Morning bled into the city like a bruise. The sky was the color of smoke, and the air inside the penthouse carried that strange quiet that comes after too many sleepless nights. Amelia stood by the window, coffee cooling in her hands, watching the fog drift between skyscrapers. Every sound the hum of distant traffic, the creak of steel expanding in the sun felt like it belonged to someone else’s world.

Behind her, Alexander was on the phone, his voice low, clipped. “No movement since ...