Morning arrived with a cold clarity that settled over the city like a quiet warning. From the high windows of the office tower, the streets below looked orderly and controlled. Cars moved through intersections with mechanical precision, and people flowed along the sidewalks with the steady determination of another workday beginning.
Inside the building the atmosphere was different.
It was not panic. It was anticipation.
The attempted pressure from Hawthorne Capital had changed the rhythm of the organization. Every department understood that the company had become the focus of attention in the financial world. When attention gathered like that, events often followed.
I arrived shortly after seven. The executive floor was already lit, and several members of the strategy team were gathere
