Chapter 13 - The Corporate InfiltrationWhile Darren and Sloan lived their separate lives in New York and Boston, the vacuum left by the collapse of Mercer Dominion had not gone unnoticed by the underworld of corporate raiding.
A shadow syndicate known as Vanguard Holdings, led by an aggressive, ruthless billionaire named Julian Vance—no relation to Grant, but cut from the exact same predatory cloth—was quietly circling the broken carcass of Mercer’s old regional subsidiaries.
Julian wanted Keane Meridian.
He didn't care about logistics or shipping lanes; he wanted to break Darren Keane’s monopoly and prove that old money could always crush new capital.
Late one Thursday night, Julian held a private meeting in the back room of an exclusive private club in lower Manhattan, flanked by his chief legal counsel and a disgruntled former vice president whom Darren had fired years ago.
“Keane thinks he’s untouchable because he holds the legacy debt,” Julian said, swirling a glass of amber whiskey. “He thinks buying up the Mercer portfolio made him a king. But a king is only as strong as his weakest supply chain.”
“What do you have in mind?” the former VP asked eagerly.
“Keane Meridian’s entire West Coast distribution network relies on a single freight terminal in New Jersey—one that was originally owned by a secondary shell company under the Mercer umbrella,” Julian smiled, his eyes gleaming with malicious intent. “If we can acquire the lease rights before Keane formally integrates them into his master registry, we can choke his shipping routes and force him to the negotiating table on our terms.”
“And if he finds out?”
“By the time he figures out who bought the lease,” Julian laughed darkly, “his shipping lanes will be paralyzed, and his investors will be screaming for his resignation.”
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They thought they were operating in total secrecy.
They didn't know that every single server, routing table, and lease application processed in New Jersey went straight through an encrypted node monitored twenty-four hours a day by Keane Meridian’s intelligence division.
