In those 3 seconds, he ran through every sequence, every dependency, every piece of the legal and investigative infrastructure his team had been building for 14 months, and he measured each one against a 72-hour window. Call the FBI contact, he said. The one in the financial crimes unit. Tell him we're ready to brief tonight, this morning, early as he can. She didn't hesitate.
Done. And get Victoria on the phone. She needs to know before this moves, Damian. A pause. She's not going to be ready for what you're about to tell her.
She's been running a company with a bomb in it for 2 and 1/2 years, he said. She's more ready than she thinks. He hung up. He looked at the window. Outside, the sky was beginning to change.
That particular pre-dawn gray that belongs to people who are already up and already working. The color of the hour before the world catches up to whatever has already been decided in the dark. His phone rang 12 minutes later. "Victoria," he answered. "Your attorney called me," she said.
"No greeting." Her voice had the clipped precision of someone who had been awake for a while and had already decided that pleasantries were a cost she couldn't afford right now. She said, "It's urgent." Adrienne moved 14 million last night, Damen said. Silence. He's executing the final phase. Damen said we have a window of approximately 72 hours before he attempts to transfer the technology architecture.
After that, the legal recovery becomes significantly more complicated. The silence stretched for 4 seconds. Five. What do you need from me? Victoria said, "And that the speed of it, the absence of defensiveness, the direct question told Damian something important about who Victoria Caldwell actually was underneath the armor.
He filed it away. I need access to two things." He said, "Adrienne's internal calendar for the next two weeks and the authentication credentials for the technology platform's external transfer protocol. The transfer protocol credentials are in a secure system. Only Adrien and I have access. I know I need yours.
Another silence. Shorter. You're asking me to trust you. She said, "Yes," he said. "You've owned this company for 3 days." "Yes, and 3 days ago you were standing in my lobby while I" She stopped.