"Do you guys have plans for the rest of the day?" Ralph asked.
"No. Don't really know what to do without Conquest," Dave said.
Zoe chuckled, "I lost touch with reality when I started playing Conquest. The server's gonna be down for the whole day. We should go to a club and have some fun."
"It's eleven in the morning!" Dave said.
"I didn't mean now, silly," Zoe giggled.
Their flirting was cut short by Dave's phone ringing.
It was Perfect Shot, "Hey Stroke, hope I didn't wake you up."
"Nah, what's up bro?" Dave replied.
"My pops wants to know if you're going to send us the feed of you bringing back the undead. He wants to broadcast it tonight," Perfect said.
"I haven't done anything with it yet. I'll send it as soon as it's ready." Dave replied.
"Great, I'll tell pops."
Then Zoe's phone rang.
"Hello uncle, how are you?"
Dave and Ralph bantered while Zoe talked to her uncle.
"Dave, he wants to talk to you," Zoe said and handed her phone over to Dave.
"Good morning Mr Silvana."
"Good morning kiddo. I want to talk to you about something important."
Dave sat up straight to pay better attention.
"Yes?
"You need to invest that Conquest money, it's been just sitting in a bank account doing nothing, you're losing money. You have a good investment opportunity right in front of you that could bring you another big windfall."
"What opportunity?" Dave asked, bewildered.
"CCN. Buy as much of their stock as you can."
"Why?" Dave asked
"To make money from speculating on their stock. Your feed is almost certain to be another, even bigger, hit for CCN. It's easy to predict their stock prices will skyrocket. After you make your nut, sell off most or all the CCN stocks and invest in other stocks. Invest in a portfolio of diversified stocks that will give you a regular, decent return on your capital."
"Oh," Dave understood now. Why had he been poor for so long? It was so simple and obvious.
"Just be sure you understand the risks, kiddo. Investing in CCN stocks like this isn't 100% risk free. Anything is possible, but I looked at CCN's financials, the company is healthy and the stocks are low-risk, you won't lose all your money even if things go completely different from how I expect them to."
"I've never bought stocks before."
"Don't worry about that, Zoe knows what to do. Pass over the phone to my niece."
Dave handed the phone to Zoe.
Zoe's took the phone, speaking to her uncle, "Hey Uncle. Uh huh. Yeah. Okay, I'll tell him." Zoe hung up and turned to Dave.
"What did he say."
"Well he told me to go see a family friend for this stuff and the amount of money that you should invest. He has an office nearby. We can go and talk with him. What do you say?"
"I got nothing better to do," Ralph shrugged.
Dave thought for a moment, and said. "Okay, let's go."
Zoe rubbed her hands together, "Goodie! Glad I drove the Chevy today, it has more room than the Lambo."
Zoe got up and started walking toward the street.
"What was that about?" Ralph asked.
Dave patted his friend on the shoulder as he stood up to follow her, "I hope you enjoyed your hot dogs, you're about to regret it."
"Hey! You didn't pay your bill!" Ralph shouted after him.
Dave grinned and just walked faster, pretending he didn't hear.
Dave heard an engine roar. Zoe had parked just around the corner. He got in and fastened the seatbelt, making sure it was tight.
Zoe chuckled occasionally while they waited for Ralph.
Ralph's mouth was wide open when he saw the car. Ralph sat in, swallowing hard as he shut the door and started to say something, at which point Zoe shifted into reverse and stomped on the accelerator. Ralph was thrown face forward against the front seat then bounced back into his own seat as Zoe shifted into drive and stomped the accelerator again with perfect timing.
"EASY!" Ralph shouted.
Even though Dave was holding on for dear life he still smiled.
'Guess Zoe's getting a little bit of payback for the Stamp afterall.'
Zoe slid through the busy streets of New York at speeds way over the legal limit, passing other cars like they were standing still. Zoe seemed to think every corner necessitated violent handbrake turns which knocked Ralph around from side to side in the back seat.
Luckily for Ralph, the Wall Street business that was their destination wasn't far.
The Chevy came to a screeching stop that bounced Ralph's forehead off the front seat one more time and they were safe. They got out and followed after Zoe.
"Does she always drive like that?"
"Yeah, that's the usual," Dave laughed.
They went through the revolving door of a skyscraper, elevator and to one of the top floors. The elevator opened into a large floor.
They followed Zoe until they were next to one of the largest bureaus on the floor.
There was a desk next to the burau where a beautiful redhead woman was typing on a holographic keyboard. When the redhead saw Zoe, she picked up her phone and called.
"Mr. Belfort, Zoe Silvana is here."
The door opened on a huge office with a magnificent view, abstract art hung from the walls and a large desk sat in the middle of the floor.
The man behind the desk stood up, smiling, "It's been a long time Zoe!"
"Bel, it's been long, how is Nana doing?"
"She is great, she's in her last month and the baby's doing great."
"Good, tell her I said hi," Zoe said.
"Of course. Who are these gentlemen?" Belfort asked.
"Oh, sorry, this is David Ruster, and this is Ralph…" Zoe trailed, she didn't know his last name.
"Rupert," Ralph reached out to shake hands.
"Good to meet you, gentlemen. I'm Belfort Wolf."
"I brought Dave here at my uncle's suggestion, he wants to buy some stock."
Belfort turned to Dave, "Have you ever bought stocks before?"
"No."
The man nodded, "You have your ID with you?"
"Yeah," Dave replied.
"Give me a second," Belfort said and picked up the desk phone, "Yarra, bring me an M2 form."
A moment later, the secretary came in with some papers.
"Please give Yarra your ID, so she can scan it, I need you to sign this form so we can start."
Dave did as the man asked and signed the forms.
"Good, now tell me, what stocks are you considering?"
"CCN."
"Okay, CCN is a decent company. What other companies are you interested in?"
"Just CCN for now."
"Okay, and how many shares do you want to buy."
Dave looked at Zoe, who nodded and smiled encouragingly at him. He took a deep breath.
"Eighty million dollars worth."
"Eighty million," Belfort repeated.
He looked at Dave, then glanced at Zoe, then looked down at a screen and started tapping at keys. Wheels turned in Belfort's head as he bought some time to think by looking busy. He didn't think Dave had that kind of money. But the young man had come into his office with Zoe Silvana on the recommendation of her uncle.
Belfort finally looked up, "Eighty million is more than 2% of CCN's outstanding stock. You really should consider diversifying, instead of putting all your eggs in one basket."
Even Ralph was doubtful. He knew Dave had sold the Right of Conquest for a hundred million, investing most of it in one stock didn't seem smart.
"Right now I want to buy CCN stock. I might consider diversifying into a portfolio later." Dave wasn't even sure what he was saying, he was just parroting Zoe's uncle.
A light went on in Belfort's head, this guy knew something. Greed took over.
"And when do you want the trades executed by?"
"Uhh… before tonight?" Dave guessed, since that was when CCN would broadcast the feed if he got it to them in time.
Belfort was almost salivating now, if this was as good as he suspected he could get on this train and ride it to Money-town.
"And the funds?"
"I don't have cash right now.
Belfort's suspicions returned.
"The money is in my Conquest account. The VR game I mean."
"Oh," Belfort's relief was evident, "That's not an issue at all, we handle those kinds of transactions all the time. We can take care of it for you."
Then he added, "We charge a 2% fee for converting Conquest currency and there will be our brokers fee and-"
"Bel, you're going to do this at cost," Zoe interrupted with a smile, "Because you're planning to use this 'tip' to make yourself a lot of money too. Just make sure Dave's trades are executed first, before the price starts going up."
Bel spluttered then smiled ruefully, "Okay. You got me, you're just like your uncle. Can't blame me for trying though. I just need your account information, then some signatures and fingerprints, and we can get cracking on your trades."
Half an hour later they left the office, Dave was a little dazed and starting to worry about losing all that money. But he shook it off, he was not gambling, he was speculating on himself, not something he knew nothing about.
"That went good. What are we going to do next?" Zoe asked.
"Caitlin just texted me. She said her pops wants to meet with me. Uhh, she also said I can't refuse" Ralph.
Dave patted Ralph on the shoulder, "It was good knowing you buddy! When your body floats up in the river I'll come ID you."
"Whadya mean floating in the river?"
