The weekend passed at work.Ethan ran the Reyes thread backward through everything Joy had pulled, laying it out in his notebook the way a surgeon lays instruments before an operation — not because he needed to look at each one, but because the arrangement revealed the logic.By Sunday night, Ethan understood how it all fit together.Gabriel Reyes had been Warren Yates's first builder. He taught Yates how to set up companies with just enough legal distance — Wyoming shell companies, Delaware holding layers, figureheads who couldn't be questioned because they didn't officially run anything. Yates used that knowledge to build Heron. He made Reyes a part owner because Reyes was both the promise and the protection — a man who knew where the escape routes were because he had designed them.The problem was that Reyes also knew where all the proof was.And if Yates was building a defense using Harlan Cross — getting ready for an SEC investigation, shielding his compliance team, creating a le

Carmen called at 7:02 AM. "I read it," she said. "We need to talk in person. Not on the phone." "I'll be there in twenty minutes," Ethan replied.When he arrived, the office was quiet. Murphy, Joy, and Felix were not in yet. Carmen sat at the conference table with printed photos laid out in three neat rows.She looked up. "This is a RICO setup on purpose," she said. "The person who designed it knew how to make each part look legal on its own. The links between them exist, but they are only clear if you can prove everyone planned it together." "Can you prove it?" Ethan asked."With Reyes's documentation? Yes. Without it? We would waste over a year in court, and they would take apart the shell companies before we could act ." She tapped the middle row. "But there is another problem. This document shows how they attacked. It doesn't show who profits from the other side. And until we know that—""We can't know what the real target is," Ethan finished.Carmen set down her pen. "What do y