Chapter 5 - The Snake's Last Bite
Though Pamela was locked behind bars awaiting her trial, the battle was far from over. Arthur Vance, desperate to save his empire and avenge his daughter’s disgrace, launched a vicious underground war against Hadrian’s logistics enterprise.
Within forty-eight hours, supply lines servicing the Vance Corporation’s northern hubs were mysteriously sabotaged. Cargo trucks were hijacked, and key port officials were bribed to hold Hadrian’s ships at harbor under false customs violations.
Hadrian sat in his high-rise office downtown at midnight, surrounded by glowing monitors showing millions of dollars in losses accumulating by the hour. Marcus stood across from his desk, holding a dossier.
"Arthur Vance is liquidating his entire personal estate to fund this blockade," Marcus reported. "He’s trying to bankrupt you before the final trial date. If your ships can't dock by Friday, the international board will invoke the emergency insolvency clause and strip you of your voting majority."
"He thinks he can fight a war of attrition," Hadrian said softly, looking at a framed photograph on his desk—a picture of Sorrel laughing on a beach three years ago, before his wife had passed. "He thinks money is what drives me."
"What are your orders, boss?"
"Call the Northern Logistics Union," Hadrian commanded, his eyes turning to ice. "Activate the reserve fleet we acquired in the northern expedition. We don't use the commercial ports. We run the cargo through our private deep-water docks."
"And Arthur Vance?"
"Expose his offshore accounts," Hadrian said flatly. "He paid off the customs officials using dummy corporations linked to Pamela's personal trust. By morning, I want the IRS and Federal Financial Crimes Division standing on his doorstep."
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While Hadrian fought the corporate war downtown, Arthur Vance made a desperate, psychotic move. Realizing his empire was hours away from seizure, he hired two disgraced former private security operatives to infiltrate the suburban estate where Sorrel was recovering under the care of a private nurse and security guards.
If he couldn't beat Hadrian in court or in business, Arthur planned to take Sorrel as leverage to force Hadrian to drop all criminal charges and sign over his corporate shares.
