The Mandate

Internet trading, a lucrative but dangerously secretive business, offers a possible solution for Josh Wagner, a securities dealer with a weakness for wagering on practically anything. But the promise of a lottery-like payoff becomes much more than a game of life and death when he witnesses a murder and becomes the primary suspect.
Josh teams up with an experienced internet trader from Chicago, and together they begin a deadly search around the globe to connect the mandate, or representative, of a super-affluent but inaccessible prince from Dubai, with that of an aging fisherman in the Philippines. The Filipino claims to have knowledge of Yamashita’s treasure, a hidden cache of WWII gold, now valued at billions.
The strength of internet trading is governed by the weakest link or participant in a deal, as the unscrupulous Louis Barouche surfaces, not satisfied with remaining in his side-line position as an intermediary. Josh is forced to masquerade as the buyer’s mandate, when he travels to Manila where the chain is broken. Even the special military unit of the US Army Department of Reclamation has a deep-seated interest as the chase is on for Yamashita’s Gold.