At Laurel Canyon Valley Road in North Hollywood, Judith started her busy day the moment she arrived at the office. First she pushed through an approval document for a new loan, then worked her way down a list of clients whose loans were coming due.
Bank work looked stable from the outside. In reality, she was swamped from morning until night.
What made it worse was that she handled enormous sums of money every single day and had very little of her own to show for it.
After two collection calls, Judith's eyes landed on the names Starlight Entertainment and Ryan Anderson. She frowned slightly.
Under normal circumstances there was no reason to call a client before the loan actually matured, but the contract's supplementary clauses gave the bank the right to issue early notices or even call in the loan under certain conditions.
Starlight Entertainment and Ryan Anderson's repayment ability? Judith shook her head. Her honest assessment was that both would be bankrupt before long.
At least it was a mortgage loan from the start, and the amount only covered seventy percent of the collateral's value. Whether it was the real estate or Starlight's film copyright library, both were solid assets. This loan wasn't going to turn into a bad debt on her watch.
Though now that she thought about it, Ryan Anderson had said he was coming in today to repay. Starlight Entertainment hadn't produced anything recently, and the staff had nearly all gone. What exactly did he plan to repay with?
Was he going to let the bank take the copyrights and the apartment?
Five minutes later, Judith looked up and saw Ryan walking in. She did a double take.
The last time they had met, this young man had messy hair and a worn-out face, like someone who hadn't slept in days. Now his hair was neat, his face was clear and rested, and he was wearing an Armani suit that fit him well. The plain-framed glasses softened what would otherwise have been a fairly sharp look and added a touch of maturity.
He was, she had to admit, quite handsome.
Judith's attention stayed on Ryan long enough that she almost missed the woman in her forties standing behind him.
"Hello, Miss Judith," Ryan said pleasantly.
"Uh..." Judith pulled herself together. "Hello, Mr. Anderson."
"I'm here to take care of the loan repayments for Starlight Entertainment and for myself," Ryan said, settling into the chair across from her.
Judith blinked. "You want to repay early?"
"Both loans, including all interest accrued to today, paid in full." Ryan said it matter-of-factly. "The contract allows early repayment, doesn't it?"
Judith quickly refocused. "Yes, yes it does." She couldn't quite stop herself from asking, "You managed to raise the money?"
Ryan gave a small shrug. "How else would I repay without it?"
She composed herself and asked, more carefully this time, "May I ask where the funds came from?"
"The source is entirely legal," Ryan said easily. "Beyond that, it's a business matter and I'm not in a position to share details." He glanced at Mary. "Handle the repayment procedures with Miss Judith."
Just under an hour later, Mary had completed all the paperwork. Ryan stood, extended his hand, and shook Judith's. "I hope I won't be receiving any more collection notices from you."
Judith offered her most professional smile. "I hope so too."
Ryan and Mary left the reception area but didn't leave the building. They went directly to the elevator.
"Everything in order?" Ryan said quietly.
"Everything's fine," Mary replied.
Ryan pressed the button. "Let's go find the loan officer."
Later that morning, Judith heard from a colleague that Starlight Entertainment and Ryan Anderson, having just finished paying off their loans, had gone upstairs and applied for a new $3 million mortgage loan.
"How is that possible?" Judith said.
Her colleague shrugged. "Why not? He paid off his existing loans ahead of schedule. His credit record is clean, and he's just demonstrated his repayment ability. A new loan is perfectly standard."
"That's not what I mean," Judith said. "He just finished paying today."
Her colleague leaned closer and lowered her voice. "I heard from the branch director's assistant. Ryan Anderson showed documentation of a ten million dollar fund held at Bank of America. With film copyrights and real estate as collateral, the director approved the application on the spot. The rest is just processing."
Judith stared at her. "Ten million dollars?"
"That's right." Her colleague sighed and gave Judith's shoulder a sympathetic pat. "Starlight Entertainment was your account. The commission on a loan this size would have been..."
She shook her head and left it there.
Judith bit her lip. Starlight Entertainment had always been her client.
"Did I completely misjudge him?" she murmured.
From the bank, Ryan went directly to the Merrill Lynch Securities branch in Los Angeles. He selected a stockbroker with a strong track record, sat down, and signed a discretionary trading agreement.
He didn't need advice. He needed someone who would buy and sell exactly as instructed.
Brokerage commissions worked on a sliding scale. The more capital involved and the higher the trading volume, the lower the rate. Ryan's investment amount was large enough to put him in a favorable position.
His two main targets were Yahoo and Cisco.
He had done his research before walking in.
Yahoo's opening price in February was $64, with a monthly high of $74.
Cisco had come through a stock split the previous year at around $5 and had since climbed to nearly $14.
Both were extremely active stocks with a constant stream of positive news behind them.
Ryan wasn't a dedicated stock trader in his previous life. He had only a general sense of how things played out. Cisco had at some point briefly become the most valuable company in the world by market capitalization. Yahoo had been close behind before its long decline. He had a vague memory that Yahoo eventually lost even its brand.
When exactly had it all started falling apart? Sometime after 2000, but how far into the new decade the run had continued, he genuinely didn't know.
That uncertainty meant he couldn't try to time every move. The plan was to have the broker gradually build positions in both stocks and then exit before 2000 while the market was still running strong. After 2000, the risk multiplied sharply, and with serious institutional money watching every major position, any large movement would attract attention.
Ryan planned to put the $6 million raised in Abu Dhabi and the $3 million new bank loan into the market as soon as practical, through the company and personal accounts respectively. He held back $1 million as an emergency reserve.
With his current standing, establishing a formal fund wasn't yet feasible. If it were, deploying the money would have been considerably more straightforward.
With buy orders spread across both stocks, $9 million entering the market in batches wouldn't cause too much disruption.
"Mr. Anderson."
The stockbroker shook his hand before Ryan left. "Your goals are our priority."
Ryan smiled. "I hope this is a good working relationship, Scott."
Scott, who had recently transferred from the Pennsylvania office, gripped his hand firmly. "I just arrived in Los Angeles. It's genuinely an honor to take on a client like you."
Ryan nodded simply. "Happy to work together."
Money changed things. He'd walked into Merrill Lynch, mentioned the investment amount in general terms, and been given their full attention immediately. There was no point pretending otherwise.
Scott said again, "Happy to work together."
A client like this didn't come along often.
Ryan asked Mary to head back to the office while he made a stop at a dealership and bought a new Cadillac.
Back at the company later, he went through his notes and laid out his priorities.
He needed to move quickly on finding a director for The Purge. Once the director was in place, the rest of the production team could come together around them, and conversations about the main cast could start in earnest.
The script also needed another pass. The first draft had been written primarily to make the project look credible to outside investors. It wasn't yet fully production-ready. He could do most of the revision work himself, and once a director was hired, their input could be folded in as well.
The blog writing plan could wait for now.
Then there was the matter of industry connections.
Film was the main business, and in Hollywood, relationships were everything. Old Anderson had understood that. He had been conservative in most things, but he had tended his network carefully and built a quiet, solid reputation in certain circles.
Young Anderson, on the other hand, had believed that pure talent could cut through everything. From the day he took over Starlight Entertainment, he had essentially let the whole of Old Anderson's network go cold.
Those relationships needed to be revived, and then expanded beyond where they had been.
The most straightforward way to build and maintain a network in Hollywood was to show up. Industry parties and banquets were where connections were made and maintained. Investors, producers, directors, actors, agents — they all moved through the same circuit of events, and many early project conversations started over a glass of something at one of those functions.
Ryan sent a message to Mary to start looking into upcoming industry events worth attending.
With a clearer picture of the immediate road ahead, he finally left the office. It was nearly nine in the evening.
Back at the apartment, he spent another three hours on the Purge script revision before calling it a night.
Starting from scratch was hard. There were no shortcuts, not even for someone who'd done it before, not even with the advantage of knowing what was coming.
Effort and dedication were still the only way through.