Sari woke to the taste of adrenaline and bad coffee. The plan had felt clever at midnight, surgical pressure, a tape-on-the-wind threat that would make the elites think twice. Now it felt like the wrong gust at the wrong time.
By nine, Mariella’s face on the video call told her everything before a single word. “They’ve mobilized faster than I expected,” Mariella said. Her tone was tight, not panicked but nowhere near calm. “And we’ve got a new player.”
Sari’s stomach dropped. “Who?”
“Alexander Almeda,” Mariella replied. “Founding partner at Ardent Lex. He was also a Howard client. Jessica Manlapig is under his account.”
Sari’s brain hiccuped. Jessica. The name she’d seen filed under Almeda’s entry, the woman who had shown up in the records like a glossed rumor. Almeda’s involvement cha
