He let the question hang, then added, softer still, the words tasting of iron beneath the silk:
�And tell me� just how sensitive is the information on that machine?�
The last syllable lingered like smoke, curling through the silence, heavy with a weight that felt more like judgment than curiosity.
�The Minister had a cabinet meeting with the President,� Lesley interjected smoothly, stepping into the line of fire before it could cut deeper. His tone carried the calm of a man walking a tightrope over steel teeth. �As a matter of protocol�and precaution�he doesn�t take that particular laptop to official engagements.�
He let the words settle watching Carlos for the slightest flicker of reaction, praying the explanation sounded less like an excuse and more like strategy. Lesley couldn�t afford to let this spiral. McBride wasn�t just a piece on the board�he was the board. Without him, their entire game in this country collapsed.
McBride offered a shield no one else could. He was the door, the key, and the lock to corridors of power that most men never even glimpsed. Take him out, and the syndicate would be groping in the dark.
Naledi Moloyi�South Africa�s Minister of Commerce and Industry�might have worn the title, but she was no McBride. She played her part unknowingly, like so many others orbiting his gravity, unaware of the currents dragging them through a global machine. Naledi didn�t even realize she was part of a syndicate.
But McBride knew. And that made him dangerous�and indispensable. Lesley understood that truth better than anyone, and in that truth lay his resolve: he would protect Ted McBride at all costs. Not out of loyalty, but survival. His own future was chained to the Minister�s heartbeat.
Carlos let the silence stretch, a slow, deliberate pause that tasted of calculation. His eyes held steady on Lesley, reading the spaces between his words, the subtle tilt of his voice. Protection. That was what this was. Not strategy�instinct. Lesley was shielding his man, wrapping him in layers of explanation thick enough to blunt a blade.
And that told Carlos everything. This McBride wasn�t just another player on the board; he was a cornerstone, a piece so vital that La Roca himself would step into the line of fire to keep him standing.