01:00 AM (One day before the raid)
Pier 12, Lower Industrial Sector
Pier 12 was a labyrinth of giant containers. Under the flickering mercury lights, Seifong workers moved frantically, transferring wooden crates of ammunition into logo-less trucks. They were panicked. The leaked information regarding tomorrow's raid had reached their leaders' ears, exactly as Rion had predicted.
Atop the roof of an old warehouse overlooking the dock, Shawn crouched in the shadows. He wore all-black tactical gear with a mask covering the lower half of his face. In his ear, **Gin's** voice crackled through the earpiece.
"Target in sight, Shawn. The third truck on the left is the primary shipment. They move in ten minutes," Gin reported from the apartment's command center.
"Copy that. Moving in," Shawn whispered.
He didn't leap like an action movie hero. Instead, he rappelled down using a steel cable with the grace of a predator. As the Seifong guards were distracted by the rumbling truck engines, Shawn was already merged with the shadows of the containers.
He pulled out a small vial containing a faint purple chemical—a specialized substance stolen from a **Cosa Nostra** laboratory a few nights prior. With the quick, precise movements Rion had drilled into him, Shawn sprayed the liquid onto several crates that hadn't been loaded yet. He also dropped a small silver badge engraved with a coiled serpent—the signature mark of the Cosa Nostra family—beneath the tire of a truck about to depart.
"Message delivered," Shawn murmured, vanishing back into the darkness just as a guard passed by.
**Location: Ren's Penthouse (Control Room)**
Rion watched the monitors displaying the CCTV feeds Gin had successfully hacked. He saw the Seifong trucks begin to leave the pier, carrying the "gifts" Shawn had left behind.
"Now, we just wait," Rion muttered. He turned toward Ren, who sat on the sofa, staring at her phone. "What about Sinclair?"
Ren sipped her tea slowly. "He just sent a message. He feels guilty for having to cancel tomorrow's dinner due to a 'sudden assignment' at the harbor. He truly believes he's saving me from danger."
"Perfect," Rion replied. "Tomorrow, when the police storm the empty docks, they'll only find traces pointing toward a Cosa Nostra betrayal of Seifong. Seifong will feel they were burned, and Cosa Nostra will be confused as to why the finger is pointing at them."
Shawn returned to the apartment an hour later, his breath still slightly heavy but his eyes bright with adrenaline. "Everything is set. They never saw me."
Rion nodded, placing a hand on Shawn's shoulder—a rare gesture of acknowledgment. "Good work. But remember, this is only the beginning. Tomorrow night, when the fire starts at the harbor, make sure we aren't there to watch it burn."
That night, Ironport looked serene from the height of the penthouse, but below, a short fuse had been lit. And when the explosion finally came, no one would suspect the culprits were a man presumed dead and a woman who had just given the Police Commissioner a warm embrace.