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II-3.

III-2.

IV-1.

The first number identifies the generation. The second must identify something else.

I pull up three successfully decrypted files and test the theory against their transformation sequences. My heart starts pounding before the final comparison finishes.

“The second number is the key.”

Adrianos puts down his phone. “What kind of key?”

“Not the encryption key itself. The transformation sequence. It tells us how to read each generation.”

I enter the sequence for generation one. The file opens. For several seconds, neither of us speaks as a ledger fills the screen.

The structure is primitive compared with the current network. No sophisticated layering. No elegant chains of intermediaries spread across jurisdictions. Just small transfers disguised beneath legitimate Crown transactions.

Very small transfers. Experimental ones. I check the date and feel the first curl of dread in my stomach.

“No.”

Adrianos leans closer. “What?”

I scroll through older transactions, moving to the next and then another. I look for the earliest record Kalliopi mentioned, and the year comes into view. For a few moments, I wonder if I have read it incorrectly.

I haven't.

“This predates the heir murders.”

“By how much?”

“Years.”

I keep searching, pulling corporate records connected to the oldest transactions. Some companies no longer exist. Others have changed hands more than once. One belonged to a Crown-controlled business before Volkov became the Bratva king. Another predates Adrianos's leadership entirely.

“This was operating before some of you took control.”

Adrianos's expression hardens. “How far back?”

“I don't know yet.”

I build the timeline. The more records I add, the uglier it becomes.

I don't force connections where I can't prove them, but the dates cluster around the same infrastructure. The same channels appear. The same financial machinery wakes around events we believed were separate.

I pull up records surrounding Nikos's death.

A transaction passes through a structure descended from generation two. My hands go cold.

“This doesn't prove the network had anything to do with Nikos,” I say carefully. “It only proves activity around the same period.”

Adrianos doesn't answer immediately. His eyes remain on the screen. I search the period surrounding his parents' deaths.

Again, movement. Not proof. I refuse to call it proof. But the same hidden architecture is there. Different crimes. Same ecosystem.

“This isn't just theft,” I whisper.