Chapter 15 - THE ONE THEY COULD NOT MOVE
The waterfront erupted into chaos.
Fire crews screamed toward Pier Nine.
Hamilton security vehicles blocked two access roads.
Police boats moved toward Berth Four.
Caitlyn barely saw any of it.
She stayed beside Noah inside an armored ambulance while paramedics checked him.
His fever was climbing.
The doctor wanted him transported immediately.
Caitlyn refused to move until Damian came out.
"Ms. Elmore, your brother needs a hospital."
"Then take him."
"You are coming with us."
"No."
The paramedic stared.
"You're his medical proxy."
"Vincent has my authorization."
Vincent looked up from his phone.
"I do?"
Caitlyn gave him a look.
"You do now."
"That feels legally weak."
"Your company employs thirty lawyers."
"Fair."
Noah squeezed Caitlyn's hand.
She looked down.
"Go," he whispered.
Her throat tightened.
"You want me to stay with you."
Two squeezes.
No.
"You want me to find Damian."
One squeeze.
Caitlyn laughed softly.
"Traitor."
Noah's eyes almost smiled.
She kissed his forehead.
"I love you."
One squeeze.
The ambulance doors closed.
Vincent assigned four security vehicles to follow it.
Caitlyn watched until the lights disappeared.
Then she turned toward the burning warehouse.
"Where is he?"
Vincent checked his radio.
"Still inside."
"Why?"
"Mercer took the lower loading route."
"Damian followed."
"Of course he did."
Caitlyn started toward the pier.
Vincent caught her arm.
"No."
"Do not start."
"I am absolutely starting."
"He went after Mercer alone."
"He has six men with him."
"That is not alone?"
"For Damian, that's practically a parade."
Caitlyn stared at him.
"You are making jokes because you're worried."
Vincent's face changed.
"Yes."
The honesty stopped her.
He looked toward the smoke.
"I've been with him fifteen years."
"I know what he looks like when he has a plan."
"And I know what he looks like when the plan becomes personal."
Caitlyn's stomach tightened.
"This is personal."
"Exactly."
Vincent's radio crackled.
A security man shouted.
"Mercer vehicle west gate."
Vincent spun.
"Description?"
A black van blasted through a chain-link gate near the warehouse.
Caitlyn saw it with her own eyes.
"There."
Vincent ran toward an SUV.
Caitlyn followed.
He looked at her.
"Absolutely not."
She opened the passenger door.
"Drive."
"I understand why he is always angry now."
"Drive."
Vincent swore and accelerated.
Two Hamilton vehicles followed.
The black van headed toward the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
Caitlyn gripped the dash.
"Is Damian in there?"
"I don't know."
"Mercer?"
"Probably."
"That word again."
"Now is not the time."
The van cut across traffic.
Vincent followed.
Caitlyn's phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
"Hello?"
Damian's voice came through.
"Where are you?"
Relief hit so hard she became angry.
"In a car chasing the van you were supposed to stop."
Silence.
"With whom?"
"Vincent."
"Put him on."
Vincent shook his head.
"No."
Caitlyn almost laughed.
"He says no."
"Tell him I will remember this."
"He can hear you."
Vincent called toward the phone.
"I assumed."
Damian's voice hardened.
"Stop following the van."
Vincent looked at Caitlyn.
"Why?"
"Mercer isn't in it."
Caitlyn's stomach dropped.
"How do you know?"
"Because I'm looking at him."
Gunfire cracked through the phone.
The line ended.
Caitlyn stared at the screen.
"Turn around."
Vincent already was.
They reached Pier Nine seven minutes later.
The fire had spread to Warehouse C.
Damian stood near the south loading dock with two security men.
Mercer was gone.
Again.
Caitlyn got out before the SUV stopped completely.
Damian saw her coming.
His expression moved through relief, anger, and resignation in less than a second.
"You chased the decoy."
"You told us after we chased it."
"I was busy."
"I heard."
She stopped in front of him.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
She looked at a tear in his sleeve.
"That answer continues to be unreliable."
"It's a scratch."
Vincent arrived.
"Where did Mercer go?"
Damian pointed toward the water.
"Boat."
"Which direction?"
"South."
"Coast Guard?"
"Alerted."
Caitlyn looked around.
"Eleanor?"
Damian's jaw tightened.
"Missing."
"Rowan?"
"Alive."
"His son?"
"My people are finding him."
Caitlyn nodded.
Then she saw something near Damian's feet.
A dropped phone.
The screen was cracked.
"Mercer's?"
"One of his men's."
Vincent picked it up with a cloth.
A notification appeared before the screen locked.
BOARD VOTE MOVED TO 6:00 P.M.
Damian's expression changed.
Caitlyn frowned.
"What board vote?"
Vincent looked at the time.
4:52 p.m.
"There wasn't one."
Damian already knew.
"There is now."
They returned to Hamilton Holdings under police escort because half the waterfront was locked down.
The executive floor looked like a war room.
Phones rang continuously.
Lawyers moved between conference rooms.
News screens showed smoke over Pier Nine.
Then another headline appeared.
HAMILTON HOLDINGS BOARD CALLS EMERGENCY MEETING AMID SECURITY CRISIS.
Caitlyn read the lower caption.
Sources alleged Damian Hamilton had used private armed personnel during an ongoing police investigation.
Another report claimed Malcolm Hamilton might be dead.
A third suggested federal authorities were reviewing financial irregularities.
"Mercer is attacking the company," Caitlyn said.
Damian removed his damaged coat.
"No."
He looked at the boardroom doors.
"Someone inside is."
Vincent checked the board packet.
"Motion to suspend Damian as chief executive pending investigation."
Caitlyn stared.
"Who filed it?"
"Eleanor Price."
"She is missing."
"She filed electronically thirty-eight minutes ago."
Damian's face became cold.
"How many votes?"
"She needs seven."
"How many does she have?"
"Six confirmed."
Caitlyn looked at Malcolm's empty chair through the glass.
"Malcolm would be the seventh."
Vincent nodded.
"If he were here."
The elevator opened.
Everyone turned.
Malcolm Hamilton stepped out.
Reporters in the lobby immediately began receiving alerts that the supposedly dead vice chairman was alive.
Malcolm walked straight toward the boardroom.
Damian blocked him.
"Where have you been?"
"Hiding from the woman who tried to blow up my car."
"Eleanor?"
"Her people."
Malcolm looked at Caitlyn.
"Noah?"
"Safe."
Relief crossed his face.
"Good."
Damian did not move.
"How will you vote?"
Malcolm stared at his nephew.
"You think I came back from the dead to remove you?"
"I think everyone gets one chance to surprise me today."
Malcolm's expression became sad.
"Your father taught you that."
"He taught me many bad things."
Malcolm nodded.
"Then let me teach you one useful one."
He stepped closer.
"Never confuse the company with the family."
"One can survive without the other."
Damian's eyes narrowed.
Malcolm looked through the glass at the directors gathering inside.
"Tonight, choose which one matters."
He walked into the boardroom.
Caitlyn looked at Damian.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
"You hate that."
"More than usual."
The board meeting began at six.
Caitlyn sat outside because she was still technically suspended.
That fact had become absurd.
Vincent entered with Damian.
Malcolm took his usual seat.
Eleanor appeared by video.
Her image filled the wall screen.
She wore different clothes.
No sign of the gunfight remained.
"Directors," she began.
"We face an unprecedented governance emergency."
Caitlyn watched through the glass.
Eleanor described unauthorized armed operations.
Potential criminal exposure.
Executive instability.
Data theft.
She even cited Caitlyn's alleged betrayal.
Damian did not interrupt.
That worried Caitlyn more than if he had shouted.
Then Eleanor introduced her motion.
Suspend Damian Hamilton immediately.
Appoint an interim executive committee.
Freeze discretionary security spending.
Turn over internal records to outside counsel.
Caitlyn understood the real goal.
The ledger.
If Eleanor controlled outside counsel, she could seize the evidence legally.
She stood.
A security officer moved toward her.
"Ms. Elmore, you can't enter."
Caitlyn looked at him.
"Call Damian."
"He's in session."
"Call him."
The officer hesitated.
Caitlyn leaned closer.
"I have spent two years deciding who interrupts Damian Hamilton."
"Trust me when I tell you this qualifies."
Thirty seconds later, the boardroom door opened.
Damian stood there.
"What?"
Caitlyn spoke quietly.
"The outside counsel provision."
His eyes sharpened.
"What about it?"
"That is the point of the vote."
"Not you."
"Not the security operation."
"The ledger."
Damian understood immediately.
He looked at Eleanor's image.
Then back at Caitlyn.
"Come in."
Every director stared when Caitlyn entered.
Eleanor's face tightened.
"She is suspended."
Damian sat.
"Not anymore."
Caitlyn looked at him.
"Effective when?"
"Thirty seconds ago."
"Do I get back pay?"
Vincent coughed into his fist.
Damian almost smiled.
"Sit down."
Caitlyn sat beside him.
For the first time, not as an invisible secretary behind the room.
At the table.
Eleanor stared at her through the screen.
"This is highly inappropriate."
Caitlyn met her eyes.
"So was kidnapping my brother."
The room exploded into voices.
Eleanor went pale.
Damian raised one finger.
Silence returned.
Caitlyn realized she had seen that gesture dozens of times.
Now it felt different from this side of the table.
She opened the encrypted ledger on the isolated laptop.
"Before anyone votes to give outside counsel access to company records, you should know who selected that counsel."
She turned the screen.
Eleanor Price's payments from Mercer Consulting filled the display.
The room went completely silent.
Eleanor's video feed froze.
Then disconnected.
Malcolm leaned back.
"I believe that answers the governance question."
A director looked at Damian.
"Is this authentic?"
Damian answered.
"Yes."
"How much more is there?"
Caitlyn looked at the folders.
"Enough."
Before anyone could speak, every phone in the boardroom buzzed at once.
A new video had been released publicly.
It showed Damian inside the abandoned courthouse annex standing across from Elias Mercer.
The audio had been edited.
Damian appeared to say three words he had never said together.
"Take care of Noah."
Then a gunshot sounded.
The video cut to black.
The headline appeared within seconds.
BILLIONAIRE DAMIAN HAMILTON LINKED TO DISAPPEARANCE OF DISABLED MAN.
Caitlyn stared at the screen.
Mercer had failed to get the ledger through the board.
So he had chosen something simpler.
May you like
He was going to make the entire country believe Damian had kidnapped Noah himself.
