Chapter 43: The Counterfeit Contract
The morning mist was lifting off the Oakhaven river as the industrial harbor of Grandview hummed with mechanical activity. Monolithic blue gantry cranes stood tall against the pale sky, their steel cables lowering forty-ton shipping containers onto the concrete quays of the municipal port.
Inside the executive boardroom of the Grandview Port Authority on Wharf Street, the atmosphere was suffocating with tension.
Harrison Drake sat at the center of the walnut conference table, leaning back in his leather chair with his legs crossed, his polished Italian boots resting arrogance on the edge of the polished wood. He wore a tailored charcoal wool coat over an open-collared silk shirt, twirling an expensive gold fountain pen between his fingers while two p
