I was standing beside my architectural model at the Grand Aurelia gala when my ex pointed at my wedding ring and laughed loud enough for the entire ballroom to hear. “Where’s your husband, Elena? Did you invent him because nobody wanted to marry you?” I calmly tightened my fingers around the blueprint in my arms and said nothing. Then the glamorous woman beside him joined in, and I heard the crowd around us fall strangely quiet. My ex was still smiling when a man in black stepped out from directly behind him and spoke two words that changed every face in the room...

By Thursday evening, the Haven Point controversy had reached a fever pitch in the city news.

With Julian Mercer facing federal indictment and Councilman Vale singing to prosecutors in exchange for a plea deal, the city council voted to fast-track Elena’s ground-breaking ceremony for Saturday morning.

Inside the Moretti estate, however, preparations of a very different kind were taking place.

In the basement tactical room beneath the garage, Dante stood around an illuminated glass map table with Marcus and three senior lieutenants. Digital schematics of Pier 14 and the surrounding Vance logistics yards hovered over the display.

"Victor Vance has twenty men stationed at the old cold-storage facility near Pier 18," Marcus reported, pointing to a red square on the map. "They brought in two unmarked crates from the south harbor at 3:00 AM today. Weapons, boss. Heavy automatic weapons."

Dante stared at the map, his jaw set. "He plans to disrupt the ground-breaking ceremony on Saturday. He wants to cause enough panic to make the city freeze the project funding."

"We can sweep the facility tonight," Marcus suggested, his hand resting on his sidearm. "Take them down before they even get to the docks."

"No," a voice called out from the doorway.

Dante turned.

Elena stood at the top of the stairs, wearing a sleek black sweater and trousers. She walked down into the room, looking at the tactical map with an architect’s analytical eye.

"Elena, you shouldn't be down here," Dante said gently.

"It's my project, Dante," she replied, stepping up to the glass table. "Vance wants to destroy Haven Point because he thinks it's a weak target. If you send your men in to raid his warehouse tonight, it becomes a gang war in the headlines. The city will cancel the project anyway to avoid the violence."

Dante crossed his arms, watching her carefully. "What are you proposing?"

Elena pointed to the eastern edge of Pier 18 on the map. "Vance’s cold-storage facility sits on the old municipal drainage easement. According to the 1974 city infrastructure surveys I pulled this afternoon, that entire warehouse is built three feet over an illegal water discharge line."

A slow, intrigued smile spread across Marcus’s face.

Dante leaned over the table, looking closer at the blueprint overlay. "Which means..."

"Which means," Elena said, her eyes flashing with sharp intelligence, "the city environmental protection board has the legal authority to seize and condemn the building instantly without a warrant, backed by federal marshals. We don't need bullets, Dante. We just need an emergency inspection."