When Steve finally set the packet free, it was almost anticlimactic: a slip of data into the noise, a breadcrumb dropped into the river of commerce. The immediate response was thin: a security feed alert, a lawyer's terse email, a comment buried under a hundred other posts. Then the second wave hit—an investigative thread in a small independent paper that followed the money. It spread like a burnt scent through the city's underlife.
By morning, a dozen voices demanded answers. By noon, someone in the council stood to speak in a forum and used the word "transparency" with the comfortable conviction of a man who had already planned his talking points.
