London, England, Wednesday 11:00PM

Alister Fairfax impatiently tapped his fingers on his steering wheel and glanced repeatedly at his watch as he waited for the gate to his mansion to open. The early November drizzle was just strong enough that he had his windshield wipers on. The weather was just what one might expect for London at this time of year.

Unfortunately the evening had been just what Fairfax had expected as well. A waste of time and money. The opera had been dull and the conversations at dinner had been boring. The only redeeming decision of the night had been when he decided that he and his wife would drive separately. Otherwise he would still be trapped in a mind numbing social event.

Fairfax was not a man of extravagant tastes. He drove a 20 year old Porsche that he had bought during the foolish days of his youth. In fact he would not even have lived in the Mayfair mansion if not for the social importance it signified. It was a calculated business expense that brought returns so it stayed.

As soon as the gate was wide enough for his car to squeeze through Fairfax quickly pulled the car into his garage. There was always so much to do and so little time. His day began at 5:00am and he had been on the go ever since. Every minute was an opportunity to make money. The night out had cost him valuable business hours and he would probably calculate exactly how much after he had laid down in his bed tonight as a way to wind down for the night.

It was 11:00 pm and he had three items left on his checklist for the day. The first item and the one that brought him the most pleasure was to check his net worth. Compulsively he would check his custom built app that monitored his vast portfolio. After his phone scanned his face and the value flashed on the screen he grimaced. Only £143 billion. He didn’t make enough money today. He would have to add a couple more items to his checklist.

What had gone wrong? He should’ve cleared £144 billion by the end of the day, downturn in the markets or not. The first thought that flashed into his mind was to sell his Mayfair mansion. But the value of the London mansion was already calculated into his net worth and you couldn’t find a new buyer in less than an hour. Additionally it wouldn’t bring in enough money. It was time to get creative. He had less than an hour to create £373,897,215 of wealth to hit his goal.

He walked into his office and turned on the lights and woke his sleeping computers up. For a man so obsessed with wealth his office was uncommonly plain. The only true expenditures had come on the 4 large computer monitors that were affixed to the wall behind his desk. They resembled four large screen televisions. They were not used for pleasure under any circumstances. This was the base of his money making operation.

As the screens came to life they each displayed something different. The top left screen displayed a live candle chart of the British Pound to Swiss Franc currency pairing that included the last 48 hours worth of movement. The top right screen showed the homepage of the Financial Times. The bottom left screen displayed various graphs and charts for the Asian, European, and American markets. The bottom right screen was an excel spreadsheet that listed his various real estate holdings throughout the world.

Fairfax glanced at each of these screens. Time was wasting. He needed a spark of inspiration in a hurry. The idea struck him and he knew it would work.

He picked up his phone and made a call. “Toby I need you in my office now.”

“I will be there in two minutes sir.”

Toby lived full time in the guest house behind the mansion. He also had direct access to all of the wealth Fairfax generated. He was overworked and underpaid but the job and access allowed him to mirror the trades that Fairfax made. As a result he had made a minuscule fortune in comparison.

Toby was shrewd enough to realize that if he generated too much wealth he would become a target instead of an asset. Fairfax would not think twice about implementing plans to acquire Toby’s wealth if it became too great. Toby quickly put his suit coat on and headed for the office.

Fairfax impatiently paced as he waited for Toby to arrive. The second Toby had one foot inside the office Fairfax began to speak.

“I need to make £400 million before midnight.”

Toby was used to outlandish requests but this one really caught him off guard.

“Why, sir?”

Fairfax stopped pacing and glared at Toby. His principal account manager appeared to have forgotten his place. Tony had no right to question him.

“Because I need to.”

Toby held his tongue although he wanted to say more. After another moment of silence he finally said “what do you have in mind sir?”

“We are going to crash the pound.”

“Did I hear you correctly sir? Did you say crash the pound?”

“Yes of course.”

“Crashing the pound will cause you to lose value. You have extensive holdings that would also crash in value. I thought the goal was to make hundreds of millions.” Toby said perplexed.

“I will make hundreds of millions tonight and I will make tens of billions in the next few months.”

“I don’t understand sir.”

“It is quite simple man! I will aggressively sell the pound. I will use so many accounts at such a volume that it will trigger a panic. The algorithms will automatically kick in and start selling. To further accelerate the sell off you will leak some information that I obtained from a source on Downing Street.”

“You intend to do all of this in 53 minutes, sir?”

“Hopefully much quicker.”

“Before you go any further, is this legal?”

“Don’t trifle me about legalities. You have never cared much about those in the past.”

“This feels different sir.”

“There is no difference. I make money and you get a cut.”

“At whose expense?”

“Anyone who doesn’t know how to play the game like I do.”

“This is madness. You don’t need the money tonight. In three days you will have made the £400,000,000 pounds you are fixated on at no cost.”

“I must have that money tonight. Also it will open up an alley for me to get my hands on land in East Ham, Stratford, and Canning Town.”

“I don’t see how you will do all of this without causing a national panic.”

“Oh I am sure it will bring down the government. Foreclosures will rise. Fortunes will be destroyed, and I will be there to buy it all up.”

“I would strongly advise against this sir, but if you are set in your plans let’s begin now.”

“Yes, right you are. Let’s begin we have already let valuable minutes slip by.”

“What do information do you want me to leak from Downing Street?”

“It involves and the Prime Minister and some….”

Fairfax was distracted at that moment as all four of his monitors turned red and in a gothic black script the words Inimicitia Aeterna appeared.

Fairfax immediately recognized the message for what it was. He turned to Toby and said “on second thought, let’s put this plan in our back pocket for another day. It might be more impressive to see during working hours. You can go.”

“But sir what does that mean?”

“Nothing that you need to concern yourself with.” Fairfax said.

Bewildered Toby took his leave wondering what that message meant and why it had caused such a change in Fairfax. He had never known him to abandon a plan where he stood to make hundreds of millions. That message meant something and Toby resolved to figure out what as he walked back to the guest house.