For now, I want more.
Stonegate Financial Holdings. There’s a letter from Calder and Armitage discussing regulatory findings—with language implying it was buried. It’s enough to add it to my list. Blueforge Data Systems. Connections to Sentinel Risk for shorting a position ahead of the announcement. That’s dynamite. I read no further, but send it to myself.
I have three transfers underway, but they’re taking a while, each a few gigs of data. It might be enough;it might not. I won’t know what I’ve got until I can go through it all, and that’ll take days.
Then another folder draws my attention: Ironvale Capital. Not only was it recent, but I’m certain Northbridge’s CEO mentioned it at the Company meeting I attended with DeLuca. If there’s more, this’ll be the one.
I glance at the clock; time’s slipped away. It’s already seven forty-five.
Fifteen more minutes, I tell myself.
Yet it only takes five of those to find the most damning evidence yet. Across multiple documents, there’s clear evidence that Northbridge, Sentinel Risk, and Armitage and Calder operated as a coordinated enterprise to commit fraud across multiple transactions. Exactly what the Company is designed to do—except it’s also known as racketeering. That’s twenty-year sentences, seizure of assets, and opens the door to civil suits by anyone damaged by Cadrion Holdings.
It’s not merely a smoking gun, it’s the nuclear option. More than I could’ve dreamed.
My hand shakes as I add the folders to another email, and check the progress of the others. Aetheris Pharma has sent. Stonegate’s completed. Blueforge hasn’t far to go, and Ironvale has just begun. It’s going to take a while, but it’s the one I want.
I lean back in DeLuca’s chair, shaking my head at what I’ve found. This isn’t only enough to undermine Northbridge, it’s enough to put the board in prison. Adrian Chambers, our CEO—he’s on the Company board, too. What would Fournier think of him going down? Of the damage to Northbridge? Armitage and Calder, too. Sentinel Risk. With what I’ve got, I’m sure I can findsomethingon Apex Advanced. But I don’t really need to.
Asset freezes, fines, criminal indictments.
My own likely among them.
But I knew that going in. It’s a bluff I’m going to run. Hurt me, I’ll hurt you. Make it too expensive for Van Wyk to come after me, or Vicky. Fournier’s a businessman; he’ll understand.
I hope.
The progress bar on Ironvale is ticking along damn slowly. Now that I’m watching it and not digging for more, the time is crawling. I distract myself by rifling through DeLuca’s desk. A dirty magazine in the bottom drawer; he really is old school. Who buys magazines anymore? Stationery. A Valentine’s card from Maria. Cute.
And a gun. DeLuca has a gun in his desk.
I stare at the drawer I’ve just opened, then close it again.
I suppose that’s not a surprise. Not for a man like him.
Ironvale’s hit fifty percent, and I’m not leaving until it’s done. It’s ten after eight. Another ten minutes, maybe.
On a whim, I pull DeLuca’s folder up again, and type in a search:Reyes.
It thinks for a moment, the cogs spinning, then puts out a list of files. But I recognize all of them asones I’ve authored and sent to DeLuca. It’s not what I expected, and there’s hardly anything else. I flick through a couple I don’t recognize, satisfying myself they’re benign, and I’m not sure if I’m relieved or confused. DeLuca must have something on me.
If not me…
I type in ‘Callahan’.
A file gets a hit. Then another, and another, until there’re two dozen. They’re all in the Origin Enterprise folder; that tracks. Quite a few of them, though. I click one open, seeing it’s from Sentinel Risk.
They did a profile on her. That’s… insane. One corporate investigator, and they went to these extremes?
I wasn’t even aware.
Half of them are image files, jpegs. I click one at random.
Vicky looks back at me, wearing a suit. I recognize her; it’s the day of the Arbitration, but she’s not in it. She’soutside, the picture taken from a low angle, while she speaks to one of Origin Engineering’s legal team.
They have a picture of Vicky. Shock chills me. My muscles tense.
I close it, fingers numb, and open the next. And the next.
