Chapter 8 - The Phantom Audit
By Wednesday morning, the atmosphere in the Whitmore-Sterling executive suite was tense.
Natalie sat at her massive glass desk, staring at a barrage of red numbers flashing across her monitors. At 6:00 AM, a prominent financial blog had published a "blind item" alleging that a major female-led Wall Street firm was under secret investigation for money laundering. They hadn't named Whitmore-Sterling directly, but the implications were obvious. In just three hours, their stock had dipped five percent.
Arthur Sterling burst into the office, looking deeply stressed. "Natalie, the board is panicking. The rumors are spreading like wildfire. If this hits the mainstream press, the SEC will be forced to launch a preliminary audit just to satisfy the public."
"Let them panic, Arthur," Natalie said calmly, taking a sip of her black coffee. "The documents Sloan is threatening to leak are completely fabricated. I personally vetted every single cent of the clean energy acquisition. Our ledgers are flawless."
"Then why is the stock dropping?" Arthur demanded.
Natalie turned her monitor around to face him. "Because Sloan isn't just threatening us. She’s paying for a coordinated short-and-distort campaign. Someone is funding an army of online financial bots to amplify the rumor and short our stock."
Arthur’s jaw dropped. "Sloan is broke. The feds seized all her assets. How is she paying for a multi-million dollar smear campaign?"
"That," Natalie smiled sharply, "is exactly what I spent the last twenty-four hours figuring out."
She clicked a folder on her desktop. "I hired the best blockchain forensic analysts in the country. They traced the payments going to the bot farms. The money is coming from a decentralized crypto wallet that has been dormant for exactly three years. It was activated yesterday."
Arthur stared at the screen. "You think Preston had a hidden stash?"
"I know he did," Natalie said, standing up and smoothing her emerald-green pencil skirt. "And he just handed the keys to Sloan. He thinks he’s being clever, orchestrating my downfall from a prison cell. But he just made the biggest mistake of his miserable life."
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"What are you going to do?" Arthur asked, recognizing the lethal, calculated look in Natalie’s eyes.
"I am going to let them think they are winning," Natalie said, picking up her phone. "Friday is the annual Whitmore-Sterling Charity Gala. Sloan wants her ten million dollars by Friday night. I am going to invite her to the party. And then, I am going to bury them both."
