Night fell clear and sharp.
The air was dry, and the docks were quiet, but the silence felt wrong.
Lucian stood beside the black truck parked near the containers.
The sky glowed pale with city lights.
Far off, dogs barked in the distance, and metal chains rattled softly against the wind.
Marco checked his gun, eyes scanning every corner of the shadows around them.
“Everything’s ready, boss,” he said. “Men are in position.”
Lucian nodded once. “Good. No one fires until I give the word.”
He looked over the empty lot spread wide before him.
A single light bulb hung from a pole, swinging slow in the wind.
The place looked dead, but it wasn’t.
There was movement behind the silence.
Behind the containers, twenty of Lucian’s men waited.
They stood silent and steady, their guns drawn
