From legendary short seller to god of American capital

Chapter 409 Schmeisser's Shadow: A Dangerous Woman's Deal

Upon first seeing Anna, the female assassin behind Logan, Larry instinctively took a step back and glanced back at Dunbar, who had already instinctively placed his hand on his belt.

However, this was a tacit understanding. Everything was kept under wraps, and even Logan, who was very familiar with Dunbar, didn't sense anything.

Anna paused slightly, but then walked in steadily the next second.

Larry smiled and gently hugged Logan. "My brother, why are you only arriving now! I didn't even see you at Morgan Bank yesterday—"

Logan was beaming with joy, hugging Larry tightly. "Hey! It's all because of you—your arms deal involves complicated import/export trade and money transfers, you have no idea. Mr. Coster and I have put so much effort into your accounts—"

Larry nodded, then feigned surprise and looked at Anna behind Logan. "Who is this lady?"

Logan's expression visibly became unnatural. "—Anna, she's the one I saw last time—oh, you know."

"I don't know! Which Anna?" Larry feigned ignorance.

Logan blushed, hesitated for two seconds, and instead of answering Larry's question, turned to the woman behind him and said, "Come in!"

Anna walked slowly to Logan's side.

She looked to be under 20, with a slender figure, wearing a simple dark green wool suit and small silver-rimmed glasses. She was carrying a black hat and dressed like a teacher or bank clerk.

Larry's gaze lingered on her for two seconds before shifting away—not out of politeness, but out of some kind of instinctive wariness.

Her standing posture was perfect, with her weight evenly distributed on both feet, her knees slightly bent, and her shoulders relaxed—a posture that suggested she could burst into full speed or roll in any direction to dodge at any moment.

Her hands hung naturally at her sides, but her left hand was closer to the midline of her body, while her right hand was closer to the outside of her thigh, as if something should be hanging there.

The occupational hazard of a female assassin —

Larry drew his own conclusion.

"Mr. Livingston, my name is Anna Herder, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you, beautiful lady. I suppose you must be Logan's friend."

Although Larry had seen Anna in the Boer ranks, and Anna had seen Larry, the two had never actually crossed paths, so pretending it was their first meeting was perfectly acceptable.

Larry exchanged a few perfunctory pleasantries and then very gentlemanly ushered the two into the sofa lounge of the private room.

Dunbar instructed McCarthy to have the restaurant staff clear the leftover food from the table, bring in fresh tea, and then leave the room, while he himself stood at the door of the lounge without leaving for a moment.

Larry and Logan were chatting and laughing about their recent experiences. They first discussed the delivery of rifles to the Boers and the accounting issues, then talked about Larry's recent meeting with the three founders of The Wall Street Journal.

Logan was clearly distracted.

When Larry brought up his experiences during his trip back to New York, Logan frowned and asked, "Larry, are you really going to let the Wall Street Journal publish your problems so easily? Forgive me for being blunt, but it's not a good choice—you may have enough control, but it's unwise to not be able to control their behavior."

Larry waved his hand and laughed, saying, "How could that be! Since I have absolute control, how could I let them write whatever they want? That being said, especially with the idealistic editor-in-chief, Mr. Dao, you have to cater to his tastes—but if he really doesn't understand reciprocity," then he'll taste the iron fist of capitalism.

This is actually Larry's true feeling: an intention to acquire the company—he's just saying it in a nice way. If the management doesn't follow the investors' lead after the acquisition, Steve Jobs could be kicked out of Apple.

Capitalism doesn't really take promises seriously.

Logan nodded in agreement, a smile spreading across his face. "However, if you let them report the truth, they'll more or less..."

"For your future plans —"

"Then there's even less to worry about!" Larry chuckled and shook his head. "When I was a kid, I read a novel that had a famous line: 'If a bad person can't even open the door, what's the point of doing anything?' The same goes for newspapers. If my planned event can't be hidden from the newspapers—then I won't be foolish enough to act rashly."

Logan nodded in approval again. But he seemed a little distracted during the rest of the conversation.

Upon hearing the amusing anecdote about Larry studying at Yale, Logan suddenly glanced at Anna sitting beside him and hurriedly said, "—Larry, have you done any security work? After all, your identity is different now—you know what I mean? You need to be able to protect yourself at any time, preferably with a few bodyguards—"

Larry nodded, smiling as he pointed to Dunbar. "Uncle Dunbar arranged two for me. They take turns on duty and follow me around—they're both reliable."

Logan nodded, bit his lip, and thought for a few seconds, as if he had made up his mind, before saying, "Larry, I've come to tell you something very important—"

Larry thought to himself, "Here it comes, the important part is about to begin."

"What is it?"

"It's a matter of life and death!"

Larry didn't move, but his entire demeanor instantly shifted from that of a friend to that of a calm, risk-assessing decision-maker. "Whose life should we save?"

life? "

Unexpectedly, Logan didn't look at Anna, but instead looked intently into Larry's eyes. "Yours!"

This time it was Larry's turn to be surprised. "Why? What's going on—"

"Let Anna tell you instead—" Logan then turned to Anna.

Anna looked at Larry with a serious expression, and after a brief assessment, she finally spoke.

"My name is Anna Herder. Three days ago, in Warehouse No. 2 at the Brooklyn docks, I used a bass string taken from a grand piano to sever a man's carotid artery. The man's name was Carl Schmidt, and his public identity was Third Secretary at the German Consulate in New York."

Larry's face stiffened slightly, but he didn't move. He stared intently at the overly naive female assassin, nodding to signal her to continue.

Anna glanced subconsciously at the window of the private room, then slowly turned her head and took off her glasses. Her dark chestnut hair was draped over her shoulders, her two green eyes were fixed on Larry, and her beautiful face was expressionless.

“He’s been tracking me for two years, from Europe to America,” Anna’s voice was soft, with a barely perceptible Eastern European accent. “Three days ago, he cornered me at the dock with two of his men. He said Berlin had agreed to end the investigation and restore my and my family’s reputation—but on the condition that I do something for them—”

Larry had a feeling that this was not a simple matter, and he held his breath—just then he heard her say that.

"—They put me in touch with a young banker named Larry Livingston to get his business plans for the next six months, including his relationship with the U.S. government, his order for optical instruments for the U.S. Navy, and his family background—the Germans didn't believe that a young man with no background could suddenly open a bank in Chicago."

The air in the private room froze.

Larry's breathing was heavy and grating in the silence. Anna remained motionless, her green eyes calmly scrutinizing Larry, as if awaiting a reaction she had already anticipated.

Larry was silent for three seconds. In that brief moment, more than a dozen possibilities flashed through his mind: Was this a trap, or a test? Was it a self-inflicted injury, or a scheme to sow discord?

But in actual speech, it turned into, "And then?"

"I rejected him!" Anna said.

Why?

This time, something extremely subtle flickered in the depths of Anna's green eyes—not an emotion, but more like a kind of—almost cold, rational judgment.

“There are three reasons,” Anna’s voice remained steady. “First, I don’t work for any government, especially those that persecuted my family and forced me into exile. Second, you happen to have a very deep connection with me, whether through Logan Stone or the South Africans—”

Larry nodded. Anna had made their relationship clear from the start, which was also a statement.

"Third," Anna subconsciously glanced at everyone in the room, "—when Schmidt made the request, he used the phrase 'at all costs.'"

I asked him what the price included. He said it included becoming Mr. Livingston's mistress, and if necessary, lurking in his shadow for six months, a year, or five years.

This includes digging out all his secrets, bit by bit, after he trusted you.

Anna looked at Larry again, her green eyes as still as a frozen lake. "Frankly, I've studied you, Mr. Livingston. Over the past six months, I've read every piece of information I could find about you—though most of it is nonsense. Much of your background and behavior remains a mystery to me, but I know you're not an ordinary person; you're playing a very big game."

"So—" Larry asked noncommittally.

"So I know," Anna said, enunciating each word clearly, "that if I agree to Schmidt's request, if I really try to infiltrate your inner circle and uncover your secrets—sooner or later you will find out, and when you do—"

She didn't finish her sentence, but her meaning was very clear.

Larry looked at her. If what she said was true—then this woman, at the brink of death, had made a cold and precise plan: to refuse Berlin might mean immediate death; to agree to let Berlin infiltrate her side would mean certain death in the future, and at his hands.

So he chose immediate threats in exchange for a slim chance of survival.

"You refused, and then what did he do?" Larry continued coldly.

"He said it was a pity because his orders were that if I couldn't be recruited, I should make sure I wasn't recruited by anyone—of course, they weren't good enough."

"So you killed him?"

"Not only that, there were two other men of his—" Anna nodded, "one stabbed him in the left lung with a dagger, and the other I—oh, no, I used your company's automatic pistol to kill him."

Larry fell silent, then turned to look at Logan.

What do you think?

Logan gave a wry smile, a smile more painful than a grimace. "What can I say? I've been thinking the whole way here about how to tell you. After all, this is just too—unexpected."

Larry nodded silently, then turned to Dunbar, raising his right thumb and pinky in a gesture as if making a phone call.

Dunbar glanced at Larry with concern, and Larry shook his head slightly to indicate that he could handle it.

Dunbar left to call Charles Baker of the NYPD, leaving three people in the room. The atmosphere remained somewhat heavy.

"Who do you think is in charge of this? In other words, who is secretly investigating me?" Larry turned to Anna.

"It should be Louis Schmeisser. He was ostensibly the German commercial representative in the United States, but in reality, he was in charge of intelligence and arms deals in the New World."

"Schmeisser 1/2"

Larry was lost in thought. He had connections with the Germans because of the Bausch & Lomb spin-off. From the beginning, Larry knew that the Germans were not to be trifled with, but the last time had gone too smoothly, and when he met Schmeisser, things seemed very amicable, at least on the surface; moreover, almost a year had passed.

Larry had almost forgotten about it.

But clearly, just because you forget doesn't mean the enemy will forget too.

Of course, this woman named Anna's appearance was very abrupt, and her motives were highly suspicious. If Logan hadn't actually saved her, he would have almost thought she might be Jing Ke, the assassin who tried to kill King Ying Zheng of Qin—and that she would reveal her true intentions once Dunbar left.

This is really very strange. Why would a female assassin risk her life to tip me off?

But more importantly, the information she revealed matched her own experiences—Schmeisser was a real person, and Anna couldn't possibly know about her past.

What's missing now is the motive. Why would she help him instead of feigning agreement and making plans later, but instead kill him on the spot to silence him?

Larry thought for a moment, then turned to Anna. "Thank you for telling me the truth. If it's convenient, could you tell me what you'd like to ask of me?"

Anna thought for a moment, then instead of answering Larry's question, she began to talk about something else. "I wasn't a professional hitman, at least not at first. I'm from Warsaw; my father was a university professor, and my mother was a pianist. In 1888, my whole family was arrested by the Tsar's police because my father was involved in secret printing, but I was the only one who escaped—afterward, I was recruited by an anarchist group in Zurich. They taught me how to use guns, explosives, and poison. At first, they didn't have me kill anyone, just protect exiles and transport banned books."

"But things changed later." Anna's voice remained calm, but something cracked deep within her green eyes. "In 1889, the group leader decided to assassinate a Russian banker in Berlin—a man who owned vast amounts of land in Poland and was extremely cruel to his workers. I objected because it would invite even more vicious retaliation. But they called me a coward. On the night of the mission, I was on lookout duty."

She paused, her thoughts drifting back to that day. "They failed. The banker didn't die, but his wife and seven-year-old daughter were killed in the bombing. The police came, most of the team members were arrested, and two were shot dead on the spot. I escaped, but I've been on the wanted lists of Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Paris ever since—I've been on the run for the past four years. Occasionally I fight back, because if I don't, I die."

Larry nodded, acknowledging her explanation, and continued, "So, how did you get involved with those Boers in South Africa?"

"They sheltered me and brought me to New York—I had to survive too. To be honest, I'm not a very good hitman because almost all of my missions have failed—but they needed an assassin who could get close to the victim at crucial moments—because I'm a woman, a fairly pretty woman, who can put people at a loss," Anna said calmly.

"Schmidt is dead, but Berlin won't let this go," Larry said slowly. "They'll send someone more professional—if I were in that situation, I'd pretend to agree to their terms, and then—even if you actually let me go for Logan's sake—I'd run away without risking killing a German."

"My parents are both dead—they thought I didn't know, but Shimozi told me long ago."

Anna answered crisply, "The Russian banker who lost his family bribed the police to kill the families of everyone involved—my parents died in Siberia, hanged in a birch forest; my brother had escaped and was working as a handyman in a watch shop in Munich, but the German police questioned him and took him away from the shop—the next day, his body was found in the river."

"————Okay." Larry was pondering how to verify what she said when he heard a series of hurried footsteps outside the private room. First to enter were "Tiger" Brady and another member of the Twelve Iron Knights, "Dog" Al, followed by Dunbar.

Clearly, Dunbar was worried about Larry being alone there, so he specifically called for bodyguards to come as backup.

Seeing that Larry was unharmed, Dunbar relaxed slightly and leaned closer to Larry in a low voice, saying, "The NYPD did indeed find three bodies, just as Miss Anna said, and the wound locations match up."

Anna looked calmly at Dunbar, her eyes slightly narrowed. "I didn't lie to you—old man, I remember you. You saved my life."

After speaking, she looked at Larry again, "Now do you believe me? I think—our future cooperation should be based on a consensus of mutual trust."

Larry nodded and waved for Tiger and Dog to leave the room.

After hearing the door close, he spoke calmly to Anna, "Alright! Thank you for risking your life to come here and tell me this. Now, can you state your request? What do you want from me?"

Anna gazed at Larry and softly uttered a single word, "Safety—I don't want revenge, and I can't do it. In this cruel world, there's nothing I can do. I'm just a woman—I don't want to live this life of hiding anymore. I just want to spend the rest of my life in peace and with as much dignity as possible."

"And in the world I know, perhaps only you have the ability to shelter me and help me find a way out—Mr. Livingston."

"You overestimate me—"

"No, I didn't!" Anna looked around at everyone again, as if expressing her sincerity to everyone, and finally looked at Larry, "Your abilities are terrifyingly powerful—and your network of relationships is also very mysterious. I know it's risky, but I'm willing to take the gamble."

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