Chapter 26: The Fuel
The large envelope was delivered by a normal postman, right along with the regular mail. It was not sealed with anything special, and it was addressed simply to the Continental Investment Bank. But inside was the biggest check Elias Thorne had ever seen in his life. It was July 1940.
The check was from The Boeing Company, and it was their first dividend payment to Continental Bank, the owner of ten percent of their company. Because of the war in Europe, Boeing's factories were running day and night, building the B-17 bomber. The money was a direct payout from those huge profits.
Elias sat at his desk and stared at the number. He felt a deep, dizzy feeling. This was the first proof of concept. The complicated, risky, three-part plan to buy Boeing had worked perfectly. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, then put his suit jacket on again. He felt he needed to respect the money by being formal.
He carried the check down the hall to Arthur Vance's small office. Arthur, still only eighteen, was sitting quietly, running a pencil along a chart that showed the price of aluminum over time.
"Arthur," Elias said, trying to keep his voice steady. "The check is here. The first dividend. The amount… it's a lot more than we projected, even with the B-17 contracts."
He carefully placed the check on the desk. This was pure income for the bank, earned without Continental lifting a finger after the initial deal was done. It was passive income on a massive scale.
Arthur stopped charting and looked at the paper. His expression remained totally calm, a trait Elias had learned to both admire and fear.
"It is what we expected, Elias, given the speed of the British contracts," Arthur said, then picked up his pen and went back to his chart. "It confirms that our initial investment was sound."
"But Arthur," Elias said, sitting down heavily. "Forget sound. This is enough money to truly change everything. We are rich. We can hire twenty more people. We can buy a whole floor in a proper building. We can simply stop worrying. We can wait for the war to run its course and the checks will keep arriving. We have a secure, legal cash flow."
Arthur finally set his pen down and looked at the older man. His eyes were serious.
"You are still thinking like a lawyer, Elias. You see security and a way out of work. I see fuel and a lack of ambition."
Elias blinked. "Lack of ambition? We own ten percent of a future military powerhouse!"
"Exactly," Arthur said. "And we got it through private leverage and buying a bad debt. That was good for Phase One. But the world is not waiting. We did not build the Continental Investment Bank just to sit here and collect checks. We built it to be essential. We built it for power."
He gestured to the dividend check. "This money is simply a tool. It is not our reward. It is the ammunition for the next level."
The Freedom of Profit
Elias had to ask the technical question, the one that worried him.
"The trust, Arthur. The original $5 million is principal, legally locked away for you until you turn twenty-five. But this dividend… this enormous check…"
"This is bank profit, Elias, not trust principal," Arthur finished for him, his explanation simple and clear. "The trust owns 100% of the Continental Bank. The bank owns 10% of Boeing. The money Boeing sends us is earned capital. It is bank money, free from the trust's original rules about 'safe investments.' It is money we, as the officers of the bank, are legally bound to use to grow the bank's value."
Elias sighed in relief. Arthur's logic was iron-clad. They had effectively traded the locked-up cash for a highly liquid, growing income stream, and the profits were completely free to be invested aggressively.
"So, we have a war chest," Elias admitted. "What is the target? We proved we can conquer private companies. Do we conquer another one?"
Arthur shook his head. "The private market is too slow. We need to move into the Public Market, Elias. Wall Street."
He picked up a stock market ticker tape from his desk, a narrow strip of paper with constantly moving numbers.
"Wall Street is faster, but it is also more predictable than a single company board meeting," Arthur said. "The public market moves on large waves of human emotion. Fear and greed. Most investors read the news and follow the trend. We will not. We will use the Four Pillars to understand the real value of a company, and then we will buy when everyone else is scared and selling."
Arthur pointed to the check again. "We are going to use this cash to buy shares in another huge public company, completely in secret. We are going to become a major shareholder without anyone knowing where the money is coming from."
The New Target: A Global Machine
"We need another company that is essential to the coming war effort, but one that the market is misjudging," Arthur explained.
He walked over and showed Elias a file that Martha Klein, the new researcher, had already begun. The title read: The Coca-Cola Company.
"Coca-Cola? Arthur, that's a drink," Elias said, confused. "Why risk our new capital on a soft drink company?"
Arthur smiled, a rare, genuine smile. "Because everyone else is asking that same question, Elias. They see sugar and glass bottles. They see a possible future of government rationing and shortages."
He leaned in, his voice dropping slightly. "But our Research team found the hidden truth. The U.S. government has a massive agreement with Coca-Cola. It's not just a contract; it's a national mandate. The military believes that access to Coca-Cola is crucial for soldier morale and performance."
"So?"
"So, no matter what happens with sugar rationing, no matter what shortages hit other companies, the U.S. military will ensure that Coca-Cola gets the raw materials it needs. The government will protect its supply chain. The stock market sees risk; we see a guaranteed national contract and a business that is protected from any major economic downturn."
Arthur's plan was clear: they would use the dividend money to slowly buy ten percent ownership of Coca-Cola. This would give them the same kind of silent power they had over Boeing, but this time in the fast-moving public sphere.
The Plan for Stock Operation
"We need to be able to execute this, Elias," Arthur said, moving to the practical details of the stock operation. "Buying ten percent of Boeing was hard, but buying ten percent of a huge public company is much harder. Every trade we make on the stock exchange is public information. If we buy too many shares at once, the price will shoot up, and we will waste millions of this profit money."
He walked Elias to the small, dusty corner where the Sales & Trading (S&T) division sat. It was just one junior clerk and a single telephone line.
"This will not work for the public market," Arthur stated. "We need a proper base of operations. We need a quiet, simple office close to Wall Street. Somewhere with the best, fastest telephone and telegraph lines in the city."
Elias understood the strategy. "We need to buy in secret. We need to hide our trades."
"Exactly. The stock operation must be invisible," Arthur confirmed. "We won't buy one million shares in one day. That is noisy and pushes the price up. We will buy one thousand shares a hundred times a day, across twenty different brokerage houses. We will look like hundreds of small investors buying and selling, not one massive bank trying to take control."
"We will use their noise as our camouflage," Elias mused.
"We will use their fear as our opportunity," Arthur corrected him.
"Your first job, Elias, is two things. First, expand the Research Division. We need a full, deep analysis of the top fifty public companies, starting with Coke. We need more than one smart mind for this new game."
"And second?"
"Second, you need to find and set up the new office for Sales & Trading. We need the physical capability to execute this complex stock operation. We have the fuel—the cash. Now, we must build the engine to burn it with absolute precision."
Elias looked from the check back to Arthur, feeling the heat and the possibility of the next phase. They were no longer a small, strange bank. They were a funded operation, ready to enter the most dangerous financial arena in the world.
"Research first," Elias repeated, nodding. "Then we move S&T to Wall Street."
"The clock is ticking, Elias," Arthur said. "The world is marching to war, and the market is about to panic. We need to be ready to strike."