CHAPTER 29 — THE PRICE OF POWER
Power did not announce itself with noise.
It arrived quietly, through hesitation.
Amara noticed it first in the pauses — half a second too long before a response, a delay in confirmation where there had once been immediacy. The city still moved, still functioned, but the rhythm had shifted. And in that shift was uncertainty.
Uncertainty was dangerous.
She stood at the head of the long table in the operations hall, eyes fixed on the city map projected across the glass surface. Dots of light marked assets, routes, alliances. Everything looked intact.
That was the problem.
“They’re waiting,” Amara said.
Around the table, men who had survived decades of underworld politics exchanged uneasy glances. One of them cleared his throat.
“For what, exactly?”
“
