Alpha Devon Vale;
Power is a delicate thing.
Most men believe it comes from money. Some believe it comes from fear. Others think it comes from loyalty.
Fools.
Real power comes from understanding people better than they understand themselves.
Which is why, as I sit behind the long mahogany desk in my study, I am not particularly interested in the financial reports spread neatly across its surface.
Those numbers will grow whether I watch them or not. Aurelian is the engine running that, after all.
What interests me instead are the thinner files stacked to my right.
Information. Patterns. Behavior.
Men reveal themselves through patterns. And my youngest son has begun to break his.
That is why these files exist.
I pick up the first one and skim through the pages without much interest. It's nothing but uneventful surveillance reports.
Movements, meetings, and financial activities. All normal things. All expected things.
