They moved my seat at a luxury charity gala so I would sit beside the scarred mafia boss everyone was afraid to look at

"This drive contains the encrypted ledgers of Aegis Meridian," Leandro announced, his hazel eye burning directly into the lens of the primary national news camera. "It contains wire transfers authorizing the assassination of federal prosecutors, state senators, and my brother, Mateo Moretti. Every dollar was signed, authorized, and deposited by Senator Julian Vance."

"He's lying! Shoot him! He's an armed felon!" Vance shrieked, losing all composure, turning frantically toward his security team. "Kill him!"

"No one fires!" a thunderous voice commanded from the back of the auditorium.

Director Hayes of the FBI stepped through the double mahogany doors, flanked by fifty federal agents in full tactical gear, accompanied by the United States Marshals.

"Senator Julian Vance," Hayes announced through a megaphone, holding up a certified federal arrest warrant. "Step away from the podium. Your communications with Arthur Harkort and Aegis Meridian have just been fully decrypted by federal analysts in St. Paul."

I walked out from the backstage curtain, standing beside Leandro on the elevated platform. In my hand, I held my encrypted tablet, showing the completed transfer of the unredacted files directly to every major news outlet in the Western hemisphere.

Vance stared at me, his eyes wide with disbelief and utter ruin. "You... you little secretary... you did this?"

"I'm an auditor, Senator," I said, my voice steady, carrying over the stunned silence of the room. "And your account is overdrawn."

Vance’s face contorted with primal rage. Knowing his political career, his freedom, and his future were vaporized in a single instant, he did the unthinkable. He lunged forward, snatching Keller's dropped sidearm from the stage floor, and pointed it straight at my head.

"If I go down," Vance snarled, "you burn with me!"

Before Vance could pull the trigger, Leandro moved.

He didn't draw a weapon. He threw his own body between Vance's gun and me, shielding me completely with his massive frame.

*BANG.*