten seconds ended, he put the phone down and looked at Felix.

"Where did you get this?" he asked.

"Marcus Webb has a safe. A small one. Hidden behind a painting in his office. This was inside."

Victor leaned back in his chair. His eyes were narrow. Thinking.

"Ten seconds is not enough," he said. "I need the whole recording. The part where I mention the investors. The part where I mention the merger. The part where I mention the money."

"Ten seconds is all I could get," Felix said. "The safe was locked. I had to break it open. I only had a few minutes before his security came back."

Victor stared at him for a long time. Felix stared back. He did not blink. He did not look away. That was the secret. Never look away. Never show fear.

"How did you know about the safe?" Victor asked.

"Marcus told me. He was drunk at the party. He was bragging about how smart he was. How he had evidence against everyone. How nobody could touch him."

Victor smiled. It was not a happy smile. It was the smile of a man who had just found a weakness.

"Arrogant," Victor said. "That is his weakness. He thinks he is untouchable. He thinks his followers will protect him. But followers do not stop bullets. Followers do not stop me."

Victor stood up and walked to the window. The city was waking up below. Tiny cars. Tiny people. Tiny lives.

"You will go back," Victor said. "You will find the rest of the recording. And you will bring it to me."

Felix stood up too. "I need more time. Marcus is suspicious now. He knows someone broke into his office. He will be watching."

Victor turned around. His eyes were cold.

"You have three days."

"That is not enough."

Victor walked toward Felix. Close. Too close. Felix could smell his cologne. Expensive. Sharp.

"I do not care if it is enough," Victor said. "I am not asking. I am telling. Three days. Bring me the recording or I will bring you to the bottom of the river."

Felix looked at Victor's cold eyes. He looked at the scarred man who had just walked in and was standing by the door. He looked at the coin in his pocket.

"Three days," Felix said. "Fine."

He walked out of the office and into the elevator. The doors closed and he breathed for the first time in five minutes.

Three days.

He had three days to find a way out.

He pulled out his phone and called Chloe.

"Victor wants the whole recording," he said. "Three days."

Chloe was quiet for a moment. Then: "Meet me at the safe house. Bring the coin."

"Why?"

"Because I am going to tell you the truth about what happened to my coin. And then you are going to decide if you still want to play this game."

The line went dead.

Felix drove to the abandoned factory district with his heart pounding.

Chloe was waiting inside. Same black jeans. Same black sweater. Same cold eyes.

She held out her hand.

"Give me the coin," she said.

Felix hesitated. Then he pulled it out and placed it in her palm.

Chloe looked at the coin. The eye. The number three. She turned it over and over in her fingers.

"I found mine in a dead man's pocket," she said. "I was a waitress. Poor. Hungry. Angry. The coin changed everything. I used it to win at poker. Then at stocks. Then at life."

She looked up at Felix.

"I made millions. I bought a house. A car. A future. But I kept using the coin. Every day. Every hour. Every decision. I could not stop. I needed to know what was coming."

"What happened?" Felix asked.

Chloe held up the coin. The eye stared at them both.

"One day, I used it and saw nothing. Just darkness. I flipped it again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. The coin had gone cold. The future had closed. And I was blind for the first time in two years."

She handed the coin back to Felix.

"I did not know how to live without it. I made bad choices. I lost everything. The money. The house. The car. The future. I ended up here. Working for Marcus. Hiding in the shadows."

Felix looked at the coin in his hand. It was warm. Still working. Still showing him things.

"How long did you have it?" he asked.

"Three years. Almost to the day."

Felix felt his stomach drop. Three years. He had only had the coin for three days. He had time. But not forever.

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked.

Chloe walked to the window. The dirty glass showed nothing but darkness.

"Because I see myself in you," she said. "The hunger. The anger. The need to prove everyone wrong. It will eat you alive if you let it."

She turned around.

"Victor is not the real enemy, Felix. The coin is. The coin is the thing that will destroy you. Not Victor. Not Marcus. Not Derek. The coin."

Felix put the coin back in his pocket.

"Then why are you helping me?" he asked. "If the coin is so dangerous, why do you want me to keep using it?"

Chloe walked toward him. Close. Too close. Her eyes were dark and full of something he could not name.

"Because I want to see if you can do what I could not," she said. "I want to see if you can let it go before it is too late. I want to see if there is a way out."

She reached up and touched his cheek. Her fingers were cold.

"Three days, Felix. Use them wisely. Use the coin. But do not let the coin use you."

She pulled away and walked to the door.

"I will be in touch," she said. "Find the recording. Bring it to me. And then we will decide what to do next."

She walked out into the darkness.

Felix stood alone in the white room with the coin in his pocket and the clock ticking.

Three days.

He flipped the coin.

Three seconds.

He saw himself in a room with Victor. Victor was smiling. Victor was holding a gun. Victor was pulling the trigger.

The vision ended.

Felix put the coin away and walked out into the night.

The future was coming.

And he was not sure he would survive it.

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