As of this afternoon, fifty-eight percent of this company is held by Keystone Holdings.”

Damian applauded.

He applauded first, in fact, loud and confident, a man positioning himself on the right side of good news — not yet understanding that the news had his name written on the back of it, in a hand he would recognize.

Chapter 7 — The Name at the End

Then Malcolm looked past the crowd, directly at me, and he smiled.

“It is my privilege,” he said, “to introduce Keystone’s founder, and Cardinal Systems’ new majority owner.