Cash Back Tycoon: Spend Big, Earn Bigger

Two Billion Dollars Frozen

The state securities board froze Ethan's Sinclair Dynamics shares at 9:04 on Tuesday morning, and it did so without a single warning call.

Dana Frost slammed the printed notice on the hotel office desk hard enough to make the coffee cups jump. "They cite irregularities in the acquisition of a fifteen percent stake by an individual with no verifiable financial history. They have frozen every share for seventy-two hours pending review."

"Seventy-two hours," Ethan repeated.

"That is long enough for Victor to do a great deal of damage." Dana paced to the window and back. "The notice was signed by a deputy commissioner named Hollis Pike, who attended Victor's daughter's wedding two years ago. I would call that a coincidence, but I stopped believing in coincidences on Friday."

Marcus looked up from a spreadsheet of hotel bookings. "Can they do that? You paid five million dollars for those shares, and the transfer was clean."

"They can do it because the rules are written to be enforced by people, and Victor has spent thirty years befriending the people." Dana's voice hardened. "The review will find nothing, but while it runs, Ethan cannot vote those shares or pledge them as collateral."

Ethan understood the shape of the attack at once. His wealth existed mostly on a screen, and a frozen screen could be turned into a cage.

"What else is Victor doing?"

Dana tapped her tablet and held it out. A financial news ticker scrolled across the display, and the headline at the top made his jaw tighten.

HARTWELL FINANCIAL ANNOUNCES EMERGENCY SHAREHOLDER MEETING. CHAIRMAN LEONARD HARTWELL PROPOSES MERGER WITH WHITMORE CAPITAL.

"He moved within hours of your visit yesterday," Dana said. "The meeting is in fourteen days. If the merger passes, Hartwell Financial disappears inside the Whitmore Group, and every piece of evidence in its archives goes with it."

"Including the original Meridian transaction logs."

"Including those." Dana set the tablet down. "Leonard Hartwell did not choose this. Victor owns twenty-eight percent of the company, and he must have threatened to pull his investment unless the chairman agreed to a merger."

Ethan stood and walked to the glass wall. Below him, the harbor glittered under a pale autumn sun, and the city looked exactly as it had on the first morning he walked through it with a cardboard box in his arms.

He no longer felt like that man, but the old fear still tapped at the back of his mind. If he lost the shares, he lost the story he was telling the world.

The blue panel opened in the corner of his vision.

[ Ding! ]

[ Warning: Host assets are under legal restriction. Cashback rewards remain active on all liquid purchases. ]

[ Hint: Liquid funds are required. Current balance: $1,914,332. Harbor Trust credit line available: $12,000,000. ]

He read the figures twice. The system never lied about numbers, and it never offered advice unless the situation was already dangerous.

"Dana," he said. "How much would it cost to buy twelve percent of Hartwell Financial on the open market?"

She stared at him. "You are thinking of fighting the merger vote."

"I am thinking of making Victor's twenty-eight percent matter less than he believes."

"The stock has been falling since the scandal broke. At current prices, twelve percent would cost roughly fifty-two million dollars." Dana raised a hand before he could answer. "Which you do not have, and which the bank cannot lend you against frozen collateral."

"Then I will find a seller who does not care about collateral."

A knock sounded at the office door, sharp and precise, and Pryce opened it with an apologetic expression.

"Mr. Vance, Ms. Sinclair is here. She says she did not bring an appointment, and she does not intend to wait for one."

Yvonne walked past him before he finished the sentence. She wore a charcoal suit that cut a clean line across her shoulders, and her hair was pinned back with the same severe precision as the night they had met. Two bodyguards remained in the hall.

"Your shares are frozen," she said without greeting.

"Word travels quickly."

"Word travels when your enemy owns the commissioner." Yvonne set a thin black folder on the desk. "I came to tell you that the freeze also applies to the stake I gave you in my board agreement. It means Victor can claim that you have no voting rights at Sinclair Dynamics, and he will use it to reopen the takeover."

Ethan frowned. "You are saying he will try again."

"I am saying he has already filed." She opened the folder, and a stamped court notice lay on top. "He has petitioned to appoint a receiver for my company on the grounds that the covenant cure was funded by an unlicensed bank."

Dana read the paper and exhaled slowly. "Harbor Trust is licensed. He is lying to a judge."

"He is lying to a judge who golfs with him," Yvonne said. "That is a different problem."

The room fell quiet. Marcus shifted in his chair, and Pryce found something fascinating on the carpet.

"Then we will fight him on both fronts," Ethan said. "Sinclair Dynamics in court, and Hartwell Financial at the shareholder meeting."

Yvonne studied him with an expression he could not quite read. "You say that as though you have an army."

"I have a hotel, a bank, a lawyer, a friend, and you."

"You have not mentioned the last two in the correct order." The faintest curve touched her lips, and it vanished as quickly as it came. "I will hold the court. You hold the shareholder meeting. We will meet in the middle when Victor makes his mistake."

"You expect him to make one?"

"Every man like Victor makes one, Mr. Vance, and it is always the same mistake." She closed the folder. "He assumes that everyone around him is afraid."

She turned to leave, and then she paused at the doorway without looking back.

"Be careful about the people who tell you they are loyal this week. Victor has just posted a reward of two million dollars for evidence against you."

The door closed behind her, and Dana let out a low whistle.

"Two million dollars buys a great deal of false testimony."

"It buys a great deal of truthful testimony as well," Ethan said, "if the right person is angry enough to give it."

His phone buzzed, and he lifted it with a distracted hand. The caller was Chairman Leonard Hartwell, and the old man's voice came through thin and urgent.

"Ethan, I must see you at once. I cannot say this over a telephone, but I have been forced into something I do not understand, and I think they are going to hurt my niece."