Sofia ordered both families into the lake tunnels while Dante cut the chain from Marco's wrist. The detonator was a decoy. The real trigger was connected to the Moretti ledger: opening its final encrypted page had sent their location to every assassin Bianca employed.
Dante could have taken command. Instead, he handed Sofia his gun and followed her orders in front of the men who had once called her his little mouse. Together they turned the wine cellars into a trap, sealed the northern tunnel, and captured Bianca's shooters without sacrificing a soldier.
Marco confessed that Bianca had drugged him and copied Dante's authorization code. The eastern ports were never the prize. Beneath them ran an intelligence archive containing the names of judges, ministers, and police commanders purchased by Sofia's father.
Bianca reached the archive first.
Sofia found her at the lake dock with a hard drive in one hand and a knife against Dante's throat. Bianca offered a trade: the drive for the ex-husband who had humiliated Sofia.
“He is not my husband,” Sofia said.
Pain flickered across Dante's face. Bianca relaxed for half a second.
Sofia fired into the dock chain. The platform dropped, Dante struck Bianca's wrist, and the hard drive slid across the wet boards into Sofia's hand. Her first command as queen ended the port coup before sunrise.
When the families knelt, Dante knelt with them.
Sofia opened the recovered drive expecting proof against Bianca. The first video showed her father alive, seated behind a desk and speaking directly to the daughter who had believed him murdered.
“If you are watching this,” he said, “Dante Romano has finally made you queen. Do not trust his surrender. He was the last man to see me before I disappeared.”