Chapter 14 - The Boardroom
Celeste was arrested from her hospital bed.
Daniel was charged with attempted murder, conspiracy, and securities fraud.
Graham Pike entered a cooperation agreement.
The district attorney wanted quick pleas.
Federal investigators wanted the company records.
Voss Maritime's board wanted everything to disappear before Monday markets opened.
Nora wanted sleep.
She got a board meeting instead.
The misconduct clause allowed her to petition for temporary voting control while criminal findings were pending.
Her attorney, Leah Park, told her not to attend in person.
Nora attended in person.
She brought Sophie.
That part was unnecessary and probably foolish, but she could not stand leaving her behind.
Alma sat outside the boardroom with the carrier.
Inside, twelve executives who had known Nora since childhood suddenly spoke to her like a hostile investor.
One man said, "We sympathize with your personal situation, but the company cannot be governed by emotion."
Nora stared at him.
"My personal situation is your chairman trying to kill me with a truck."
Nobody answered.
She presented the partnership amendment.
Then Graham's ledgers.
Then Peter's recordings.
Three directors resigned before lunch.
Two claimed ignorance.
One cried.
Nora did not believe the crying one.
By a court-backed emergency order, voting control shifted to her pending investigation.
She became, overnight, the person everyone called "acting chair."
She hated the title.
Her first decision was to halt a planned asset sale Celeste had arranged.
Her second was to order an independent audit.
Her third was a mistake.
She fired the entire legal department.
By evening, Leah told her she had just removed the people who knew where half the compliance files were stored.
"That was dumb," Nora said.
"Very."
"Can I unfire them?"
"Some of them."
Nora rubbed her face.
Power did not make her smarter.
It simply made mistakes larger.
The audit began anyway.
At 11:40 p.m., investigators found a hidden transfer scheduled for midnight.
Two hundred million dollars was moving to an offshore account.
Authorized by Daniel.
But the approval timestamp was from ten minutes ago.
Daniel was in county jail.
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Someone inside the company was still using his credentials.
