Dead Cat Bounce Read Online Free PDF Page A

coming to work with his father looked like it had been the right decision after all. They were finally talking—really talking! It was going to be a good day and maybe even the start of something more.
    “Now,” David continued. “You might be willing to take a lot of risk so that you could double your money and turn your one hundred pounds”—he reached into the trash bin and put twenty pounds back on the pile—“into two hundred pounds.”
    Jonah’s eyes lit up. “Yes,” he said, thinking again of the red Ferrari. “How do I do that?”
    “Well, you might buy something called a derivative.” David took more money out of his wallet and put it on the desk. “But,” and here David paused, causing Jonah to take his eyes off the money, look at his father, and finish the sentence for him.
    “I could lose it all?”
    “Very good,” David said, and once more Jonah smiled. “But … it could be worse than that.” David picked all the money off the desk and threw it in the bin. “Because derivatives are very, very risky and”—he threw his wallet into the bin—“you might lose even more.”
    Jonah’s face dropped. “No way! More money than you had in the first place?” He was on the edge of his seat.
    “Yes, way,” said David.
    Jonah wrinkled his forehead. He had a hundred pounds in his savings. Maybe he should buy a derivative and turn it into two hundred pounds. “But you could
make
a hundred pounds,” he said thoughtfully.
    David shook his head and gave a patronizing smile. “Yes, you could make a hundred pounds. But that would be very unlikely.”
    Jonah was not to be dissuaded. “What
is
a derivative?” he asked.
    “Well,” said David thoughtfully, “it’s kind of a piece of a piece of a piece of something.”
    Jonah’s brow furrowed, and his father seemed to think again about his explanation.
    “Actually it doesn’t really matter what it is,” he said briskly. “The only thing you need to know today is that derivatives are extremely risky.” He gestured at his computer screen. “I don’t deal in them myself.”
    Jonah’s heart fell. Of course his dad didn’t deal in the exciting stuff. “I’d still like to buy one,” he said.
    David shook his head again, this time unsmiling. “No, Jonah. You need a lot of money to buy derivatives, a lot more than you have.”
    Jonah’s heart fell further, but before he could ask how much money he needed, the ugly man on the right screamed, “SCROTYCZ!” at the top of his voice, making Jonah jump. The man was leaning over the partition holding out his phone to David. “WANTS TO SPEAK TO YOU NOW!”
    David looked up. “Can you ask him to hold for thirty seconds? I’m nearly done.”
    “FUCK OFF!” came the reply, making Jonah gasp. The man pointed at Jonah, and Jonah shrank backward. “Are you working today, Biff, or playing nanny? ’Cuz if you’re playing nanny, get someone else to answer your calls. Not me.” The man made a sneering face at Jonah.
    “Give it a break, Gravel,” David retorted. “Do you think I want to be doing this? Ask him to hold.”
    “NO!” Gravel bellowed. “He’s really pissed off. Why have you brought the midget in anyway? Nobody else has. It’s not a playground. Do you see any other kids here? Nobody else would be so stupid.”
    The man on the left joined in. “Yeah, Biff. Why’ve you brought your kid in? Thicko!”
    Jonah sat stock still, looking straight ahead, trying to avoid the eyes of the men, wondering whether he could hide under the desk, aware that his dad had said he didn’t want to be doing this.
    “Oh, for God’s sake,” snapped David, snatching his phone up. He punched a slow flashing light on the board in front of him, took a deep breath, and spoke calmly into the mouthpiece. “Good morning, Mr. Scrotycz, how can I help you?”
    Jonah heard a voice shout something unintelligible back down the phone and watched his father close his eyes and move the handset away from his ear.