The glass had barely been swept from the council floor before the next strike landed. It didn't come in the form of blades, shadow hitmen, or forged manifests. It came through the cold, mercenary engine of public relations.
At six o'clock on a torrential Thursday morning, the main screen in Dante’s glass-walled study flashed bright red with market alerts.
I stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, holding two porcelain cups of espresso, watching the stock ticker for Vane Global Logistics plummet seven percent in pre-market trading. Beneath the numbers ran a glowing headline that had hijacked every syndicate wire, gossip tabloid, and financial news portal from the North Coast to the Southern bayous:
HEIR TO THE VANE THRONE? VALENTINA MORETTI BREAKS SILENCE ON PRIVATE CLINIC VISIT, CLAIMS S
