For six weeks, Marcus’s company, Mercer Strategic Systems, had been undergoing due diligence, the standard, thorough, unglamorous examination that precedes any serious acquisition, before Rhodes Capital purchased a controlling stake.

And two weeks into that examination, our investigators had begun to find things.

Irregular consulting payments, first.

Then offshore transfers.

Then invoices from companies that turned out to have no employees, no offices, no purpose except to receive money and pass it along.

The deeper the team looked, the worse the picture became, and one of those hollow companies, it emerged, traced back, indirectly, to Chloe.

“What are you talking about?” Marcus said, glancing around now, the first edge of real panic in his voice.