Chapter 11: The Hostile Wall Street Wave

Kaelen's POV

The air in the executive boardroom on the 50th floor was thick with sweat and panic.

Inside, fifteen board members sat around the table, their faces appearing pale under the blue light of the wall-mounted monitors.

"Twelve percent, Kaelen!" my uncle Arthur shouted, slamming both hands down on the table.

A thin line of sweat shone on his forehead under the light.

"Twenty-four separate shell accounts in Cayman and Zurich have taken twelve percent of the controlling voting stock of Vance Global in less than seventy-two hours! Do you have any idea what that means?"

I didn't reply as I sat with my fingers intertwined over a closed leather folder, looking at the central screen.

TARGET ENTITY: AEGIS CAPITAL

TOTAL SHARES ACQUIRED: 12.1% VOTING EQUITY

ORIGIN PORT: ENCRYPTED OFFSHORE ROUTER

"That means we're being raided," stammered another board member, the senior director Henderson, as he fumbled with his tie.

"As soon as this Aegis group gets to fifteen percent, the corporate charter laws will oblige them to grant an automatic seat on the board. They can call an emergency shareholder meeting! They can sell off our energy subsidiaries! They can fire us, Kaelen!"

"Shut up, Henderson," I said softly.

But the weight in my voice sliced through the room, and the shouting stopped at once.

"No attempt is being made to get rid of our subsidiaries," I said, leaning forward towards the light.

The image of the scrolling red tickers shone in my eyes. "If Aegis had intended to weaken Vance Global, they would have shorted our shares during the energy crisis four years ago. They didn't do that; instead, they purchased each and every distressed block that we offered for sale. They kept them, and they supported our credit facility from behind the scenes."

Arthur leaned forward, his eyes wide and bloodshot. "So what is it they want?"

"Control," I whispered. "Or payback."

A subtle pain pulled at the left side of my chest, directly behind my vest pocket, where Valkyrie's abandoned wedding ring lay still.

It had been four long and harsh years during which I had been rebuilding the company from the ruins caused by the energy leak.

I had believed she betrayed us and was living off the money she had stolen somewhere around the world.

Yet each time I examined the surgical accuracy of these Aegis trades, a deep and frightening doubt would return to my mind.

The trading patterns were not corporate; they were personal. Each buy order seemed to me like a claw dragging at my throat, slow and deliberate, filled with a cold, quiet rage.

I moved my chair back, the heavy leather making a noise as it scraped the floorboards, and then stood up.

"The board meeting is now adjourned."

"Adjourned?" Arthur gasped as he stood up with me.

"Kaelen, the New York Stock Exchange isn't due to open for three hours! The market analysts have described this as a hostile takeover! You can't just walk out of…"

"We're adjourned," I snapped, turning my back on them and walking out of the doors into the private executive corridor.

Standing beside my private elevator was Marcus, my head of security.

He was six-foot-three and built like a brick wall, with no expression on his face; in his hand, he was holding an encrypted tablet showing a live satellite link.

"Tell me you have something," I said, stepping into the elevator. Marcus followed as we started our rapid descent down the tower.

"Mr. Vance," Marcus said in a quiet tone, "we have carried out the counter-intrusion script which you approved. At the time when Aegis carried out its block buy of 250,000 shares twenty minutes ago, our cyber team managed to get past their main proxy shield. We didn't attack a server farm in Zurich or Frankfurt."

I turned my head and tightened my jaw until a muscle in my cheek jumped. "Where did you hit?"

"A local ISP relay station along Victoria's coastline," Marcus said, tapping the tablet screen and turning it toward me.

A steady red digital crosshair blinked over a map of the southern coast of Australia, moving in towards the rugged cliffs, past the coastal road with curves, and straight into a small, isolated group of weatherboard houses.

"Port Campbell,” Marcus said. "The signal isn't originating from a trading firm, sir; it's being emitted from a single residential IP address which is routed through a private server in an old cottage.”

I drew in a sharp and painful breath.

Port Campbell.

Four years ago, the physical tracker fitted on the rusted Ford Falcon ceased to send signals in that particular coastal enclave. I had for four years told myself that she was simply hiding there, a mercenary lying low with her loot.

But the Aegis terminal was there too. The origin of the silent war which threatened to pull Vance Global out from under me was located in that quiet, windswept fishing town.

"Is the security team assembled?" I asked, my voice falling to a tone so deep it startled Marcus.

"Two units are already at the site in Port Campbell, sir," Marcus replied, meeting my gaze. "They're keeping an eye on the cottage. But there's a complication."

"What complication?"

"The local doctor whom we employed on retainer four years ago to keep an eye on her, Dr. Croft, has just sent out a manual distress signal from the transponder at his clinic," Marcus said. "He states the person concerned knows she has been found."

I pulled out the ring from my pocket, my fingers closing around the cold, smooth silver belonging to Valkyrie.

"Tell the drivers to get the car," I ordered.

"I'm going down the coast myself," I said.