Chapter 6 - The Fall of Carter Vance
Daniel did not sit down. He stood at the foot of the obsidian table, resting his hands flat against the polished surface.
"Clara," Daniel commanded gently. "Present the audit."
I stepped forward, setting the three red-embossed folios onto the center of the table with a firm, decisive click that echoed through the silent room.
"Under forensic examination completed at 3:00 AM," I announced, my voice cutting through the executive boardroom with clear, unwavering authority, "the primary intrusion vector for Project Goliath was not an external cyber-attack. It was an internal extraction executed through an administrative backdoor purchased from Apex Telemetry Systems LLC."
I tapped my tablet, illuminating the seventy-inch wall monitors in crisp four-K resolution.
"Apex Telemetry is wholly owned by Carter Vance through a Delaware shell entity," I continued, scrolling through the decrypted banking wires. "Payment was routed through an escrow account in Zurich forty-eight hours before the breach was reported to the SEC. Furthermore, we have the signed agreement transferring forty percent of our logistics patents to Marcus Cole’s consortium upon ratification of the takeover."
The boardroom erupted into furious, deafening chaos.
Board members slammed their palms onto the table, shouting in open revulsion, shoving their chairs back to put distance between themselves and Carter Vance.
Carter backed against the panoramic glass window, hyperventilating, his expensive veneer completely pulverized into dust. "Daniel... listen to me! It was a hedge! The board was going to force a restructuring anyway! I was trying to save our equity—"
"You didn't hedge, Carter," Daniel said, his slate-gray eyes holding zero human mercy. "You sold fifteen years of my life to my bitterest rival for eighty million dollars and a corporate title."
Special Agent Raymond Callahan stepped forward, unsealing a thick, blue-backed federal arrest warrant.
"Carter Vance," Agent Callahan announced, his voice booming across the room. "Pursuant to warrants issued by the Southern District of New York, you are under arrest for Corporate Espionage, Federal Wire Fraud, Securities Manipulation, and Interstate Extortion."
Two federal marshals stepped forward, clicking heavy steel transport chains around Carter’s wrists.
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As the weeping, sniveling executive was dragged from his own boardroom as the entire assembly watched in stunned condemnation, Daniel turned to the remaining directors.
"The board meeting is adjourned," Daniel said quietly. "And the transition is canceled."
