“The city inspectors rely on the master digital file,” Adrian was saying.

“If the shear stress numbers don’t match the physical pylons, the permit is dead,” Sterling replied.

His voice was dry, like autumn leaves scraping across concrete.

“It will take them months to recalculate,” Adrian said. “By then, your group can buy out Julian’s share of the waterfront.”

“And what do you get out of this, Adrian?” Sterling asked.

There was a pause, followed by the clink of ice against glass.

“I get my reputation back,” Adrian said. “And Bennett Urban Systems gets the construction contract when you take over.”

I felt a cold knot tighten in my stomach.

Adrian was willing to compromise the structural integrity of a major civic project just to ruin me.

“Can your people alter the files without leaving a trace?” Sterling asked.

“My lead developer still has administrative credentials from the joint venture,” Adrian said.

“They never revoked his legacy token.”

I bit my lip, staring at my phone.

It was true.

When we split the assets of our old firm, some of the shared cloud directories had remained linked.