Chapter 4 - Dismantling the Dynasty
A low murmur swept through the room. Admirals leaned forward, suddenly taking intense notes. Arthur’s chief engineer turned pale, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.
"That—that is an anomaly!" Arthur stammered, gripping the podium so hard his knuckles turned white. "Our lab simulations showed a ninety-nine percent success rate!"
"Lab simulations don't stop bullets, Mr. Mercer," I replied coldly. I pulled a second document from the folder and held it up. "Furthermore, your encrypted frequency runs on a commercial bandwidth shell to save manufacturing costs. I had my cybersecurity team run a standard penetration test yesterday. It took an intern with a laptop fourteen minutes to hack the Mercer Shield and turn the drones against their own operators. If deployed, this equipment would not protect American soldiers. It would slaughter them."
Arthur’s face turned violently red. The illusion of the sophisticated billionaire was shattering, revealing the desperate, greedy man beneath. "You are lying!" he screamed, abandoning the microphone and pointing a shaking finger at me. "This is a vendetta! You are doing this because of what happened twenty-six years ago! You are deliberately sabotaging my company out of pure, ungrateful spite!"
The room plunged into an icy silence. The military brass stared at Arthur as if he had just signed his own death warrant.
"Mr. Mercer," I said quietly, the stillness in my voice carrying more danger than his shouting. "I spent twenty-six years in the United States Army. I have buried men and women who trusted the equipment given to them. My allegiance is to the lives of the soldiers on the ground, not to a wounded ego. Your technology is deeply flawed, dangerously cheap, and entirely unacceptable. Your bid for the DOD contract is officially denied."
"You can't do this!" Arthur roared, completely losing his mind. He slammed his fist onto the podium. "I am Arthur Mercer! I build dynasties! You are nothing but a rebellious little girl playing dress-up in a uniform! I demand to speak to your superiors! I will have you court-martialed for this!"
General Vance stood up, his massive frame casting a long shadow over the front row. "Major General Mercer is the superior authority on this matter, Mr. Mercer. And she is completely correct. Furthermore, your outburst and accusations against a decorated commanding officer are a disgrace."
Vance signaled to the back of the room. Four Secret Service agents, heavily armed and unsmiling, immediately moved down the aisles.
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"Mr. Mercer, your invitation to this event has been revoked," Vance stated, his voice like grinding granite. "You will be escorted off the White House grounds immediately. If you resist, you will be arrested for threatening a military officer. Mercer Defense Tech is hereby blacklisted from all future Department of Defense solicitations."
Trevor grabbed his briefcase and sprinted for the exit, not even waiting for his father. Evelyn burst into tears, covering her face with her expensive silk shawl. Arthur stood frozen, his empire crumbling into dust in the span of five minutes, destroyed by the daughter he had thrown away.
