"I have just received the complete financial report from our western distribution centers, Richter, and I am commanding you to come to my secret industrial office right now to explain how we are going to permanently obliterate the Vanya family name from this city."
The sharp demand vibrated through the small earpiece, cutting clean through the low mechanical hum of the industrial district. Richter did not speak immediately, letting the silence on the line stretch just long enough to cultivate the necessary tension. He walked through the thick, yellow sulfur smog that clung to the iron walkways of the lower manufacturing levels, his posture shifting seamlessly back into a weak, hesitant slouch as he approached the rusted elevator cage. The copper valves hissed above his head, releasing b
