Adam stood outside the booth for a few seconds before going in.

He already knew what the next move had to be. He would have to call George himself. The problem was not the call. The problem was what came after it.

With Rovan, Adam had real proof. He had the body, the photos, the mail, the deposits, and enough dirt to make fear do most of the work for him. With George, he had no such hold yet. There was the recording, yes, but that only mattered if George openly accepted who he was. Without that, the value of it dropped too much.

Still, Adam wanted to try.

He stepped into the booth and dialed George’s number, but the call only rang out without an answer.

Adam lowered the receiver and looked at it for one moment. That alone told him something. George was not Rovan. He was not the kind of man who picked up every unknown call just to see what was hiding behind it.

Adam dialed again.

This time the call rang longer.

George still did not answer.

Adam exhaled slowly through his nose.

’Of course it won’t be easy,’ he thought. ’If I want to face John one day, then I have to deal with men like this too.’

He did not stop.

He made the third call.

This time the line connected.

George did not speak first.

Adam smiled faintly and said, "I had a strong wish to meet the man who keeps running things from the shadows."

George stayed silent.

He did not deny anything. He did not ask who was speaking. He only listened.

That alone told Adam enough.

’He’s completely different from Rovan,’ Adam thought.

So Adam kept going.

"From what I heard, you’re exactly the kind of man I expected," he said. "Smart and careful, but even smart men make mistakes."

George finally spoke.

"I don’t know what you’re trying to say."

Adam understood the tone at once. George would not admit anything if he did not absolutely have to. Every word would be measured. Every silence would be deliberate.

"Our organization has many good things prepared for men like you," Adam said.

George gave a short laugh, but there was no humor in it.

"Then your police dog is a bigger idiot than I thought," he said. "And you sound like a novice."

Adam’s smile faded a little.

George continued in the same flat voice.

"If you were really part of an organization, you wouldn’t keep telling people that. That means you’re alone."

For the first time in that call, sweat gathered on Adam’s face.

It had only been a few minutes, yet George had already started cutting through the shape Adam was trying to build. Adam felt the pressure immediately. Controlling men was not as easy as forcing fear into a weaker target and waiting for the rest to happen.

Still, he did not let any panic reach his voice.

He neither accepted George’s conclusion nor denied it.

"If that’s what you think," Adam said, "then maybe it’s time to show you something."

That changed George’s silence. Not into belief, but into doubt.

George had thrown that line into the dark because it fit what he was hearing. The man on the phone sounded bold, but not structured. Dangerous, maybe, but not necessarily backed. Now Adam had answered without sounding shaken, and that kept George from treating his own guess like a fact.

"What exactly are you going to show me?" George asked. "You gathered some dirty little things and now you think you can move men like me? If work were that easy, a hundred people would already be controlling me."

Adam laughed softly.

"Someone great once told me that thinking about the result is a waste if you haven’t even tried yet."

George did not answer for a second.

Then he said, "Fine. Try it."

His voice stayed calm.

"And after you try, if you’re still alive, I’ll make sure some attention falls on you too."

Then he cut the line.

Adam stayed in the booth for one second longer, then put the receiver down and walked out immediately.

On George’s side, the mood in the office had already changed.

He looked at the phone in his hand once, then smashed it against the edge of his desk. The screen cracked first. The second hit broke the rest of it.

His secretary, who had been waiting near the door with a file in her hands, looked up in surprise but said nothing.

"Change my number," George said. "Immediately."

As she moved to leave, George thought through the call one more time.

Whoever that man was, he had reached George too quickly. That meant one thing clearly enough. Rovan was compromised.

George looked at his secretary again.

"If that policeman comes here," he said, "he enters only if he comes in an official capacity. If he doesn’t, don’t let him past the front. Throw him out if you have to."

The secretary nodded once.

That kind of thing was not new to George. He had already handled too many ugly situations to lose control over one threat this early. The evidence against him was not strong enough to ruin him yet. He knew how to manage people, paperwork, and distance. What mattered more was the man’s nerve.

That was what had caught George’s attention.

As the secretary reached the door, George stopped her again.

"Call Eric," he said. "I want him here."

Now he would investigate properly.

He did not care whether the threat looked small or not. Men who kept ignoring small threats usually gave those threats time to grow teeth. George had not reached his position by making that kind of mistake.

On the other side of the city, Adam had already put distance between himself and the booth.

He kept walking without stopping, and his thoughts stayed on the call the whole way.

’Things don’t have to move the way I want them to,’ Adam thought.

That was obvious now.

He had expected difficulty. He had not expected George to read him this quickly. That man really had been someone Adam was still underestimating.

Adam did not go anywhere else after that.

He went straight home.