Jin ordered two drinks from a passing vendor without asking if Roan wanted one and set both on the crate between them, as if the conversation had already been decided.Roan looked at the drink. Then at Jin.“Talk,” he said.Jin almost smiled. “Direct. Good.” He picked up his own drink, turned it in his hands without drinking. “My full name is Jin Woo. Youngest son of the Woo clan. Former youngest son, technically. They made that clear eight months ago when they removed my name from the family register.” He said it without self pity. Just facts. “I’ve been operating independently since then.”“Why did they remove you?”“Because I asked questions they didn’t want answered.” He finally drank. “The Woo clan has been in this city for four generations. Before that, records going back further than most families care to trace. I grew up with those records. Old texts, clan histories, accounts of events that predate anything you’d find in a conventional archive.” He set the cup down. “I was al

Jin brought the phone at seven in the morning along with two coffees and the particular energy of someone who had not slept.He dropped onto a crate across from Roan, set one coffee down between them, and pulled up a news stream without preamble. “You need to see this.”Roan took the coffee and looked at the screen.Victor Crest stood at a podium in what appeared to be the Crest Industries main lobby, recently redecorated for the occasion judging by the fresh floral arrangements and the corporate banners positioned with careful intentionality behind him. Beside him, Cole. Behind them both, a row of suited men who had the specific posture of people aware they were being photographed for something significant.The headline beneath the livestream read: CREST INDUSTRIES ANNOUNCES LANDMARK MERIDIAN PARTNERSHIP — PROJECTED VALUATION: $2.3 BILLION.Roan drank his coffee and watched.Victor was good at this. That was the honest assessment. He moved at the podium with the ease of a man who ha