“Cleared compliance twenty minutes ago. Final documents are waiting on your authorization.”
Daniel looked toward Noah.
“How much time?”
“Original closing is six.”
“Move it to seven.”
A pause.
“Daniel.”
“Yes?”
“The board has been waiting for your signature for three weeks.”
“I know.”
“The Singapore partners have counsel sitting in a room at midnight their time. London has two directors on standby. The transfer agent is prepared. You are literally the only person who can authorize the final movement.”
Daniel looked at his son’s orange shuttle.
“Then everyone can wait another hour.”
The man on the line exhaled.
“Because of Denver?”
“Because I told Noah we were getting on this plane together.”
Another pause.
“All right. Seven o’clock Chicago.”
“Thank you.”
“Daniel?”
“Yes?”
“What happened at Hale Meridian?”
Daniel looked toward the deactivated company app on his screen.
“Victoria fired me.”
Silence.
Then, “You’re joking.”
“No.”
“Does she know?”
“No.”
“About Northstar?”
“No.”
“About the closing?”
“No.”
“About the voting block?”
“No.”
The man exhaled again, differently this time.
“Oh.”
Daniel looked toward the window.
“Do not change anything.”
“You want the acquisition to close as scheduled?”
“At seven.”
“And after that?”
Daniel’s expression remained calm.
“After that, we see whether the company still deserves saving.”
He ended the call.
A few gates away, Victoria Hale was no longer preparing for her own flight.
She had missed boarding deliberately.
Inside a private lounge overlooking the taxiways, she stood beside Marcus Reed, Hale Meridian’s fifty-year-old chief financial officer.
Marcus had been with her for nine years.
He was one of the few executives Victoria trusted to tell her when her instincts were becoming expensive.
At the moment, he looked deeply confused.
“Tell me everything you know about Daniel Carter.”
Marcus opened his tablet.
“I already sent you his personnel file.”
“I don’t want his personnel file.”
He looked up.
“What do you want?”
“Who was he before Hale Meridian?”
Marcus frowned.
“Forty-one years old. Divorced. Primary custody of one son, Noah, eight. Joined Hale Meridian six years ago as an operations specialist and moved to senior operations analyst eighteen months later. Strong reviews. No disciplinary history before the acquisition issue.”
“Education?”
“Industrial engineering, Northwestern. MBA coursework later, incomplete.”
“Employment before us?”
Marcus scrolled.
“Small consulting firms. Logistics software implementation. Operations restructuring.”
“Names.”
He listed them.
Victoria recognized none.
“Income?”
“Normal for his level.”
“Assets?”
Marcus gave her a skeptical look.
“We don’t conduct personal asset investigations on employees.”
“Public records.”
“Modest house outside the city. Mortgage. Eleven-year-old SUV. No second property I can see.”
“His son?”
“Public elementary school.”
“Anything expensive?”
“No.”
“Hobbies?”
Marcus looked at her.
“Victoria.”
“Answer me.”