Chapter 16 - Gathering Allies
Ethan knew he couldn't fight a legal and political war alone. That evening, he drove into downtown Newport, parking his car near the independent newspaper office where investigative journalists had spent months exposing Whitmore Global's corruption.
Maya Lin, the senior editor who had broken the initial financial leaks, looked up from her desk as Ethan walked into the newsroom.
"Ethan? What are you doing out past curfew? Word on the street is the old board is trying a legal comeback," Maya said, pulling up a chair.
"They aren't just trying a comeback, Maya. They served me an injunction claiming I'm corporate property under an 1845 charter clause," Ethan said, sliding the documents onto her desk. "They're trying to use a loophole to seize the estate and the geothermal grid."
Maya scanned the papers, her expression hardening with fury. "This is completely unconstitutional. They're trying to bypass the liquidation rulings by digging up antebellum slavery laws applied to biological hybrids."
"They're betting that the federal judges won't understand the technology, and that public fear of an energy crisis will make the courts side with 'stability'," Ethan said.
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"Then we don't fight them in court alone," Maya declared, standing up and grabbing her jacket. "We publish the entire archive of the 1845 charter. We show the public exactly what clause 9-B was designed to do—buy, sell, and sacrifice human lives to maintain corporate monopolies. When millions of people see that the board views them as collateral, no judge in the country will dare sign that injunction."
Ethan felt a genuine smile touch his lips for the first time that day. "Let's expose them."
