Chapter 5 - The Master Strategy
Caleb took the old man's hands with a firm, respectful grip.
"They were right where you said they'd be, Arthur," Caleb answered with a quiet smile.
"Underneath three layers of false invoices and a broken hydraulic lift on cart number four."
Victoria froze mid-stride, her face draining of color until she looked nearly as pale as her silk blouse.
"Grandfather... you know Mr. Mercer?"
Arthur turned to look at the room, his eyes sweeping across the frozen faces of the executives who had spent the morning laughing at mustard stains.
"Know him?" Arthur said, his voice dropping into a stern baritone that silenced every whisper.
"Caleb Mercer was the plant manager who saved our Dayton facility from bankruptcy twelve years ago when none of you wanted to get grease on your cuffs."
"For the past three years, he has been restructuring medical supply chains across the Midwest as an independent turnaround specialist."
Blair stepped back, her shoulder bumping against the projection screen, sending a ripple across her PowerPoint slide.
"Then... why was he hired as an entry-level operations manager?" she whispered, her voice cracking.
"Because I asked him to take the pulse of this building from the bottom up," Arthur replied, leaning both hands heavily on his cane.
"I wanted to see what my executive suite looked like to the people who actually mop the floors and keep the lights on."
May you like
Arthur turned to Victoria, his gaze cutting right through her polished executive armor.
"And what Caleb found was a management team that mocks hard work and signs seven hundred thousand dollars of stolen checks to an LLC owned by Blair Whitman's brother-in-law."
