Eduard Han Sy sat alone in his office, the early morning sun cutting thin rays through the floor-to-ceiling windows of his high-rise. The city of Cagayan de Oro sprawled below, ordinary and unaware, the hum of early traffic and distant voices drifting faintly upward. To any observer, the streets were calm, mundane—but to Eduard, everything was a series of patterns, probabilities, and opportunities. Nothing escaped his notice. Every detail, every small shift in the city or the people who moved through it, could be used, leveraged, or removed if necessary.
He leaned back in his chair, fingers lightly tracing the edge of his polished desk. A message from Ji Wan had arrived not long ago, confirming Eduard’s suspicion: the previous secretary—the one who had known far too much about him and Ji
