The white ceramic mug hit the polished concrete with a dull, sickening thud, followed by the vicious hiss of boiling espresso spraying across the toes of Elena’s practical, thrift-store pumps.

The gala was a tactical victory, but Adrian knew Richard Bellamy was a cornered animal. A cornered animal in the shipping syndicate didn't surrender; it lashed out.

Two days later, back in the steel-and-oak sanctuary of Moretti Maritime Holdings, the tension reached a boiling point.

Marco, one of Adrian’s senior logistics directors, hurried into the office while Elena was reviewing port clearance manifests at her desk.

"Boss," Marco panted, holding a encrypted tablet. "We have a major breach at the South Chicago container terminal. Terminal 4."

Adrian looked up from his desk. "What kind of breach?"

"A shipping container registered under an auxiliary shell company linked to Bellamy Logistics was flagged by customs," Marco explained quickly. "It's carrying contraband—unlicensed medical tech hardware laced with encrypted server drives containing our entire database blueprint."

Elena’s eyes widened. She stood up immediately, walking over to the conference table where Marco laid down the manifest logs.

"That's impossible," Elena said, pointing at a serial number on the screen. "Look at the routing code. This manifest was signed off using my digital security key at 3:14 AM last night."

Adrian walked over, standing beside her. He looked down at the screen, his face hardening into granite. "You were home asleep at 3:14 AM."

"Someone cloned my digital signature," Elena realized, her stomach dropping. "They had access to the internal network during the system update last Thursday."

"Bellamy’s IT team," Adrian stated quietly. He looked at Marco. "Lock down the terminal. Mobilize Dante and two tactical teams. We're going down to South Chicago."

"Wait," Elena said, stepping in front of him. "If you go down there with an armed team without federal clearance, Bellamy will frame it as a syndicate raid. He wants to trigger an FBI intervention to freeze your assets."

Adrian stopped. He looked down at her, his pale gray eyes softening just a fraction. "And what do you suggest, Elena?"

"We don't raid the terminal," she said, a fierce, brilliant spark lighting up her green eyes. "We audit it. Publicly. We send the customs inspector and the federal prosecutor an unredacted copy of the true inventory manifest right now, before Bellamy can trigger the trap. Numbers don't lie, Adrian. Let the law do the dirty work."