From A Producer To A Global Superstar

The room had been quiet for less than a minute when Silas heard the knock again.

He was still standing beside the desk, staring at the papers the officer had left in his hands. The room looked nothing like it had an hour earlier. Files had been pulled from drawers, folders were open across the desk, and several sheets had been left on the floor after Silas had searched through them in frustration.

His attention remained on the first page.

"Sir, they’re waiting outside."

Silas looked toward the door. "Tell them I’ll be there."

The man hesitated. "They said they need you to come with them."

"I heard you."

Silas placed the document back on the desk and walked toward the door. He had dealt with investigators before. He had dealt with regulators, lawyers, journalists, politicians, people who believed they had enough power to make him uncomfortable.

The IRS was different.

It was not because they were impossible to influence. It was because they did not need to win an argument with him. They needed documents, numbers, transactions, companies, dates, signatures and records. Once they had enough of those things, the conversation changed.

And once that happens nobody would try to help him cause that was the power the IRS.

Nobody once to be involved.

Two officers stood outside.

A third person waited farther down the corridor with a folder tucked under one arm.

Silas stopped in front of them. "What is this about?"

One of the officers opened the folder. "We’re conducting an investigation into financial irregularities connected to several entities associated with you."

Silas looked at the papers without taking them.

"Which entities?"

"We’ll discuss that with you through the proper process."

His voice stayed controlled. "And you decided to come here today?"

"We did." The officers answered without much of a reaction.

Silas glanced past them toward the corridor. No cameras. or reporters. At least not yet.

"Am I being arrested?"

"Not at this time."

That answer did not comfort him. Because he knew the momenr he was taken out of here there was a high chance he might not see the sun and the reason was simple he saw the brief evidence posted online and he was almost sure that if they follow that part evidence would be gotten.

Silas stepped back into the room and reached for his phone. He needed to make a few calls before leaving. The first number rang twice before going to voicemail.

He tried another.

Nothing.

A third person answered but stayed silent for several seconds after Silas introduced himself.

"I need you to handle something for me."

"I’m sorry," the man said quietly. "I can’t."

Silas lowered the phone. "You don’t know what I’m asking."

"I know enough not to talk and you know better than to call at this time."

The call ended.

For several seconds, Silas stood without moving. His phone remained in his hand while the officers waited.

Another message appeared.

We’ll talk later. Don’t contact me again for now.

Silas read it twice.

People were already stepping away.

He slipped the phone into his pocket and looked at the officers.

"Fine."

The walk downstairs was quiet. Nobody spoke to him beyond what was necessary. The building staff avoided his eyes, and two people who normally greeted him every morning suddenly found reasons to look at their phones.

Silas noticed all of it.

He said nothing.

This reaction was already confirming what he already knew....

Outside, a black vehicle waited near the entrance. The street was busy enough to make the scene look ordinary, but Silas knew it would not stay that way for long.

Inside the vehicle, he received another document.

This time he read it properly.

Several company names appeared across the pages. Some were familiar. Others belonged to structures he had not thought about in years.

His eyes stopped on one name.

Michael.

Silas turned the page.

Michael’s name appeared again.

The connection was not enough to explain everything, but it was enough to change the direction of his thoughts.

He had already been dealing with Michael’s scandal. Now the financial investigation was reaching into the same territory.

Silas leaned back against the seat.

"How far does this go?" he asked.

The officer beside him did not answer.

Silas looked down at the document again.

For the first time that day, the possibility entered his mind that Michael might have prepared something far beyond his thoughts.

The thought irritated him more than it frightened him.

Michael had always been difficult to control. That was the reason Silas had eventually decided that he had to be dealt with. A man who kept too many secrets was dangerous even when he was loyal.

Now Silas had to consider another possibility.

Perhaps Michael had been keeping something for himself.

Silas closed his eyes as he knew doing another thinking for now was in vain.

****

Michael’s lawyer arrived later that afternoon.

Michael was already sitting inside the private meeting room when the door opened. He looked tired, but he had stopped showing the panic that had taken hold of him the previous day.

His lawyer placed a folder on the table.

"This has moved beyond the original allegations."

Michael looked at the folder but did not open it. "How far?"

"The financial side is growing."

"Silas?"

"His name is involved."

Michael leaned back.

For a moment, neither man spoke.

The lawyer opened the folder and pushed several pages across the table. "There are allegations involving tax irregularities, undisclosed assets, corporate structures and transactions between associated entities."

Michael picked up one page.

He read it slowly.

Some of the information was familiar.

Some of it was not.

His eyes stopped on a section that had not been part of the material he had prepared.

"Who added this?"

"I don’t know not like I saw the document you prepared or anything concerning that material."

Michael placed the paper down.

Anger came first.

Someone had touched his evidence.

They had changed it.

They had taken information he had carefully kept and mixed it with material he had never seen before.

Materials that not exclude him but deep him into the fire more.

Instead, another thought followed.

Some of the additions were exactly the kind of information that could hurt Silas.

Michael looked at the pages again.

"Whoever did this knows what they’re doing."

His lawyer watched him. "Do you know who?"

"No."

"Who else knew?"

Michael did not answer.

The question stayed between them.

Victor came to mind first.

Then M.

Then Silas himself.

There were others who had seen pieces of the situation, people who had handled documents, moved information, or been close enough to understand what Michael was trying to protect.

None of them made sense.

His lawyer closed the folder halfway. "There’s another problem."

Michael looked up.

"If the investigation continues at this level, you may not remain this way but go deep."

Michael’s expression changed slightly.

"What does that mean?"

"It means the people around you may become more important than you are."

Michael understood.

If Silas fell, the structure that had protected him for years could fall with him.

He hated the thought.

More than that, he hated the possibility that he might need Silas alive.

The man who had once been his strongest protection had become the person he most wanted gone.

"Can you stop it?" Michael asked.

"Not from where we are now you should have thought about it as this would have been the chain reaction."

Michael looked toward the window.

Outside, people moved through the street without knowing what was happening inside the building.

"What about Silas?"

"He’s already under pressure."

Michael gave a quiet laugh that contained no amusement.

"Good."

His lawyer studied him. "You don’t sound convinced."

"I’m not."

The lawyer closed the folder completely. "You need to understand something. If Silas goes down, you may lose whatever protection his position still gives you. If you know something that can keep him alive long enough to protect your interests, now would be the time to think about it."

Michael stared at the table.

He hated that the advice made sense.

Neither of them trusted the other anymore. Neither could afford to believe the other would act in his interest. Yet both were now being pushed toward the same problem.

His actual aim was to just threaten Silas to pull string to get him out not an all out war as the evidence that was released killed a way to do that.

Someone was pulling apart the structure around them.

Michael still did not know who.

Silas did not know either.

That uncertainty was beginning to become more dangerous than the evidence itself.

****

The following morning, Silas sat across from the IRS investigator with another folder between them.

He had spent the night trying to understand how much of the investigation was real and how much had been triggered by the scandal.

The answer was becoming clear.

Too much of it was real.

The investigator opened the folder and placed another document on the table.

Silas looked at the first page.

His eyes moved down the numbers.

Then he turned to the second page.

A company appeared there that should have been buried.

Silas stopped.

"Where did you get this?"

The investigator remained calm.

"We’re not here to discuss our sources."

Silas looked back at the document.

For the first time, the question was no longer whether Michael had prepared something against him.

Someone had gone deeper.

And Silas had no idea who.

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