All Chapters of From Trash to Titan: Chapter 441 - Chapter 450

Opening the lid once more, Maxwell took out the ancient handmade page covered in unfamiliar writing and spread it flat beneath the desk lamp. Even now, it surprised him that things this bizarre had belonged to his father. Marcus Sterling had been a businessman who built a manufacturing empire from the ground up. What could possibly be written on a sheet of paper like this?And he couldn't read it himself because the writing was in a language Maxwell did not recognise, and even the translation programs on his phone had failed to make sense of it.He leaned closer, his eyes moving down the single column of dark ink towards the bottom of the page. Suddenly, he frowned.Worked into the faded mark beneath the unfamiliar characters was a small oval outline. The shape looked very similar to the strange pill sitting inside the box.Maxwell reached into the hidden compartment, lifted the dark red object out and held it beside the page. He turned it slowly beneath the desk lamp, comparing its

At that same time somewhere else across the city, Judge Lenora Pembroke got invited into the chief judges office and now she was being asked to explain why she had accepted the Sterling Harcourt case.Lenora didn't expect that question. What sort of question was it?Confused, she looked at Chief Judge Miriam Aldridge, who had summoned her shortly before the end of the afternoon.Lenora had initially expected a discussion about the urgency of Sterling Industries’ latest applications. Her clerk had mentioned the new filings while she was occupied with another matter, and she had asked him to leave them on her desk.She had not yet read them.Now, sitting across from the chief judge, she wished she had read what those papers were about.“What do you mean?” She asked.Aldridge turned the file towards her. Several sections had been marked with narrow paper tabs, and a copy of Lenora’s sixty-day order rested beneath the covering application.“The Sterling’s lawyers are demanding your withdr

His face immediately burned.“I brought your brother the archive,” he reminded her. “I did everything your family asked me to do. How is that useless?”“And we needed time to use it!” she snapped. “What happens when the next judge lets Maxwell move those orders to Bell Precision? Do you think the hard drive will be useful? It's only useful if the Sterlings can't manufacture replacement parts to sell to their customers.” Gideon stood very still. He understood this very well. The whole plan was for the Sterling's to be unable to manufacture the things they sold to their customers, because they got them from the Harcourts, and because they had issue with the Harcourts, the Harcourts wouldn't deliver, and that normally leaves the Sterling's short. And that was when the zeniths came in, using the unethically acquired data they would replace the sterling industries, but now that plan was getting threatened because of this. Damn, he really was useless after all. Gideon couldn't help feelin

Just then, Hazel showed up to find Maxwell and Sophia sitting very close to each other.She stopped near the terrace doors. Maxwell was sitting on the wide seat, with Sophia right beside him, so close that their shoulders touched. Hazel hadn’t known Sophia would be here. She was surprised, and then a wave of jealousy hit her, which she did her best to hide.“Oh, hey,” she said, keeping her eyes on Maxwell.She didn’t spare Sophia another look after that at all.Sophia only smiled politely.“Hey,” Maxwell said casually. “I didn’t know you were going to come here.”Hazel smiled and walked over. “I would have called, but I was passing by on my way home and decided to come by,” she said.Then she sat down right next to him, on the opposite side from Sophia.“Okay,” Maxwell said, nodding.After that, the three of them just sat there. Sophia observed how close now Hazel was to Maxwell and she just smiled. Hazel looked straight ahead at the city.It did not take long for Maxwell to realize t

Maxwell finally sat down in the armchair across from the wide seat.It was the best decision he had made all afternoon. Hazel and Sophia were still at opposite ends, but he was no longer between them. From here, nobody could say he was taking a side.“Hazel,” Sophia said, turning towards her. “May I ask you something? You read the applications.”Hazel looked back at her cautiously. She was clearly expecting another argument.“That depends on the question,” Hazel replied.“I want to know what the review team looks at most closely,” Sophia said. “I would rather not waste anyone’s time.”Maxwell waited to see how Hazel would answer.“I can’t tell you that,” Hazel said. “If I told you what to fix, I would be helping one company and nobody else. That wouldn’t be fair to the others.”He expected Sophia to be offended again. Instead, she nodded.“I thought you might say that,” Sophia replied. “And I’m glad you did. If you had answered, I would have worried about the whole Initiative.”Hazel