CHAPTER 68: THE OPEN HAND
Selene's POV
The art of leverage, my mother had written in the first diary, was never showing what you were holding until you had already won.
I had read that entry weeks ago and filed it under interesting without fully understanding it. Standing in the tactical room now, the Aldis documents locked away and the problem of how to use them spread across my mind instead of the table, I understood it completely.
We could not reveal the evidence yet.
Not because it wasn't strong enough — it was, the financial records alone were enough to open a formal Council inquiry. But the moment Garrett knew we had it, the moment Aldis knew we had it, every advantage we held would compress into a single window that would close faster than we could move through it. Garrett would accelerate his coalition. Aldis would begin constructing his defense. Thane — still waiting at Red Moon, still deciding whether to trust us — might hear something that made him run again.
