Chapter 259
The arrested vendor, it turned out, had simply taken a payout to follow someone else’s instructions.
The mastermind had assured him the mixture was entirely harmless just some dirty ash and a mild sedative dissolved in water, meant to give a rival business a brief scare.
He had no idea he was actually spraying lethal rat poison.
The shadow player orchestrating this had believed their plan was foolproof. They had aimed for a mass poisoning to utterly destroy the restaurant’s empire, never expecting their trap to be dismantled so swiftly.
Mira knew that with Porter Entertainment’s resources, their operative had absolutely worn a disguise. Nailing them through a straightforward investigation would be nearly impossible.
She dialed Lenny Forbes. “Pull all your men. I want 24/7 surveillance on the Porters. Drop everything else.
Find a vulnerability and buy out someone on their inside p>
She had underestimated their depravity before, never imagining they would resort to lethally poisoning random, innocent citizens.
Master Ellis’s intelligence network was incredible for macroeconomic shifts, but no system could track every single microscopic movement of their enemies.
Lenny’s crew was small. They simply didn’t have the manpower to cover every blind spot.
Next, she called Grant Ziegler. “Leak word to the staff over at Azure Skillet. Let it be known that if they have real talent and capability, our doors are open to them.
We can take in as many as possible, put them through our corporate training, and hold them in reserve for our next wave of expansions p>
Azure Skillet was entirely dead in the water, and its employees were desperate to jump ship. Until now, Solflare had refused to hire them.
Partly because Mira despised disloyal opportunists, but primarily because she feared the Porters planting corporate spies within her ranks.
But now, neither of those risks mattered.
If a rival truly wanted to plant a mole, they could easily bribe an existing employee anyway. The only real defense was ruthless internal surveillance that made it impossible for a spy to operate.
By enforcing ironclad operational protocols, anyone caught betraying the company wouldn’t just be fired-they would be publicly exposed and permanently blacklisted from the entire industry.
With stakes that high, who would dare turn traitor?
As for “disloyal opportunists,” that wasn’t a real concern either. Gravitating toward prosperity and fleeing a sinking ship was simply human nature.
If a company couldn’t even guarantee its staff a living wage, its total collapse was inevitable.
“Also, reach out to their former suppliers. We’ll offer them lucrative contracts, but the absolute condition is an exclusivity clause. If they sign with us, they completely sever ties with Azure Skillet p>
First, she would gut their middle and upper management. Then, she would choke out their supply chain. It was the only way to erase Azure Skillet from the map permanently.
Following that, Mira dialed Harvey Rivers.
“If your family completely severs its business ties with the Porters, I’m willing to offer you equity in my restaurant chain p>
Corporate alliances were standard practice, but because the business was virtually printing money, she had previously hoarded all the equity.
“I’m afraid that’s a no-go.
It’s not about what I want. My father will never sign off on that p>
The elite corporate families were deeply entangled, locked in an eternal complex dance of
Venet
simultaneous collaboration and
cutthroat competition.
“If he won’t agree, then forget it p>
Right now, the equity in her restaurant empire simply wasn’t lucrative enough to
make the Rivers family abandon the Porters.
And with her current capital, she
wasn’t quite wealthy enough to
launch a hostile takeover against a leviathan like Porter Entertainment. Without presenting an overwhelmingly massive payout, none of the other elite families would blindly follow her lead.
She would just have to bide her time for the perfect strike.
Annihilating Azure Skillet was still a massive victory. She had torn a bloody chunk right out of their empire.
Putting the corporate war out of her mind, Mira finally went to sleep.
But across Melvion City, very few citizens were sleeping.
“Are you kidding me? Someone sprayed rat poison on the produce at Westgate p>
“God, do you think the vegetables we bought today came from that market p>
“What kind of psycho does something like this? They deserve to rot p>
“Thank God I ordered takeout today p>
“Oh my God, I bought groceries this afternoon. Thank God I didn’t cook yet p>
“The bastard who did this deserves the electric chair p>
“I heard Solflare’s restaurants use military-grade toxin scanners. We should just buy
our vegetables directly from their kitchens tomorrow p>
“Exactly my thought. Until this whole mess blows over, I’m not stepping foot near a market p>
When Mira briefly woke up and
checked her phone, the sight of the
city’s collective, terrified outrage
made her smirk. She closed the
screem and fell back into a peaceful slumber.