"You are being watched." "The government has a secret system." "A machine that spies on you every hour of every day." "I know because I built it." "I designed the machine to detect acts of terror, but it sees everything." "Violet crimes involving ordinary people." "People like you." "Crimes the government considered irrelevant." "They wouldn't act, so I decided I would." "But I needed a partner." "Someone with the skills to intervene." "Hunted by the authorities, we work in secret." "You'll never find us." "But victim or perpetrator, if your number's up, we'll find you." "Behind the Government Team presents" "What's wrong with my other suits?" "They're fine for a hired assassin, Mr. Reese, just not for this particular job." "Where am I going?" "To mingle with the best and brightest." "Wall Street." "We have a new number." "Mr. Adam Saunders." "He's a prop trader at the investment firm of Baylor Zimm." " Prop trader?" " Proprietary." "He invests the bank's own money, not the clients'." "He seems to be your typical overeducated, overcompensated Wall Street highflier." "They're fine." "The cuff should shiver on the shoe, not break." "Saunders has already had a brush with the SEC, an accusation of insider trading, unproven." "His risk taking may have led him into dangerous waters." "I want you to get close to him." "I don't know anything about Wall Street." "Here's a start." "Although it doesn't really matter." "Banking is mostly looking clever and wearing the right clothes, and we've managed the second part." "I don't know how this works, but he's seen too much." "We'll clean it up." "Whatever it takes." "I'm a prop trader, not a tour guide." "And this guy's a whale." "He brings us business." "It's millions." "That'd be great if I handled clients, but the only people I make money for are Baylor and Zimm." "The amount of bank this guy's talking, it'll bleed into ours soon enough." "Sydney know about this?" "Said they requested you by name." "Someone must think you know what you're doing." "You're backing me into a corner on this, Paul." "I've got my eye on a thing." "What are friends for?" "Besides, you don't have to meet the whale, just his rep, some asset manager." "Outstanding, I'll be spending two days with hair gel and a pin-striped suit." "It's Glen Check, actually." "John Rooney, assets." "Adam Saunders." "I know what I'm doing." "My client prefers to stay anonymous." "He's the silent type." "He's also not fond of heights." "I thought rooftops were your domain, Mr. Reese." "Your reputation precedes you." "My client trusts reputations when it comes to his money." "Reputations can be deceiving." "How much?" "At first, pocket change." "My client likes to roll the dice." "No tips, no I-bonds, no short-term funds." "Play jazz." "Consider it an audition, Mr. Saunders." " It starts now." " You're a quick study, Mr. Reese." "Get over here, they're reading." "This is Andrea Foxglove, reporting outside the criminal courthouse in lower Manhattan." "We've received word the jury has returned in the Robert Keller murder trial." "You following this, Robert Keller, former CEO of Virtanen pharmaceuticals?" " Guy's standing trial for murder." " I'm familiar with the case." "Only thing between this company and chapter 11 is an acquittal." "Ever the pessimist, Saunders." "Nothing breeds like bad news." "Even on the broker side, right, Vic?" "Bad news is already priced in." "Keller's son-in-law's steering the ship." "It's a blue chip at a bargain-basement price." "Smart money's already in, pal." "That's why I'm here." "You just went pro too early." "Way too early." "That's Sydney Baylor, a partner." "She also has a reputation." "Reputation for what?" "Everything." "You held the sell tickets on Virtanen to the last minute so I wouldn't see." "$100 million shorted, Adam?" "You said you wanted playmakers around here." "You short sold Virtanen?" "Are you out of your mind?" "It's guilty, their stock craters, and I hold the price that I sold for." "See, that's the smart money, Victor." "Let it ride." "All right, kid, but consider what you're betting." "A verdict has just been read." "They're relaying it now." "Guilty of all charges." "Immediately following the verdict, the DA announced charges against Virtanen CFO," "Mark Lawson." "Congratulations." "You do that again, and you'll be the most successful occupier down in a tent on the street." "Feel like having a drink over the grave of Virtanen pharmaceuticals?" "Why not?" "I'll round up some guys." "Meet you downstairs after the bell." "His phone didn't pair, Finch." "That ever happen before?" "All I can think is that somebody else already blue-jacked him." "It appears we're not the only ones looking into Adam Saunders." "I see why." "Guy plays poker with other people's money and gloats about it." "I wouldn't be so sure." "Someone like that, the win doesn't concern him." "It's the rush." "Virtanen." "Two vultures, one stone." " How did you know?" " I read everything." "All the 10K financials nobody else bothered to." "Virtanen didn't have any blockbuster drugs in the pipeline." "They'd hocked everything but the family cow for Keller's defense, not to mention the CFO's." "It was all buried, but I found it." "Keller was just the tip of the iceberg." "That ship was going down, so I took the bet." "No risk, no reward." "You ever play Russian roulette?" "You want to get in the game, you got to spin the cylinder." "You in his apartment yet, Finch?" "The rent on this place must be a staggering." "Maybe that's why he doesn't have any furniture." "Mr. Reese, there's a small fortune in Saunders' closet." "Whenever you're ready." "For a banker, he doesn't seem to trust banks." "Bundles of $200 each." "And another club soda." "You pay, but you don't drink." "I drink, just not right now." "Adam here prefers to keep his wits about him at all times." "I hate that." "How was the dime tour?" "Was our proprietary friend here worth the reputation?" "Every penny." "There he is." "Mr. Big Shot." "You know how many clients I had to apologize to today when they found out I put them in a stock you shorted?" "Next time, do your homework." "Homework?" "What are we, in grade school?" "Sorry, Vic." "I guess you just went pro too early." "Watch it!" "Come on!" "Let's go." "We've got a Wall Street trader that gambles millions by day, fights in bars at night." "And someone's tracking him." "Stay on him tonight." "If somebody goes after him, it'll likely happen at his home." "Yeah, problem is, he isn't going home." "Looks like he's working overtime." "Adam is closer to his boss than we thought, Finch." "Who is this guy?" "Adam never came home last night." "Since it was there, I took the liberty of copying some of his personal records." "I filled in some of the gaps, not all." "I do have a death certificate for Saunders' mother from when he was 9." "Guardianship papers signed by a Robert Sowoski from three years later." " No father in the picture?" " I guess not." "I pulled up his employment contract from his personal computer." "Sydney Baylor hired him herself." "Their private relationship may account for his speedy rise to a trading desk." "This looks like a little more than sleeping your way to the top." "No other smudges on his record, except for a securities and exchange commission investigation that involved him six months ago." "I don't know why." " Maybe Detective Carter could help." " We'll see." "Until then, I've taken care of the current surveillance on Adam." "After a GPRS reroute, no one will be listening to his calls." "If someone makes another attempt, they'll have to get close." "And we'll nail them." " Joss Carter?" " Yeah." " I have your delivery here Dry Cleaning." " I didn't have any dry cleaning." " Got your name on it here, so..." " What is it?" "One man's suit." "Just sign right here." "3 World Financial Center, please." "John's gonna want that suit back." "So where's Mr. Navaad?" "He's taking his family to a Knicks game while I borrow his taxi." "Adam Saunders?" "Is he in trouble?" "He might be, he needs our help, and I need yours." "Is that why we're going to 3 World Financial Center?" "No, that's the regional offices of the securities and exchange commission." "We need to get a look at sealed SEC records pertaining to Mr. Saunders." "And you think I can just do that?" "If anyone can do it, you can." "I'll see what I can do." " You turned on the meter?" " Don't forget to tip." " Triple espresso, please." " No problem." "Triple espresso?" "That's a lot of caffeine." "You must be tired." "I am tired of nosy SEC investigators." "Your inquiry wrapped six months ago." "And I can't let another Ivy League punk like yourself get away with it." "And I still have nothing to say." "You're always very good at keeping your mouth shut." "You know what?" "I'm so sorry, forget it." "Is this the new standard procedure?" "Harassment in broad daylight?" "A year from now, I'm still gonna be looking." "One slip, so much as give your grandma a stock tip, I'm gonna get you, kid." "The SEC is a watchdog without teeth." "You couldn't give a parking ticket." "Good thing I got friends in the justice department." "They love sending rich white boys up to Otisville." "Watch your step." "Carter sent over the sealed SEC files." "Inspector Doug Rasmussen pursued possible counts of insider trading at Baylor Zimm last year." "The inquiry was aimed at top tier executives." "Adam was a subpoenaed witness, but all charges were dropped." "He testified to knowing of zero wrongdoing among the upper management of the firm." "I believe he was lying to protect his boss, Sydney Baylor." "What's Adam up to now?" "Headed all the way out to Queens." "Looks like he's got a bone to pick with a guy in a food truck." "I had a bratwurst from this rolling outhouse last week, hit me worse than a master cleanse." "I'm calling the department of health." "I don't see what the problem is, 'cause now you can stuff that soft gut of yours back into your $2,000 suit." "$3,000 suit." ""$3,000"?" "For a suit?" ""$3,000 for a suit."" " How are you, pal?" " Good." "The food truck is registered" " Robert Sowoski." " The legal guardian?" "You don't come around the old neighborhood?" " Life in the fast lane, Uncle Bob." " I'll get you something to eat." "He's more than a guardian, he's also a Baylor Zimm client." "Did you look into that MNP I asked about?" "MLP, Uncle Bob." ""Master Limited Partnership."" " And it's called Tritak Energy." " Tritak, right." "You told those fancy number crunchers over at your office to take care of my money." "I'm reading all this material they keep sending me." "It looks like an awful lot of cash going into one company." "I keep seeing it." ""Tritak." "Tritak."" "I mean, it was 10%, now it's 40." "Even a financial dunce like myself knows you got to diversify." "Uncle Bob, would I steer you wrong?" "Who got you those tax breaks?" "Who got you that low-interest loan?" "You had one truck..." "Now I got six trucks." "20 employees." "And from what I heard, that MLP is returning 8%." "Where else are you gonna find that kind of return?" "Trust that broker that I set you up with." "I do." "You're a genius, and you always have been." "Thank you." "What do we know about Tritak Energy, Finch?" "Not much." "Stay close to Adam." "See what you can find out." "On a side note," "Saunders guided me to a very kind broker who happily deposited our money in Baylor Zimm." "Hope you got a receipt, Finch." "Mr. Saunders, we had an appointment to finalize that deposit." "Give me one minute." "Paul, you got a sec?" "That company..." "That energy company I asked you about last week, Tritak?" "You made $100 million yesterday in the short of the century, you're asking about some MLP?" " Who cares?" " It's my uncle's cash." "I care." "All the fixed-income crowd is getting dumped into MLP, It's safe, boring." "It's not my uncle, it's half the clients at this firm, and it's half the firm." "I ran the numbers last week." "Baylor Zimm is invested in this thing to 19%." "Anybody even tracking that?" " You've been looking into client money?" " You know you can't do that." "Federally you can't." "It's illegal..." "And so is this conversation." "Thanks for the tip." "What are friends for?" " We'll talk later." " Yeah." "What's this I hear about you getting questioned by the SEC today?" "It's nothing." "It's the same guy, Rasmussen." "New day, same song." "He's got nothing." "But I need to talk to you." "That company I asked you about the other night," "Tritak?" "How about we keep what we talk about at night?" "And as for the SEC, just remember the last time we barely got off the hook." "We can't take another embarrassment." "You mean the firm can't take another embarrassment." "Keep your head down, Adam." "I come here a lot when I need to decompress." "It's peaceful." "So what were you arguing about at the office today?" "That isn't anything that your client needs to worry about." "Is the SEC something my client needs to be worried about?" "In this business, someone's always trying to find the trick, the con." " So what's yours?" " We're just that good." "Is that why you invested your uncle's money with the firm?" "Excuse me?" "We have $150 million on the line." "We'd like to know everything." ""Saunders" is your given name?" "But wouldn't "Sowoski" be more accurate?" "Are you having me followed?" "Let's go, I'm driving you back to BZ, and if they still want your money, some other schmuck can handle it." "So we're clear, my family, my past is none of your business, no matter how much money is at stake." "You know, maybe I should call the police." " You may need to." " What are you talking about?" "You see the construction equipment?" " I see it, so what?" " You see any workers with it?" "What do you mean?" "They want me to slow down." "We're being funneled." "Don't stop!" "Someone just tried to kill Adam." " How's Mr. Saunders after last night?" " He thinks it was an accident." " And you're sure it wasn't?" " It's called "funneling."" "You force your target into a kill zone by subtly shifting his direction." "Carter's looking at the scene now." "The vehicles, the stop light." "It was professional, but who wants Adam dead enough to bring in a hit team?" "I've been watching my money." "The majority of it is being shuffled into one company..." "Tritak, that Adam's uncle mentioned." "Only at ten times the rate that his money was invested." "Someone is moving faster than before." "Tritak invests in the Louisiana/Texas pipeline running gas to the northeast." "People need natural gas, so for the most part, Tritak should keep a steady price, but it shot up 600% recently because of a buy frenzy initiated at Baylor Zimm." " Insider trading?" " Happened before." "Adam knew about it then, maybe he knows about it now." "Except he won't walk away this time." "We were almost roadkill last night." "I'm getting tired of playing around." "Mr. Sowoski, I'm with the SEC." "We're looking into possible criminal activities at Baylor Zimm Investments." "We know your nephew is a trader there." " Did he do something wrong?" " We can't be sure." "Does Adam advise you on your own investments?" "No, I got a broker for that." "What can you tell me about..." "A company called Tritak Energy?" "Not much." "You'd have to talk to my guy." "But your own money is heavily invested in it, correct?" "I knew there was something fishy going on there, but Adam, he put me with good people." "He said it was fine." "How well do you know your nephew?" "When my sister died," "Adam's dad left to find work out west." "He ended up in New Mexico." "He never came back." "So Adam lived with my family." "Every month, his father sent $200 home, for whatever, comic books, new shoes." "Adam never spent it." "Year after year, he saved every penny... in shoe boxes." "It was thousands." "And when he grew up, he used it to enroll in night classes before he could get into a real business school." "And in the end, what Adam had instead of a father was..." "Cash in a shoe box." "And what did he do?" "He bought himself a future." "Saunders, we should talk, now." "Tritak." "A run-of-the-mill MLP just happens to be the hottest equity on the market." "Tell me what you know." "I don't know." "I'll bet you'll remembering when you're up in Otisville." "But by then, it'll be too late to make a deal." "All right, look." "I ran some numbers the other night." "It looks like..." "It doesn't add up." "There's no reason why Baylor Zimm should be dumping so much money into this one company." "Unless somebody knows something the rest of us don't." "You still have the numbers you ran?" "On a laptop." "Get it." "Now." "Mr. Reese, we have a problem." "He's on the roof." "We got to get you out of here." "Come on." "We have to move fast." "This building is tactically unsafe." "You're not an asset manager." "But I did save your life." " What the hell happened back there?" " Just a second attempt to kill you." "I need to know what about Tritak has people repeatedly trying to do that." "It started with my uncle." "The firm invested him in a company." "He asked me some questions, so I took a peek." "Illegally?" "Yeah, but he was family." "I didn't think anything of it." "And then I saw some numbers that I didn't agree with." "So I wrote an email." "I was going to send it to risk management, legal, the partners, everybody." "But then the SEC started sneaking around, so I was told to keep my mouth shut." "You think it was insider trading?" "It wouldn't be the first time, but look, I never sent that email." " Did you tell anyone else?" " A few friends at the firm." " I asked them to take a look at it..." " Come on." "Who?" "Sydney Baylor." "I got the search results that you wanted, Carter." "Only one utility yard reports vehicle thefts in the last week." "All stolen three nights ago." "Back hoe, steam roller, and a refurbished sanitation vehicle?" "What would somebody want with an old garbage truck?" "Thanks." "Mr. Reese, did you find Sydney Baylor?" "Yeah, we're at her penthouse now, but she isn't saying much." "Whoever is after Adam got to her first." "This is my fault." "I asked her about the Tritak numbers." "She must have looked into them herself." "My God." "They killed her." "You recognize that bottle?" "We drank it the other night to celebrate the Virtanen short." "Which means your fingerprints are all over it." "Everywhere." "They killed Baylor for digging into her own company." "Made it look like Adam did it before plunging to his own death." "The cavalry's here." "Time to go." "The police will be all over Adam." "What are you going to do?" "I'll take him somewhere safe." "Come on." "Cause of death was trauma to the head." "Prints?" "I dusted twice." "None on the tub, none on the body." "Only other ones we found were the vic's and an Adam Saunders." "We think he was having a relationship with the victim." "His prints are all over the home and murder weapon." "You mean the champagne bottle?" "How'd you know that?" "Here." "Thanks." "Is there any chance, if Saunders was having a relationship with the vic, that he could have handled the champagne bottle, say, days ago, then had it planted?" "That'd be pretty slick." "But who'd go through the trouble?" "You'd have to search the building's garbage?" "Anyway, basement's guarded." "Unless they had a garbage truck." "We have many safe houses in the city where Adam could be taken." "I know." "The safest I've ever been was when I was anonymous." "Here." " You'll be safe, too." " Wait, you can't leave me here." "I can't sleep here." "Why not?" "I did." "Right over there, for four months." "See that woman?" "Her name is Joan." "If you need anything, just ask her." "Just don't touch anything in her cart." "Don't use this phone until I call you on it." "Wait." "Victor, go find Victor." " Your pal from the nightclub?" " He's the senior broker." "If someone's putting clients in Tritak, whether or not they want it, he's the next rung down on the brokerage ladder." "If this bill had not been passed today, it would have been put aside indefinitely, which we feel would be detrimental to the State of New York." "We have a problem, Mr. Reese." "What else is new?" "Have you heard about Utica Shale or the process of fracking?" "It's underground rock formations." "Companies dig down and fracture shale beds to release natural gas." "They just passed a bill to start fracking in upstate New York." "Which means they wouldn't need a pipeline up from the South." "And they don't need to invest in a company like Tritak." "How much did Baylor Zimm have invested in Tritak?" "Or how much did its clients?" "Millions." "Millions upon millions, and they will lose everything." "Adam saw this coming, tried to stop it." "Which is why they tried to kill him." "But who are they?" "Adam told me to talk to Victor." "Said he would have to know." "The bill passed overnight." "I'm trying to sell your shares as fast as I can." "Hello, Victor." "You're a patsy." "They just used you, but your boss is dead," "Adam's life is on the line, and millions were lost." "People needed that money." "Families." "I thought Tritak was a safe bet." "Someone got to the senators, someone powerful enough to push that shale fracking bill through the system." "But why build Tritak up?" "Why silence Adam..." "Only to watch it fail?" "Listen, it's a short sale." "Someone had the brokers pump up the price and then sold high, because they knew that the bill was gonna pass and kill Tritak." "Whoever shorted it stands to make millions on this." "That's why they targeted you." "So how do we find the short-seller?" "Look around you..." "There's 50 brokers selling off Tritak." "We need to find the guys who already sold it days ago, because they have to cover the short and buy it back." "I got to go." "Uncle Bob." "Adam, what's going on?" "You told me Tritak was safe." "Bob, I'm sorry." "I'm so sorry." "I'll get your money back." "It's not just my money, Adam." "It's salaries." "It's pensions." "It's every employee that works for me." "It's my business, the Sowoski name." "But you're not a Sowoski, at least you never thought you were." "You're a Saunders." "Isn't that right, Adam?" "No, listen, I'll get it back." "Even if it takes the rest of my life, I will get it back." "I got to go." "Boss?" "I think I got a location on the kid." "I'm going to need your help on this, Finch." "I need you to get inside Baylor Zimm." "I'm on the trading floor now." "Mr. Reese, I found something." "Paul Ashton." "Adam's friend." "Also a senior risk manager." "I found his short-sale orders from last week, and the buy orders for Tritak, issued to him this morning." "For how many?" "About $4 million." "Where is Paul now?" "I'm about to find out." "His phone is tethered to his calendar." "Maybe I can hack into his GPS." "It can't be." "No, really, it can't." "They put measures in place to catch securities fraud, insider trading, short-sale manipulation," "how did Paul do it?" "Paul isn't working alone." "He's got a friend in the SEC." "I spent my entire career chasing down rogue traders, only to see my agency get defanged when the country needed us watching the closest." "Pity." "You can't beat 'em, you join 'em." "And make millions along the way." "300 million, to be exact." "Where are we?" "Tritak was down to $4 a share by closing bell today." "When the market opens tomorrow, it'll be $2." "I've got buy orders in place to pick up the shares that we need." "And the loose ends?" "Baylor won't be asking any more questions, but Adam is still out there." "He could be a problem." "I've it under control." "You'd be better off balling up that paper and stuffing it under your clothes." "It'll keep you warm." "See, how did it get to this?" "I earned everything that I achieved in my life." "I know." "Your uncle told us." "You talked to him?" "He told us about your father and the $200 he'd send you." "He doesn't know the end of the story." "He doesn't know, when I was 16, I went to go find my father." "I took a train to New Mexico, and I found him..." "And he had a new family." "And then when I went to him, he tried to hand me another $200." "I didn't want the money." "I wanted a family." "And you found one..." "An uncle who spent his life slaving over a food-truck counter..." "For you." "I'll get Bob's money back." "I promised him that I would." "When did you talk to your uncle?" "Get down!" " We need to go!" "We need to move!" " Stay down." "Now move." "So Paul was working with Rasmussen all along?" "On a massive short-sell bet against Tritak." "It's lost 90% of its value already." "But an SEC investigator and a banker do not shoot up a homeless encampment with automatic weapons." "There was some serious muscle behind this." "How's Adam doing?" "Not bad for a guy who's lost everything." "Does he still have a suit?" " Why?" " Paul and Rasmussen need Tritak to bottom out before they can collect on their bet." "What are you talking about?" "Ever try to catch a falling knife, Mr. Reese?" "Sounds like a good way to get cut." "Which is why we need a damn good investment banker." "Have Adam put on a tie." "He's going back to work." "Tritak, I need 1,000 units of Tritak." "I need to buy." "I got to buy on Tritak." "What the hell?" "Victor, I need your help." "I've got buy orders here for 4 million shares of Tritak." "Can you fill these immediately?" "I can buy what's available, but some new player hit the market hard today..." "Been buying all morning." "There's a lot out there to buy." "I mean, would you look?" "Tritak just hit 15 a unit." "By the time the dumb money gets back in, it'll be at an all-time high." " Who's the new player?" " Anonymous." "But I have a number." "Maybe you can strike a deal." "You called." "What's going on?" "I'm saving our asses." "That's what's going on." "This is Harold Crane." "Yes?" "Sir, this is Paul Ashton with Baylor Zimm Investments." "I need to speak with you about your majority share in Tritak Energy." "I'm sorry." "You'll need to speak to my banker about that." "No, sir!" "Sorry, Paul, but my little buying frenzy just reinvigorated the Tritak MLP, and I own all the shares." "Don't worry." "I'll sell you what you need." "After all, what are friends for?" "Your little game of "hide the short"..." "Only works when it's legal." "You can't prove anything." "No, I can't, but Victor and a dozen other brokers just lining up to testify against you..." "They'll do anything to avoid jail time." "Let us through here." "That's the guy." "Over here." "There!" "Get him!" "John Rooney, Assets." "It's all of it, all your money." "You were the only person that I counted on when I was younger, and I wish that you could have counted on me, and I hope that someday maybe you can forgive me." "Of course I forgive you, kid." "You're family." "Of course I forgive you..." "Even if I can't stand your taste in suits." "So let me ask you this..." "What are we gonna do about reinvesting?" "I think that maybe you and I could look into franchising the business, but first I got some people I want you to feed." "I didn't know what you were into before we met, John, and I don't know now, but..." "You sure know how to keep things interesting." "I saw signs posted downstairs." "Someone finally bought this old place." ""New ownership."" "It looks like we'll have to make camp elsewhere." "Actually..." "I know the new owner." "He's a smart kid..." "With a good head on his shoulders." "I don't think you'll have to be moving anywhere." "I never said thank you..." "For looking after me when I needed it." "Who's looking after you these days?" "Someone new." "Some big-shot broker." " Where's the other one?" " What other one?" "There are supposed to be two suspects." "You talking about the SEC guy?" "They found him dead in his apartment in Queens..." "Self-inflicted GSW to the head." "Guess he couldn't stand the thought of Otisville." "I heard they both were arrested." "I don't know what to tell." "I was thinking..." "All of this was all too slick, too complicated." "A stockbroker and a finance cop couldn't pull this off." "No, there was someone else behind the scenes, someone who hired a team of assassins, who knew a bill would pass in state government weeks before it did, someone who could use $300 million to finance a personal war." "So what's this?" "The bigger picture." "Hello, John." "It's been a long time."