The name arrived two days later, delivered by Reagan with the particular grim precision of someone who'd spent forty-eight hours confirming something she badly wanted to be wrong about.

"Weston Holt," Reagan said, sliding a printout across her desk. "CEO of Holt Industrial. He's spent the last decade quietly acquiring struggling companies across half a dozen industries, always through intermediaries, always using someone else's public face to execute the actual takeover. Trent's done this dance with him before, twice, both times on companies that ended up fully absorbed into Holt's portfolio within a year of the takeover completing."

Sterling stared at the photo attached to the printout, a silver-haired man...