The moment Derek received confirmation that Chad Powers had been arrested, a quiet satisfaction washed over him. The first domino had fallen exactly as planned. He closed the message on his encrypted phone, leaned back in his chair, and exhaled slowly. Now the real work could begin.
He knew Chad's father, John Powers—knew him far too well. A man with more money than sense, with a reputation for making problems disappear before they ever reached daylight. For years, John had relied on his network of lawyers, judges, and politicians to sweep his son's reckless behavior under the rug. Assault, harassment, drunk driving—Chad had walked away from all of it without consequence.
But this time Derek had engineered something different.
Drugs were messy. Drugs were public. Drugs involved federal agencies, mandatory reporting, and a level of scrutiny that even John's money couldn't brush aside in a single phone call. The moment Chad was pulled over with five bricks of cocaine in the trunk of his Porsche 911, chaos began rippling through the Powers household like shockwaves from a bomb.
Exactly as Derek intended.
While Chad sat in a holding cell, terrified and alone for the first time in his adult life, John Powers was scrambling. He called every lawyer on retainer, pulled strings with judges, and begged favors from old political allies. He didn't sleep that night; Derek was sure of it.
And while John's attention fractured, Derek moved.
The plan required precision, stealth, and speed—three things he was very good at.
He began aggressively buying up the free-float shares of Reindeer Logistics, the family jewel of the Powers empire. Retail investors barely noticed as Raven Corporation—Derek's mask, his ghost, his creation—quietly accumulated their stocks one small block at a time.
A thousand shares here. Ten thousand there. A hundred thousand more when a panicked investor decided to liquidate before year-end.
By Wednesday, Raven Corp had acquired 5% of the company. Alan Payne and his legal team immediately filed the necessary disclosures to the SEC—transparency was critical. Derek wasn't doing anything illegal; in fact, he wanted the Powers to see what was happening. He wanted John to feel that creeping dread when he finally realized he wasn't being hunted by a rival businessman, but by a ghost he couldn't identify.
By Friday, Derek had amassed over 25% of Reindeer Logistics' outstanding shares. The stock, previously languishing at $0.45, suddenly surged to $0.80 as investors scrambled to understand what was happening. A frenzied buzz began circulating on investment forums:
"Why is Raven Corporation buying Reindeer?"
"Is this a takeover?"
"Should we be buying too?"
Momentum built quickly, and the company's market cap skyrocketed from $300 million to $436 million in less than a week.
Derek watched the numbers rise while sipping coffee in his quiet penthouse office. Everything was unfolding precisely as he predicted.
Meanwhile, John Powers remained consumed with keeping Chad out of prison. He had no idea his company—his legacy—was being carved away piece by piece.
It wasn't until Monday morning, when Raven Corporation issued a formal tender offer—thirty percent above the current share price—that John finally understood.
Raven Corporation wanted Reindeer Logistics.
Panic hit him like a truck.
He called emergency board meetings. Reached out to shareholders. Tried to delay decisions, freeze trades, anything—anything—to stop the bleeding.
But the next catastrophe hit even harder.
Chad was served with a civil lawsuit: defamation and assault. The victim's legal team was aggressive, well-funded, and relentless—not because they hated Chad, but because Derek was quietly bankrolling their every step. Overnight, social media began circulating details from the lawsuit—screenshots, statements, images. Chad's face was everywhere.
Major shareholders panicked.
They saw scandal. They saw volatility. They saw a falling stock price before it even started to fall.
Reindeer Logistics had always been seen as a safe, if unremarkable, logistics company. Stable revenues. Predictable earnings. A good long-term value play.
But a scandal involving the CEO's son? That changed everything.
Within two weeks, the sell-off reached frenzy levels.
And Derek bought every share they dumped.
By the end of that second week, Raven Corporation—Derek—controlled 89% of Reindeer Logistics.
John received the email the next morning. It was brief, written with surgical precision:
Effective immediately, you are removed as CEO of Reindeer Logistics.
A meeting regarding transition of leadership will be held Friday at 8 AM.
—Raven Corporation Board Control Division
John threw his phone across the room when he read it. Derek didn't see it, but he could imagine the sound—the sharp crack of glass, the guttural curse that followed. John Powers was a proud man, and pride makes the fall that much worse.
With control secured, Derek initiated the final phase.
Alan arranged for a private auditing firm—one of the most respected in the country—to begin a full internal review of Reindeer Logistics.
Derek knew what they'd find.
The Powers had been playing a dangerous game with the books for years. Misreported earnings, inflated invoices, false equipment valuations, executive "bonuses" routed through shell contractors. Nothing grotesquely illegal, but enough to raise questions. Enough to trigger an investigation. Enough to justify removing the remaining powers from the board and restructuring the company from the ground up.
Once the audit findings were complete, John would have no leverage. No voice. No company.
Derek sat alone in his office late that night, staring out at the city skyline. Lights glimmered across the glass towers, like stars trapped in steel cages. A quiet melancholy settled over him.
He had won.
But victory always came with an aftertaste.
He found himself thinking about John and his wife—about how they had started Reindeer Logistics decades ago in a small warehouse with six employees. He thought about the pride in John's voice whenever he spoke about the company's early days. About how he had always believed he was building something that would outlive him.
And now it was gone.
All because of Chad.
All because of the spoiled arrogance of a son who believed the world was his playground, its people his toys.
For a moment—just a small one—Derek felt something close to pity.
But then he remembered why he was doing this. What Chad had done. What the Powers had covered up. What they thought they could get away with.
Pity evaporated.
This wasn't revenge.
This was balance.
And Derek always restored balance.