Final Empire Read Online Free PDF

transforming this dilapidated pit into a livable city.”
    His shoulders bounced a few times and he breathed out a snort. “Matthew Moxon, ‘Mister Philanthropy’. I know you’ve been dolling out billions to fix the damage caused in last year’s attack, and I’m sure the citizens appreciate it. I’m sure the Mayor appreciates it too...as well as your sizable campaign contributions.”
    Wells shot me a self-satisfied, knowing glance, as if what he’d just said was the equivalent of moving a piece into checkmate.
    He wasn’t wrong. I had given the Mayor a significant contribution early this year in the hopes of getting some face-time with her. Standard operating procedure when an investor wants to get an ambitious project off the ground, at least according to my lawyers. The contribution was completely above-board, though it’s not like my company had issued a press release to brag about it. If the director of the STC had this much information on me, he didn’t get it on the flight over here; he’d been tracking me for quite some time. And thanks to whomever was setting me up, he probably had even more information that he was keeping under wraps.
    Sensing this impromptu Q and A couldn’t possibly be going any worse, I let out a shaky breath, trying to calm my frayed nerves. “Look, I don’t know what you think all this means, but this picture you’re painting, this isn’t who I am. You don’t know me.”
    “Oh, I know a lot about you, Matthew. Quite a bit more than you realize. But what you don’t know about me is that I’m new to Homeland. Up until six months ago I’d spent my entire career with the Securities and Exchange Commission. I came out of retirement just to pursue this case.”
    “You came out of retirement three hours ago?”
    “This case opened back in April during the attack on The Kremlin. And you’ve been our prime suspect ever since.”
    Shit. It was worse than I’d thought.
    “ And ,” he continued, “six months later here you are, sitting right across from me. Just like I knew you would be.” Wells tapped a finger into his temple. “I know how guys like you think, Matthew, because I’ve put a hundred of you behind bars.”
    “Like me...?”
    “We’re in Manhattan,” he explained, “the epicenter of the world’s economy. The megatowers in this city are filled with loaded pricks just like you. Smug little jackasses who have more money than they know what to do with. You’re all the same. And in the end, you all get caught for the exact same reason: you get complacent. Complacency leads to boredom, and when people get bored, they screw up.”
    At this point I was so frustrated I’d almost wished he would arrest or shoot me just to end my suffering. Maybe that was his strategy: continually spew out piles of bullshit until I finally broke down and confessed. He was no longer trying to extract information. He was toying with me.
    “Wow, that’s deep. Ever think of putting that on one of those decorative plaques that people hang in their bathroom?”
    He snorted again, his lips curling beneath his silver moustache. “At the SEC I bagged Wall Street scumbags all the time, and it was always because of just one, stupid slip-up. You made your mistake, Matthew. You couldn’t set up the game and walk away, could you? you needed a front row seat.”
    I scratched at my forehead in mock confusion. “Maybe it’s just your dizzying intellect that’s throwing me for a loop, but I’m not keeping up with your line of thinking.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said sharply, “Allow me to elaborate. This is precisely what happened: after the ‘Occupy Fortress 23’ movement ended and you were in the clear, things got boring. Ten months of being domesticated and you went stir crazy – we used to call it ‘cabin fever’ when I was a kid. No more superhumans to fight, no more Arena Mode, hiding out in your fancy tower with nothing to do...then one day your big brain gets an idea: now