George (Seventeen)

I call Dara, tell her she's got work to do, tell her to meet me at the office cause I found Ghost. Tell Dara what Ghost told me, how that'll lead us to whoever's behind it, but it sounds like a whole lot of work. I hear her type type typing in the background, leave her to that.

Go back to the Vanguard to update George, tell him to hold out a little longer. Problem is, end of the month is coming, bills are due, he won't have much choice any way. Cause I couldn't do nothing else, I went back to the Vanguard to stand watch. Figured it was the only thing wouldn't make me completely useless.

[Four construction companies were currently improving the five blocks surrounding the Vanguard. A veritable host of real estate companies held deed on the associated real estate. Atop that, business had proliferated throughout the area due to the gentrification efforts.

At first, they all appeared independent of each other, merely the byproduct of a healthy capitalist economy. However, further inspection revealed not all of the businesses were quite as independent of each other as I'd suspected. Several holding companies held significant stakes in perhaps half of the business entities, including those bidding on the Vanguard.

For each of those holding companies, public records revealed intricate ownership structures, in addition to various anonymous entities, private individuals and private corporations. I leveraged some lax security measures implemented through the local government website to try and locate those anonymous identities, but someone had covered their tracks well. However, patterns tended towards one particular group, Mann and McShine.

It seemed that Mann and McShine ran this whole venture, but I eventually found that, somehow, it was set up in such a way that the legal entity owned itself, much as a sole proprietor owned his sole proprietorship.

A further analysis exposed Mann and McShine as controlling another entity, which appeared to hold significant sway. The Patrician group, some organization that barely existed digitally, had some controlling and voting stake in Mann and McShine's actions.

The organization structure of the Patrician group pointed towards their CEO, Robert Barker, controlling the entire scheme. I nearly called Trace to inform him, when I noticed that Dick Dawson was their CTO. CFO, Patrick Sajak. Their entire roster has more experience hosting game shows than shadowy shell companies.

Only a contractor, Primary Services, Inc., showed any hint of being true. It existed, so I had to assume this was the controlling individual. At the very least, it was the only lead we had. I got the street address, called Trace to let him know. -Dara].

Dara called me up around 5 AM. She told me what she got. Address sounded real familiar. Took me a few before I could remember why. Same building where Casper Johns got me thrown out on my duff.