Chapter 6
Nolan’s vision blurred at the edges. “We can fight it. We retain Gibson Dunn. We settle with the SEC. It’s a civil penalty at worst—”
“The SEC isn't the only one at the door, Nolan,” another board member chimed in, a woman who had once praised Nolan as the 'Steve Jobs of modern supply chains.' She looked at him now with undisguised disgust. “The Department of Justice has already subpoenaed the primary servers. And forty minutes ago, the board convened without you. We had a quorum.”
Nolan’s breath hitched. “You what?”
“By unanimous vote,” Vance said, standing up and buttoning his jacket, “you have been stripped of your title as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, effective immediately. Your equity shares have been placed into an escrow freeze pending the outcome of the federal investigation and the shareholder derivative lawsuit we are filing against you by noon.”
“You can’t do this!” Nolan shouted, his voice cracking into a desperate register. “This is my company! Pierce Dynamics! My name is on the building!”
“Not by Friday, it won't be,” Vance said coldly as he picked up his briefcase. “Security is outside. They will escort you to your office to collect your coat and your personal phone. Everything else belongs to the company.”
Two burly security guards in dark suits stepped into the boardroom.
Nolan looked from face to face. Men and women who had clinked glasses with him, who had laughed at his jokes, who had told him he was a genius while ignoring the quiet girl he had left behind in Queens. Not one of them would meet his eyes.
Within twenty minutes, Nolan was standing on the curb of Park Avenue in the freezing February drizzle, holding a single cardboard box containing a few framed photographs and a Montblanc pen.
His phone rang. It was Vanessa.
He answered, his voice trembling. “Vanessa... they took the company. They took—”
“Nolan, where are the keys to the Aston Martin?” she asked. There was no sympathy in her voice, only a frantic, hard-edged sharpness.
“What?”
“Two men from the bank just showed up at the building. They’re freezing the accounts tied to the penthouse lease! They said the lease was backed by company stock!”
“Vanessa, please, I need you to come pick me up—”
“Are the accounts frozen or not, Nolan?” she demanded.
“Yes! For now, until my lawyers—”
“I knew it,” she spat. “You idiot. You absolute, arrogant idiot. You told me you were untouchable.”