The spring collection inventory sat stacked in Rotterdam bay seven. Three hundred pallets. Dye lots verified. Customs tags cleared. Dock status flashed red. Blockade active. Local freight operators controlled the access road. Unregistered trucks formed a wall across the terminal entrance. Crane operations suspended. Elena pulled up the live camera feed. Checked the timestamp. Nine fourteen a.m. She opened the launch calendar. Spring runway scheduled for eleven days out. Buyer appointments locked. Press allocations confirmed. If the inventory missed the transit window, the launch stalled. Contracts triggered penalty clauses. She pulled up the cartel demand log. Off-book clearance fee listed at forty thousand euros. Payable in untraceable wire transfers. She closed the log. Opened a new routing window.
She dialed the EU rail freight coordinator. Put the call on speaker. "Vance Analytics."
