The eighty-eighth floor of Cross Enterprises was encased in triple-pane reinforced glass, overlooking the smog-shrouded, rain-slicked towers of Obsidian City. Inside the main boardroom, the temperature was kept at a cold, sterile sixty-four degrees.
Sitting around the sixty-foot mahogany oval table were twelve of the most powerful corporate figures in the region. At the far end sat Arthur Sterling—senior board member, majority stakeholder in several offshore holding entities, and Victor Vaughn’s primary shadow puppet inside Cross Enterprises.
Sterling was adjusting his gold wire-rimmed glasses, a smug, relaxed smirk gracing his weathered face. Beside him were four ally directors who had spent the last two months secretly pledging their voting proxies to Vance Logistics’ shell network.
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