Griffin knocked.
I let him in. He kissed me immediately, a reality check, then moved to the windows. Looked out. Turned back.
"Three adjustments in the last hour. All reasonable and all efficient." He showed me his phone. "But they're arriving too fast. They're all about narrower spaces, with fewer witnesses, and local staff decided instead of our team."
"You think something's coming."
"I think Soo-jin's still building toward something. LA proved he's willing to hurt people." He worked his jaw. "The question is whether he'll stop at injury."
He was quiet for a moment. "This city already has opinions about my judgment."
I waited.
"I'm not sure I ever shared the full story with you. The principal I was protecting, his car was hit. Planned ambush. Someone leaked his schedule. Information only three people had access to. I was one of them."
"But you didn't leak it."
"I couldn't prove that. Still can't. The principal survived, but the accident destroyed his knee. The firm terminated me. One of the other two people who had access disappeared right after."
I touched his chest, grounding him.
"So if something goes wrong here, it doesn't matter what caused it. It confirms what people already believe."
"What do you need from me?"
"Question everything. Run changes through Kang or me first." He looked into my eyes. "And if something feels wrong, even if you can't articulate why, tell me immediately."
Five minutes after Griffin left, Minjae knocked.
"Rune. Can I come in?" I ushered him inside. "Promise you won't ask how I got this?"
"I promise."
He showed me an internal message. Tour management platform. Official branding.
REVISED ACCESS PROTOCOL:
For Rune - Please use the interior service corridor (Level 2, west wing) to access the south entrance directly. A staff member will meet you at the service elevator (Floor 18, near the ice machine) at 19:50 to escort you.
Rest of band to arrive via standard south entrance route at 20:00 as scheduled.
It was unusual, but the certifications looked legitimate.
"Did you verify the contact?"
"I tried. The person who answered said they had sent no routing adjustments. All coordination goes through Chief Kang's team."
"So this came from inside our system, but it wasn't through the venue."
He looked at his phone. "It singles you out. Alone."
A ten-minute gap. Long enough to create a window for something to happen. Short enough to seem reasonable.
"If I'd followed this, I would've gone to the service elevator, with an escort through corridors no one else was using."
"While we went through the south entrance." Minjae furrowed his brow. "Griffin would have to decide. Chase you into unsecured corridors, or stay with us."
Minjae showed me the authorization logs. One entry highlighted:18:21 Pacific - Administrative Message Routing - Authorization: VF-Management-Executive-02
