It took a few days to sort things out with Bolo, but eventually I was able to nail him down to a dollar amount and workflow.
Once that was settled, I was able to turn my attention to Mano. Now that I had Bolo locked into Pivot Number Two, the clock was ticking on getting my own thing up and running. And if it all went to plan, my own secret operation would be fed by PanStar’s third and final pivot- a fact that Rafael wouldn’t catch on to until it was far too late, if ever.
I had Mano meet me at the hotel the day before I was scheduled to fly back to New York. He came bearing a jar of mermelada de guayaba that his mother had made.
“Tell Miss Leonora when I come back next, I’ll have an extra special gift for her,” I said. She was fond of glass figurines.
Mano and I went to the bar and grabbed some drinks, as I caught him up to speed on everything going on with both PanStar and my future shadow system. I made sure not to disclose the nature of our new product, but I did let Mano know it was very volatile and only good for a short run. I was confident he’d be able to figure it out.
“Alright,” I began, “I’ve got Bolo stabilized for the next fourteen months. And what I’m going to tell you about has to be up and running no later than October of 2001.”
“So, this time next year,” Mano said.
“Yes, preferably earlier,” I confirmed. “The thing with Bolo will burn itself out by December 2001, by design and I need to build my own in the background, before then.”
“Are you letting him know you’re pulling out?” Mano asked.
“I am not,” I told him. “I just need to get the New York half of it set up in the next six months or so and the Panama part needs to be live right when I pull the plug on Rafael’s current business.”
“You’re talking in code,” Mano said.
“Just think back to what we talked about that other time,” I told him. “The money changers.”
Mano nodded. He remembered.
“I’m going to start working on getting a Ria license now,” I said. “It will take some time to get everything approved and some extra time to get it all set up, but my goal is to be able to start putting money out in Panama by the beginning of 2002.”
“And Bolo won’t know,” Mano said. Not asked.
“Yes, Bolo will not know,” I replied. “And I will need you to help me make those connections we talked about.”
“I’m ready to do that now,” Mano said. “But I think people will take you more seriously once you get that Ria license. No sense in rushing things.”
