Pierced by a Sword Read Online Free PDF Page B

Lee made his money on the margins–not unlike Nathan Payne–only in a different market. A dangerous market.
    Careful. Don't wanna get the big boys ticked at a small-timer like me. Get this stuff in Toledo and drive all the way back here to make a lousy fifty pergram. Better lay off for a few days. Why blow my big deal on the odd chance of getting busted? Now, should I go see Tawana or Kristianne?
    Lee couldn't keep his mind on either girl, as luscious and willing as they tended to be toward him. He was more interested in real estate. Five months earlier, half serious and half high on Colt 45s, he had called the 800 number after watching one of those latenight infomercials. He bought the whole "Make Millions Through Real Estate" home study course for a hundred bucks using a stolen credit card number. Lee had the package sent to an abandoned house in his neighborhood. He tipped the UPS driver to keep his mouth shut–the driver knew the house was abandoned.
    It took him a month to listen to the course. He found he could understand the books if hetook his time and skipped over the bigger words. Lee quickly grasped the concepts–after all, he had been in business for himself since he was in grade school. From personal experience, he understood the concepts of cash flow, strategic planning, and how to get the most out of people. He had a knack for making deals. The young entrepreneur probably knew more about corporate espionage than a typicalFortune 500 CEO.
    Starting with five grand he had saved from his drug trade, Lee began to buy up distressed properties. By the end of his third month as a big time real estate dealer, as he now thought of himself, he had quietly bought and sold several properties just outside of his immediate neighborhood–some at tax delinquency auctions downtown, most with little or no money down.
    He avoided buyingproperties owned by the big drug dealers. Despite his efforts to hide his activities, a few of his friends reported that his name was circulating in what Lee considered the wrong circles. One of the meanest crack dealers, Elmer "Fudd" Matthews, had been asking around about him. That wasn't a good sign.
    But Lee had just executed a plan that would make the downtown real estate specialists jealous.Without a doubt, his deal would baffle the neighborhood drug dealers, who were more interested in whores and cars than houses and contracts. Tawana, who liked the milder drugs Lee supplied her, and who worked in the mayor's office downtown, had heard rumors that the Cleveland Clinic was planning a major expansion. The Clinic was a huge medical complex located in the center of the most dilapidatedpart of Cleveland.
    Apparently, a lot of the money was coming to the Clinic Foundation from HUD, HHS, and Federal AIDS Research Grants. The Clinic was planning to expand south toward the Woodland and Cedar sections. The deal was still in the planning stages–and not a done deal by any stretch. It was months away from any public announcement, but timed nicely to coincide with the mayor's re-electioncampaign.
    Most of Lee's properties were right smack in the middle of the expansion. Lee had already been offered $150,000 for all of his properties by a major development company, which had sent a slick, pony-tailed lawyer in a fancy suit to his mom's tenement. He didn't even shake hands with Lee. The lawyer smiled furtively at Shawna Washington, who was watching Wheel of Fortune on television.She seemed oblivious to Lee's deal.
    During the brief meeting, the lawyer had mistaken Lee's lack of social graces and ghetto vocabulary for stupidity. After a minute or two the lawyer made a lowball offer.
    It's worth three times that, you ugly freak! Lee had wanted to scream. Instead, he quietly told the lawyer that he wanted $345,000 in cash plus lawyer's fees (just like Lee's real estate bookssuggested) or he would go to MBM Management, a major competitor which probably didn't even know about the Clinic Foundation's