The Prison-Made Queen novel Chapter 736

Sunlight filtered through the heavy blinds, casting sharp, zebra-striped shadows across the mahogany desk.

Hackett stared at the equity distribution chart on his computer monitor, his brow knitting tighter and tighter into a furious scowl.

His executive assistant, Rhodes, stood rigidly in front of the desk, a fine sheen of sweat breaking out on his forehead. He clutched a freshly printed dossier, his voice tight.

"Mr. Sloan, based on the analytics, it looks like the company's shareholding ratio started showing severe anomalies around the third week of this month."

"There are a dozen obscure accounts that have suddenly begun aggressively buying up shares on the secondary market. The transactions are heavily fragmented, but the aggregate volume... it's massive."

Hackett didn't look up, his fingers drumming aggressively against the wood. "Have we traced their backgrounds?"

"Could this just be a chaotic market trend caused by an influx of retail investors?"

"Highly unlikely, sir."

Rhodes stepped closer, spreading the printed dossier across the desk.

"Look at the trading patterns on these accounts. They specifically target dips in the market to Hoover up the stock. The orders are small and scattered, which indicates a highly calculated attempt to mask their movements and artificially manipulate our volume."

"I had the IT department run traces on the IP addresses. They're all routed through offshore proxy servers. We can't identify the source."

Hackett's face darkened.

He snatched up his desk phone. "Dora, get Mr. Larson from Securities up to my office. Right now."

Five minutes later, the Head of Securities rushed in, clutching a tablet.

Before Hackett could even open his mouth, Larson beat him to it. "Mr. Sloan, I was just coming to see you."

"We saw another massive sweep this morning. The shares were absorbed simultaneously by over a dozen different brokerage accounts."

"While each individual account's volume is small, collectively, they just ate up thirty percent of today's total trading volume."

"Something this catastrophic is happening and you're only reporting it to me *now*?!"

"Are you telling me someone has been quietly bleeding our equity dry for the past three weeks without us knowing?"

Hackett vaulted out of his leather chair, pacing the length of his office like a caged animal.

Ever since the last internal shake-up, his personal controlling stake in the company had significantly weakened.

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