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When Immunicate started out they made the mistake of holding the meeting on the first day. People were tired and ornery and channeled all of that energy into bitching about one thing or another. “He’s getting too much money.” “Your advertising stinks.” “Get rid of all the private jets.” So the company looked around, saw how several other successful corporations did these yearly events, and copied the best of them. Some of the electronic and cosmetic giants gave out an abundance of free swag, understanding that if someone was sitting there with a new holographic picture generator, his mood was much improved. When a woman knew that she had just been given over two thousand dollars’ worth of the newest cosmetic creams, her tough questions to the board faded away along with the spots on her hands.

Immunicate couldn’t give out it products—they made drugs, afters all—so they started out trying different ideas. At first they offered a free physical for every stockholder who showed up. That wasn’t a big success. One year they even tried free MRIs, but the liability issue raised its ugly head. And telling someone he had a tumor and then sending him to the luncheon buffet really didn’t go down that well. So the company settled on pampering. They didn’t want to pick up the cost of the hotel because they would have too many freeloaders, people buying one share of stock just to get free lodging wherever the meetings were held. But they did offer world-class buffets, roaming masseuses, free use of the hotel spas, city tours, and small gifts like wrist phones, jewelry, and commemorative coins with the stockholders’ names engraved on them.

Max Leonard owned a thousand shares that his father had given to him when he turned eighteen. He never paid any attention to them and in one decade they had made him almost a million dollars. But more importantly, it was enough shares to give him some cachet. The company was aware of who owned what, and even though they let small shareholders in for the free food, they had no respect for them. Those who owned a thousand shares were treated differently.

So Max and Kathy were told that first morning that they didn’t have to wait in line for the buffet. They were escorted inside the dining room and given a lovely table, where they were served a delicious breakfast by waiters dressed in tuxedos. They were also given free use of a car service if they wanted to see some of Dallas’s tourist sites. And someone privately told them that when they checked out of the Imperial, their stay there would be heavily comped. They were being treated so nicely, Max had to remember why they had come in the first place. Weren’t they there to try to talk to the devil himself? This is how the devil does it, Max thought, he plies you with goodies. Well, I’ll take your goodies, but it won’t work.

Kathy and Max filled their stomachs with crepes and fresh fruit and the most delicious lattes they’d ever tasted, and then they spent the first day in Dallas just being old-fashioned tourists. The driver took them by George W. Bush’s house. The former president was known to walk the neighborhood and talk to the sightseers. Bush thought that if he could hang around long enough, history would show him in a favorable light, but at eighty-four years old, history hadn’t arrived yet.

Kathy had to admit she loved being a tourist, but all Max could think about was how to get Sam Mueller alone.

* * *

Over the previous month, the United States and China had worked out an unprecedented historic agreement that would change the world. No more borrowed money. Now they had full partnerships, and Los Angeles would be the beginning. Teams of negotiators worked out the minutiae. The agreement was more than two thousand pages long, covering everything from the rights of Chinese workers in the United States to what would happen if there was another earthquake. The Chinese insisted that their citizens who were going to come to the U.S. be given certain stature that other nationalities