CHAPTER 6
The news anchor’s voice played quietly from the wall-mounted television screen, describing the staggering scope of the federal crackdown that had rocked Wall Street to its core.
For twenty years, Victor Dane had operated behind an impenetrable shield of high-priced corporate defense attorneys, shell companies, and political bribes.
He had systematically bankrupted dozens of mid-sized manufacturing and aerospace technology firms across the Pacific Northwest, stripping their valuable defense patents and transferring the intellectual property to foreign buyers.
When he targeted Mercer Aeronautics, he assumed my age, my grief over my late wife, and my daughter's ambitious nature made us prime targets for internal division.
He never realized that the subtle public arguments between Elena and me over company strategy were carefully scripted performances designed to entice his operative into making contact with her.
For six grueling months, Elena had played the role of an ungrateful, power-hungry daughter eager to sell out her father’s legacy for a seat on Victor’s executive board.
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She had fed his intelligence network fake security schematics while subtly guiding his legal team toward using our proprietary quantum-encrypted server infrastructure to process the fraudulent acquisition.
"The Department of Justice issued a formal statement an hour ago," Elena added, pulling up a secure memorandum signed by the Deputy Attorney General. "Mercer Aeronautics has been fully cleared of all alleged financial irregularities, and our defense contracts with the Pentagon have been renewed for the next fifteen years."
