Chapter 5 - The Fall of AegisThe opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange sounded at 9:30 AM the following morning like a death knell for Aegis Holdings.
Instead of the catastrophic collapse Sterling had gambled his entire firm upon, Vance Tech stock surged by forty-two percent within the first fifteen minutes following the joint press conference announcing our successful merger with Apex.
Inside the glass-walled boardroom of Aegis Holdings, chaos erupted.
Trading monitors flashed bright red as automated margin calls poured in from every major prime broker in New York. Sterling stood in the center of the room, his face pale, his silk tie loosened, screaming into a phone that kept disconnecting.
"Cover the position!" Sterling roared. "Buy back the shares! I don't care what it costs, buy them back!"
"We can't, Arthur!" his CFO shouted back, pulling at his hair. "There are no shares available! Vance Tech bought back ten percent of their own float an hour ago! We are completely cornered! We owe three hundred million dollars by noon!"
The double doors of the boardroom flew open.
Federal agents clad in dark windbreakers, accompanied by uniformed city police officers, swept into the room. Leading the team was Detective Vance—accompanied by my security chief, Marcus.
"Arthur Sterling?" the lead FBI agent announced, pulling a federal arrest warrant from his jacket. "You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, corporate espionage, and illegal intercept of communications."
Sterling dropped his phone. It cracked against the marble floor. He looked around the room, his eyes wild and desperate, until they landed on Chloe, who was standing quietly beside the federal agents holding a manila folder.
"You..." Sterling spat, his voice trembling with rage as an agent pulled his arms behind his back. "You traitorous little rat! I offered you justice for your father!"
May you like
Chloe walked up to him, her expression steady and devoid of fear. She opened the manila folder, pulled out an official court decree, and slid it into his coat pocket.
"My father got his justice this morning, Sterling," Chloe said softly. "The federal bankruptcy court just seized Aegis’s liquidated capital to fully restore the Midwest pension fund. You paid for it yourself."
