From A Producer To A Global Superstar

Michael had been sitting in the same chair for nearly an hour when the door opened again.

He looked toward the entrance, expecting his lawyer. The man who entered was one of the officers who had been stationed outside the room.

"Your lawyer is here."

Michael straightened slightly. "Send him in."

The officer stepped aside, and Michael’s lawyer entered with a folder tucked against his side. He looked more serious than he had earlier, but he did not seem frightened. That was one thing Michael appreciated about him. The man knew how to deliver bad news without making the room feel smaller.

Michael waited until the door closed behind him.

"What happened?"

The lawyer placed the folder on the table but kept his hand on it. "Things have moved."

Michael gave him a tired look. "That’s not an answer."

"I know." The lawyer pulled out a chair and sat across from him. "The public allegations are still spreading, but there is now another investigation running alongside them."

Michael’s attention sharpened. "Silas?"

"Silas is involved, yes. But so are you."

Michael stared at him for a moment.

"The financial investigation?"

The lawyer nodded. "Your name has appeared in the material connected to the tax investigation. They are looking at transactions involving companies and entities associated with both of you."

Michael leaned back slowly.

He had expected the scandal to become ugly. He had expected journalists to keep digging, people to start talking, and Silas to use whatever influence he had left to push the story away. The financial side was different.

"How serious?"

"I don’t have enough information to give you a final assessment. What I can tell you is that they are not treating this as a minor accounting problem."

Michael looked toward the small window near the top of the wall. There was no view from it, only a pale strip of daylight.

"Tax."

"Yes."

Michael rubbed his hand across his mouth. He knew what that word could mean when investigators started following it properly. A scandal could be argued. A story could be denied. People could attack the reporter, question the source, challenge the interpretation.

Numbers were harder.

His lawyer opened the folder and took out several pages. "These are the updates I’ve been able to get. I haven’t touched anything connected to your private material. I want that clear."

Michael looked at him.

"I didn’t ask you to."

"I know. I’m telling you because I don’t want there to be any confusion later. I haven’t accessed your files, I haven’t reviewed anything you were keeping, and I haven’t spoken to anyone about that side of your situation. I’ve only been following what is already being reported and what the authorities have formally communicated."

Michael accepted that with a small movement of his head.

That was exactly how he wanted it.

The lawyer continued. "The financial allegations involve tax irregularities, undisclosed assets, corporate structures and transactions between associated entities. Some of those entities are connected to Silas."

"And me."

"Your name appears in the investigation."

Michael picked up one of the pages and read through it.

The language was careful. Nothing accused him directly of anything beyond what investigators believed required further examination, but the implication was clear enough. They were following money, ownership structures and transactions that crossed between different companies.

He placed the page down.

"How did they get this?"

"I don’t know."

"You’re my lawyer."

"I’m your lawyer. That doesn’t mean the investigators tell me where every document came from."

Michael stared at him.

The lawyer remained still. "You asked me how serious it is. I’m telling you what I know. I don’t know the source of their material."

A heavy silence settled between them.

Michael looked down at the folder again. He had spent so much time thinking about Silas and the evidence against him that he had almost forgotten how exposed his own position could become once people started looking beyond the original scandal.

"What about Silas?"

"He’s under investigation too."

Michael gave a quiet breath through his nose.

That should have pleased him.

Instead, it left him uneasy.

His lawyer noticed. "You were expecting this?"

"I was expecting him to have problems."

"There’s a difference?"

Michael looked at the documents again. "Yes."

The lawyer waited.

Michael didn’t explain.

He couldn’t.

His original plan had never been to destroy Silas completely. He had wanted enough pressure to force him to act, enough danger to make him use the influence he still had and get Michael out of the position he was in. The scandal had been a weapon.

Now the weapon was moving in directions Michael had not planned.

"If Silas goes down," the lawyer said carefully, "you need to understand that whatever protection his position gives you may disappear with him."

Michael looked up.

"I don’t have protection from Silas."

"You know what I mean."

Michael did.

The lawyer closed the folder halfway. "If investigators connect enough of this together, they won’t care who was protecting whom. They’ll follow the people and the money."

Michael sat back.

For once, there was nothing useful to say.

A knock sounded at the door.

Both men turned.

The same officer entered, this time with another person behind him.

"Mr. Michael," the officer said, "there are representatives from the IRS here."

Michael’s eyes moved to the two people standing in the doorway.

His lawyer rose from his chair. "For what purpose?"

"They’ve requested to speak with him regarding the financial investigation."

Michael looked at his lawyer.

The lawyer turned toward the officers. "He’s already being held here. If they want an interview, we need to know what authority they’re acting under."

One of the investigators stepped forward and presented a document.

"We have a formal request for questioning. His name has appeared in the financial investigation involving several entities connected to Mr. Silas."

Michael took the information in without speaking.

His lawyer read the document.

"They want him now?"

"They do."

The lawyer looked at Michael. "You don’t have to answer anything without legal representation."

"I know."

"We’ll go with you."

Michael stood.

For a moment, he remained beside the table, looking at the papers his lawyer had brought. His own name sat beside financial allegations that were now being examined by people he had no influence over.

The original case had already taken away his access to his phone, his people and the information he normally controlled.

Now another investigation was taking away whatever space remained.

As they walked through the corridor, Michael noticed how little anyone looked at him.

The officers kept their attention on the work in front of them. A few people moved aside as they passed. Nobody stopped to ask questions.

Outside the station, the world was still moving normally.

Cars passed along the road. A bus stopped at the corner. Two reporters stood near the entrance with cameras ready, and the moment Michael appeared, they started calling his name.

"Mr. Michael, are you cooperating with the investigation?"

"Is it true that you’re being questioned over tax allegations?"

"Are the allegations connected to Silas?"

Michael kept walking.

His lawyer stayed beside him as the officers led them toward the waiting vehicle.

"Don’t say anything," the lawyer said quietly.

Michael looked at him.

"Not to them. Not to anyone outside. Let the process begin before you start trying to explain yourself."

Michael gave no answer.

He climbed into the vehicle.

The door closed.

For several seconds, he watched the reporters through the glass as the vehicle pulled away from the station.

The questions followed them for only a short distance before the road swallowed the noise.

Michael looked down at his hands.

He had no phone.

No access to the internet.

No way to check what had happened outside.

No way to contact M.

That last thought stayed with him.

He had already told M not to call him after the favor was repaid. The arrangement had ended there. Michael had accepted that because he had believed he would not need anything else.

Now he wasn’t so sure.

The vehicle turned onto another road.

His lawyer sat opposite him, reading through the documents again.

Michael finally spoke. "Do you think Silas gave them something?"

"I don’t know."

"Would he?"

"If he thought it protected him, possibly."

Michael looked through the window.

Silas would not move carelessly. He knew that much. The man was too controlled, too deliberate. If his name was appearing beside Michael’s in a financial investigation, there had to be something behind it.

But Michael could not tell whether Silas had prepared for this or whether someone else had pushed both of them into the same investigation.

That uncertainty bothered him.

The vehicle eventually stopped outside another government building.

Michael stepped out with his lawyer beside him.

The reporters were gone here.

The quiet made the place feel more serious.

Inside, they were taken through a security checkpoint and then along a corridor where nobody appeared interested in who Michael was. A woman at the desk checked the documents, spoke briefly with one of the officers and directed them toward a small waiting area.

Michael sat.

His lawyer remained beside him.

Neither spoke for several minutes.

Eventually, the lawyer broke the silence.

"Whatever happens in there, don’t guess."

Michael looked at him.

"If you don’t know something, say you don’t know. If you don’t remember, say that. Don’t try to fill gaps."

Michael’s mouth tightened slightly. "I know how questioning works."

"I know you do. I’m still telling you."

Michael looked down at the floor.

The lawyer wasn’t being dramatic. He was doing his job.

A door opened across the corridor.

An investigator stepped out.

"Mr. Michael."

Michael stood.

His lawyer followed.

They entered a small room with a table, three chairs and several folders already arranged in front of one of them.

Michael sat across from the investigator.

His lawyer took the chair beside him.

The investigator opened the first folder.

Michael watched the movement carefully.

The first page carried his name.

The second carried Silas’s.

He looked at the pages without touching them.

The investigator folded his hands on the table.

"Mr. Michael, before we begin, do you understand why you’re here?"

Michael looked at the documents again.

He knew the answer.

What he didn’t know was how much they already knew.

"I understand," he said.

The investigator reached for the next page.

"Good. Then we’ll start with the financial relationship between you and Mr. Silas."

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