Chapter 3: Two Centimeters (2)

"What do you think?"

"I think you did." She opened the file and started reading.

Five minutes later, she closed it and said three sentences.

"The cash-flow forecast on page one doesn't reconcile with the loan balances on page seven. Off by seventy-four million. That's not a clerical error. Someone's cooking both sides of the ledger."

"The vendor list on page four — three of those companies are shells of the same corporation. All registered in Delaware. Same person as legal representative. The son-in-law of one of your Old Guard shareholders."

"And the last page." She flipped to the final sheet and tapped a signature with her fingertip. "This briefing was issued and filed last Wednesday. But every printer at VERNON HQ was under scheduled maintenance last Wednesday morning — a full day. Not one character came out of any of them. Unless — someone printed this somewhere else and backdated the signature."

She lifted her eyes to him. "So this 'internal briefing' is either bait you set for me. Or someone around you knew what was going to happen before you did."

The room went quiet.

Kane stared at her for a long, long time. Then — he smiled. The smile Wall Street feared. "Everyone wants to carve a piece out of a dying empire. What do you want? Equity? Dividends? A board seat?"

"None."

"Then what?"

Elara looked at him, word by word. "I want your trust. Three months. I'll lift your empire out of its coffin. If the term expires without renewal, I take nothing. Losses are mine. Gains belong to the company. One condition — you listen to me, even when it goes against every instinct you have."

The room was so quiet they could hear the HVAC.

Kane slowly walked around the desk. Step by step, he stopped in front of her. He was much taller — his shadow almost covered her. He lowered his head and looked down at her, voice dropping.

"Do you know how many people in this building want me dead?"

"Yes." Elara didn't move. "That's why I came."

"Are you not afraid of me?"

"Why would I be?" She lifted her eyes to his. There was something almost pitying in them. "You don't even have an empire left to be afraid of."

Kane froze for an instant.

He didn't answer immediately. He stepped forward half a pace, and between them there was only the distance of a fist. She could smell cedar and old paper on him. He could smell rain and ink in her hair. He looked down at the stray strand over her forehead and, as if pulled by something he couldn't name, reached out —

And stopped, two centimeters from the tip of her hair.

Elara didn't flinch. She didn't even blink. She watched him calmly, as if she'd calculated all along that he would stop exactly there.

"Why didn't you move?" Kane asked.

"Because you won't touch me." She said. "You just wanted to see if I'd be afraid of you. And I'm never afraid of anyone — especially not of people who are about to fall."

Kane pulled his hand back. He stared at her, and for the first time something almost bewildered flickered behind his eyes.

He'd seen people bow and scrape and flatter and scheme. He'd never seen one person look at him like this. Not ingratiation. Not fear. Not calculation. A calm, businesslike candor.

He stepped back half a pace and asked, for the first time, in a normal tone: "How did you find out about that $1.2 billion short?"

"Because I don't believe in coincidence." She walked to the window and looked down at the city below. Her voice was soft. "Three flagship projects blow up in the same minute. Three short positions activate in the same second. That isn't a market. That's a chess game. And the player behind the board has stepped, every single time, onto the square of the person you trusted most."

She turned back to him. "Mr. Voss. I read your father's genealogy. Your family has a tradition — you entrust the most important things to the person least likely to betray you. But this chess game proves: someone has that key."

Kane's pupils contracted slightly.

He said nothing. But he did one thing: he put Elara's report into his drawer. That meant she stayed.

"Fine." He said. "Three months. Starting now. What access do you want?"

"First. A temporary strategy office. I run it, fully." Elara said. "Second. Accounts from every department — I can pull them anytime. Third—" She walked to the door and looked back. "Ride the staff elevator with me."

Kane lifted an eyebrow. "The elevator?"

"I want to see what this tower actually looks like."

VERNON HQ's staff elevator was old and crowded, humming softly as it moved. At 6:00 p.m. it was packed with people going home. Nobody paid attention to the silent man in the corner and the woman beside him.

Elara stood in the corner, but her eyes never left a man standing diagonally ahead.

A gentle man in his forties. Perfectly tailored suit. Hair combed with precise discipline. David Okafor, deputy to the CFO. Twelve years at the firm. Impeccable reputation. Everyone's favorite kind of good guy.