A week folded itself into a storm and then a hush, leaving the city rearranged in its wake.
Days arrived with the kind of headline that rewrites reputations. Sterling Enterprises had quietly, decisively purchased a sixty-two percent majority stake in Air Telecommunications, a company that not only spanned continents but threaded the airwaves of dozens of nations. The press ran numbers and speculative columns—where did a Star Harbor firm find this capital overnight, who underwrote the bid, and what did it mean when a local player took control of a global backbone. Markets hiccupped. Competitors blinked and then recalculated. Investors who had slept through Sterling's quiet moves the last month suddenly learned to sleep with one wary eye open.
