Chapter 7 - The One-Dollar Contract
Adrian smiled.
“So Maya owns the company.”
Claire looked at her.
“Do you?”
“No.”
The one-dollar payment created a temporary investigative contract.
It gave Maya standing to preserve Claire Cole Holdings if Adrian attempted to dissolve it.
The payment had been made from the employee council’s legal-defense account.
But Maya had never authorized it.
Neither had the council.
Someone created the contract using her signature three weeks earlier.
The signature matched.
The location data did not.
It had been signed from Adrian’s penthouse while Maya was testifying in Washington.
Adrian leaned against the table.
“You forged your own authority.”
Maya examined the authentication package.
Her voice.
Her fingerprint.
Her government token.
All appeared valid.
The token had been copied during a security briefing at Cole Grand Hotels.
Price attended that briefing.
So did Adrian.
The hotel provided biometric access as a courtesy to federal officials.
Maya had objected.
Price ordered her to use it.
The system captured enough data to recreate her approvals.
Hourly hotel employees needed three forms of verification to change a shift.
Executives and officials relied on convenience.
That convenience became forgery.
The employee council suspended every biometric-only transaction connected to the trust.
No receiver, family member, attorney or investigator could act alone.
Eleanor received one council seat.
A maintenance supervisor received another.
A retired banquet captain received the third.
Claire was offered the fourth.
She declined.
“My marriage placed me too close to the theft.”
The council selected an independent housing lawyer instead.
Maya remained receiver, but every property decision required worker approval.
Adrian’s development fee disappeared.
Price’s brother’s consulting contract froze.
The penthouse entered restitution review.
Then the council examined the one-dollar contract’s hidden attachment.
It ordered Maya to deliver Adrian into federal custody at midnight.
Not before.
If she arrested him early, ownership of Claire Cole Holdings transferred to an anonymous alternate receiver.
May you like
Maya checked the time.
She had arrested Adrian eleven minutes too soon.
