"Obviously, I miscalculated a few things." "Eddie!" "I know you're in there!" "Why is it that the moment your life exceeds your wildest dreams the knife appears at your back?" "The access code you have entered is invalid..." "Well, I'll tell you one thing I will never let them touch me." "My neighbor, who must have opened his door to complain." "You're gonna be next, Eddie!" "We're coming in!" "For a guy with a four digit IQ, I must have missed something." "And I hadn't missed much." "I'd come this close to having an impact on the world." "And now, the only thing I'd have an impact on was the sidewalk." "You see that guy?" "That was me, not so long ago." "What kind of guy without a drug or alcohol problem looks this way?" "Only a writer." "Strangely enough, nobody believed that I actually had a book contract." "Well, it's masquerading as a sci-fi novel, but it's really, uh, my own personal manifesto about the plight of the individual in the 21st century." "I sort of created a utopian society where we all sort of..." "Uh..." "Uh..." "It's really... it's really..." "Uh..." "Today was the day I was gonna kick its ass." "Here we go." "Here we go." "Here we go..." "It was gonna be great." "Just gotta put in the time." "Stay in the room." "That's the key concept." "Don't leave the room." "A few weeks passed this way." "Maybe a few months." "At least I still had Lindy." "Just like that?" "Come on, Eddie." "This is hardly a surprise." "I'm surprised." "Let's just not do this, OK?" "Let me..." "I'm gonna hand in 90 pages to Marla on Friday." "If you just wait to see what she says..." "Eddie." " What?" " I know how it's going." "I'm your..." "I was your girlfriend." "That word doesn't even begin to describe what you are to me." "Partner?" "Squeeze?" "Paramour." "Inamorata." "Cleaning lady." "Bank." "Be that a..." "What's mine is yours, too, and you know I want to share the rest of my life with you." " I was thinking that we should..." " Don't propose." "Why not?" "Because it worked out so well for you last time." "It's true, I did marry once." "Right out of college, to Melissa." "I do." "Briefly." " This isn't working." "Well, even though everything you say is true, I still love you." "I gotta get back to work." "You didn't even tell me what happened." " I got it." " You did?" "Mmm-hm." "I'm an editor." "I'll have my own assistant." "Can you believe that?" "Yeah, of course I believe it." "You deserve it." "Thanks." " OK." " OK." "She was right." "Why stick it out?" "I had clearly missed the on-ramp." "We both knew what was beckoning." "The lower bunk in my childhood bedroom in Jersey." "My father happy to welcome me into the challenging field of dental supply inventory." "Eddie Morra." "Of all the useless relationships better forgotten and put away in mothballs, is there any more useless than..." "the ex-brother-in-law?" "Holy shit, man." "What has it been?" "Like nine years?" " God!" " Hey." "You all right?" "You look like you're living on the streets." "What's going on?" "Not much, I..." "Well..." "What am I..." "What's up?" "Uh, I'm writing." "Writing a lot." "Oh, you're still trying to write?" "Matter of fact, I have a book contract." " Really?" " Yeah." " That's great." " How about you?" "Are you still dealing, Vern?" " Do I look like I'm still dealing?" " No, you don't." "No." "Come on, let's go get a drink." "I want to hear about this book." "I don't know." "It's 2:00 in the afternoon." " When has that ever stopped you?" " So." " So..." "How's Melissa doing?" " Here you go." " Thanks." "Wouldn't know." "I don't see her." "She moved upstate." "She got some kind of Internet home sales kind of job." "Couple kids." "Couple kids." "Who's the husband?" "He walked out on her, if you really want to know." "But what do you care, man?" "You were married, like, five minutes." "Look, I don't wanna talk about her." "I wanna talk about you, OK?" "Tell me about this book." "How's it going?" "Well, it's, uh..." "I'm..." "I'm..." "I'm behind." "I'm behind on my book." "And, uh, it's pretty well polluting my days and nights, if you really want to know." " Well, how much have you written of it?" " Not one word." " Creative problems, huh?" " Yeah." "Mm-hm." "Well, I suppose I can help you with that." "Just this once." "Oh, no, no, no, no, no." " You don't even know what it is." " You're still dealing." "Brother, I am light years from that now." "I've been doing, uh, some consulting for a pharmaceutical company." "What, like some offshore lab making fake Viagra?" "Come on, Vern." "No." "This is an exclusive product that's coming on stream next year." "They've had clinical trials and it's FDA approved." "All right, just out of curiosity and that's all..." "Let's see it." "What's in it?" "They've identified these receptors in the brain that activate specific circuits." "And you how they say that we can only access 20 percent of our brain?" "Well, what this does..." "it lets you access all of it." "Vern, look at me." "Do I look good to you?" "I'm broke and I'm depressed off my ass." "I don't think that my life's gonna take some sudden upswing into fame and fortune by taking some shiny, brand-new designer drug." "Gant." "When?" "Tell him we can't do that." "No, you tell him." "No, now." "Well, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to leave you here, Eddie." "But I really..." "I really do want to do this again." "So, call me." "And, uh, that's on the house." "I don't want it." "Don't be ungrateful." "You know how much that costs?" "Eight hundred bucks." "A pop." "You're welcome." "All the way home, I thought about Melissa." "How could she be a failure, too?" "She'd been so smart." " Smarter than anyone around her." "Clearly, there was a direct link between this Eddie, slightly drunk at 3:00 in the afternoon, and an earlier Eddie vomiting on his boss's desk or stealing his dying aunt's Percocet." "So who could blame Lindy for dumping me?" "In the end, how much worse could it get?" "I didn't want to see anybody." "Especially not my landlord's nasty young wife." " Valerie, Tuesday." " Look." "Enough, OK?" "Steve handles the rent, so you can feed your crap to him." "I suddenly had extra reason to get away from her." "I had thoughtlessly ingested a substance." "Like the rent's not low enough!" "I had gotten remarkably little information from Vernon about what this drug would do." "You could even be a bike messenger and come up with that." "Really." " What if it was a hallucinogen?" " It's pathetic." "Oh, my God." "Listening to her rag..." "If I were tripping, I'd jump out a fucking window." "Hello?" "Are you listening to me?" "Do you get it?" "You are gonna be out on the streets!" "And then, I felt it." "I was blind, but now I see." "...running away!" "You can't even look at me, you know why?" "Because you're not even a man." "You're not even a man!" "You don't have rent!" "You don't have a job!" " What's wrong?" " What?" "You don't like me and I don't blame you." "You see a self-defeating, energy-sucking piece of shit who's sponging off your husband." "You're wishing I'd blow my brains out, but my existence shouldn't make you this upset." "What is it?" " That's none of your business." " Something wrong at law school?" "How do you know I'm in law school?" "People who aren't, usually don't carry around dry, academically-constipated books about a dead Supreme Court justice." "You're a creep, aren't you?" "You've been..." "You've been following me." " No, I just noticed the book." " You just saw the corner of it." "How did you know that?" "I'd seen it before." "Twelve years ago in college." "Sitting on the couch of a TA I was trying to make, waiting for her to come back out of the bathroom, hoping she'd have a condom." "Somehow my unconscious had served that up." "A memory I had never even recorded." "Or was it there the whole time and all I needed was the access?" "If you're writing a paper, that's not the book I'd use." "Well, who asked you?" "Hastings has his oral history." "I'd start there." "Interesting point." "Grammatically, this guy was an idiot, which sort of gives credence to the theory that one of the clerks he had fired actually wrote most of this guy's major opinions." "You could Google the clerk's sons, they'd love to talk to you." "Exonerate their dad." "That'd give you something that no one else has..." "Information from the odd museum show, a half-read article, some PBS documentary... it was all bubbling up in my frontal lobes, mixing itself together into a sparkling cocktail of useful information." " She didn't have a chance." " So, what are your suggestions?" "We'd really worked on her paper, too." "In 45 minutes, it was a polished gem." "She was pleased." "Home." "But it couldn't be my home, could it?" "Who would live like this?" "Torch it." "But saner heads prevailed." "What was this drug?" "I couldn't stay messy on it," "I hadn't had a cigarette in six hours, hadn't eaten, so... abstemious and tidy?" "What was this?" "A drug for people who wanted to be more anal retentive?" "I wasn't high, I wasn't wired." "Just clear." "I knew what I needed to do and how to do it." "The next morning, I sent a little probe down into my brain." "No surge of brilliance came up to greet me." "In short..." "I was back." "But, something remained." "You're kidding." " No." " Words have appeared on paper." " Yes." " Written by you." "All you have to do is read three pages." "Just read three pages in the next hour and if you don't want to keep reading, I'll give you back the advance." "OK." " OK, Eddie." " OK." "Eddie, give me a call when you get in." "Eddie, I'm 40 pages further in." "Call me." "It's a little grandiose, but I'm still reading." "OK, how did you do this?" "I'd really like..." "Just call me the minute you get in." "Call." "OK?" " Who is it?" " Hey, Vernon, it's Eddie." " Eddie who?" " Uh, Morra." "It's not a good time, Eddie." "Uh, hey, Vern, I really just need to talk to you." "Hey..." "Oh..." " Vern, what happened?" " Don't worry about it." "I'm fine." "So, Eddie." "You are interested after all." " That stuff's amazing." " Works better if you're already smart." "Vern, who did this to you?" "Trust me, you don't want to know." "Uh..." " So, uh, what's it called?" " Doesn't have a street name yet." "But the boys in the kitchen are calling it NZT 48." ""The boys in the kitchen"?" "I don't..." "That doesn't sound very FDA-approved, Vern." "FDA-approved, that's a laugh." "You didn't really believe that shit, did ya?" "OK, so what do we have here?" "Some unknown, untested, possibly dangerous drug scammed out of some unidentified lab somewhere given to me by a highly unreliable guy I hadn't seen in years." " So you want some more?" " Yes." "Definitely." "All right, we'll talk about it, but I, uh, need a favor first." "Obviously, I'm in no condition to go out right now, so," "I was wondering if you could pop down to the dry cleaners, grab my suit for me." "And maybe grab a little..." "a little breakfast for us." "He knew he had me." "Sure." "From now on, I'd happily be his errand boy." "Wash his windows, scrub his toilet anything I could do to get my hands on that little clear pill that would bring back..." "Enhanced Eddie." "Vern?" "Vern?" "Vern... on, Vern." "Hey, hey!" "Hey!" " 911, what's your emergency?" " Hi, I need to report a a murder." "7B, yes." "OK, I won't." "Took them forever." "And the longer I stood there, the clearer I saw." "Vern had known whoever had done this." "And one guess what they'd been looking for." "But had they found it?" "Shit, if you ever cooked, I'd be dead, too." "Police Department!" "Open the door, please!" "Police Department!" "Open the door!" "Open the door, please!" "Police!" "Open the door!" "Let's go!" "Open the door!" " Let me see your hands." " Hey." " Let me see your hands!" " No, no, I'm the one who called!" "I called you guys!" "So, you guys tight?" "Hang out a lot?" "No, my ex-wife's brother." "I just actually ran into him on the street" " and he asked me to come up to..." " Buy some drugs?" " No, no." "What?" " What did this guy do?" "He..." "Uh, I don't know." "He was, um..." "I heard that he was an antiques dealer?" " A dealer?" " Yeah, uh, antiques." "Um..." "Like, uh, Viennese kinda, um..." " ...chairs and stuff." "Like, you know, like curlicue leg things." "Yeah?" "That is correct." "An Edward Morra." "He's here." "Victim's sister." "I hadn't heard her voice in ten years." " Eddie?" " Melissa?" " You were there?" " Um..." "Just before." "I had run into him on the street and, uh... yeah." "Oh, God." "I wish I was more surprised." "He was involved in some stuff." "I'd better not say any more." "No, no, that's probably a good idea." "So, uh..." "We should probably, uh, meet or something, right?" "No, I gotta do the funeral and God knows what else." "I just..." "We can't meet, OK?" "Right." "Well, I'll just..." "I guess I'll just see you at the funeral then." "No." "I don't want that." "Please don't." "I'll call you at some point, OK?" " When this is over." " OK, all right." "OK." "You know, something doesn't gel here." "Write down your number." "I may need to contact you later." "Worth the risk?" "What would you do?" "Vern's cash, combined with an unprecedented surge of motivation, enabled me to finish the book in four days." "A tablet a day and what I could do with my day was limitless." "I learned to play the piano in three days." "Math became useful." "And fun." "I'm all in." "Even half-listening to any language, I became fluent." "So that Shakespeare's catchiness belies mediocrity?" "There's no arguing with you." "This was great." "So, Mom, I've been doing a little research on Aunt Helen's tumor." "And it's totally clear that anybody with familial adenomatous polyposis should be supplementing platinum-based doublet regiments with eicosapentaeonic acid." "I suddenly knew everything." "About everything." "Well, sure, you get a short-term spike, but wouldn't that rapid expansion devalue the stock completely in two years?" " No, because there are safeguards." " Against aggressive over-expansion?" "There aren't." "Because there are no safeguards in human nature." "We're wired to overreach." "Look at history, all the countries that ever ruled the world." "Portugal with this big massive navy." "All they got now are salt cod and cheap condoms." " And the Brits?" "Now they're just sitting on a dank little island fussing over their suits." "No one's stopping and thinking, "Hey, we're doing pretty well."" "We got France, we got Poland, we got a big Swiss bank account." "You know what?" "Let's not invade Russia in the winter." ""Let's go home, let's pop a beer, and let's live off the interest."" " Yeah." "My brain was just pouring this stuff out." "Everything I had ever read, heard, seen was now organized and available." "Here it is." "Here you go." "Eddie." "Hey." "Listen, I'm sure you have a portfolio, but if you don't, I'd be very interested in working with you." "OK, Kevin." "I made some new friends who invited me to the beach." "The beach was not nearby." "All my fear, all my shyness, gone." "They've done four basic trials..." "But mere lounging wasn't enough." "Only problem?" "If I wasn't moving forward," "I felt like I was going to explode." "Come up here because it's beautiful, right?" " Anybody ever jump?" " Are you crazy?" " He's gonna do it." " He's not gonna do it." "Oh, my God!" "Oh!" "Ah!" "And then I began to form an idea." "Suddenly, I knew exactly what I needed to do." "It wasn't writing." "It wasn't books." "It was much bigger than that." "But it would take money to get there." "In a down market, no one was making much." "But no one had NZT." "In an optimistic scenario, gains of that nature merely would reflect growth in the economy and would not pose an obstacle..." "Armed with Vern's last $800 I made 2,000 in a day." "Next day, 7, 500." "It was too slow." "I'd need more capital." "But banks weren't lending to guys like me." "Hey, Liev." "That's your man in the corner back there." "Yeah." "So, uh, Liev told you that I'm looking for a short-term loan?" "Yeah, and I told Liev forget it." "Why?" "Because I don't see you before and I don't fucking like you already." "Why do I give you $100,000?" "Because I quintupled my money four days in a row." "So you got a fix on the game." "No, not a fix." "I was able to calculate certain patterns using algorithms." "If you look at column four, this was the first..." "You're good." "OK, it's a fix." "Yeah, you know, all you people get caught." "What are you gonna do then?" "Well, it's not as if I have a black book with your name in it, if that's what you're talking about." "And besides, I get the strong feeling that you're not somebody I want to disappoint." "Don't get up." "I said don't get up." " Sit down!" " Hey." "OK." " OK, you take this, you mine." " OK." "You understand?" "You don't pay, you know what we do?" "I cut you at waist." "Peel your skin up over your head and tie knot in it." "You don't die from this." "You suffocate." " OK." " Good luck." "My new friend, Kevin Doyle, showed me how you could leverage two and a half times your cash at the day trading firm." "I'd been upping the dose for over a week." "It seemed to cut my learning curve." "Why are you buying that?" "The CEO was just indicted." "But not for the big fat defense contract he bribed his way into." "That's still on." "Should be announced next week." "I was jacked in." "Booted up." "At the end of the week, my brokerage account contained over two million dollars." "Word quickly got out." "You have 19 messages." "Four job offers, my bank raising my line of credit, a reporter from the New York Post." "Really call me back, Mr. Morra." "No one makes money that fast." "This article's gonna get written with or without you." "And finally, Kevin Doyle trying to sound casual." "Eddie, I was talking you up to my boss and, well, the impossible happened, bud." "We got you a meeting with Carl Van Loon." "Carl Van Loon wants to meet you?" " Apparently so." " But you're not in the finance game." "What can you do for Carl Van Loon?" "Since when do you speak Italian?" "Oh." "Self-improvement month." "I guess somebody gave me a wake up call." "I hope you didn't do it for me." "No, I just wanted to apologize to you, Lin." "And let you know that apparently my capacity for self-sabotage wasn't boundless after all." "The real question is, why did you ever put up with me?" "I was in love with you." "So, when does the book come out?" "Next year." "How's your new assistant?" " She's good." " Good." " Yeah." " Yeah." "And, uh, are you gonna get a new..." "You know..." "I'm really happy you're here with me." "I'm proud of you." "And a little intimidated." "We started up again." "Her place." "My place." "Basically every place." ""In a sizzling three days of trading,"" ""the unknown Mr. Morra trumped the market,"" ""prompting one top, hedge fund manager to comment""" ""He's Houdini." "He's a prophet of our times."'" "OK, give me that." "Give me that!" " "He's God"?" " You coming over later?" "I can't." "I don't have a key." "Oh, that's right." " Can I have it back?" " Uh..." "Nope." " No?" " I mean, does it have to be that key?" "Can it be a new key?" "To our place?" " It would be cost effective." " And you say I'm not practical." "Can I walk you to work?" "Whatcha doing, hon?" "Nothing." "You should sleep." "Isn't your Van Loon meeting tomorrow?" "Eddie?" "Are you OK?" "What are you doing out here?" "When's the last time you ate something?" "There he is." "Nice article in the Post, buddy." "OK, he is on his way." "Now, be warned." "He's mercurial." "One minute, your best friend, the next, you're a leper." "And he needs direct answers." "Anything tentative and you've lost him forever." "I think we should rehearse a few scenarios." "I'm eating, Kevin." "Hey, are you up for this?" "You sure?" "'Cause I got a little bit on the line here." "Have a toast point." " It's Carl Van Loon." " That's Carl Van Loon." "He's worth a fortune." " Hey, John." " Hey, Carl." "Good to see you." " How are ya?" " Eddie." "So, Eddie Morra." " What's your secret?" " Medication." "I'm on special medication." "OK." "Well, it's a formula with a complex method." "But, of course, research was a component." "Massive research." "I knew every helix of every scrap of DNA in every company I bought." "Papers stacked like the Himalayas in my office, and you know what?" " The stocks went up." " By a hair." "Sure, the stocks rose, but who wants to do all that work for a shitty little uptake?" "It's not the visceral kind of spike you want in short term holdings so I dispensed with all the hard statistics and I went right to the rumor mill." "So you bought your stocks based on what?" "The tom-toms beating in the street?" "Sure." "Share prices aren't really based on how a company works." "It's about how mass psychology works." "So, if I found certain algorithms in the perception of the stock..." "Pattern recognition." "That's your snake oil." "Well, not everybody understands the patterns." "And that gave me a little bit more of an uptake, but it's just a parlor trick." "So then, I went on to door number three." "Are you really implying that you have some sort of ultimate formula?" "Well, from 12,000 to 2.3 million in ten days." " I do have a formula, Mr. Pierce." " Delusions of grandeur." "I don't have delusions of grandeur, I have an actual recipe for grandeur." "I don't know who you are, Eddie, or what you game is, but I'm sure of one thing." "You don't work in my world." "I'm up to my ass with investment guys and you don't have their half-terrified, half-cocky line of crap which is not to say that I like yours any better." "But you obviously pick your stocks in a way which I haven't seen before." "Take a look at these companies and tell me what you think." " Right now?" " Yeah." "Take your time." "Sure." "These companies aren't the question, are they?" "Explain." "Unless you're playing both sides of the fence." "Control the whole power enchilada, but, no, these companies wouldn't get you there in emerging markets." "You would have to..." "Oh." "Whoa." "This must be some big-ass merger you're contemplating." "And there's really only one company with enough bling to justify a merger with Van Loon and Associates." "Who have you been talking to?" "Oh, I'm just connecting the dots." "Is Hank Atwood really gonna go for it?" "Well, you're an amazing con artist, or you're a very smart young man." "I mean, come on." "The two of you together?" "The whole world would have to come begging for energy like Oliver Twist and his bowl of gruel." "Now you're going backwards." "What else you got?" " A prediction." "It won't come off." " Why's that?" " You'd have to back off Libya." " Really?" "Well, you don't want to hear this from some schmuck who needs a ride home." "All right, you get your shot." "Meet me tomorrow at the Saint Regis at ten and tell me how the gutsy little schmuck who needs a ride home would re-structure these deals." "And you'd better be prepared." "I'm at your disposal." "You don't really live here, do you?" "Well..." "Spartans weren't big on amenities." "Yeah, and they eventually got their asses kicked." "I didn't go in." "I wanted to walk, move, digest, ingest." "There are moments in life... moments when you know you've crossed a bridge." "Your old life is over." "Van Loon was my bridge." "I finally had my shot." "Wall Street would provide my nest egg, but then how far could I go?" "CEO?" "A global force?" "Maybe President." "Time somebody shook up the free world and got things done." "Suddenly..." "It was another skip." "How had I gone the last 20 blocks?" "I got another ten blocks." "And then I was way uptown." " Hey, watch it." " Hey, hey!" "Take it easy!" "A fight?" "Don't know how to fight." "Or do I?" "Ah!" "You use the fishhook action to get inside the mouth." " Like this." "Attack the sensitive areas." "The eyes, the throat, the groin." "If you are hit, do not stop." "Your persistence will discourage your attacker." "Off-balancing your opponent and then using his momentum, take him down." "What bar was this?" "...black canvas and then they would just drop all the paint..." "Yeah." "Did you ever meet and then I actually went there and had lunch, I went back." "My friends are rolling..." "I heard you like to party." "When it finally stopped," "I couldn't account for the last 18 hours of my life." "Hey, it's me." "I thought you were coming over." "Is everything OK?" "Call me when you get this." "Even off NZT, I decided to give Van Loon's files a shot." "They were hieroglyphs." " Hello?" " Kevin, this is Eddie." " Eddie?" " Listen," " I can't make the meeting today." " What are you talking about?" "I can't come in today, I'm sick." "Yeah, well you can't have the flu right now." "He'll never give you this chance again." "I know, listen, I just..." "I have all this data to analyze..." "What have you been doing for the last day?" " Kev, I..." " Don't you get it?" "This is your test." "Yeah, well, I can't pass the test right now." "And how am I gonna look if you don't?" " I know, listen, I just..." " Sh." "Listen to me." "Pull yourself together." "Get down to the meeting." " OK, OK." " I'll be there." "I'll be there." " Hey, how are ya?" " Eddie." "Good to see you again." "Sit down." "What do you know about Hank Atwood?" "Atwood, um..." "He's an iconoclast, um..." "Owns about half of Colorado." "So this is prepared, Eddie?" "Uh..." "Is this Atwood 101?" "Doesn't everybody know about Atwood?" "Where was he two years ago?" " Hm?" " Nowhere." "Two years ago he wasn't even on Forbes' radar." "That was a great leap forward, right?" "I'm baffled by this guy." "He comes out of nowhere so strong." "Has me on the run before I can even get to anybody in his camp." "Beats me out of two properties, investing in countries with no oil." "Places I'd never go near..." "We're here in front of the hotel where a woman, identified as Maria Winberg, was found dead in her room last night, a victim of foul play." "Ms. Winberg was a well-known socialite and model but was also known for her dedicated charity work around the city." "Police spent hours questioning hotel staff and patrons and an eyewitness reported seeing a man leaving the scene help me convince him that I can raise his game." "Got any ideas?" "What do you think?" " Hm?" " Um hotel has adequate security cameras..." "You're not one of those kind of guys, are you Eddie?" "We lose you if there's a screen in the room?" "These are tectonic plates that are shifting right under us." "Pardon me, one second." "Was it possible?" "Could I have killed someone?" "Was it even me?" "Eddie?" "This is Melissa." "Listen, Vernon hasn't been giving you anything, has he?" "Because that stuff is dangerous." "Melissa?" "Melissa, hey, do you think that we can meet somewhere?" " I really need to talk to you." " We're talking now." "No, no, let's meet at, uh..." "Billy's on Grant at noon?" " You can't see me, Eddie." " No, no..." " Eddie, please." " Please, please come, please come, I..." "It's important, I really need to know what you're talking about." "I realized that there were other people who might know about NZT." "Vernon's other clients." " Hi." " Yeah, hi, may I please speak with Jerry Brady?" " Jerry's in the hospital." " He's what?" "Yeah, he's not doing well at all." " Yeah, hello, is Paul Kaplan there?" " Uh, no." "No, he's not." "Uh, Paul passed away three days ago." "Oh, my God, I'm so sorry." "Yeah, he started getting headaches, then he collapsed at work." "Now he's in the ICU." "OK, please give him my best." "Thank you." "Of all the people I called..." "three were dead and the rest were sick." "Hello?" "Hello?" "Watch it, man!" "Did you see that?" "Hey!" "Go!" "Go!" "Eddie." "Melissa." "Hey." "Don't tell me I look good, 'cause I know." "I didn't want you to see me this way." "You look good." "Oh, I, uh..." "Yeah, I sorta got myself together." "NZT will do that to you." " What do you mean?" " I mean, I took it, too." "Vernon didn't tell you any of this, did he?" "No." "Well, when he told me about this amazing new drug," "I was like, down the hatch." "And it was." "It was amazing." "I read Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe in 45 minutes and I understood it." "My work rate increased just insanely overnight and my boss started to hate me." "They offered me his job and then..." "and then I got scared." " Why?" " Why?" "Because I'm not stupid." "Nobody can operate at that level of mental activity and not crash." "I stopped taking it." " And?" " And I got sick." "Headaches." "Throwing up." "So I went back to Vernon." "He told me about all the people that were dying." "How much have you been taking, Eddie?" "I've been taking a lot." "Well, maybe... maybe they've worked out the bugs." "Maybe..." "Maybe this is a different batch." " Yeah." " You're off it right now, aren't you?" " Just finish your story." " Well I didn't take any more and I didn't die." "But after a while, I realized I couldn't concentrate on anything for longer than ten minutes." "I, uh..." "I missed deadlines, got lazy, slow, so slow." "That was two years ago." "And I haven't been the same since." "Do you have some left?" "Good." "You go home and you take it." "You take the dose down, but you don't just stop." "You'll die if you just stop." "Try to taper off, otherwise the headaches are just the beginning." "I have to go." " Do you know who makes it?" " I don't know." "I have to go." "Oh, shit." "Listen, listen, listen." "Listen, listen, listen..." "OK." " You forget about me, huh?" " No, no, no, no." "12:00 and you're not here." " I'm here now." "Oh!" " Good." " Come on, get going." " I could write you a check." "Check." "Check." "Are you out of your mind?" "What do you think I am?" "Some financial institution?" "All right." "You're right." "Look, we just need to go to a bank..." "What do you got there?" " What is it?" " No, it's just aspirin." "Don't look like no aspirin I ever see." "It's something good, huh?" "I feel good, man." "What's in this stuff?" "It's just, uh, vitamins and aspirin." "You full of shit, Eddie baby." "Lindy." "I wouldn't have let him in, but..." "I'm sorry..." "Tyler, I gotta go." "I'm sick." "I shouldn't..." "I'm sorry." "I couldn't make it home." " Let's get you to a hospital." " No, no, no, no, no." "I don't need..." "I need you to get..." "It's really simple, babe." "I need my pills." " Eddie, what pills?" " I don't..." "Babe, it's complicated." "What are you taking?" "Are you on drugs?" "They're... it's..." "I had no choice." "I told Lindy everything." "So all this energy of yours, all this focus has been a drug." "Well, it was supposed to be legal." "I have a... a supply stashed." "You want me to go get it." " No." "No, no, no." "I'm gonna go get it." " Give me your keys." "I'll go to your apartment." "It's not... in my apartment." "I moved it." "OK, so where did you move it?" "In my house." "Unbelievable." "Hey, have you got it?" "Yeah." "There's someone following me." "Are you sure?" "Yeah." "He got into the cab behind me and he's making every turn I'm making." " Baby, call the cops." " Can you go around him?" "Babe, what's happening?" "We're stopped dead." "He's getting out." "Eddie, he's walking over here." "Lindy?" "Oh, God!" "Ow!" "Help!" "Help!" "This man's..." "This man's chasing me!" "He followed me from my building." "I don't know him." " Please!" " Yo, buddy, let's leave her alone!" "Are you deaf?" "I said leave her alone." "Hey, buddy, are you trying to piss me off?" "What are you doing, man?" " Are you still there?" " Yeah, I'm here." "What happened?" "I'm stuck." "He'll find me." "OK, stop talking." "Don't move." " He killed two guys." " What?" " He's gonna kill me, too." " No, no, no..." "Can he see you?" "No." "Not yet." "I don't know what to do." "OK, I need you to go into the bag and take one of the pills." "Why?" "Because you'll know what to do." "You'll take it and then you'll know." "He's got a knife." "Eddie, I can't think my way out of a knife." "Just listen to me." "It'll come on in 30 seconds." "And you'll think your way out." "That's what it does." "He's getting closer." "Lindy, I love you." "Hey!" "Now turn to me..." "Hey, hey, hey, hey!" " Ah!" " Daddy!" "Ah!" "Eddie." "Here." "It's gonna be OK." "We've got to get out of here." "Eddie?" "You OK?" "Yeah." "I'm so sorry about what happened." "I want you to know that you never, ever have to go through that again, 'cause I can take care of us now." "I'm sure you can." "I can make us safe." "I'm back, OK?" " Who's back, Eddie?" " Me." "No." "It's not you." " You were different before." " I'm still the same person, Lin." "I wasn't, when I was on it." "I did things I would never do." " Those things saved your life." " But they weren't me." "Yes, they were." "No, the way it works..." "I know how it works." "I get it." "I totally get it." "You feel invincible." "Where it will take us, Lin, you can't even imagine." "The things we'll be able to do." "Where we'll be a year from now." "The kind of life that we'll finally be able to live." "Well, you might have to live it without me." "Look, I am gonna stop taking it." "There's just some things I have to do to keep us safe and that..." "To set us up and then I'm gonna get off it." " I mean, that's the plan." " Eddie..." "Look, I have a plan." "I swear." "I'm gonna get off it." "OK." "I hope you do." "Looking for me?" "You think you can run out on me, huh?" "You think I don't know where you are?" "I was under the impression our business was settled." "I want some more of that stuff." "Or I shoot you right here." "Take your pick." "This guy was not going away." "A few pills would buy me some time." " There it is." "We're done." " Oh, yeah." "We'll see." "Until I found a more..." "permanent solution." "Unless you see a real threat, I never want it known that I have any security." "You'll never precede me, you'll always follow me." "Never more than 15 steps behind." "And never stand too close together." "I want to able to look behind me if the opportunity presents itself." "And don't wear the same color suit." "This isn't The Matrix." "You have to know, Eddie, I wrote you off." " I was sick." " You don't get sick." "You're playing at this level, you get hit by a car, you don't even die." " You're absolutely right." " I know I'm right." "I mean, I didn't know who or what I was talking to." "A hundred and five." "That's who you were talking to, Carl." "Delirium." "Mmm-hm." "I sent over my revised projections." "I didn't ask for your projections." "I know, but I think if you take a look at them..." "I already have." "As a matter of fact I fired a few people over your projections." " I'm sorry." " No, you're not." "You're relieved that you know things my team missed." "The minute, the instant that's no longer true..." "Two months after I'd started NZT," "I was brokering the biggest merger in corporate history." "Ironically, it's gonna be crude." "Crude is gonna be where we're gonna hit them." "Which yields a prospective profit of 200 percent." "That makes both of us very happy campers." "I found that if I maintained an even dose, remembered to eat, drank no alcohol, the blackouts didn't recur." " How you doing, Eddie?" "Tom, is it possible to construct an imperceptible compartment?" "In this jacket?" " In all of them." " Certainly, sir." "Safer though my stash now was, I was not sitting around until it ran out." "Can I combine these ingredients in the same exact quantity, yes, but, the exact method of delivery to the brain..." "Darts at a dartboard." " Meaning?" " Clinical trials, guinea pig people." " That's gonna take too long." " It's what it is." "Or you'll kill people." "You need 12, to 18 months..." "I'll give you two million dollars if you can do it in six." "I found that we can cut costs 30 percent and, um..." "Excuse me one second." "I thought we straightened this out, Detective." "This isn't about Vernon Gant, Mr. Morra." "What is this about?" "The witness identified the Maria Winberg suspect as this person." "Wanna tell me your whereabouts the night of April 2nd?" "I couldn't keep this quiet on my own." "Enter Morris Brandt..." "the most lethal lawyer in New York." "You're lucky somebody wiped the room." "It's weak." "Circumstantial at best." "Just between us, were you there?" "I don't remember." "I don't want to make concessions to you..." "Carl Van Loon and Hank Atwood had no idea I might soon be charged with murder." "But SyCorps, Andine and others are jockeying for the same industrial concessions in Libya that both our companies are pretending we're not sniffing out." "How do you know this?" "The governmental bribe system is itself corrupt, so, of course, information about its inner workings, like anything, can be bought." "Go on." "If you take a look at the lower left-hand column, in 2008, five companies were jockeying for a position before we even took notice." "Jesus, he looks frail." " Could be an act." " He's not even 60." "So, have you decided, Eddie?" "What are you gonna do?" "When this is over?" "I don't know." "You haven't given me the answer." "You haven't asked the question." "Well, given the scale of my contribution, let's say 45." "Done." "Forty-five thousand dollars." "Forty million is plenty, Eddie." "There's a lot more where that came from." "You know, Eddie it may be on your mind that you're not gonna continue to work for me any more." "This has been the learning experience of my life." "I hope it has." "I hope you don't think you've gotten enough from me." "On to the next." "Well, in order for a career to evolve, I'm gonna have to move on." "That you would even think that would only show me how unprepared you are to be on your own." " I mean, you do know you're a freak." "Your deductive powers are a gift from God, or chance, or a stray shot of sperm, or whatever, or whoever the hell wrote your life script, a gift not earned." "You do not know what I know because you have not earned those powers." "You're careless with those powers." "You flaunt them and you throw them around like a brat with his trust fund." "You haven't had to climb up all the greasy little rungs." "You haven't been bored blind at the fundraisers." "You haven't done the time in that first marriage to the girl with the right father." "You think you can leap over all in a single bound." "You haven't had to bribe or charm or threaten your way to a seat at that table." "You don't know how to assess your competition because you haven't competed." "Don't make me your competition." "Now, I'll open up a line of credit for you." "You'll be wanting a few toys." "Hotel rooms were no longer an option." "What I needed was a bunker." "There's a built-in safe, central surveillance, vault grade pneumatic doors." "It's an unparalleled three-tier security system." "A fortress with a hell of a view." " What's the asking price?" " Eight-point-five." "I'll take it." "Right away, it was obvious he was on NZT." "Next week, I'm gonna need 20 pills." " Next week, you can go fuck yourself!" "Not that you'd feel anything." "I don't think your Fortune 500 financial friends would appreciate the details of your little dilemma with the police." "Thursday, I'm gonna need the pills here." "Getting smarter!" "Obviously, this could not go on, but there is very little on this earth that 40 million dollars can't solve." "And tomorrow at nine, Atwood would sign the papers." " Do you want to call it?" " Cold feet?" "There was all last night to tell us that." " Anything?" " I'll call him again, sir." "OK, the decision could have changed." "That makes sense." "The discourtesy doesn't." "It's still on." "Oh, based on your charts and projections." "You know, remind me, who the fuck are you, anyway?" "I'm sorry, Carl, I've had it with this unqualified, posturing little prick." " Pull it back." " Since when is this the Delphic Oracle?" " Don, pull it back." " Excuse me, Mr. Van Loon?" "Mrs. Atwood is in your office." "Ah." "Mrs. Atwood, Carl Van Loon." " My associate, Edward Morra." " Pleasure." "I wanted to make this as confidential as possible." "Of course." "My husband experienced some pain and dizziness this morning." "He's currently at Lenox Hill, undergoing tests." "I just want you to know we have every intention of signing the contract." "And as soon as he is able, we will proceed." "I realize this is a useless platitude, but if there's anything that we can do, please don't hesitate to tell us." "Obviously, we want to be as helpful and respectful as possible, Mrs. Atwood." "Thank you, gentlemen." "I rely on your discretion." "There won't be a proxy." "No, a cagey prick like him giving away power of attorney?" "Well, he'd better get better." "But Atwood wouldn't get better." "Because Atwood was out of NZT." "Well, why be surprised?" "How many other meteoric rises might be explained by NZT?" "At /east I had some." " My life wasn't in jeopardy." " You can wait here." "Only my money." "And my liberty." "I've been all over with them." "We can't allow any disparity in race or physical type between you and the rest of the line up." "OK." "They're as close to your clones as I could possibly get." "It's gotta be just one big handsome blur to this guy." "Who was out there?" "The woman's husband?" "A hotel maid?" "Was this how it was all going to end?" "Not the dimmest clue." "He was dithering." ""He was the third one from the right." "No." "Not him."" "There you go." "It's a thing of beauty." "You have that made?" "I did." "...market's been mixed today." "The Dow has been yo-yoing amidst speculation that." "Van Loon Associates and Hank Atwood have negotiated a merger..." "Have you been talking to anyone?" "No, I haven't been talking to anybody, Carl." "I'm not stupid." "I know you're not stupid, Eddie, but don't make the classic smart person's mistake." "Thinking no one's smarter than you." "Where the hell have you been?" "This is the second time you've turned to vapor." "I was in the building, I was getting coffee." "Why, has there been movement?" "Yeah, there's been movement alright." "Atwood's in a coma." "He wasn't playing us." "He's dying." "What do you know about this?" "I was less than usually equipped to answer." "The dullness was coming on." "I was overdue to take my NZT." "And the pain was starting behind my eyes." "Excuse me." "You're not excused." "What?" "A man in your employ can't take a piss, Carl?" "Was it Brandt or someone else?" "The police station?" "A coatroom?" "Mr. Morra." " Carl, I'm sorry..." " Mr. Morra." "Mr. Morra!" " This just came for you." " Yeah, what?" "Hope not, so let me know when you know." "All right, I'm gonna ask you again, Eddie." "What do you know about this?" " What?" "About the leak?" " No." "About Atwood." "What?" "What about Atwood?" "Look, you got a long way to go as a liar, kiddo." " Carl, I don't know what you're..." " Listen!" "What you're about to say is bullshit." "I know there's something you're hiding from me." "I smell it on you." "Right now," "I wanna know why this clusterfuck of a deal is dead in the water!" "Carl." "Eddie!" "Eddie!" "Outside Lenox Hill Hospital today, more twists and turns in the Van Loon-Atwood merger." "There is absolutely no truth to the rumor of this merger." "None whatsoever." "My husband is having tests." "This is a difficult time." "We would appreciate your directing further questions to our attorney." "Yes, we have no further comments at this time." "We're just awaiting the results of the latest round of tests and hoping for the best." "Thank you." "Eddie." "I know you're in there, Eddie." "Open up." "Come on." "Open the door." "And so, here I am." "I knew they would kill me slowly and horribly." "But this choice would at /east be mine." "But we're instinctive creatures." "We want to live." "So my foggy brain tried to remember where one tablet of NZT might be." "It was possible." "And possible was enough." "Hey, Eddie." "Now you know I want more, so why would you upset me?" "I don't like being down to this last one." "You don't even know how to use it." "You don't appreciate it." "You see, I dissolve in a solution." "You shoot it." "It goes straight into the blood and brain." "Lasts much longer." "So..." "You gonna tell me where the rest is?" "I'm plumb out." "You know, these guys are gonna find it." "Or I'm gonna make you tell me." "Question is, which is gonna come first?" "I guess we're gonna find out, huh?" "This is a waste of my time, you know?" "I'm getting out of this side of the business." "I'm branching out." "I'm starting import-export company." "Very exciting stuff." "I got a lot on my plate." "You're lucky I'm here." "Back in the old times, I might peel your skin back." "Fillet you." ""Fillet." It's a nice word." "I didn't know this before." "Oh, I had such a poor vocabulary." "But then I discovered this thing, Google." "Did you know the small and large intestines is 20 foot long?" "I had no idea." "I don't believe it." "I gotta see this for myself." "I'm dubious." "It's another nice word." "Anyway, I'm sure you're curious, too." "Don't worry, everything's sterilized." "We're gonna keep you alive for the whole shebang." "You're gonna get a front row seat, Eddie." "What?" " Ah!" "Not much of a triumph, was it?" "Because I would die here, too." "Only NZT could help me and the last of it was in this fuck's bloodstream." "Victor!" "What?" "Ah!" "Hey!" "Ah!" "Ah!" "Victor?" "Victor?" "Victor?" "The police would later note that my apartment's previous owner was an arms dealer." "Of course, these intruders had been his dissatisfied clients." "And the night was still young." "I'm sure you're curious about what happened to your boss." "I know I certainly am." "I mean, if my attorney was really working for Mr. Atwood, trying to save his life, why is he dead?" "I mean, at what point was the pony express supposed to ride in with his life-saving medication?" "His boss was dead." "So, I didn't matter now." "But he did not appreciate that Morris Brandt had kept the pills for himself." "And it was all still possible." "Actually, no, there's no more tickets." "Yeah, I know." "An overbooked fundraiser." "That's a first." "Well, here he comes." "I'll ask him." "Oh, that's much better." " Great job." " Thank you, sir." "Hi, Mr. Morra." "Edward!" "I think we're looking at a second overflow event." "There's a wave of donations coming in and I don't think they're even gonna try a second debate." " Great." " Hold on." "A guy from Eiben-Chemcorp's in your office." " I have a lunch." " They're your biggest contributor." "Give him his two crappy little minutes." " Eiben-Chemcorp Pharmaceuticals?" " Yeah." "Finally get to meet the guys that keep the lights on." " Carl!" " Mr. Morra." "What a surprise." "They told me somebody from Eiben was coming." "Chemcorp." "Yeah, that's me now." "I'm moving out of the energy business." "Come on." "That's like Hef moving out of the mansion." "Yeah." "I bought Eiben a couple of months ago." "I'm surprised you didn't hear." "No." "No." "Well, they really keep me hopping here." "Well, it's gonna pay off, Senator Morra." "The Senate." "Who knows..." "Everything's a technicality from here on in, isn't it, Eddie?" "I think we both know where it's headed, if you can maintain." "Have you asked yourself what you're gonna do when you run out?" " When did you know?" " Does it matter?" "I know now." "I wish you'd come to me at first, Eddie." "I could have bought Eiben at 33 a share." "We could have been partners." "So, Eiben makes NZT." "Well, it'll never officially exist." "Obviously, I don't need to point out the advantages for you." "Oh, I think maybe you do." "Limitless supply." "We know you can't get any more." "You sure about that?" "They shut down your lab this morning." "Eddie." "I just want to help you, that's all." "Keep you supplied." "No disruption in service." "Give you peace of mind." "That's all." "And in return, I do what?" "Get a little advice, maybe." "I won't be bothering you much at first." "And later." "What are you gonna be bothering me with?" "Well, given where you're heading, some of our ideas are a bit ambitious." "But hey, I think they're achievable." "And what if I don't like your ideas?" "Then we'll say, "Godspeed."" "And your candle will have shed a brief, but lovely light." "But you know what, Eddie, let's not even go there right now." "Right now, I just want to keep you brilliant and healthy." "Come on." "Let's go get some lunch." "After you, Senator." "Thanks for stopping by, Carl." "Give us a second." "What are you doing?" "Do you want to be President of the United States" " or brain dead, stuck full of tubes?" " I'll take my chances." "I told you your chances don't exist." "We shut down your lab." "You don't think some smartass on NZT might have two or three or even four labs?" " So what?" "You're not making any more." " That's right, I'm not." "I thought better of it." "See, once you know what's in it, you can tweak it, re-engineer it." "Get the bugs out." "Taper off." "I'm off it, Carl." "Well, on it or off it, there's no scenario where you're not working for me." "How you gonna pay me?" "In cigarettes?" "Last year you traded" " inside information 17 times." " You threatening me?" "Blank checks from Dubai." "Dumping in Chile." "Disappeared officials." " I mean, you shed a spot light..." " Do you want to go to war with me?" "And trust me when I say this, I'm not even being creative." "There's no way you can be making accusations like that and be walking around alive." "That you would even think that shows me how unprepared you are to fight me." " You're no longer equipped to fight me." " I may be off it, but you think I didn't learn anything?" "That my synapses didn't change?" "That I kept absolutely nothing?" "You have no idea what kind of enemy I can be." " That van's gonna rear-end that taxi." " What?" "The driver's distracted." "He's texting." "He's going 30 miles an hour." "He has 60 feet to stop." "He doesn't have room." " What van?" "I see everything, Carl." "I'm 50 moves ahead of you and everybody else." "What makes you think I don't have a guy with a bead on you right now?" "How do you know you're gonna be alive this time next year?" "What are you doing?" "You get your hands off me." "What are you doing?" "Something's pumping half-mass in there." "The walls of your heart are dilated." "Your aortic valve's steno." "So you're gonna need to get that replaced." "But you already knew that." "You know, you should really be glad about this." "'Cause me working for you?" "You'd end up as my bitch." "Maybe we should cool off." "Talk again." "I don't think so." "Don't forget to vote." "Edward." "You good?" "Yeah." "Told you I have a lunch." " Sorry I'm late." " Hey." "Don't worry." " How's your day going?" " Ah." "I've had better." "I still can't deal with that haircut." "I wouldn't even recognize you on the street." "Well, I'm a new man." "I've already ordered." "What?"