Fog on the Docks

The docks were cloaked in fog, silent except for the waves slapping against the pilings. A man waited beside a crate marked Confidential, clutching a small pouch. He wasn’t nervous—he was eager. Months of smuggling diamonds from his company’s shipments had led to this moment. Tonight, he’d finally sell them, pocket the money, and disappear.

Beside him stood a woman, calm and watchful. He thought she was his contact, the buyer he’d arranged to meet. But she was something else entirely.

The diamonds he had stolen didn’t belong to the company—they belonged to his boss, a man deeply entrenched in the smuggling trade. The boss had discovered the theft and decided the punishment would be swift. The woman wasn’t a buyer at all. She worked for the boss. And she had been sent to catch the thief in the act.

As the man bent to set down the pouch, she spoke softly, almost like a warning. "Did you hear that? Someone’s out there…" He waved it off, focused only on the deal. But she already knew what was coming.

When the moment arrived, she drew her gun. His eyes widened in disbelief. He lunged for the pouch, desperate to salvage his betrayal. One shot cracked through the night. The bag spilled from his hands, diamonds scattering across the slick planks like ice.

Only—they weren’t diamonds. The boss had switched them, replacing the real stones with worthless fakes long before this meeting. The thief died reaching for nothing.

The woman lowered her weapon, left the pouch where it lay, and vanished into the mist.

A man’s greed drove him to steal from his own company. His boss, unwilling to let such betrayal go unanswered, laid the trap. When the thief was caught in the act, he tried to fight back. One shot ended it all.

The docks returned to silence. The fake diamonds gleamed in the fog—forever a reminder of the price of betrayal.