The Parking Lot Attendant Who Controlled the Stock Market

chapter 2

Chapter Two: The First Trade

The man with the gun did not look like a killer.

He looked like an accountant. Gray suit. Glasses. A briefcase. He could have been anyone walking into any building in the city. But the gun in his hand was real and the way he held it told me he had done this before.

Derek froze with his fist still in the air.

Maya screamed. A short sound like a dog stepped on its tail. Then she dropped her phone and ran toward the stairwell. I did not watch where she went. I was too busy looking at the gun and looking at the coin in my pocket and wondering if three seconds was enough time to dodge a bullet.

The accountant smiled at Derek. "You owe my boss money. Two hundred thousand dollars. You said you would pay last week. You did not pay. Now I am here to collect."

Derek's face went from angry to scared in less than a second. I had seen that look before. It was the same look my mother had when the hospital told her she could not afford her medicine. The look of a person who knows they are trapped.

"I have the money," Derek said, and his voice cracked. "I just need more time. The tech fund. It crashed today. But it will come back. It always comes back."

The accountant shook his head. "My boss does not believe in coming back. He believes in cash. Right now. In my hand."

Derek looked at me. I do not know why. Maybe because I was the only other person there. Maybe because he was desperate and desperate people grab onto anything.

"Felix," he said. "Tell him. Tell him I am good for it."

I did not say anything. I just stood there in my orange vest with my dirty shoes and my bleeding cheek and I watched the man who slapped me beg like a dog.

The accountant noticed me for the first time. He looked at my vest and then at my face and then back at Derek. "This is who you are asking to vouch for you? A parking attendant?"

Derek opened his mouth but no words came out.

I flipped the coin.

The future hit me fast. Three seconds. The accountant would get tired of waiting. He would put the gun in his jacket. He would walk away. But he would come back tomorrow with more men. And Derek would not be the only one they hurt. They would hurt anyone who got in their way. Including me.

I put the coin back in my pocket and did something stupid.

"I will pay you," I said.

Both men looked at me.

The accountant laughed. It was a dry sound. No humor in it. "You? You park cars. You do not have two hundred thousand dollars."

"I do not have it yet," I said. "But I will have it by tomorrow morning. Give me twelve hours."

Derek stared at me like I had lost my mind. Maybe I had. But the coin was hot in my pocket and I had seen something else in that future. A name on the accountant's briefcase. A company name. And I had seen that same name on a stock ticker that was about to crash.

The accountant tilted his head. "Why would you help him? He just slapped you. I saw the blood."

I looked at Derek. He was sweating now. His fancy shirt was sticking to his chest. He looked smaller than he did when he was kicking me on the floor.

"I am not helping him," I said. "I am buying him. Tomorrow morning, his debt belongs to me. He works for me until he pays it back. Every dollar. Every favor. Every time I tell him to park my car, he parks it."

Derek's eyes went wide. "You cannot be serious."

The accountant smiled for real this time. He liked this. He put his gun away and pulled out a phone. "I will tell my boss. Twelve hours. If you do not have the money, I come back for both of you. And next time I will not be alone."

He walked out of the garage without looking back.

The moment he was gone, Derek grabbed my arm. His fingers dug in hard. "What did you do? You just signed your own death warrant. You do not have that kind of money. You sleep on your cousin's couch. You eat instant noodles for dinner."

I pulled my arm away. "I also have something you do not have."

"What?"

I did not answer. I walked to the parking booth and opened my phone. I had forty three dollars in my bank account. Not twelve. I forgot about the lottery ticket I bought last week. Forty three dollars and a coin that could see the future.

I looked up the company name from the accountant's briefcase. Kensington Holdings. It was a small investment firm. Rich people only. And according to the news, they were about to announce a big merger tomorrow morning.

But I flipped the coin and looked at that merger.

Three seconds.

The merger was a lie. Kensington Holdings was fake. The whole thing was a trap to steal money from investors. And in exactly nine hours, the stock would drop to zero.

Unless someone shorted it first.

I did not know much about stocks. But I knew one thing. When something goes down, you can bet against it and make money. Every dollar the rich lost would be a dollar I gained.

Derek was still standing behind me. Confused. Scared. Pathetic.

"I need your phone," I said.

"Why?"

"Because you have a trading account. A big one. The one Maya was bragging about this morning. And right now, you are going to let me use it."

Derek laughed. "You are crazy. I am not giving you access to my money."

I turned around and looked him in the eye. "Your debt is two hundred thousand dollars. If I do not pay that man tomorrow, he kills you. Not me. You. He kills you and then he finds Maya and then he finds your mother. So you can either let me use your trading account, or you can die. Your choice."

Derek's mouth opened and closed like a fish.

Then he handed me his phone.

I logged into his account and saw the numbers. Three hundred thousand dollars. More money than I had ever touched in my life. It was sitting there in cash. Not invested. Just waiting.

I flipped the coin one more time.

I saw the future. Kensington Holdings would start falling at exactly 9 AM. It would fall fast. Hard. Every second I waited to place the trade was money I would never get back.

I placed the bet. Every dollar. Three hundred thousand dollars shorting a stock that was about to explode in the wrong direction.

Derek watched me do it. His face was gray. "You just bet everything. Everything I have. My apartment. My car. My mother's savings. It is all in that trade."

I handed him back his phone.

"Then you better hope I am right."

The garage was quiet. The sun was starting to set outside. Somewhere in the city, a rich man was getting ready to announce a fake merger. Somewhere else, an accountant was telling his boss about a crazy parking attendant who promised to pay two hundred thousand dollars by morning.

And me? I sat down on the dirty floor of the parking booth and held the coin in my fist.

I had forty three dollars to my name. A enemies list as long as my arm. And a deal with a devil that would either make me rich or get me killed.

The coin was warm against my skin.

Three seconds.

That was all I needed.

The sun went down and I waited for tomorrow.