9

 

Shannon Simmons, who worked as a paralegal in Max King’s office, had been doing a bit of spying on the side for Frank McGiver for months.

As soon as she had suggested to him that Max King and Ari Rosen were up to something, McGiver suggested she plant bugs in both King’s and Rosen’s office. He got her something that she could easily and quickly attach under their desks.

That was weeks ago and all they’d gotten for her trouble were a few obliquely suspicious comments, like talk about finishing up but no clue to what was being finished. And then there was reference to the charter of rights and what it guaranteed everyone.

When McGiver brought that tidbit to their lawyers, they identified that King and Rosen were probably referring to section seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights. The lawyers agreed that something was up, and an obvious target was a suit against the Copper Mountain mine. If they couldn’t manage to shut the suit down before it got off the ground, arguing against the constitutional right to a clean environment was possible, but it would be difficult in the present climate, according to them. They would have trouble burying this one.

The League wanted ownership of Copper Mountain mine, but the end game was to get control of Mountain Metals, the much bigger prize. They knew John Prince would never sell willingly. He would have to be forced to. And that was the long range plan.

Prince would never have considered moving on an opponent, lawyer or otherwise, in his home country, Canada, and The League’s kingpin, Sam Barker, knew that. If King had been found downtown as originally intended, dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted heroin overdose— but which would be identified as murder as soon as an autopsy was performed— their bold move might have had the intended effect.

John Prince would have been under scrutiny almost immediately. Especially when it came to light that Max King was the lead lawyer spearheading a case against the Copper Mountain mine— Prince’s massive, state-of-the-art, money making machine.

That lawsuit was being brought by the Newcastle Band, one of the communities directly affected by the mine’s tailings. The suit hadn’t been filed, but it was common knowledge it was in the works.

The fiasco at the New Directions mine with Max King and Rose Barlow, daughter of a sitting judge, had Frank McGiver’s boss, Sam Barker, furious with the fuck-up, but he was determined to keep up the pressure against Mountain Metals.

Shannon had reported to McGiver that Max King would probably be out of the office for the rest of the week and that Ari Rosen had no court dates booked for the week. He wasn’t due in the office till Thursday afternoon.

“You said King’s away till next week and Rosen won’t be in till tomorrow afternoon.”

“Yes sir.”

“Well, this is your opportunity, Shannon. There’s got to be evidence somewhere that links to what they’re up to. Find it!”

“I’ll do my best, sir.”

“Your best! I don’t give a shit if you do your best! If you want to continue getting that generous monthly bonus from me, you’ll find me something I can use,” said McGiver, abruptly disconnecting.

Shannon Simmons had been getting the extra money for nearly half a year. That money had sure come in handy, and it didn’t take her long to get used to having it.

When he first hired her, Mr. McGiver told her that he represented mining interests. He just wanted to be informed of any litigation in the works that involved mining.

It all seemed harmless enough, at least she told herself it was. A couple of the partners had litigation that involved mining, and she’d immediately informed Mr. McGiver. Then there was nothing for weeks. And then there was all the unexplained activity involving Max King and Ari Rosen.

Shannon figured out that it was about mining, at least in some respect, because she had seen the latest report on tailings dam failures addressed to Mr. Rosen when it came in last month. He must have requested it.

When all the secrecy started, she’d checked the client list of both men. King and Rosen were the lawyers for one of the Okanagan bands trying to shut down the Copper Mountain Mine, and copper figured big in the tailings dam failures report, so there was that connection.

But more important to her was the fact that they weren’t using the juniors or the paralegals as dogsbodies for what they were working on. It was a red flag to her, and when she told Mr. McGiver, he agreed.

But then Max King and his girlfriend had been abducted. When she asked Mr. McGiver, he assured her that he’d had nothing to do with that.

“I’m not a thug,” he’d said.

He seemed genuinely upset, and she felt bad for asking.

“As I’ve already told you, Shannon, my people just want the jump on any litigation that might be coming their way so that they can properly prepare for it.”

Shannon accepted his explanation at face value, at least, she tried to in the beginning. After all, why wouldn’t they want that advantage? But it was only a few weeks after she’d planted the bugs that Max was abducted and nearly killed. What if she was partly responsible?

And whatever Max was working on, Ari Rosen was too. Shannon liked them both a lot. They were good people and decent to work for. The thought of facing either one of them at the office now filled her with dread.

 

 

Solutions Source Inc. kept a suite of tastefully decorated offices in a building they’d bought in the early 2000s—an older building in the money area. Solutions had the top two floors, with a nice view of the inner harbour from the offices on the west side of the top floor. It was an upscale cover for The League’s legal businesses.

Frank McGiver’s office was on the seventh floor and while he was also on the west side, his view of the harbour was partially obstructed by the building directly in front of theirs. Off to his left was a view of the old Granville Bridge, a partial view of the Burrard Bridge, and on a clear day, he sometimes caught a glimpse of the occasional sailboat. It was one of McGiver’s obsessions to move up to the eighth floor and enjoy an unobstructed view.

McGiver had an MBA in international business, which was one of the main reasons Solutions Source had hired him. He’d done a deep dive on the company before he applied, and he’d let them know that during his interview. Most companies that did really well tended to blur the lines a little, or sometimes a lot, when necessary, and he knew what kind of money they had at their disposal. There weren’t that many ways to get ahead in the world, and McGiver planned on doing just that. He knew that his position at Solutions Source and his continued advancement up the ladder would prove to be his winning ticket.

McGiver knew the bosses liked his work. Mountain Metals was their first Canadian venture, but it was proving to be a harder nut to crack. Being shareholders at Mountain was lucrative. But owning the company would be so much more profitable and that was the long-range plan.

Befriending Ray Palmer was part of McGiver’s strategy. He was sure he’d read him right. Implicating him in the first attempt to take out Max King was a smart move. The fact that he was willing to go along with it told McGiver all he needed to know. Palmer’s hands weren’t clean. No surprise there. And now Palmer was an accessory to attempted murder. McGiver had him right where he wanted him.

When they had secured their takeover of Mountain Metals—and it was only a matter of time before they did—McGiver had already suggested to the brass that Palmer should continue as manager of Canadian operations. He was good middle management. They would, of course, put their own people in charge of the company. That was a job McGiver wouldn’t mind. His thoughts turned to the business at hand that had to be dealt with.

His information from Ray Palmer was that Rose Barlow was supposed to be at a movie with some friend. The boys had been sloppy—going in before they were sure Max King was alone. Finding her there, he could see how they’d made the choice but to include her in their plans. Which was too bad for them.

The complete fuck-up involving King and the girlfriend would be dealt with shortly. Len was usually quite reliable and McGiver had trusted him with important jobs in the past.

Len and his hire had been spotted in Toronto, and Frank had already given the order. The girlfriend was apparently doing a little better today, so hopefully that crisis might still be averted.

As for Max King, he was up to something big, of that McGiver was certain. His guess was the Indians he was working for wanted to halt construction on raising the tailings dam. He picked up his phone and scrolled to the picture that Len had sent him—an unconscious King sprawled against a boulder. When Len took the picture, Max King had minutes left, if he wasn’t dead already.

McGiver put his phone down. He had new orders now. He’d just gotten off the phone with Sam Barker, and he’d made the decision that it was time to take decisive action— a grand-slam that gave John Prince only one option— to sell.

But Barker wanted the girlfriend left out of it. The last thing they needed was trouble with a sitting judge. And the only thing she could attest to was that two men abducted them and those two would soon be history.

Instead of using their own people, Barker wanted McGiver to use Global Guard. The League usually took care of such things themselves, but they needed to be completely divorced from this action. It was essential that there be no blowback on them. Barker felt that using Global would assure them of that.

More important, Barker was aware that Mountain Metals had used Global Guard before to tip the scales in their favour, although not in Canada. And if this action were to be exposed to scrutiny for any reason, Barker was confident that John Prince, the owner of Mountain Metals, would be the first place the authorities would look.

A Global Guard rep was on his way to McGiver’s office. Barker had left it to him to decide on how best to handle the situation.

Shannon was sure something big was in the offing, and Frank was of a mind that she was right. He didn’t like the way this was playing out. Best to quash it. Max King was at the top of his list, Ari Rosen a close second. And then there was the ex-RCMP, the nosy Alex Desocarras.

McGiver didn’t like the sound of that guy. His contacts told him that Desocarras spent a lot of time at the hospital after King was brought in. He had obviously been brought in by King to find out who was behind the abduction.

McGiver decided to have Global Guard take care of him as well. Better to be safe than sorry. It would be an important lesson for whoever thought they could interfere with The League.

It was a tidy plan—eliminate key players of the opposition and throw enough mud at John Prince to force him to sell Mountain Metals.