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Lorenzo exhales and comes toward the table. "Can we make it five minutes without threatening each other?"

"I haven't threatened anyone," I say.

Declan takes his seat. "Give it time."

Elena opens her laptop while Santiago continues watching her. "There are things discussed in this room that don't leave it."

"Then I suggest you don't leak them," she says.

Volkov gives a quiet laugh. Santiago's jaw tightens, but I have no intention of allowing this conversation to turn into a debate over Elena's presence.

"Enough. Elena uncovered the financial network we've been chasing. She found Karras, traced OB6 through Crown infrastructure, and proved the money has been accumulating for decades. Last night, someone used legitimate security credentials to breach my penthouse and tried to take her because of what she knows."

That kills the amusement instantly. Every man around the table becomes still.

I look directly at Santiago. "She speaks with my authority. She isn't here merely as my accountant. She's my partner, and anything she says in this room will be treated accordingly."

Silence follows.

Elena turns her head toward me. I feel her gaze but don't return it. If I do, I'll probably find that expression she gets whenever I say something she wasn't expecting, and there are four other men in this room who don't need to know how thoroughly this woman has compromised me.

Lorenzo gestures toward the large screen covering one wall. "Then show us."

Elena connects her laptop, and numbers appear on the screen while the Crown watches closely. She directly presents her findings without any unnecessary flair, as there's no need for dramatization.

She walks the men through Kalliopi's notation system, showing them the different generations of OB6 and how its architecture evolved over more than twenty years. Small diversions became shell companies. Shell companies became international intermediaries. Those intermediaries penetrated legitimate Crown businesses until stolen money could move through ordinary transactions without attracting attention.

Nobody interrupts her now.

She shows them shipping insurance, real-estate transactions, currency conversions, loan servicing, and investment funds. Fractions disappear from hundreds of legitimate transactions, small enough individually that no accountant examining a single company would have considered them significant.

Together, they're worth hundreds of millions. Then Elena brings up the reservoir.

Santiago stops drinking.

Declan leans forward, his attention sharpening. Lorenzo's expression grows darker with every figure appearing on the screen, while Volkov sits almost completely motionless.

"How much is there?" Lorenzo asks.

"That's the problem," Elena says. "Most of it isn't there anymore."

She changes the screen.

Current balances replace historical totals, and the atmosphere in the room shifts immediately. Accounts that once held millions are almost empty. Others have been completely drained during the last several days.

"The reservoir has been dispersing rapidly," Elena continues. "According to the broker Adrianos and I questioned this morning, the money has already been distributed across multiple operational categories. Weapons procurement, contractors, logistics, safe houses, political intermediaries, and private security."

Santiago puts his glass down. "You're saying someone stole hundreds of millions from us to finance an army?"

"I'm saying someone used infrastructure belonging to all five organizations to build the capacity for one. We don't know whether the objective is an army, coordinated assassinations, political destabilization, or something larger."

"That's not the same thing."

"No," Elena says. "It's worse. If the money were still sitting somewhere, we'd have time to stop whoever controls it from spending it. We don't. The war chest has already been deployed."

Volkov finally moves.

"Go back."