Chapter 65: The Landlord’s Portfolio

Julian put his hands on the glass, breathing hard, ready to pull himself over.

"A sloppy way to clear your name." The calm voice cut through the noise.

The crowd stepped aside as Jude Lawson walked forward, Harper right beside him.

Cassidy frowned, annoyed by the interruption. "Who are you?"

Jude ignored her, walking toward the railing and stopping a few steps from Julian. He looked the young coder up and down once, then turned his gaze back to Cassidy.

"You don’t look like someone who was just cornered," Jude said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Cassidy asked, taking a step back.

"Someone confronting a real threat doesn’t look relaxed," Jude said, watching her face. "You just backed him into a camera blind spot, waited for him to break, and now you’re watching him climb a railing with a smile on your face."

Jude lowered his voice slightly, stepping into her space. "So tell the room what really happened."

Cassidy stepped back. The murmurs died down, and the students and investors turned their attention straight toward her.

"I... I don’t know what you’re talking about," Cassidy stammered. "He confessed. You all heard him."

"He said what you wanted to hear under threat of extortion," Jude said evenly. "Who paid you to run this?"

Her eyes flicked toward the edge of the crowd.

Standing near the coffee bar was Carter Sterling, heir to Sterling Energy, who had come to scout software from the incubator. His face paled as the entire room followed her gaze.

"She’s lying," Carter said, straightening his jacket.

It was too late. Julian stepped back from the railing, putting the pieces together.

He had spent 3 years developing software to locate deepwater oil and mineral deposits with high accuracy.

Sterling Energy had tried to buy it for next to nothing a week earlier, and Julian had turned them down.

"You tried to destroy me so you could buy my code for cheap," Julian said, staring at Carter.

Carter didn’t answer. The investors in the room exchanged quiet, disgusted looks.

Sabotage happened, but threatening an intern with fabricated charges to steal his work went too far.

"Julian," Jude said. "Lawson Capital will acquire your mapping platform. We’ll fund your company at a $50 million valuation for exclusive rights."

Julian blinked through tears of relief, nodding over and over. "Yes. Absolutely, Mr. Lawson. Thank you."

As Jude shook his hand, the familiar message flickered in his vision:

[Mission Accomplished.]

[Reward Deployed: Ownership of the Baffin Bay Deepwater Reserves.]

[Asset Valuation: $15 Billion USD.]

Jude kept his expression neutral.

The code was valuable, but the System had just handed him title to the actual reserves Julian’s software was built to locate!

Before Carter could leave the lobby, the entrance doors opened.

Three senior officials from the Department of Energy walked in, flanked by two security officers. The students moved aside to clear the hall.

The officials walked past the venture capitalists and stopped directly in front of Jude.

"Mr. Lawson," the lead director said, extending a hand. "We’ve been trying to reach your office all morning. Word of your offshore acquisition just hit Washington."

Carter froze. He knew the regulators... they oversaw major federal pipeline and lease permits across North America. Seeing them approach Jude in person made no sense.

"You mean the Baffin Bay block?" Jude asked, shaking his hand.

"Yes," the second director said. "Securing those deepwater tracts changes national energy security overnight. It gives us considerable leverage in the region, and we appreciate Lawson Capital moving so quickly."

"Wait," Carter cut in, pushing forward. "Baffin Bay? Those blocks have been tied up in probate for 20 years. You didn’t just buy his software... you own the fields?"

Jude ignored him.

The lead director lowered his voice. "Mr. Lawson, Washington is uneasy with private ownership over a reserve of this scale. If Lawson Capital doesn’t have the offshore rigs to produce it, the Department is prepared to buy out the lease today. We’re authorized to offer $10 billion cash."

"The rights aren’t for sale," Jude replied.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out the gold-sealed federal permit. "I hold the extraction mandate. We’re going to drill."

The directors looked at the document, nodding slowly. The paperwork was airtight...

Carter’s anger turned into desperation. Realizing the scale of the field, he swallowed his pride and stepped toward Jude.

"Lawson," Carter said, forcing a smile. "Sterling Energy has the rigs and the logistics ready to deploy. We can split the run and deliver billions every quarter. Let us handle operations."

Jude turned his head, looking down at him.

"You think I’d hand a multibillion-dollar reserve to someone who just tried to blackmail a student?" Jude said. "You won’t see a barrel of my oil, Carter."

Jude looked around at the venture capitalists and fund managers watching the exchange.

He had the reserves, the permit, and the mapping software; he only needed capital to charter the equipment.

"I need $3 billion to mobilize the deepwater platforms," Jude said. "I’m putting up $500 million of my own capital. The remaining $2.5 billion is open to this room for dividend equity. My board will handle allocations."

The room moved immediately.

"I can wire $1 billion by noon," a West Coast fund manager called out.

"We’ll take $800 million," a Boston investor said, stepping in front of Carter.

"Put me down for the last $700 million."

Within 60 seconds, Jude had locked in $3 billion in working capital without touching his core reserves.

He had secured the tech, shut down a competitor, and locked down the largest energy play of the year before noon.

Beside him, Harper smiled, watching the room fall in line.

...

Two hours after closing the Baffin Bay deal, Jude’s car pulled up to the Manhattan Conservatory of Music across from Lincoln Center.

Apex Studios was preparing The Sovereign, a historical feature starring Valeria Cross, and the film still needed an orchestral theme.

Jude had gone to the main auditorium to check the hall’s acoustics. While testing the room, he sat at the Steinway grand piano and played through a complex piece from memory.

It lasted under 4 minutes, but it brought half the building to a stop.

As Jude walked through the main hall toward the exit, a crowd of students and faculty gathered around him.

"Mr. Lawson, one question," a student called out, hurrying alongside him with a binder of sheet music. "Your timing in the opening movement was incredible. How long did you study conservatory piano to play like that?"

"Practice is for memorizing technique," Jude said. "I understand how the composition works and play it. I’ve never spent hours running scales."

The hall fell quiet for a second before people started talking over each other.

"Did he say he doesn’t practice?"

"That sounded cleaner than most concert recordings."

Near the balcony above the lobby, Mia Rowe stood by the railing with her camera running.

Mia was an online lifestyle creator with over 4 million followers. She had stopped by to film content on composition, but her camera had stayed pointed at Jude from the moment he walked out of the hall.

Her live chat was flooding with messages:

"Wait, isn’t that Mia’s landlord?"

"That’s Jude Lawson from Lawson Capital."

"He runs a multibillion-dollar fund and plays like a concert pianist?"

"I don’t know what to tell you," Mia said into her microphone, looking down from the balcony. "I knew he managed investments and owned my building. My rent is $80,000 a month, which was already intimidating. Now he’s outplaying conservatory faculty?"

She thought back to signing her lease in the building’s management office. Jude had been there briefly, running through the credit verification and welcoming her to the tower.

Back then, she wondered if he had taken any notice of her. Seeing the attention he drew now, she kept her lens focused on him.

Near the revolving doors, another student called out over the crowd.

"Mr. Lawson!" she said, stepping forward. "Two weeks ago, during the closed auditions in Hall C, someone sang an arrangement of Ashen Embers. Someone posted a 30-second recording online, and it went viral with over 50 million views. People have been trying to figure out who it was ever since. The silhouette matched your build. Was that you?"

The lobby went quiet again.

The audio had spent 2 weeks circulating across social platforms, with music agencies trying to trace who recorded it.

Jude stopped and turned toward her.

He had recorded the piece to test the room’s sound profiles while Apex was acquiring the distribution rights.

"I used the hall to check the sound levels for a film score," Jude said simply. "The recording wasn’t authorized, but that was my vocal take."

The room broke into noise immediately.

"It was him."

"The recording was Lawson?"

Students crowded closer toward the entrance, blocking the doors.

Upstairs, Mia leaned over the railing. She had listened to that short clip dozens of times, like everyone else online. Realizing the man who sang it was the owner of her building gave her pause.

Her chat was moving fast...

"Go talk to him, Mia."

"You live in his building, just go down."

Mia picked up her bag and headed down the marble stairs. "Mr. Lawson! Jude!" she called out, trying to get through the crowd near the lobby doors. "It’s Mia, from Penthouse B."

Her voice was lost under the chatter of the students.

Jude took one look at the crowded doorway and gave a nod toward the street.

The doors opened. Ghost and two guards from Lawson’s security detail walked in, moving between Jude and the crowd to clear an opening toward the curb.

"Excuse us," Ghost said, stepping ahead.

Jude walked through without breaking stride and stepped out into the afternoon air.

The black Koenigsegg Jesko sat waiting by the sidewalk. Ghost held the door, and Jude got in behind the wheel.

The engine started up and the car pulled into traffic down Columbus Avenue.

On the front steps, Mia stopped, watching the car blend into the city traffic.

"Missed him," she muttered, checking her phone.

Her screen lit up with new notifications and trending posts:

"Mia, check the music trades."

"Nadia Cole just dropped her release!"

Mia opened the entertainment feed. Nadia Cole, an independent songwriter renting an apartment on one of the lower floors of the Obsidian Tower, had just announced her debut single, Cinders of Glass.

Written and Arranged by: Jude Lawson & Nadia Cole.

Executive Producer: Jude Lawson.

The entertainment trades were already running stories on how an investment manager had ended up producing one of the week’s biggest releases.

The release also confirmed Nadia had signed a $50 million distribution deal with Windward Records, a label recently bought by Apex Media.

Mia stood on the sidewalk, reading the headline twice.

She had millions of followers, while Nadia was an unknown songwriter living 10 floors down... yet Nadia had secured Jude Lawson as a producer and walked away with a major label deal!

He produced her track, Mia thought, looking back at the building.

If Jude was scouting tenants right out of his own building, nothing was stopping her from being next in line...

She turned the phone camera back toward herself.

"Alright, that’s it for the stream today," Mia said to the chat. Today’s stream is over. I have a meeting with my landlord."