"Everyone connected to my project. Look at this." He held the notebook open for Sarah. "These entries go back almost two years before my arrest. She was writing down every person she believed was involved in watching me."He turned another page and stopped. His finger pressed against a line written in slightly darker ink, as if his mother had gone over it more than once to make sure it was permanent."Met E. today. He says he wants to protect A. from the same people. He seems sincere, but I am not sure I can trust him completely. He is afraid, and afraid men make mistakes."Adrian looked up at Sarah. "E. That's Elias. My mother met him.""She met Elias personally?""It says right here. She believed he was trying to protect me. But she was not sure whether to trust him." He turned to the next page. Another entry, dated a few weeks later. "E. came again. He told me that the people around him cannot all be trusted. He said there is someone inside the company who is feeding information to

The first man moved fast. He lunged at Adrian from the left with his fist already swinging. Adrian sidestepped and caught the man's arm at the elbow. He used the momentum to slam him face first into the edge of the conference table. The man's nose cracked against the wood and he dropped to the floor, blood spreading across the polished surface.The second attacker hesitated. That hesitation cost him two seconds, and Adrian used both of them. He grabbed the chair beside him and drove it into the man's midsection. The man stumbled backward, hit the wall, and scrambled for the door. He unlocked it with shaking hands and disappeared into the corridor.Adrian stood in the middle of the room, breathing hard, his knuckles white, his shirt pulled loose at the collar. The first man lay groaning on the floor with blood dripping from his face onto the carpet.Footsteps in the hallway. Quick, panicked, stumbling. Marcus appeared in the doorway. His face was white, his eyes wide, his hands trembli

Marcus sat in the safe room with his hands wrapped around a cup of coffee he had not touched in twenty minutes. Adrian stood across from him with his arms folded, waiting."Tell me about Meridian."Marcus looked up. The dark circles under his eyes had deepened since the previous night, and his skin had the grey, washed out look of a man who had not slept in days."Meridian Group. That is what they call themselves. But the name is meaningless. It does not appear on any registry, any database, any public document anywhere in the world.""An investment group with no public presence?""They are not an ordinary investment group, Adrian. They have no headquarters, no website, no board of directors that anyone can identify. They operate through hundreds of shell companies spread across dozens of countries. They buy small stakes in powerful corporations, never enough to attract attention, but always enough to have influence.""How long have they been active?""I don't know. Years. Maybe decad

This is not a man I can simply push around anymore.""Which is precisely why the timeline has been accelerated." Julian stopped pacing. "What does that mean?""It means Chloe. You need to complete the arrangement with her before Adrian discovers the full picture. Once he understands the connection between your finances and our network, he will move against you. And when that happens, Chloe and everything she controls must already be in your hands.""And if I refuse? If I decide I have had enough of being your errand boy?"The silence that followed was long enough to make

"Is there something you actually need?""I need you to stop pretending. Look at this building. Look at the people walking in and out of those doors. These are real professionals. Real businesspeople. People who built careers while you were sitting in a concrete cell eating off a metal tray." She stepped closer and lowered her voice, but not enough. Several employees walking past slowed down and glanced at them. "You don't belong here, Adrian. You have never belonged anywhere like this. And putting on a nice suit does not change what you are underneath it."Adrian looked at her for a long moment. The kind of look that made people feel like they were being read from the inside out."You're still measuring my worth by what you can see, Chloe. You always did.""What else is there to measure? Tell me. What do you have? A failed marriage that was never even real. No career. No money. No social standing. No future." She ticked each item off on her fingers like she was reading a list of charge