Chapter 4 - The Viper in the Nest
Sunday morning. The rain lashed against the bulletproof windows of Vivienne’s executive office in the Vanguard Tower downtown. The clock was ticking.
David walked in, looking exhausted, holding a secure encrypted tablet.
"You were right," David said, sliding the tablet across her massive mahogany desk. "The Geneva firm is a shell. The actual capital Julian is using to fund the takeover comes from the Kozlov Syndicate. Russian arms dealers. He’s laundering their money through the acquisition of Vanguard Holdings."
Vivienne looked at the routing numbers. A slow, terrifying smile spread across her face. It was the smile of an executioner. "Perfect. If the SEC sees this, Julian goes to federal prison for twenty years."
"There's a problem, Vivienne," David said, his voice trembling. "I couldn't access this data from the outside. I had to go through our internal network to cross-reference the dark-pool trades. And when I did... I found a backdoor."
Vivienne’s smile vanished. "Explain."
"Someone inside Vanguard Holdings has been feeding Julian our internal financial projections for the last six months. That's how he knew exactly how much capital he needed for the proxy war. We have a mole. At the highest level."
Vivienne stood up, walking to the window and looking down at the sprawling city. Who had the clearance? Who knew her strategies?
"Arthur," she whispered.
Arthur Sterling was her Chief Operating Officer. He was also the man who had proposed to her three weeks ago with a flawless ten-carat diamond. He was the only person with unrestricted access to her private servers.
"Are you sure?" David asked, terrified of the implications.
"Arthur has been pushing me to take the company private," Vivienne calculated aloud, the pieces snapping together with sickening clarity. "If Julian takes over and privatizes Vanguard, Arthur gets a massive payout and avoids SEC scrutiny for his own bad trades. He sold me out."
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Vivienne didn't cry. She didn't rage. She simply locked her emotions in a steel box and threw away the key. To survive at the top of the food chain, one could not afford the luxury of a broken heart.
"David," Vivienne commanded, turning back to him. "Draft a termination contract for Arthur. And freeze all of his executive accounts. But do not alert him. Let him come to the office tomorrow morning thinking he has won."
