From A Producer To A Global Superstar

Silas had been sitting in the same chair for some time, with his hands resting on the table in front of him and the noise of the IRS facility passing through the walls around him.

A door opened somewhere down the corridor. A phone rang in another room. Officers moved in and out, speaking quietly as they went about their work. Every sound reminded him that he was no longer in control of where he went or who he spoke to.

He had already accepted that much.

The charges were serious. The investigation had reached places that his lawyers could not simply make disappear. Even the favors he had arranged before his arrest were becoming less useful now that the people around him were being questioned and the money connected to his old operations was being examined.

There was a time when Silas would have spent every waking hour looking for a way out.

That time had passed.

What remained was the question of who had done this.

His men had already reported everything they had found.

The courier had known nothing useful beyond the instructions he received. Someone had questioned him before Silas’s men reached him. The drop location had produced no clear evidence. The nearest camera had been too far away to identify the person who collected the packet.

Then came the recording of Michael and M’s conversation.

That recording had changed the way Silas looked at the entire situation.

Michael had sent the original evidence.

Silas was certain of that.

But Michael had not sent the material that eventually reached the people investigating them. There had been too much added to it. Michael’s name had been placed inside the evidence, and the material against Silas had been expanded beyond anything Michael would have needed to do if his only intention had been to damage Silas.

Michael had hurt himself.

That was the part Silas could not ignore.

A man could betray another man.

A man could even destroy someone he had once worked for.

But deliberately placing enough evidence inside a file to bring the attention of the IRS onto himself made no sense.

Silas had spent years studying Michael’s habits. He knew how Michael thought when he was angry, when he was afraid, and when he wanted something badly. Michael could be reckless, but he was not stupid.

Whoever had altered the file understood that.

They had also understood Silas.

That was what bothered him most.

Silas looked down at the table.

He had spent years building distance between himself and the people who worked beneath him. That distance had protected him. Michael had been one of the few people who knew enough about his operations to understand how much of the organization was hidden from the public.

Now Michael was in trouble, Silas was in trouble, and the person responsible was still somewhere outside the investigation.

There was another problem.

Michael knew about the courier.

Silas had learned that from the report his men gave him. They had found the courier, questioned him, and discovered that somebody had already reached him. That meant Michael’s people had eventually followed the same path.

Silas leaned back in his chair.

Of course they had.

Michael still had people working for him. He might have lost control of MM Label and much of the protection that had surrounded him, but he had not suddenly become helpless. His network had been built over years.

If Silas’s men could find the courier, Michael’s people could find him too.

The difference was that Silas already knew Michael was searching.

Michael did not know that Silas was doing the same.

That thought stayed with him.

For years, Silas had been used to having more information than the person sitting across from him. He preferred it that way. Information gave him options, and options gave him control.

Now he was considering whether to give some of that information to Michael.

The thought irritated him.

He had no desire to ask Michael for help.

Their history made that difficult enough. Michael had worked under him for twenty-three years. He had also been one of the men responsible for destroying the other three bosses connected to their old structure.

Graham was gone.

Isobel was gone.

Leonard was gone.

Silas was the last one still standing, although that description was becoming harder to defend every day.

Michael had played a part in all of it.

Even if Michael had been forced into his position, even if he had been treated badly, Silas could not simply forget what he had done.

There was too much blood between them, even if most of it had never been visible.

Silas reached for the bottle of water that had been left on the table and took a drink.

Contacting Michael could also be dangerous.

If the call were recorded, either man could use it against the other. If Michael was still angry enough, he might refuse to listen. Worse, he might assume Silas was trying to manipulate him.

Silas knew Michael well enough to expect that.

Still, the alternative was worse.

Their separate investigations had already reached the same dead end. Both sides had found the courier. Both had learned that somebody else had questioned him. Both had reached the drop location and found almost nothing.

The person they were looking for had been careful.

Silas had resources.

Michael had resources.

Separately, those resources were no longer enough.

Together, they might be.

He did not like the idea.

That was precisely why he kept returning to it.

A quiet knock came at the door.

One of the officers entered, placed some documents on the table, and left without saying anything. Silas glanced at the papers but did not touch them.

His attention had already moved elsewhere.

If he called Michael, what would he say?

He could tell him that his men had been investigating the courier.

He could explain what they found.

He could ask what Michael knew.

That was enough.

There was no need to pretend they trusted each other.

There was no need to apologize.

They only needed information.

Silas looked toward the closed door.

His pride resisted the decision for several minutes.

Then he reached for the phone.

Across the city, Michael was dealing with a different problem.

The photographs of Silas’s men were still open on his tablet.

He had looked at them several times since his people had sent them.

There was no confusion anymore.

Those men worked for Silas.

Michael had known one of them for years. He had sat in meetings with him. He had watched him carry out Silas’s instructions without asking unnecessary questions. The other man had also worked around Silas’s operations.

They were not strangers who happened to be in the same place.

They had been sent there.

Michael placed the tablet on his desk.

For some reason, that bothered him more than he expected.

He had spent the last few days trying to understand who had interfered with the file. The trail had been frustrating because every answer created another question.

Now there was another question entirely.

Why was Silas following it?

Michael stood and walked toward the window.

Silas already had enough problems.

His name was appearing in an investigation that had reached beyond the entertainment business. His accounts and connections were being examined. The people who had once worked around him were beginning to distance themselves.

Michael was in no better position.

His own name had appeared in the evidence.

The damage to MM Label was growing.

The investigation into his affairs had already begun to take away the protections he had relied on for years.

Neither of them had much left to protect.

So why was Silas still searching?

Michael thought about the men in the photographs again.

Silas could have been looking for revenge.

That was possible.

Maybe he believed Michael had lied about the evidence.

Maybe he thought Michael had done more than he admitted.

But the courier had already confirmed that somebody else had questioned him.

If Silas wanted Michael, there were easier ways to reach him.

Michael returned to his desk and sat down.

The more he thought about it, the less convincing the idea of revenge became.

Silas was investigating the trail because he wanted to know who had interfered with the file.

That meant Silas was asking the same questions.

Who changed the instructions?

Who turned the original carrier back?

Who brought in the replacement courier?

Who collected the packet?

Who added the extra evidence?

Michael rested his elbows on the desk.

He had been thinking about those questions for days.

Silas was now doing the same.

That should have made Michael feel less alone.

Instead, it made him uneasy.

For most of their history, Silas had been the man Michael answered to. Even after everything that happened, Michael still understood how dangerous Silas could be when he had time and information on his side.

But Silas had neither of those advantages now.

He was sitting inside an IRS facility.

Michael knew that much.

Whatever resources Silas still had were being operated by other people.

And yet his men had reached the courier.

Michael looked at the photographs again.

There was something else he could not ignore.

Silas’s people had found the courier before Michael’s people did.

That meant Silas had moved quickly.

Perhaps he had been suspicious from the beginning.

Perhaps he had understood something Michael had not.

The thought irritated Michael.

He had always hated discovering that somebody else was several steps ahead of him.

Still, he could not blame Silas for investigating.

If Michael were in Silas’s position, he would do the same.

That was the uncomfortable part.

Michael looked around his office.

The room was quieter than it used to be. Fewer people came through now. Some had stopped calling altogether. Others only contacted him when they needed to know whether the situation around MM Label had become dangerous for them.

The company had once felt permanent.

Now Michael was watching it weaken piece by piece.

He had already accepted that there might be no way to save it.

His freedom was also uncertain.

There were too many documents, too many accounts, too many connections being examined.

Even if his lawyers managed to reduce some of the damage, Michael knew that the life he had built was finished.

He did not need to convince himself otherwise anymore.

What remained was the person responsible.

Michael had spent years believing that the greatest danger came from people who wanted his position.

This was different.

Someone had understood enough of his operation to interfere with it without being noticed. They had taken a piece of information he believed was under his control, changed the path, and turned it into something that hurt him and Silas at the same time.

That person had planned carefully.

Michael wanted to know who it was.

Not because he believed revenge would restore what he had lost.

It would not.

He wanted the name because he needed to understand how someone had managed to reach them.

If he could not save himself, he could at least know who had destroyed him.

Michael reached for the glass on his desk and took a drink.

The thought of Silas returned.

Why investigate the same trail?

Why send those men?

What did Silas know that Michael did not?

A phone on the corner of the desk began to ring.

Michael looked at it.

For a moment, he considered ignoring the call.

Then he saw the number.

He knew it was one of the lines used for sensitive communications.

Michael picked up.

Neither man had spoken yet.

At the IRS facility, Silas was still holding his phone.

He had finally made the decision.

His pride had lost the argument because there was nothing left for pride to protect.

Whatever happened next, he needed answers.

Michael had reached almost the same conclusion from the other side.

They were both already facing the end of the lives they had built.

Neither man believed there was much chance of escaping what was coming.

But somewhere outside the walls of the IRS facility and outside Michael’s shrinking world, the person who had caused it all was still free.

That was the one thing neither of them had accepted.

They wanted to know who it was.

And for the first time in years, both men were willing to put their hatred aside long enough to find out.