The enemy approached not with guns blazing in the night, but with whispers and leverage in the shadowed underbelly of Abidjan’s syndicate world. Word of Elena’s true identity as Phoenix had begun to leak, perhaps from a loose-lipped captain after the hall incident, or a Kane remnant digging into old fires. A rival family, the sharp-eyed Delacroix clan longtime opportunists who had profited from the Voss-Moretti wars saw their chance. They sent a message: an encrypted note delivered by a terrified courier, demanding concessions on port routes in exchange for silence. “The Phoenix is a Voss weapon planted in your bed,” it read. “Hand over the eastern territories, or we expose her as the girl who saved you only to destroy you from within.”
Dante read the note in the study, his face a mask of
