Immediately Zeke exited the ward he contacted his team, " I need information on these men asap" .
The drive back to the Black estate was a journey through a city Zeke owned but that now felt foreign. The neon glow of the Gilded Grotto faded in the rearview mirror, replaced by the silent, manicured exclusivity of the family's enclave.
The car moved with a hushed smoothness, a stark contrast to the chaos churning in Zeke's mind. He stared out at the passing gates and darkened mansions, the names from Jenny's list scrolling behind his eyes like a damning ledger.
Lawman. Dick. Deris. Bean. Salt. Ram.
Each one was a face from a board meeting, a hand he'd shaken, a voice he'd trusted. The betrayal wasn't an abstract threat anymore; it had the smell of Derek Isley's cigar and the sound of Laurence Mannfield's dry, careful counsel. He thought of the listening device Bakar would be hunting for right now, possibly planted by someone who walked these halls daily.
His phone buzzed—a notification, not a call. A brief update from Bakar, likely just two words: "Operation active." The info digging had begun.
As the car glided through the towering, wrought-iron gates of the Black estate, the main house loomed ahead, a monument of cold stone and old money. It was meant to feel like a fortress, a sanctuary. Tonight, for the first time, it felt like a gilded cage with the locks being picked from the inside.
He stepped out into the chill night air. The weight of the coming day—the 7:30 AM deadline, the confrontation with Sili, the war for his own company—settled on his shoulders. But before all that, he needed a few hours of silence, a strategic pause. The study awaited, with its safe of older, more tangible secrets. The real work was just beginning.
The grandfather clock in Zeke's study had just chimed 3:00 PM when a soft, deliberate knock echoed through the wood-paneled room. The only light came from a single green-shaded lamp on the vast mahogany desk, illuminating scattered files and the stark white list of names.
"Enter," Zeke said, his voice rough from the hour and the concentration.
Bakar entered, his usual immaculate suit slightly rumpled, a sign of the frantic night's work. He carried a slim, encrypted tablet and a physical folder. He placed both on the desk before Zeke.
"Sir. Preliminary findings. As requested."
Zeke leaned back, steepling his fingers. "Tell me."
Bakar's report was clinical, efficient, each point a bullet aimed at the heart of Zeke's empire.
---
Zeke's Study - 3:07 PM: Bakar's Preliminary Brief
TO: Zeke Black
FROM: Bakar
STATUS: ACTIVE CONSPIRACY CONFIRMED. MULTIPLE VECTORS IDENTIFIED.
TIMESTAMP: 03:07 PM
1. Laurence "Lawman" Mannfield (Corporate Counsel):
· Finding: Confirmed. His access credentials were used to generate a backdated Power of Attorney document six months ago, granting "emergency voting rights" to a dormant holding company. The digital signature matches, but the login IP for that session traces to a proxy server in Zurich.
· Assessment: Credentials likely stolen or coerced. He is either a willing participant or a compromised asset under extreme duress. His son's gambling debts have been mysteriously settled in full as of last week.
2. Derek "Deris" Isley (Financial Strategist):
· Finding: The shell corporation that paid for Benita Croft's debts made three identical payments over the last year. All match the exact cost of Isley's Swiss medical procedure, paid in advance.
· Assessment: This is the money trail. Isley is almost certainly the primary financial architect and inside man. He was bought, and he used the same source to buy Croft's silence or cooperation.
3. Solomon "Salt" Altman (Head of M&A):
· Finding: Communications intercepts, while encrypted, show a pattern of brief, timed bursts of data sent from his private home server to an offshore node in the hours following your last three strategy meetings on the Sili land deal.
· Assessment: He is the intelligence leak. He is providing real-time strategy, likely including your maximum bid thresholds and negotiation tactics, to the opposing side.
4. Critical Physical Discovery:
· Finding: A listening device was found. Not in your office, sir. It was embedded in the base of the lamp in the private salon where you met Sili. It is a military-grade, self-powered unit with a 30-day memory buffer.
· Implication: Every word of that conversation was recorded. They know the deal is closed. They know you have the land. This moves their timeline forward aggressively.
5. The "Why": Ramona Graves & The Land:
· Finding: Cross-referencing Graves' expertise with Black holdings reveals a match. The geological survey for the 10-acre Sili plot, commissioned by our energy subsidiary, indicates a high probability of a rare earth mineral vein beneath the shale layer. The preliminary report was classified "Eyes Only" and was accessed once, by Derek Isley, eight months ago.
· Assessment: This is not a real estate play. It's a resource grab. The "Men in Black" and their inside allies aren't just after the company; they're after the key to a trillion-dollar energy and technology reserve. You didn't just buy land; you bought a kingmaker's prize.
---
Bakar fell silent. The only sound was the ticking clock and the soft hum of the tablet.
Zeke stared at the report, the pieces locking into a terrifying, coherent picture. It was worse than a simple coup. They wanted the future itself.
He finally looked up, his eyes devoid of fatigue, burning with a cold, focused light. "The device in the salon. Can it still transmit?"
"Not once we removed it. But its last transmission was 12 hours ago. They have the recording."
A slow, dangerous smile touched Zeke's lips. "Good. Then they're confident. They think they're ahead." He stood, walking to the window overlooking the sleeping city. "We let them. Isley stays in place. We feed him a new strategy—a fatal flaw in the mineral extraction process, environmental contamination risks. Let him pass it on. Salt gets a new, lower maximum bid for a fictitious 'back-up property' in the next district."
He turned back to Bakar. "And Mannfield... we protect his son. We move him to a secure location tonight, then we go to Lawman and show him the evidence of the stolen credentials and the proof his son is safe. We give him one chance to choose the right side."
Bakar nodded, already processing the orders. "And the woman? Jenny?"
Zeke's gaze hardened. "She stays the most protected person in this city. Because she didn't just give us a list of traitors." He tapped the file on the rare earth minerals. "She gave us the reason for the war. And now, we turn their weapon against them."