"Previously on Billions..." "Lara?" "Boys?" "Ice Juice." "I can take it over." "Just need the cash." "You know my money's in a blind trust." "Congratulations." "All the analysts now answer to you." "If I fill in those blanks, I have to put my name on it." "We've long suspected criminal activity at Axe Capital." "You have nothing on Axe Cap and even less on me." "Hey, hey." "I tried calling." "Phone's been off." "I'm going to go put the boys to bed." "I am so close to getting Axe." "You will get him... on something else." "Sandicot is a circle." "It leads right back to you." "I think I'll get Axe on something else." "_" "Everybody pays." "Yes, yes, yes." "I understand, Terry." "And that's why if I get paid on time next week, which, when you're a contractor, you never really know." "But then, of course I pay you, Terry, right away, first fucking thing I do." "That's a relief." "Isn't it, Johnny?" "A sweet relief." "Some guys, no matter how well-intentioned they may be, hmm, they can't see to find the money when it's owed... which leads to uncomfortable conversations like this one." "Terry, I'm well-intended." "You're a good guy, Slayton." "And I-I'll tell you something." "I never considered myself a bad guy, hmm?" "Do you think I'm a bad guy?" " No." " Good." "Ohh!" "Wives." "They got all the leverage." "So I had to do something to even the score." "See, now you have a compelling reason to pay me when she wants to pay the credit cards." "Yes." "I do." "I owe you, Terry." "And I'm gonna make things right... no matter what I have to do." "_" "Was a time folks in your job had the sense to duck my fucking call until you had good news for me." "Remind me the next time I forget, there is no one in this business who won't sell you out if they think there's a fucking nickel in it." "I find that strangely reassuring." "Eliminates the possibility of disillusionment." "Yes." "Yes." "Let the idealists and romantics get their hearts broken while the hard-bitten pragmatists..." "Wow." "You have something you really don't want to tell me about." "What happened?" "They shoot Sonny on the causeway?" "Otherwise, spit it the fuck out." "Boyd was right." "I just hung up with Patriot Bank." "After a wet and hot road show, they are taking out the Ice Juice IPO." "Press is getting loaded up with the story as we speak." "Shit." "They think it's a winner?" "They do." "There's more." "Charles Rhoades Sr. did take an Uncle Miltie-sized position in the company." "I've run through it with the primes all over town, theirs, ours, the other guy's, and with analysts at the big three, as well as our own people." "They all agree with Patriot." " Fundamentals?" " Solid." "The projections are real." "They're rolling out the IPO soon." "Everyone thinks it's gonna work." "No one sees a short play we can make." "I don't see an avenue of attack." " Personnel?" " The fucking lawyer," "Ira Schirmer, represented Rhoades at your deposition." "He's got a board seat." "Rhoades' father and his closest confidante have both jumped headfirst into a business... together?" "And you amble in here to tell me that I have no way to wreck it?" "Fuck." "This is Sonny on the causeway." "Top sheet says Charles Rhoades Sr." "is a high-net-worth individual." "He has multiple business holdings, mostly in real estate." "But at the moment, it seems he's largely illiquid because of some new cash-intensive real-estate investments." "Fucker's house-poor?" " Houses." " City co-op, Hamptons place, a hobby farm in Mount Kisco, an ocean-front spread in Florida." "And upstate, he bought up half of Kingsford." "But he won't be able to flip that land for a real profit until the casino is in and open." "And so the question is..." "Yes." "Where did he get the capital for the juice company?" "I did a forensic look, and I cannot find the source." "Which means there's no institutional money behind the purchase of his share of Ice Juice." "It had to be a personal loan of some sort." "Okay." "Good." "Thank you, Taylor." "So, Rhoades Sr. got his money for Ice Juice from a personal loan." "Had to be someone very close to him to lend him that kind of jack." "Maybe a little too close." "You know those poison-tip arrows that certain tribes use that go through one guy and kill another?" "This might be like that." "Yeah." " Golden frog poison." " Mm." "I tried to smoke it once." "Shaman jumped across the tent to stop me." "And glad I am that he did." "Otherwise, I would have to enact this rich pageant without your good and wise counsel." "The deal goes out at $18 dollars a share tomorrow." "Holy shit!" "I'm worth $125 million dollars." "Yeah, you may well be soon enough, but don't allow yourself to feel it just yet." "That clouds the thinking at the exact moment when you need to be clear-headed." "Is that gonna clear my head?" "Hey, scotch this good, make a Mongoloid think like Einstein." "Oh, God, no." "Jesus, Dad." "We're in my house, son." "There will be no nod to this Billie Jean King PC bullshit." " It's just wrong, you know?" " No." "Some things are just actually wrong." " Ah..." " You two, not tonight, not the night before my IPO comes out." "Quite so, Ira." "Congratulations." "Absolutely." "To that." "I'm very happy for you both that this venture's off to such an auspicious start," " but I do advise caution..." " You brought us together." "Whatever happens, you share in it." "Oh, I do." "My emotions are all tied up in it, for sure." "When the market closes tomorrow and we have ridden this thing all the way up, that $125-million number might be... conservative." "Yes." "Don't quit your day job." "Too late." "You didn't." "Not all the way, but close." "I'm selling my share of the firm to my partners." "It's been a long time coming." "Tomorrow is liberation day." "You never tally your sheet until the lockup period is over, but even I have to admit it does feel great." "You did a good thing here, son." "You absolutely did." "I hope that's true, Dad." "I really do." "Is this..." "Weird?" "I was gonna say "feeling as right to you,"" "but, uh..." "Mm." "Sorry." "I mean making a habit of these husband/wife booty calls." "Oh. "Booty calls."" "I feel I'm finally a man of my time." "How do you think I engineer a cup of Stumptown?" "Not by heading down to the kitchen." "You need to slip out before the kids are up." "It's not fair to give them a false sense of hope." "False?" "That's gonna leave a mark." "You look like my guys at work." "What's so interesting?" "Pre-trading news on the juice IPO, and it is good news." "Oh, so exciting for Ira." "Not just Ira." "Nobody knows this, not even Ira, but, uh..." "I'm in it, too." "In it?" "That's right." "Why?" "'Cause it's a winner." "And you know this because..." "Because I saw it... exactly what would happen with this company and what it would do for me." "I've only seen three things that clearly in my life." "One was my first time actually arguing in court." "I knew it was my calling." "Second was when I met you... and I knew it was my destiny." "The third... was this." "Wow." "Ah." "That is some statement." "Well, good luck, then." "Where's Mom?" "Downstairs." "Good morning!" "Hi." "Do you need me?" "No." "No." "I'll see you later." "Ugh!" "Finish it." "You saw you had to give him something, an opportunity... and you used it against him." "Well-done." "We hear someone's getting shanked today." "I'm sorry?" "Your review of the analysts." "Ah." "Yes." "Here's my breakdown of each analyst's performance." "I've ranked them." "And if we want to follow the old GE model of removing the bottom ten percent, it does unfortunately mean someone has to be let go." "And you can see, from the bottom box, who." "So, I'll tell HR, and..." "Wait a sec." "You're doing it off the chart?" "The chart makes it clear." "And right before bonus time." "That's cold, even by my standards." "Yeah." "That's not how we do it here, on paper, not like that." "Asymmetrical returns, right?" "Not just in the stocks, but in our people, too." "I need you to sit down with each one of them." "I want you to probe for their strengths and for their weaknesses." "I want you to figure out who's gonna outperform your data and who has already had his best year." "Sitting with everyone so they can equivocate and explain away what's already been shown clearly" " seems inefficient." " Taylor, I know you come from analytics, and I know that the numbers are where you live, but got to learn the other piece, too." "There's a small group who can do the math." "There's an even smaller group who can explain it." "But those few who can do both... they become billionaires." "From a man who knows." "Well-said, sir." "Okay." "I'll do the meetings." "And that's when you shank 'em!" "I am not shanking anyone." "Well, call it what you will, but we all know you got to shank someone to earn respect on the yard." "How many jailhouse movies did you two watch growing up?" "We didn't have computers." "You run your department as you see fit." " But..." " Yeah." "You got to look right into their eyes as the life drains out of them." "And have fun!" "I remember the first time I shitcanned someone!" "It tasted as sweet as the Mata Hari's armpits." "Okay, you are logged in." "So, this will track any equities you enter, moment-by-moment updates, newsfeed." "You know you don't have to pay for this." "You could just go to Yahoo Finance and hit "refresh" every few seconds." " I am aware." "We set?" " Yep." "All right." "Klaxon Auto Group." " Belgian company." " Mm-hmm." "Big seller in Europe and Asia trying to break in here... until recently." "Yeah." "I read some stories about it." "Pump the brakes, and nothing's there." "Big recalls and fines, corporate cover-up." "Bit out of our jurisdiction, no?" "No." "The company was robust." "The whole street was long, except Bobby Axelrod happened to be short just before the news broke." "As always." "You have anything proving criminality?" "I'll leave that to the super sleuths of Southern." "That's a natural alliteration." "Nice." "Now, the surface looks smooth, but there's got to be criminality underneath." "So fire up the Mystery Machine." "Thanks, Spyros." " We'll give it a look." " Keep me posted." "Can we dig into this one, open up a case?" "Sure." "Listen, it's nine-thirty." "Opening bell." "And they're off." "Ice Juice, trading under the symbol ICEJ, already pushing north of 20." "Oh, uh, I see I have coffee." "Cappuccino, actually, but you don't." "I can run down and get you one... or a green tea, genmaicha, or whatever you might..." "I have broken down and ranked each analyst in the following ten categories, performance, process, 360-degree workflow, quality of models, culture fit, team mentality, sheer number of fresh ideas, stubbornness, in both its good and bad shadings," "value/skew tendencies, that is, do you look for low-risk, large-skew opportunities, and bias." "Do you get anchored to old names that aren't working?" "And then I created an 11th category, which I am calling desire." "That is where we will start our discussion this morning." "So, if you would, please talk about your desire to remain at Axe Capital." "I grew up in Idaho." "We had a business club in the ninth grade, mock investment accounts." "By tenth grade, I was running money in an e-trade account for the principal of my high school, the guidance counselor, and the asshole gym teacher." "Gym teacher?" "I kept his in a separate account, made sure it nose-dived the day after graduation 'cause... fuck that guy." "So, your anger at a person in a higher station led you to take punitive action and book a loss." "You gonna fire me for being honest?" "What gives you a distinct advantage over all the other capable people here?" "Brain power... sheer mental capacity." "You are that far beyond the rest of us?" "Well, not you." "I don't mean you." "So, you're both wildly egotistical and scared of conflict." "No." "I'm..." "I asked my father, and he said to project that I'm not at all worried about this." "Interesting approach, Pununzio." "Please don't fire me." "This just got here from the SEC." "Axe Cap research on Klaxon Auto." "Uhh." "Hmm." "You look at this, a strong company." "There's very few short positions out there." "And then the stock dives on bad news." "Disastrous, not just bad." "And Axelrod is right where he needs to be, which isn't illegal unto itself." "Because why?" "He's got research that puts him on the right side." "The sales were strong." "They didn't like the finance side." "Like Tesla." "They're moving units." "Doesn't mean the numbers add up." "Yeah." "This company's been around 50 years." "Not carrying so much debt." "Hmm." "Oh." "Right." "Report signed by Taylor Mason." "You were trying to warn the kid about the place they're working." "Yeah." "I think they know." "How do you fire someone?" "You can stand, but I'm gonna sit for this one." "But just so I know exactly what we're talking about, why don't you tell me who you're firing?" "I'm not sure yet." "But when I look at the efficiency of the research department, I see some bagginess, so I'm sitting with everyone and drilling down." "Honestly, I'm hoping that with some direction and some motivation, they can just pick it up without my having to..." "Yeah, it would be nice if a pep talk did the trick." "But analysts are too important." "Their responsibilities are too built-in." "You can't afford to be carrying someone who isn't pulling his or her weight." "So, do them the long-term favor of ripping off the Band-Aid and getting them one step closer to where they're headed and what they should be doing." "Thank you." "I had a feeling that would be the course." "One thing, though." "Doing it will change you." "I'm used to radical shifts." "This is different." "I get the feeling there's a specific reason you're struggling with this." "The question you've been asking yourself." "Say it out loud." "I'm looking for affirmation." "My father was fired when I was in seventh grade." "He was a mathematician at an aerospace company." "His division and his job went away, and it never came back." "I imagine that affected the homelife." "Yeah." "It did." "And the company?" "The company thrived." "Graff... let's go." "All the preparations have been made." "I'm awaiting your command." "So, is it time?" "No." "Not yet." "Almost." "We cracked 25." "The stock is running." "When will you do it?" "Fucking soon." "Still alive for now." "This fun for ya?" "No." "Well, come on." "Skip out on the rest." "Let's go grab a coffee." "You and I?" "Us." "Yeah." "This is like the third time you have directly spoken to me." "Yeah, well, that was before." "Before?" "Okay, you don't want to grab a coffee, fine." "We'll do the thing later." "Wow." "Why the flower bomb?" "Because I still feel like things aren't right between us, and I don't like it." "And I want them to be." "Well, these are unnecessary... but beautiful." "He's trying to dig himself out?" "Man picked an appropriate shovel." "Do you realize that at this number," "I'm worth close to a quarter of a billion dollars?" "Up high, kid!" "I'm gonna get an Ice Juice from the fridge." "You want one?" "Don't get high on your own supply." "No, I'll not be drinking any of that nonsense." "Bring me something with some alcohol in it." "Stock's about to pop to 30." "Double my position at the market." "That'll tap the account." "If I had more, I'd fucking buy more." "This thing is running like Bill Rodgers in Boston, fast and long." "This ICEJ issue is a real BBW, big and bouncy." "Traderight's bidding for close to 700,000 shares on the name." "Traderight?" "Place is the fucking Lollipop Guild." "Why is a tiny-ass retail brokerage looking to move that kind of weight?" "700,000 shares." "That's a big print for a small place like that." "I'm gonna find out what's up with it." "You think it's him, Rhoades Sr., buying in heavy?" "Could be." "Hedge funds and institutions would want to show Patriot they're supporting the deal, so they do their transaction with them." "Only a knowledgeable and motivated individual would use a small retail shop for a buy like this." "This is a cash play." "So... everything's in place." "Yeah." "It's golden frog time." "_" "_" "It seems pretty fast." "It is." "And nasty." "Well, it'll make for a bumpy couple of days." "But no permanent damage, Doc?" "If they're healthy to begin with, no, no permanent damage." "I'm still not sure I'd recommend it." "I've registered that." "Good." "You want your slide back from my lab or..." "No." "Get rid of it for me." "For your foundation." "_" "Money's in the account." "And as you know, it's a lot of money." "How much do I use?" "Not much." "Just trace amounts." "That's all that's in there." "It's like Brylcreem, then." "Little dab'll do ya?" "Just trace amounts on my signal." "Hey, Ron." "How ya feeling, Ron?" "Hey, Ron." "What's up, Ronnie?" "_" "_" "We got just the guy." "He owes." "Sometimes a man comes into your life at just the right time, you know?" "Absolutely." "_" "My wife caught her stealing jewelry." "I love the way she cleans, but it's either this or she gets deported." "Her choice." "Well, as long as it doesn't come from you." "You get someone else to ask her." "Got ten guys who can do that." "Won't track back to me." "Good." "_" "Thanks for paying it off." "I do what I say I'm gonna do." "Are you sure about this?" "This is not gonna be pleasant for whoever you hire." "It's got to be people you trust." "There can't be any clear connection." "I got it." "I have some ideas." "_" "I can't do it." "What do you mean, you can't?" "You got to do it." "Look, you promised me, and you owe me." "I still owe you, but I can't do this to myself, man... not even for you." "_" "Mm-hmm." "Mm-hmm." "No, I believe you." "I just need a number to call you back on." "Hold on one second." "Hey, Burt, I'm gonna have to table the new home-starts feature." "I've got something breaking." "People are getting sick on Ice Juice." "How's it going?" "Okay." "Oh, I'll cover that shit." "You'll lose." "No way." "What's the action on?" "We're short a name." "As of now, it's going up." "People are taking bets on the exact moment it will turn and start falling." "See you in a bit." "Book it." "Maybe I'll get in on this." "Anybody betting it won't turn?" "No, ma'am." "This is a red-light short." "Axe doesn't get positions this size wrong." " What is it?" " Ice Juice." "You know what?" "No, thanks." "Sorry to barge in." "Oh." "Always welcome." "What's going on?" "How's your stock play?" "I heard something." "I think it's going well." "It seems to be up, way up." "Oh, Chuck." "It's not gonna stay there." "And the thing I heard..." "Axe Cap is short the stock." "Uh, thank you for telling me." "I appreciate it." "Although I don't appreciate you looking at me like some kind of a pathetic dog you see in a shelter." "Get out of the stock, Chuck, any way you can." " They're gonna crush you." " Is that so?" "Wow, I'm glad to see you view me as so defenseless." "I think enough of you to come here and violate my agreement with my company." "And I think of you as a fucking titan in your arena, but you don't understand what's going on." "No, I think that I understand plenty about your lack of faith right now." "Okay, we can bicker as long as you want another time, but are you gonna get out of your position?" "No." "Can't or won't?" "What difference does it make?" "Foolishness is right next door to strength." "So they say." "Hello?" "Mafee, it's Wendy Rhoades." "The Ice Juice short, how do I get a piece of that?" "There's an allocation." "I can make it happen." "As much as I can get." "You got it, baller." "Eat anything unusual today?" "I've been drinking a lot of this stuff." "Ah, we'll take a look." "It's supposed to be good for you." "Ready?" "I've got illness breaking out at six other locations." "Some victims already have lawyers and are prepping a suit." "Trace amounts of bacteria in the warehouse." "I've got a doctor who treated a couple of the sick patients, uh, speaking out against Ice Juice's flash-pas technique as faux science and unsafe." " Hey!" " Yeah?" "Run down flash-pas!" "Run down hazards of a corrupted fruit and/or vegetable supply." "Run down fraudulent purification techniques." "We may also need a sidebar on food-borne outbreaks at chain restaurants, the historical effects on the populous," " company, the whole thing." " All over it." "This is spider eggs in bubblegum." "This is another Chipotle." "It's worse." "Okay." "What do we got?" "Excuse me." "Hey." "Hey, Chuck, it's... it's Armageddon." "Easy, Ira." "Tell me what the hell's going on." "Stories are hitting, news outlets calling for comment, social media, the press." "People are getting sick." "Something's breaking out." "They don't know if it's listeria or Legionnaires' or what the fuck it is." " You have a TV, put it on." " I'm not gonna turn on my TV, Ira." "Tell me what I'd see." "People getting loaded into ambulances, reports of illness going back several weeks, which my fucking clients failed to mention." "The stock was getting pummeled so badly, they halted trading." "The smart money's fled to safety, and when that happens, the bottom drops out." "When trading resumes, the deal's gonna break." "That's when you go below the original deal price, and th-that's... an unmitigated disaster." "Yeah." "This is, uh..." "This is fucking horrible." "Is there any way you can sell?" "Chuck, my stock's all restricted." "Officer class, Ira." "Keep it together." "Son of a bitch." "Rudy, I've brought you in last because when I look at this on a purely results-based model, that's where you stand..." "last." "Last?" "Really?" "I'm really last." "By the numbers, yes, dead last." "My..." "My name isn't Rudy." "It's Peter." "Oh." "Do you prefer Peter?" "No." "And I love that they call me Rudy." "You know why?" "No." "It's because this place is like Notre Dame was for him." "The real Rudy." "I was a high-school fuck-up." "But I impressed a teacher, got into Hofstra." "I saw Axe speak there, and from that moment, this is all I dreamed about." "Being here at Axe Capital?" "Yes." "The next time Axe showed on campus," "I asked him a smart question, one that I had thought about, planned out ahead of time, and he said to see him when I got out, he'd find a place for me." "He did." "But I figured he'd be like my coach here, and, well, he hasn't been that... at all." "Just..." "Just been left to figure it out for myself." "Well, there's no janitor with a heart of gold here to root you on, and no one gets on this field unless they are the fastest, strongest, or most talented person on the depth chart." "I know." "And I know I don't really belong, on paper or in any other way." "But if I somehow make it out of this room alive, you won't see another person in this place work harder, longer, faster than me." "I promise." "Yes!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Nice!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "I just now realized what they're saying, Rudy..." " Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" " as in Rudy Ruettiger." "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "Rudy!" "_" "Donna!" "Have the kid get in here and get this fucking software off my computer." "I have no more use for it." "Well, if old Rhoades Sr. was counting on any liquidity from this particular venture, he is sadly mistaken 'cause this is leaving him cash-strapped and tits-up." "Speaking of cash, this could have him looking to sell Palm Beach." "Ooh, the pride and joy." "If you knew how many times I'd seen that crusty bastard strutting around Mar-a-Lago, bragging about his better frontage." "You know what?" "Have someone down there ready to pounce if the place hits the market." "Straw bidder." "Yeah, I'll scoop it up cheap when the clearance sale starts." "Trading on ICEJ resumed just in time for the closing bell." "Care to watch the docking of the Hindenburg?" "Ding, ding, ding!" "Closing price, three, eighty-nine." "Stillborn." "Reuters says," ""ICEJ:" "Fresh-Squeezed Chapter 11 in its future."" "This is one busted-ass IPO." "Let's crack open that bottle." "Just need your signature on the trading report." "Mm." "We crushed it today." "Oh, oh, what is this?" "What?" "The big ICEJ allocation to the New Beginnings fund." " What the fuck?" " Wendy Rhoades wanted in." "She called in the request right before the thing went south." "She took down a huge chunk of change for herself." "I assumed it came from you, Axe." "It fucking didn't." "You notify me next time she makes a request like that before you fucking fulfill it... unless you want to start thinking about another career besides trading equities." "You got it." "Fuck." "Sorry." "Fuck." "What do you think she knew?" "Not sure." "Either way, it's a strong move betting against the family like that." "Paid off." " Who'd you can?" " Oh." "I didn't do it to be perceived as tough, but to make it clear that if you survive today, you are now officially on the team and wouldn't have to keep looking over your shoulder." "Yeah, yeah." "Someone still got a stake through the heart, and I want to know who." "I could have justified firing Rudy." "He's still finding his footing." "But he's scrappy and deserves the chance." "So I fired Pununzio instead." "He's kind of a weasel." "Good a reason as any." "And now you're baptized by blood." "I need a drink." "Like a real drink?" "Yeah." "Maybe like a whole bottle of a real drink." "You're not gonna be in that clown car for long." "I love it." "It's a great car." "Look, I didn't want to do this on site." "That's why I offered to take you to coffee." "Do what?" "This is for you." "Open it up." "That's $250,000 dollars... as a personal thank-you from me to you, on Klaxon." "And I'm cheap as fuck." "I'm well-compensated, more than well-compensated." "Yeah, officially and on the books, with records of the transactions everywhere." "But I wanted to spiff you above that." "Everyone in our line needs cash squirreled away." "It can make all the difference." "Believe me." "I can see you are telling the truth." "Then believe me when I say this." "There's more coming... more of all of it." "It took me a while... but now I understand exactly what Axe sees in you." "Have a good night." "Did I actually hear Mom crying from the other room?" "Might have been me." "You want to play the "on paper" game now?" "I'm down millions today." "I can't believe how much goddamn money I lost." "It was never yours to begin with." "You got to get it in the boat before you can hang it on the goddamn wall." "Only thing to do in a case like this is write off the loss against your cap gains." "This was supposed to be my cap gain." "Anyway, I-I should be apologizing to you." "Fucking right." "But you should really apologize to your friend, since he's the one who took the actual pounding." "Dad." "Oh, God." "No, Chuck, you didn't..." "you didn't go into your trust?" "I authorized it." "I had that much confidence in it." "And you, Ira." "I'd do it again." "It was a fluke thing." "The whole eight-million-dollar equity piece?" "Yes." "That's where we started." "What?" " Dad?" " It was rolling." "The thing was a complete monster." "And what you do... when you have an advantage is press it." "How much?" "All of it." "So, my entire trust is..." "Gone." "I'm gonna throw up." "Well, you did have that Ice Juice today." "I've never used the word swanky before, but that's what this building is swanky." "I wouldn't use that word, either, but I can't say you're wrong." "It must feel good." "My own apartment's probably a quarter the size of yours, in a part of town that's considerably worse than this." "During the winter, the heat pipes bang practically all night." "I grew up in a place like that." "Mm." "Sometimes I look at my surroundings and wonder why I stay... doing what I do." "I mean, your boss offered to put me in a place like this." " Really?" " Oh, yeah." "Practically got on his hands and knees and begged me to work for him." "And the night I turned him down, when I got home and looked around my place, for about ten minutes, I felt like an idiot." "I can understand that." "Then I fell straight asleep 'cause I had a clean conscience." "I was where I was supposed to be, doing the right thing." "I am happy for you." "And now I'm going to go inside." "Yeah." "You can in a second." "But as you're putting your head on your pillow tonight," "I want you to think about what you're really trading on in order to live here, work there, be who you are." "I think about it all the time." "That means there's still hope... because soon, you'll never think about it again." "You will just glide along, rich, with even bigger apartments and nicer watches and faster planes, only none of it will matter to you at all." "We never use the words we really mean." " Like "swanky"?" " No." "Like "soul."" "Your soul." "Axelrod will demand things of you incrementally that will change the fundamental nature of who you are, and I am here because I can give it back to you." "I don't believe in the soul... not in the way it's traditionally used, nor in the more modern meaning, which connotes connectedness and being spiritually awake." "What I do believe in are actions, purpose, purity of vocation, and the challenges that come along with those things, the things that make me feel alive." "Axe Capital gives me all of that and more." "So, you worry about my soul, and I'll just keep doing my job." "I figured on a little more wow factor for two-thousand bucks." "I had the rest dropped off at the hospital." "Very thoughtful of you." "You know who you look like right now?" "Who?" "Bobby fucking Axelrod." "It's been a while." "Well, I had a good day." "I'm glad you noticed." "Oh, I notice." "I'm not the one who takes shit between us for granted." "You're right." "And that's why I was trying to formalize my apology with the flowers." "Then I formally accept." "So, we can start over from here?" "Yeah." "So, this is like a first date?" "Sure." "Tell me something about yourself." " I'm in finance." " Mm." "Sounds boring." "No!" "No, not today." "Today, I kicked ass at work, yeah, big project I've spent the last few weeks on." "Whose ass did you kick?" "Rhoades." "Big time." "Pounded a company he's in." "Your friends at the bar helped." "Everyone stepped up." "Good." "Those don't look like Bruno's." "Mm." "Fuck Bruno." "Ryan did those up in the wood-burning oven." "Remember our real first date?" "Caviar." "I was trying to dazzle you." "Well, you did." "I didn't even like that stuff back then." "Ah, you got used to it." "Mmm." "Still is better than anchovies." "That's for fucking sure." "Mmm." "Hey, what's going on?" "Where are you?" "I'm trying." "I don't know, Bobby." "I'm..." "I'm really trying." "_" "The chunk of cash I need is on a statement with your name on it." "The blind trust." "Well, if this is what it takes... uh, to help you and Ira..." " Does that mean..." " Yeah." "Crack it open." "_" "How would you like to be done with this floor for good and out of that halfway house, and home, with only your platinum wristwatch for jewelry instead of an ankle bracelet?" "When?" "How?" "Almost immediately." "Any deal I make with you has to be in writing." "Terms of your release will be... this meeting and what I instruct you to do will never even be spoken of again." "Whatever it is, I'm ready." "Upon my word," " you will make a call to Bobby Axelrod - _ and tell him that you need to see him, that it's urgent." "And then when he shows up, you'll tell him the truth..." "What's on your mind?" "...that my father, Charles Rhoades Sr., has taken a massive position in a new IPO..." "Chuck Rhoades Sr. has taken a significant stake in a company that's going public." "Ice Juice." "Ice Juice." "No shit." "I believe I can do all that." "_" "Bittersweet day for me today, Dake." "Why's that, sir?" "You must have impressed some people while you were in New York, the Attorney General among them." "Sir?" "You've been named interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District." "I've been named..." "A.G. said, "Smarts and ambition are coming off him like heat waves from an Oklahoma blacktop."" "You've got to get on the train." "I always knew I'd be working for you someday." "Rhoades?" "You didn't think this shit happened by accident, did you, Mr. Dake?" "So, you leveraged the Attorney General into my appointment." "It was no arm twist." "I just told her that smarts and ambition were coming off you like heat waves from an Oklahoma blacktop." "And she agreed." "Word of advice." "You get the big job, you want to hit the ground running." "You're gonna have a shitload of FBI at your disposal, and this is how I suggest you deploy them." "Axelrod." "_" "Bobby Axelrod's moves will be almost impossible to track." "So, in addition to monitoring all his trades, follow everyone he touches and everyone they touch." "The pattern won't be easy to spot, but it will be there." "_" "There are 18 Ice Juice locations in New York City alone." "You will need to monitor all of them." "Because he will be acting out of malice, he will take risks he'd normally avoid." "He will use compromised associates." "You must be ready across the board." "_" "The stock is running." "When will you do it?" "Fucking soon." "_" "Oh!"