Chapter 6 - The Reed Family War
The boardroom doors locking should have caused panic.
Instead, for three seconds, nobody moved.
Powerful people are strange in emergencies.
They spend their lives assuming someone else is responsible for disaster.
Then disaster enters the room, and they look around waiting for an assistant to schedule it.
Marcus crossed to the control panel.
“Security lockdown.”
“Your doing?” Graham asked.
“No.”
That changed the atmosphere immediately.
One director stood.
“What does that mean?”
“It means someone accessed the floor controls.”
“From where?”
Marcus checked his phone.
“Internal network.”
Daniel Cross looked toward the ceiling again.
“They’re listening.”
I felt exposed.
Every camera suddenly looked like an eye.
Marcus ordered everyone away from the conference table.
Graham moved toward me.
Instinctively.
This time, I didn’t object.
“Can they trap us here?” I asked.
“For a while.”
“Fire system?”
“Independent.”
“Then why lock the doors?”
Daniel answered.
“Because they want time.”
“For what?”
An alarm began sounding from one of the screens.
Not fire.
Cybersecurity.
A red notification flashed.
UNAUTHORIZED TRANSFER DETECTED
The chief financial officer, Leonard Shaw, hurried toward a terminal.
“What is that?”
Numbers appeared.
Large numbers.
Two hundred million.
Then another transfer.
Eighty million.
Another.
One hundred twelve million.
Money was moving out of Reed Global accounts.
Right now.
“Stop it!” one director shouted.
Leonard typed furiously.
“I’m locked out.”
Graham stepped beside him.
“Emergency protocol.”
“Disabled.”
“How?”
“Chair-level authorization.”
Every face turned toward Graham.
“I didn’t authorize anything.”
Conrad pointed.
“This is him.”
I almost laughed.
“Seriously?”
He looked at me.
“Your husband controls the credentials.”
“My husband was sitting here when it happened.”
“That proves nothing.”
“It proves he wasn’t typing.”
“Automated transfer.”
“Then why lock himself inside the room?”
Conrad had no answer.
Another alert.
Three hundred million.
Caroline whispered, “They’re emptying reserve accounts.”
The truth hit me.
“This isn’t a takeover.”
Graham turned.
“What?”
“They don’t want Reed Global.”
I looked toward the numbers racing across the screen.
“They want everyone focused on control while they steal the company.”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“The family war is camouflage.”
Conrad’s face changed.
For the first time, he seemed to understand he had been used.
“What did you agree to?” Graham asked him.
Conrad’s eyes flashed.
“Nothing.”
“You filed the trust challenge.”
“I had a legal right.”
“You buried the report about my father.”
“To protect the company.”
“You coordinated with somebody.”
Conrad looked around.
He realized nobody believed him.
Finally he said, “They contacted me six months ago.”
Silence.
Graham stepped closer.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect us to believe that?”
“They used intermediaries.”
“What did they promise?”
Conrad’s jaw tightened.
“The chairmanship.”
Graham laughed once.
A terrible sound.
“You sold my father’s company for a title.”
“I was supposed to restore family control.”
“You already had family control.”
“You had control.”
There it was.
Decades of resentment reduced to four words.
Conrad looked at Graham.
“Your grandfather chose your father over me. Your father chose you. I built half this company and spent forty years being treated like an unnecessary uncle.”
Daniel stared at him.
“So you helped them reactivate the trust clause.”
“Yes.”
“Why frame Avery?”
“I didn’t.”
“Her drive?”
“I knew they wanted something she had.”
“You told her to give it back.”
Conrad looked surprised.
I stepped forward.
“Outside the boardroom.”
His face hardened.
“You whispered it.”
“I was bluffing.”
“No. You knew.”
“I knew they were looking for a storage device.”
“Who told you?”
He hesitated.
“Thomas.”
Marcus looked up.
“Your son denies involvement.”
Conrad laughed bitterly.
“My son lies professionally.”
The boardroom screen suddenly went black.
Then an image appeared.
A man sitting in shadow.
Voice distorted.
“Good morning, Mr. Reed.”
Graham stared.
“Who are you?”
The figure ignored him.
“Avery Bennett-Reed.”
My blood chilled.
“You have something that belongs to us.”
“I don’t.”
“Your pendant.”
“I don’t have it.”
“That is unfortunate.”
Behind the man, another screen turned on.
Emma.
My sister.
She was standing inside her apartment.
Talking to one of Graham’s security officers.
Live.
My body went cold.
“You said she was protected.”
Marcus stared.
“She is.”
The distorted voice continued.
“We can see her anyway.”
My stomach turned.
“What do you want?”
Graham stepped in front of me.
“No.”
I moved around him.
“What do you want?”
“The file Richard Reed left behind.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You opened it.”
“Yes.”
“Then you copied it.”
I remembered.
The pendant.
I had copied the suspicious files.
They thought I still had the copy.
“I lost the drive.”
“No.”
The voice became almost amused.
“You hid it.”
Did I?
Memory flickered.
Dinner.
I removed the pendant.
Someone watching.
I became nervous.
Had I hidden it before going upstairs?
A fragment surfaced.
Bathroom.
Marble counter.
My hands unscrewing the pendant.
Not the whole pendant.
The internal memory chip.
I froze.
Graham noticed.
“What?”
I shook my head.
Not here.
Not while they were watching.
The figure continued.
“Bring the file to midnight’s meeting.”
The screen changed.
An address appeared.
An abandoned casino outside the city.
Then the connection ended.
Immediately the doors unlocked.
Nobody moved.
Marcus turned toward me.
“You remembered something.”
“Later.”
Graham understood instantly.
“Clear the room.”
Conrad protested.
“You don’t control—”
“Out.”
Something in Graham’s voice ended the argument.
Directors left quickly.
Caroline remained.
Marcus.
Daniel.
Conrad tried staying.
Graham looked at him.
“You wanted the chairmanship.”
Conrad straightened.
“You’re suspended pending board review.”
“I am not.”
Graham pointed toward the transfer screen.
“You helped the people stealing from this company. Leave before I have security remove you.”
Conrad’s face twisted.
“You think your father was innocent?”
Graham stopped.
“What?”
Conrad smiled without humor.
“You worship him because he died.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“Don’t.”
“No,” Conrad said. “He deserves the truth.”
Graham’s face went pale.
“What truth?”
“Richard knew about the transfers earlier than he admitted.”
Daniel shook his head.
“He was investigating.”
“He was participating.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Ask him about Zurich.”
Daniel stopped.
That was enough.
Graham saw it.
“What happened in Zurich?”
Daniel said nothing.
Conrad laughed.
“Exactly.”
Then he left.
The doors closed.
Graham turned slowly toward Daniel.
“Zurich.”
Daniel looked older suddenly.
“Your father opened an offshore account.”
“For what?”
“To trace the network.”
“Did he put company money into it?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Thirty million.”
Graham stared.
“That’s embezzlement.”
“He intended to return it.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because he died.”
Silence.
The father Graham had spent years believing was a victim had also crossed lines.
Maybe for good reasons.
Maybe not.
Graham walked toward the windows.
I knew that posture.
He needed control.
He was losing it.
I wanted to follow.
I didn’t.
Not yet.
Marcus looked at me.
“What did you remember?”
I reached toward my earring.
Not the pendant.
My earring.
A small pearl drop I had worn last night.
I twisted the backing.
Nothing.
Wrong one.
I checked the other.
The backing was slightly larger.
My heart began pounding.
I unscrewed it.
Inside was a tiny memory card.
Everyone stared.
“I remember now.”
Graham turned.
“What?”
“At dinner I noticed the man near the elevator watching my pendant.”
I held up the tiny card.
“So I moved the data.”
Marcus exhaled.
“Smart.”
“I was drunk, not brain-dead.”
Caroline almost smiled.
Daniel stared at the card.
“That may contain Richard’s entire audit trail.”
“And prove who is stealing from Reed Global?”
“Maybe.”
Graham crossed the room.
For the first time all day, hope appeared in his face.
Then Daniel said, “Don’t plug it into any Reed device.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever is inside the system will know immediately.”
Marcus nodded.
“I have an isolated machine.”
We moved into a smaller office disconnected from corporate networks.
Marcus produced a clean laptop.
I inserted the card.
Encrypted folders appeared.
Southwest Transit.
Vendor reconciliation.
Historic transfers.
And another folder I didn’t remember seeing.
R_REED_LEGACY
Graham’s breath changed.
Daniel whispered, “That’s it.”
I opened it.
Password required.
“What password?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Richard never told me.”
Graham stared at the screen.
I tried his father’s birth date.
Failed.
Company founding date.
Failed.
Graham’s birthday.
Failed.
Then I remembered the note.
Trust the numbers.
Not loyalty.
What happened.
I looked at the suspicious transfer totals.
The first flagged payment in Southwest Transit was $614,198.87.
6:14.
The certification time.
Harrison Reed had loved symbolic numbers.
Maybe Richard had too.
I entered 6141987.
The folder opened.
Inside were hundreds of files.
Ledger entries.
Emails.
Recorded calls.
Photographs.
A complete map of something much bigger than any of us expected.
Then one file opened automatically.
Video.
Richard Reed appeared.
Graham’s father.
Alive.
Sitting behind a desk.
The date was four years earlier.
Graham stopped breathing.
Richard looked directly into the camera.
“If Graham is watching this, then I probably didn’t survive long enough to tell him myself.”
Graham gripped the chair.
The video continued.
“The person behind the theft is not Conrad.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Richard leaned closer.
“It is someone Graham trusts.”
A name appeared on screen.
I read it.
Then looked at Marcus.
The security chief had gone completely still.
Because the name on Richard Reed’s file belonged to the one person who had been inside Graham’s life longer than almost anyone.
CAROLINE WEBB.
The general counsel standing beside us whispered,
“That’s impossible.”
May you like
And every person in the room turned toward her.
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