The Northern King's Vendetta

Chapter 6 : The Sterling Shadow

Isabella Sterling sat in a dark leather chair on the top floor of the Sterling Tower, staring out the panoramic windows at the blackened skyline of City B as she twirled a glass of pricey amber liquid and heard the breathless update of her chief of security, a man named Henderson who was in the process of perspiring through his expensive suit. She had been informed about the auction house catastrophe ten minutes earlier, then shortly thereafter about the silence from the hospital team, but rather than hurling her glass or yelling at her employees, Isabella merely leaned backward and gazed at the faint flicker of fires far off where the power grid had gone down.

“So the boy has actually come back with an entire army at his heels, and he managed to pull a bomb out of his own aunt without blowing himself up,” Isabella said, as she spun her chair around to look into the room, “I have to admit, I didn’t really think he had it in him to be such a good stray dog, but apparently ten years in the mud has taught him how to bite harder than his old man ever could. ”

“Ma’am, he has closed off the arterials and our affiliates have just reported that there are a lot of people who are short selling the stock, someone is offloading millions of dollars to try to take control of the company in a hostile takeover,” Henderson said as he swiped his tablet. ​

“If we don’t stop him now, the board of directors is going to be freaking out by the time the opening bell rings tomorrow morning.”

"Then we’ll use the only leash we have left him," Isabella replied, and she gestured toward the shadow in the corner of the room where a man was sitting on a low sofa, his head bowed, his hands shaking as he looked at the ground.

Marcus Vance resembled a phantom of the man who had once been these country’s most influential family head, his face was hollow, and his tailored clothes draped over his slender build as though he were a mannequin, and he never even glanced up when Isabella approached and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Be a father once more, Marcus, your son is making a very big mess in my city, and I need you to tell him to stop before I conclude that your presence in this house is more a detriment than an asset to me,” Isabella said, her voice lowering into a cold, razor-sharp whisper that caused Marcus to wince.

"He doesn't listen to me, Isabella, everyone knows he hasn't said a word to me since the day we buried his mother, and he hates me more than he hates you," Marcus stammered, his voice thin and reedy, "please, just let him go, he has his sister already, so let them just leave the city and be done with it."

That is not an option anymore, and you will get on the phone now and you will tell him that he is undermining the Vance name, and you will tell him to come back on the line, Isabella ordered, pressing a satellite phone into his palm and punching the number that her tech team had just traced to the hospital wing.

​In the hospital, Caleb stood in the middle of a hall littered with the conquered Purge Squad, brass shell casings stacked up at his boots as he observed his troops ferry the last of the injured to a transport, and his phone tugged in his vest pocket with an identity he had not seen in a decade. He took it quietly, becoming a frozen mask as he detected the unsteady, unsure breathing line from whence came.

​"Caleb? Is that you, son?" " Marcus’s voice emerged through the speaker, and it was so weak that Caleb nearly didn’t recognize it, “I heard about the auction and the hospital, and I’m ringing to let you know that this has gone far enough, because you’re turning the Vance name into a target in the eyes of every law agency in the land.” ​

"The Vance name died the day you let that woman walk into our house and take my mother’s place, Marcus, so don't you dare call me your son," Caleb replied, his voice coming out as a low, dangerous growl that made the soldiers nearby stop what they were doing to give him space.

"You have no idea how ruthless the Sterlings are Caleb, and if you keep this up, they are going to kill you and kill Mia, and everything I’ve fought to keep intact will be erased,” Marcus pleaded, tears spilling down his cheeks as he glanced at Isabella, who was observing him with a predatory grin, “just stop now, turn yourself in and I’ll make sure Isabella is kind to you and your aunt.”

“You sold your soul for a place at her table and now you're trying to sell mine to buy your seat there but I’m not the little boy you left behind in the cemetery, Caleb,” he said, his hand tightening around the phone until the plastic shell started to crack.

"the bloodline you’ve been so concerned about ended a decade ago, and the only reason I’m going to that tower is to pay the debt you were far too much of a coward to pay."

"Caleb, please-” Marcus began to speak, but Caleb ended the conversation with a finality that resounded through the phone. Caleb declared, “Tell Isabella she can have me as her pet for a little while longer, but she’d better start watching the share prices of her logistics companies and shipping lines, because I’m already taking down her empire, piece by piece. When I’m finished with the money, I’m coming for the people, so tell her to stay in her office and wait for the King of the North.”

​Caleb ended the call and tossed the phone into the trash, turning back to Aris who was waiting with a laptop and a secure link to their offshore financial team.

​"Is the takeover proceeding as planned?" Caleb asked, his mind already moving on to the next phase of the assault.

​"Yes, sir, we’ve already secured forty percent of the Sterling Steel subsidiaries and the market is in a total freefall, because the investors are terrified of the blackout and the rumors of a private war in the streets," Aris reported, "the Sterling name is becoming toxic, and by sunrise, they won't have enough liquid capital to pay their own security details."

​"Good, because I want her to feel the walls closing in before I even step into her lobby," Caleb said as he marched toward the exit of the hospital, "get the men ready, because we’re moving to the Sterling Tower next, and I want a full-scale blockade on every exit.”