Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Mark Devlin looked at the calculations on the screen and scowled.
“Is it as bad as it looks?” he asked, peering across his desk at Richard Turner, WarTech’s Chief Financial Officer.
“Perhaps worse,” Turner said. “If the true numbers ever got out, our stock price would tank. I don’t know how much longer I can cook the books to inflate our numbers, without someone disloyal discovering it. We need the off-the-books infusion of capital you’re working on.”
“I don’t need much longer,” Devlin said. “The deal is almost done. But once I secure it, are you sure you can disguise the influx of capital? I want it to seem like it was always there — both to hide the way we’ve doctored our numbers, and to hide who we got the money from. I don’t have to tell you what would happen if this ever got out.”
Turner sucked in a breath of air and gave a wince, but said nothing. Devlin gave a nod. The other man understood the stakes and would camouflage the transaction on the books. This deal was illegal on a massive scale, but it would get WarTech back on sound financial footing and would keep nosy stockholders from digging too deeply into the company’s finances.
If they did dig too deeply into the company’s finances, it would all come crashing down. Devlin couldn’t have that. WarTech was a great company, and he was a great leader. Even great CEO’s made occasional missteps, but investigators and outsiders wouldn’t see it that way. They would call it mismanagement. They would question why, with WarTech’s amazing technological achievements, the company wasn’t flush with capital and profits.
He might go to prison for the financial improprieties, and he certainly would go to prison if this deal came to light. He might survive prison, but he couldn’t survive the judgment that would come along with it — the disrespect and derision from people who should respect him. It brought back memories of a childhood where he had been the runt. The one bullied. He had shown them all with his great success, first in the military and then with WarTech. He would never go back to being the runt again. There were plenty of other people who should shoulder the blame, but not him.
“Very well, Richard,” Devlin said, dismissing the other man with a nod.
Once the Financial Officer had left Devlin’s office, the WarTech CEO looked down at his phone. No word from Mantis yet.
Update? Mantis keyed into his encrypted messaging app.
Mantis was trying to find Beth Harper so he might follow her, which would help get this situation under control. Devlin needed to know if Harper started getting too close to the truth. The girl might only be a writer for a second-rate website, but she’d stuck her nose where it didn’t belong in the past, and caused trouble. And if she stuck her nose into WarTech’s affairs, she could discover the true nature of this nearly consummated deal.
A message came across the screen from Mantis, and Devlin scanned the details. Mantis hadn’t located Harper, despite checking out all the logical locations she might investigate. Mantis had walked past Lanigan’s Bar, where Eric Stump stopped on the night of his disappearance. But the place wasn’t even open yet on this Sunday morning. Mantis didn’t find her at the adjacent hotel, which Stump had also visited that night. Mantis said he would pass by the police station and Stump’s apartment, before rotating between all those locations. The girl would show up at some point. Lanigan’s was probably the best bet when it opened in the next hour. Of course, it might be best for Mantis to remain in one place, so he didn’t miss her while moving between locations. But Devlin wouldn’t sit still on this one.
Keep me informed, Devlin typed in reply. Might also have another job for you, if something else I’m working on doesn’t pan out.
The “something else” was locating Eric Stump’s laptop, which contained damning information. Stump wouldn’t have met with the aide for Senator Socrates Chappelle, and shared information on the laptop, if he had known the senator’s true colors. And now the dumb aide couldn’t remember the kid’s room number at the hotel, where they had met. This meant they hadn’t been able to fetch the laptop after Mantis snatched him.
His people were coming up with a plan to search rooms in the hotel, but the laptop might not even be there. It was unlikely, but Stump might have returned it to his car. Mantis hadn’t searched the car before grabbing the kid. Devlin didn’t want to divert Mantis away from finding Beth Harper, so his men had hired two nobodies to break into Stump’s car, to see if the laptop was there. Whether it was there or at the hotel, Devlin would find the laptop and secure the information on it. It might also help him learn how much Stump knew, and whom he had told. And then Devlin would no longer need him.
Mantis hadn’t found Beth Harper at Lanigan’s Bar, the hotel, or the police station, because she was at none of those places on Sunday morning. Instead, her first destination was the city garage, where she headed after slipping out of the townhouse while Ross and Jack slept late, leaving a note to tell them she’d return later.
The garage sat near the center of the downtown area, within walking distance of the handful of bars, restaurants, and other key businesses making up the Wynton business district. Beth found a parking spot on the ground floor of the garage, near a door marked “Office.” After exiting Jack’s car, she glanced about, noticing two cameras housed in glass domes at opposite ends of the ground level. Doors to an elevator sat on one side of the garage, near the street, while a stairwell opened next to the elevator.
Beth started by retracing the path Eric would have driven upon entering the garage, walking up the gradual incline toward the rear of the ground level and following the same direction used by cars when entering the garage. Upon reaching the end, she turned to the left, still climbing as the garage turned onto the next level.
The garage mirrored the town’s obsessive organization, with clean, well lit levels, and ample spacing between parking spaces and rows. Except for the large blue signs, each level was indistinguishable from the next.
Beth continued marching until she made the turn onto the third level, walking past the elevator and stairwell. This was where Eric’s car should be parked. Beth paused, scanning ahead and looking for a faded blue Ford Taurus. She saw it, parked toward the far end of the level, on the left side. Three men, their backs to her, hunched over the driver’s side door. As she looked closer, she noticed one of them holding a long rectangular object, which he had jammed down between the driver’s door and the window. Beth’s jaw hung open. They were trying to break into Eric’s car.
Beth turned, hurrying back toward the stairwell and scanning for more cameras. Again she spotted one at each end of the level, pointing inward and covering the parking area. She darted into the stairwell, spotted no cameras and heard no sounds, and held her fist to the base of her neck. A flash of light surrounded her.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Okay, Iet’s get moving! Can’t beIieve DevIin has such an unfortunate background; I know what it’s Iike to be Iooked down on everyone eIse.....buIIed, mistreated, etc......don’t know yet exactIy what he’s doing or why he’s doing it, but now we know more about him, which is stiII a great start.
Beth’s doing a good job at evading Mantis for now.....then again, it couId just be a compIete coincidence. I wouIdn’t bIame him for searching aII the areas that he did; after aII, those are the ones that wouId make the most sense.
She’s very good at being abIe to spot and detect cameras, sensors, etc. on a dime.....then again, I guess that skiII is kind of a necessity when you have an aIter-ego to protect. xD
Looks Iike it’s time to start working towards that Iaptop; if it’s even in that car, that is. We gotta take care of those hostiIes first, though.....thankfuIIy Sapphire’s coming back out to pIay!