"Call it a lucky guess." He took a deep breath. So that's where the
funding stipulated in the protocol was going to come from. European
suckers. My God, he thought, the play is superb.
"Michael, nobody could float an offering like that and have it covered
with real assets. Nobody. Taken all together that's enough money to
capitalize a dozen world-class corporations." He paused. "Of course, I
won't be offering it all at once. The debentures will dribble out over
the period of a year, and then the next year, it starts all over again.
For five years."
"So you're supposed to raise five hundred billion dollars in the
Eurobond market over five years. Not impossible, but it's a tall
order."
"Especially since the ratings will be smoke and mirrors. It is, in
effect, an unsecured loan." He looked away, down at the swirling brown
surface of the Thames. "You know what it really means? He wants me to
sell _junk bonds_. And I can't refuse." His voice came close to a
quaver. "Just when I was well into earning the esteem of the European
banking community, I'm suddenly about to become the Drexel Burnham of
Eurobonds. I'll be operating the investment equivalent of a shell
game."
"Ken, why are you telling me all this?" Vance had never seen him this
upset.
"Because I have to find out what this is all about. What the money's
going to be used for."
"I take it the Tokyo _oyabun's_ not talking."
"Michael, no one dares question him. You know that." His voice grew
formal. "It's the Yakuza way."
"Well, you're in London now. A free man."
"It's not that simple. You may not know--it's a very well-kept secret--
that he capitalized my takeover of the Westminster Union Bank here. He
put together a consortium of private financiers for me. A lot of the
money was actually his. The whole thing had to be low profile, since
none of our banks dared have its name associated with a hostile
takeover in London. Our institutions are still squeamish about such
things. They all cheered me on in private, but in public they didn't
know anything about it."
"Maybe he had this little return favor in mind all along."
"To tell you the truth, I've since wondered that myself. Anyway, now
he's calling in my obligation. We Japanese call it _giri_. I have to
play. But either way I'm ruined. If I do it, I'll become a pariah in
the European banking community. If I don't . . . well, the consequences
are almost unthinkable."
"Ken, I don't know how to say this, but there's a chance this whole
scenario is bigger than anything you can imagine."