Marven looked at the red envelope before him as if it were an old fax from another century. No one hurried to open it. No one spoke for a few seconds — an odd silence, like the pause before a loud laugh.
And so it was.
Reginald was the first to chuckle softly, tilting his head at Lucas as if he had just watched a bad performance.
“You think…” he drew it out, “…an unknown name, carrying a dossier and a label from an ‘independent’ agency that hasn’t been verified, can come in here and freeze an Alpha-level transaction worth hundreds of millions of USD?”
Lucas did not answer. That question was not meant to be answered.
Marven still hadn’t released the pen. He only lifted it slowly, angled it toward the light, then said quietly: “Your access is clean. The documents look fine. But unless I
