When Spirits Beckon

When Spirits Beckon, Part 2, Chapter 10

3 February, 11.16am

It was freezing out on the ledge and it was growing colder by the minute as a faint mist of snow drifted down, coating the buildings and roads within downtown Cheyenne.

With both legs dangling high over Sloane Street, stockbroker Fred Adivet watched disconsolately as the falling snowflakes helped to hide some of the uglier scars on the landscape. Yet, the masking property of the whitish fluff was unable to disguise the fact that there are some really ugly buildings jutting up into the city skyline.

Fred himself was at the window of one such ugly building; it was an almost uniform concrete monstrosity that was soulless in its modernistic focus on efficiency and productivity. The only relief from its dirty grey facade was the outsized initials of the stockbroking firm that owned the 16-story high tower.

His window looked out at the rooftop billboard advertising on the building across the street. The glass panes had been left open behind him, Fred didn't give a hoot that the gaping aperture was letting the warmth out of his tiny office or that he was also reducing the overall heating efficiency for the 13th level. It was a token gesture of defiance against his stonehearted employers, thumbing his nose at their endless harping on the need to be more energy-efficient and value-productive. Besides, they could well afford to let him waste some of their money after all they had squeezed from him with the high-pressured job.

What did bother Fred was that the warm air didn't help heat up his face as it slid out past him, sitting as he was on the edge of the window. It wasn't a comfortable position to be in, but Fred no longer cared. It wouldn't be long before petty details like comfort wouldn't matter, especially since he was no longer in any position to afford it.

He had been so sure the day before that he was about to hit it really big when he had put his entire available credit line on Ezapco. The consumer appliance manufacturer had announced shortly after the Nasdaq opening bell that it had come out with a new line of super-cheap computers. The list price of these computers would undercut all other firms' similar products by more than half. Fred had even recommended Ezapco to many of his regular clients, who had seen their investment values rising by the minute, and reaching the daily allowed upper price limit by 12 noon in New York (or 10.00am Mountain Time in Wyoming).

The stock had been a winner for him so many times previously, ever since it was first floated on the Nasdaq almost five years ago. Rumors of the firm's super-cheap computer had been circulating during the past fortnight after E-Zero Appliances Company (Ezapco) announced that it was raising over a billion dollars in loan stock to fund a new manufacturing line at its plant in Minnesota.

The latest loan stock announcement had fitted the pattern of Ezapco's prior extremely successful forays into consumer electronic products. From video projectors to refrigerators, washing machines and more; all such product launches by Ezapco had caught incumbent players flatfooted. And after dust from those price wars settled, consumers everywhere were delighted that averaged retail prices for such a range of products had eventually tumbled by more than half.

In the past, many industry analysts predicted that Ezapco's discount strategy was purely an aggressive sales gimmick – aimed at garnering market share at the expense of any real earnings. Yet, Ezapco had confounded such analyses by posting solid profits, more so by chalking up earnings on an ever-increasing trend every year.

Ezapco's CEO, Milton Warrick, had made it no secret that he intended to eventually take on the personal computer industry, but he had always remained evasive on the timing. So, almost two years since its last major product launch, when Warrick announced that Ezapco was finally ready to embark on its biggest product launch yet, Fred had no hesitation in strongly recommending a buy on Ezapco.