Chapter 7
She paused, letting the legal reality settle into the room.
"Gable removed you, didn't he?" she asked.
"He decided my account ran itself," I answered.
Jocelyn let out a short, incredulous laugh. "Well, let's see how well his firm runs without twenty-two million dollars on its balance sheet. Emmett, our procurement committee is meeting at one o'clock this afternoon. I have already drafted the emergency transition request. Can Osborne Global take over our North American and European booking volume by the first of next month?"
I looked at Clive.
Clive gave a slow, deliberate nod, his eyes gleaming with professional satisfaction.
"We have sixty enterprise agents ready to deploy on your dedicated desk by Monday morning, Jocelyn," I told her. "We will migrate your corporate profile databases over the weekend, integrate your flight monitoring systems with our automated rebooking engine, and ensure that not a single one of your partners misses a connection."
"Good," Jocelyn said. Her voice returned to its crisp, decisive rhythm. "Send the master agreement to my legal counsel by noon, Emmett. And welcome to Osborne. It’s about time someone paid you what you’re worth."
The line went dead.
Clive raised his coffee mug across the table. "To accounts that run themselves," he smiled.
I clinked my mug against his. "To accounts that run themselves."
---
Seventy-two hours later, the fallout hit Landmark Travel Partners like a Category 5 hurricane.
I was sitting in my new office on Wacker Drive, reviewing the account migration schedules for Harrington’s twelve thousand corporate travelers, when my personal cell phone buzzed on the desk.
It was an internal extension from Landmark.
I let it ring three times, then swiped the screen. "Emmett Vale."
"Emmett," a voice said. It was hollow, cracked, and completely stripped of corporate polish.
It was Marcus Vance—not the consultant from the story, but Arthur Sterling’s former chief operating officer, Marcus Vance, who had stayed on through the private equity buyout to manage the legacy board relations.
"Hello, Marcus," I said politely.
"He's gone, Emmett," Marcus said without preamble.
I leaned back in my chair. "Who is gone?"
"Gable," Marcus sighed. "The board had an emergency executive session this morning at seven o'clock. The private equity managing partners flew in from New York last night after Jocelyn Fairbanks delivered Harrington’s formal termination notice directly to the Chairman’s desk."
"I imagine that was an uncomfortable breakfast," I remarked.
"Uncomfortable is a mild word," Marcus replied dryly. "The private equity group had leveraged our recent debt restructuring against Harrington’s recurring cash flows. When Harrington pulled the account, our bank covenants tripped. The credit facility was downgraded by Moody’s within twenty-four hours. The board demanded to know why our largest client had defected to our primary competitor without warning."