This was Carver's second meeting with Phillip, who met him on a Friday evening.The same private club. The same room. However, the meeting was not the same as the first one. Carver had requested that they engage in it specifically through the channel that they had used and had stated that the subject was important and needed to be discussed face-to-face. Those three words had been read by Phillip and he knew that Carver had discovered something.He didn't anticipate the butterflies in his stomach.He had been in rooms where there was a lot of information. He had served a long career in financial operations where the important information was the currency and the receiving of it in the neutral act. You heard what you heard, you used what you could use.He was seated across from Carver.Carver regarded him as he had regarded him the previous time. The evaluation of a person who was going to make a decision as he was looking at it before arriving.He laid a folder down on the table.He d

The security footage was reviewed by Dave on Thursday evening.He has been working alone for two weeks. Not the complete footage of the system. The particular camera focused on the bottom levels of the penthouse building. One of the anomalies that Claire had marked on her report. The ones that the expanded algorithm had been correlated with during the Clara's transport movements.He pulled up the clips in sequence.He watched it with the special eyes of a person who wasn't looking for drama. He was looking for something small. The little thing that wouldn't go unnoticed in the clip, like a wrong note on a song you knew well. There was no announcement of the video. It demanded the understanding of the normal to recognize the abnormal.He had seen footage on the lower parking level for a week and a half, and he knew what normal was.On Thursday evening he found the not normal.At three different times during the last six weeks. Each one brief. Each one producing nothing visible in the f

On a Wednesday morning, Marcus presented the coalition analysis to Robert.He came in with Brighton and the expression that indicated that the numbers in front of him weren't making business sense anymore and they were making a different kind of sense and needed the other kind of attention.Robert studied the analysis.A coalition of private investors. Not the same that came from the Wei Liang era. Different players. Different sectors. However, it is the same level of structure. The unique handwriting style of coordinated movement that seemed uncoordinated at first glance but was actually not when you drew the correct connecting lines.The coalition had been quietly investing in minority stakes in firms that are part of Zenco's supply lines over the last two months. Not majority positions. Nothing that triggered control thresholds. Minority positions in specific locations where influence without control was most desirable. Supply chain partners. Regulatory consultants. Existing financ

Robert and Roxanne took Clara to the coast on Friday afternoon.The property was not the same as the previous one they had. It was an affair that Dave had managed outside the executive channel of Zenco. It was paid for on his personal account. He had not shared information with anybody within the company. He'd revealed his plans only to Robert and Roxanne.The home was quite small. Not an estate, but a house. Three bedrooms. The garden went around a low stone wall and beyond the wall a path leading down to a private section of beach. This was a type of house that had been in the hands of one family for forty years and on the rare occasion, rented out to those who desired just what it had to offer.Nothing.Absolute ordinary nothing.On Friday evening they came. Robert drove. When a journey had been quite long, Clara was in her seat in the back making the special sounds she did. Robert's wife, Roxanne, was next to him as they gazed at the coastal road that appeared.When she saw the se

At ten-fifteen, Dave arrived at the coastal property.He had been driving for two hours with the photograph on his phone and the real coldness of something that needed to be done on the spot in his gut the entire time. He was calling Priya from the car at the halfway mark. Not to explain. To let her know that he would be late and that it was ok and that he loved her. She had heard something in his voice and said I know and come home when you can and that had been the whole of the call.He parked in the lane outside the property.He sat down for a while.He pondered on how he could explain to Robert what he had discovered.He had been pondering on it for two hours and had yet to come up with a version other than the direct one. This was not a managed version. It was just the picture and the implications of it and what they had to do about it.He got out of the car.He walked to the door.Before he could reach it, Robert opened it.He had spotted Dave's car in the lane from the window.