The courthouse loomed like a monolithic guardian of justice, its stone facade etched with the wear of countless battles, as Lena Hart—Eleanor Whitmore—stepped through its revolving doors, flanked by Daniel Carter and Riley Kane.

The key to the locker and her father’s coded letter, warning of the Consortium—a shadowy network of power brokers like Victor Grayson backing Vivian Whitmore—rested heavily in her jacket pocket, alongside the duffel bag of vault contents: ...