Chapter 69 Silent War

• The war against Adrian Kane didn’t roar like thunder, it crept, silently and deliberately, leaving scars that only showed when it was almost too late. Every day, every hour, Leo felt the invisible pressure pressing in, and with each small “coincidence” that undermined him, the shape of Adrian’s hand grew clearer.
• The office Leo borrowed above the bookstore had become a second home, its dim yellow light and faint smell of old paper the backdrop for endless nights of calculations, ledgers, and cross-checked data. Fred sat at the far end of the desk, his jacket abandoned on the chair, sleeves rolled up. He had the steady look of a man who had learned to live on caffeine and instinct. Leo leaned forward, his jaw tight, eyes sharp but bloodshot. Between them, spread across the table, was the battlefield: spreadsheets, memos, printouts of system access logs.
• “This isn’t random sabotage,” Fred said, dragging his pen across a set of quarterly figures. “Every ‘mistake’ points to the same destination your credibility.”