The transition of power was absolute and immediate.
The air in the penthouse was still. It smelled like clean linen, whiskey, and the faint trace of Li's perfume that had been in the curtains for weeks. The city lights came in through the floor-to-ceiling glass. Neon red, gold, blue. They moved slowly across the marble floor.
With Han exiled and Lin in police custody, the remaining lieutenants of the Iron Fists and the Jade Tigers surrendered unconditionally to the Golden Koi. They handed over their ledgers, their weapons caches, and their street-level operations.
I could hear it in the reports. The sound of metal cases opening. _Click._ The rustle of paper. The heavy _thud_ of duffel bags full of guns being set down. No gunfire. No shouting.
In less than three weeks, Li Bai had gone from a struggling Matriarch fighting for survival in the Outer Harbour to the undisputed sovereign of Macau's lower districts.
