Chapter 13

That night, I called Alex.

"I need you to look into someone for me. Peter Shaw. And check out his connection to Vulture Capital," I said.

"Peter Shaw?" Alex paused, thinking. "The guy who bought StellarTech from you three years ago?"

"Yeah," I replied.

"Why are you looking into him?" Alex asked.

"Someone gave me a heads-up. There's more to this than meets the eye," I replied.

Alex was silent for a couple of seconds.

"Alright, I'll have someone look into it," he said.

The results came back faster than I expected.

By noon the next day, Alex had sent a file to my encrypted email.

I opened it and read for ten minutes, and my back was drenched in cold sweat.

After Peter Shaw took over StellarTech, he didn't really run the company. Instead, he broke up the core tech team and flipped several key patents to another firm.

The company he sold them to was FalconTech.

The one actually calling the shots at FalconTech? Jack Warren, a partner at Vulture Capital.

So three years ago, when I sold StellarTech, Peter was just a front. The real buyer was Vulture Capital all along.

They spent 100 million dollars on my company, then immediately stripped out the core patents and flipped them for cash. Just from that, they made over 70 million dollars back. The rest was just an empty shell, but they still didn't lose a dime.

This wasn't your average buyout.

This was a meticulously orchestrated takeover scheme.

But why?

Why would Vulture Capital use Peter as a front to buy my company? Why didn't they just deal with me themselves?

Unless they were already playing a much bigger game right from the start.

I kept reading.

At the end of the file, Alex had added a note.

Alex: Luke, I dug a little deeper. Vulture Capital's been making some aggressive moves in real estate this past year, especially in Harbor City. They've already acquired three commercial plots through a bunch of front companies.

And their next target? Sunrise Realty. Selling your company back then, and now pulling out of Sunrise. Maybe all of this was part of someone's plan from the very beginning. I'm still looking into the details. Just be careful.

I closed my laptop and sat there for a long time.

Three years ago, I sold my company and put all the money into Julia's Sunrise.

Now, Vulture Capital had set their sights on Julia's Sunrise.

And the people at Vulture Capital were the very ones who took over my company back then.

If what Frank said was true, if Vulture Capital was the one manipulating the zoning plan for Sunrise's land, then the whole picture finally made sense.

They first gutted my company for its core patents, then stirred up trouble with Sunrise's project to put Julia in a tough spot, and finally planned to scoop up Sunrise for peanuts.

And by pulling my money out of Sunrise, I'd played right into their hands.

I'd been used as a pawn.

My phone rang.

.It was Julia.

I stared at the screen for three seconds before picking up.

"Luke," she said, her voice lower than I'd ever heard it. "The people from Vulture Capital showed up today."

"Yeah, I already know," I said.

"Wait, you know?" Julia sounded genuinely surprised. "How did you even..."

"Forget how I found out. What did they offer you?" I asked.

Julia fell silent for a moment.

"They want to buy 40% of Sunrise's shares. The offer price is merely 30% of its actual market value," she said.

Just thirty percent?

That was daylight robbery.

"You didn't agree, did you?" I asked.

"Of course I didn't. But..." Her voice trembled. "Luke, I'm at my limit. The bank's breathing down my neck about the loan. The construction crew for Riverfront One is threatening to walk off the job because we're behind on payments.

"And the suppliers are all demanding their money. If I can't find the cash by the end of the month, Sunrise is really going to go under."

I closed my eyes.

"Julia, let me ask you something," I said.

"Go ahead," she replied.

"Has Michael ever had any dealings with the people at Vulture Capital?" I asked.

There was a long silence on the other end.

"What do you mean?" Julia said after a pause.

"I mean, are you sure you can really trust the person by your side?" I asked quietly.

"Luke, you can't just blame Michael for everything..." Julia protested.

"I'm not just throwing accusations around," I cut her off. "Julia, I need you to check something for me. See if that contact from City Investment Group Michael introduced you to is actually legit.

"And after that hotel meeting, did the zoning problems with Riverfront One get any better, or did they get worse?"

There was silence on the other end.

After a long while, she asked, "Are you implying Michael's trying to hurt me?"

"I'm not implying anything. Just check it out for yourself," I said.

I hung up.