Chapter 2 — The Deal in Denver

Damon returned to first class because federal aviation regulations succeeded where most human beings failed. They forced him to sit down.

His phone buzzed before the crew ordered everyone to airplane mode — a message from Nora Beck, his chief strategy officer. The acquisition team is waiting in Denver.

We need your signature before midnight or Merritt Systems may accept Calder’s offer.

Damon stared at the screen. Three hours earlier, that message would have mattered more than anything.

Prescott Technologies had spent nine months preparing to acquire Merritt Systems for $780 million. If the deal closed, Damon’s company would control a new medical data platform expected to transform neonatal care in rural hospitals.

The acquisition was profitable, and it was personal: Damon’s younger sister had died as an infant in a hospital that lacked the equipment to save her, and he had built his empire partly because he believed money could correct the helplessness he had watched destroy his parents.