Chapter 110 Corporate warfare
CHAPTER 110
Corporate warfare.
ROMAN – POINT OF VIEW
I leave Scarlett and Eve to their glee and get ready for work.
I want to pursue legal actions against the stupid blog that deemed it fit to publish about us, but she’s right. They’re watching us, gauging our reaction, and anything I do will be used against us, another headline, another way to drag my name through the mud. I worked very hard for this name. Hours of work went into reviving this name. I pulled it from the rubble and made it something worthwhile.
I pushed away the article from my mind and got dressed. I know that Elena will handle it. She’s one of the best PR specialists in the country and will always find a loophole without dragging my name through the mud.
I stepped out of the bedroom, dressed sharply, adorned in luxury.
I knocked on Scarlett’s bedroom, knowing fully well that we need to eradicate the separate bedrooms and share one.
“Come in,” she answers from within.
I hesitate for a second, then walk in. She’s on the bed with Eve, and they seem to be having fun.
She frowns at me, “You’re leaving?”
“Business calls and I must answer.” I respond, “Do you have any plans to leave the house today? Anywhere you want to go?”
“Not particularly. The day isn’t set in stone, though, and don’t worry, I’ll let you know if we decide to leave.” She walks to me and fixes my tie. I lean into her warmth. If only we could spend our days doing nothing. My empire should be self-sufficient now, and often it always is, but not now, not with the attacks we’ve been getting.
I kiss her cheeks fondly and whisper, “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Call my personal line if you need something.”
I glance at Eve and nod, “Good to have you back.”
Then, I walk out of the house.
“We’re ready for you, sir,” Rue informs me.
“You’re with Scarlett today. You too, Russell. Inform the team that I’ll be taking my Aston Martin. They can drive behind in the Jeep.” I give orders calmly, get in the car, and drive off.
I arrive at Sterling Tower less than thirty minutes later. My phone buzzes incessantly, emails piling, and alerts flashing red. My data systems have flagged anomalies in the aviation reports. Something is wrong.
In my office, I surf through maintenance logs, flight manifests,s and financial statements, trying to find what is wrong. The flight records are irregular; there are some unauthorised maintenance write-offs and duplicated parts invoices. Pressure builds in my head, but I carefully try to find the problem, and soon, I do. I notice the pattern, which includes missing spare parts, falsified pilot logs, and flight delays that were conveniently hidden. Someone is orchestrating this, playing me for a fool.
I cross-referenced Sterling AI and Predictive Analytics data with operational logs. I lined up all the inconsistencies.
Hours crawl pass and I lean back in my chair, eyes narrowing at the spreadsheets. Maintenance Reserve finds has been misappropriated. Deferred component overhaul costs went unreported. Fleet utilisation is off by hundreds of hours. Fuel hedging losses stack up from mismatched derivatives. Profit and loss variances across aircraft are a disaster.
Someone is stealing from me, multimillions, and they are trying to bleed my company.
Fuck no.
I pick up the phone and call Damian.
“I need a full internal investigation. Legal holds on everything from emails to messages, contracts, and everything. Do it quietly. I don’t want to tip off whoever is behind this and risk losing them.” I speak, pacing, heart racing. Heat flushes through me, but iIcalm my racing heart. It is so easy to burn it all when I’m this angry, but it’s important to be calm.
“Understood.” He responds, tense.
I called Caleb next.
“Reconcile the books against predictive loss models. I want discrepancies flagged, cross-referenced and categorised by risk.” I order, and he gets to work, “On it.”
Then, I call Elena, “I need a communications strategy ready by noon. We need to be ready if anyone smells a leak. I want us ahead of the storm so we can control the narrative. Hand over the article problem to one of your staff. This is a top priority.”
By noon, I’d convened a meeting with the head of aviation operations, finance managers, and quality assurance leads.
My tone is stone-cold and rigid. “Every deviation from protocol, unlogged repair, and missing invoice. I want the people responsible identified before lunch. Start with the logs. Audit cross-department communications. I want everything. We need to get to the bottom of this, or no one is leaving.”
I scan their faces, noting micro-expressions, hesitations and the slight sweat on a junior operations manager’s brow. Something click.
Quickly, I pull up security footage, badge access logs, and time-stamped work orders.
The puzzle starts forming.
Certain employees had been accessing Hanger 8 outside scheduled times, often at night.
I don’t wait. I move immediately. I step into his office, calm and dangerous.
“Explain why the fuel reports were altered and why you were in Hangar 8 at two am on Tuesday,” I demand.
He stammers, eyes darting. My gaze doesn’t waver. I calmly pull up footage on my tablet, timestamped and undeniable. Transaction records, logs, and every lie collapse in the glow of the cold evidence. He is going to pay for this, but I know he is not the head of the snake, but the body.
I return to the boardroom and lay everything out. Damian, Caleb, Elena and department heads are present. They know how this affects us.
“We cannot afford another scandal. My personal life is being dragged in the mud, and now, someone is infiltrating us from within. This person knows our processes, network and is exploiting it. I want an immediate internal investigation, full sweep of operation, finances and logistics, freeze all procurement approvals, nothing moves without executive signoff, shadow audits on high-risk employees, and total lockdown. None of this must get to the press.”