Meanwhile, he had business to attend to, clients to service, returns to seek. The Italian fiasco had receded only slightly. He identified a winning pharmaceutical stock and successfully rode a tide of Chinese currency devaluations by some strategic swaps of yuan for dollars. Ron’s family had connections in British banking and passed on, almost legally, advance word of a major merger, and Majid acted. Sterling Wealth Management was moving in the right direction. There were reasons to be optimistic.

Then Stavro came back.

“Another short?” said Ron. When he saw Stavro appear in the reception area, he had followed him into Majid’s office and listened while Stavro placed his new order.

“We did rather well with the last one,” Stavro said. He leaned back in an upholstered chair against the wall, under a framed beauty shot of the Matterhorn. “So why not?”

“Your money is growing nicely in our general fund,” Majid said. He mentioned the pharmaceutical stock, the Chinese currency coup, the profit made on the merger. “Perhaps we should just stay the course.”

“Besides,” Ron said, “you can’t count on another catastrophic explosion, can you? I mean, what are the odds of something like that happening again?”

Stavro looked at Ron coolly. “One never knows, does one? Fate is out of our hands. I mean, a meteorite might come out of nowhere and strike this office at any moment. Which would be a shame.” He looked around at the Persian rug, the comfortable furniture, the art on the walls, at Ron. “This place is so pleasant.”

For an insane moment, Majid sensed that Stavro had just threatened to bring down a meteorite on their heads if they didn’t do what he asked.

“What company do you want to short?” he said.

“Bouvier Lait, the French dairy.”

Majid hit a few keys on his computer. “It’s big,” he said. “Milk, cheese, yogurt. Number three in France, subsidiaries in Belgium and Spain.”

Stavro shrugged. “But who drinks milk anymore?”

“Babies?” said Ron.

Majid carried on. “Stock up eight percent this year on projected earnings of a billion euros. Trailing P/E of nine, forward P/E eleven. It looks pretty strong. I can do more research.”

“No need,” said Stavro. “I think it’s ready for a downturn.”

“Lots of people eat cheese,” said Ron. “I eat cheese.”

Majid pretended Ron hadn’t spoken, as if Ron was his own imaginary friend. “It would be a speculative move,” Majid said.

“It’s my money,” said Stavro. “So it’s my move. I didn’t come here to argue with you. With either of you.” This with a sharp glance at Ron, who apparently wasn’t imaginary after all. “I do believe you work for me.”

“How many shares do you want to short?” asked Majid.

“As many as you can borrow.”

“That would be a big bet.”