[Jake's POV]
The transition of power in the Outer Harbour was complete.
I could feel it in the way the air sat in the room.
The penthouse was quiet. Not the tense quiet from before. This was a different kind. The quiet that comes after a storm, when the rain has stopped and everything is still dripping.
I sat at the marble dining table in the Golden Koi suite. The marble was cold under my forearms. It leached the heat out of my skin. The latest financial reports from the Jade Palace were spread out in front of me. Pages and pages of them.
The paper was smooth. The ink smelled faintly chemical. Every column of numbers was black and neat.
The laundering operation was running flawlessly.
