Chapter 7 - THE TRAITOR WITHIN THE RANKS
The fragile peace of the penthouse was shattered early the next morning when Marco burst through the secure double doors, his face pale and grim, holding an encrypted tablet. "Boss, we have a security breach," Marco announced without preamble, casting a brief, apologetic glance toward me. "The port schedules for the Brooklyn terminal leaked to the Santoro syndicate thirty minutes before our encrypted transmission went live. There’s a mole in the upper administrative tier."
Enzo’s demeanor shifted in a fraction of a second. The warm, attentive man who had stood beside me at the window vanished completely, replaced by the lethal, calculating Black Lion of the underworld. His eyes turned ice-cold as he took the tablet from Marco’s hand. "Run an immediate diagnostic on all clearance logs from the past forty-eight hours," Enzo ordered, his voice dropping into a dangerous register. "Check every digital footprint originating from the executive floor."
I stepped forward, my professional instincts instantly kicking in despite the personal chaos. "The only people with tier-three clearance for those specific manifests are myself, Romano, and Assistant Director Vance," I said steadily. Enzo looked at me, his gaze softening momentarily before hardening back into resolve. "Verify Vance’s communications," Enzo commanded Marco. Within twenty minutes, the digital audit proved what we feared: Vance had been secretly selling shipping routes to our rivals to cover massive gambling debts. Without raising his voice or showing a shred of remorse, Enzo quietly ordered Vance’s immediate extraction and permanent removal from the organization, proving that betrayal in his world met a swift and absolute end.
