Felix's instructions, sent via telegraph, created ripples between New York and Chicago.
Charles Reeves was the first to feel it.
When a hundred-thousand-dollar bank draft from Argyle Bank was placed before him, the old engineer, who had been stubborn his entire life, felt his hand tremble slightly as he held the thin piece of paper.
On his office desk lay a loss report, compiled just yesterday—within a week of the Eastern Railroad Alliance initiating a price war, the Mississippi and Eastern Railroad Company's most profitable eastbound freight line had lost over sixty percent of its orders.
"Charles, our losses this month… are terrible," Benjamin, the company's chief accountant, said worriedly. "If we follow suit and cut prices, the losses will be even greater. If we don't cut prices, customers will continue to leave. This… this is a dead end."
"No, Benjamin."
