"Moral of the story, Vinnie," the first suit said, reaching for the laptop. "Nobody steals from Empire Bay. Not even a digital ghost."
He looked up. Sal, the bar owner, wasn't smiling. Two men in cheap suits stood behind him. They weren't cops. They were litigation enforcers —private contractors for the Interactive Entertainment Software Association. They didn't carry guns. They carried cease-and-desists with the force of a federal warrant.
It was elegant. It was violent. It was a digital shiv.