The Padel Court Protocol

Elena had been running the Barcelona office's intelligence division for three years before she realized her best asset was sleeping with the competition.

The revelation came on a Tuesday, at the club's padel courts, where corporate deals were forged over volley shots and sauna sessions. She watched from the glass wall, martini in hand, as Marcus laughed at something Helena—her colleague, her rival—said during a break between games. The way his hand lingered on her lower back. The proprietary smile Helena wore, like she'd already won.

Elena's job was corporate spying, legal-ish espionage that kept their tech startup ahead of patent filings and product launches. She'd recruited Marcus six months ago, a corporate spy inside their biggest competitor. He'd fed her everything from roadmap documents to cafeteria menu changes that signaled new hires.

Now he was feeding Helena something else entirely.

The glass wall blurred. Elena remembered running alongside Marcus in Mar Bella park at dawn, his breath fogging the morning air, his confessions about his dying father, his mortgage, his fear that his bosses might suspect he was a spy. She'd held his hair when he drank too much after handing over confidential emails. She'd lied to her own boss about how deep their relationship went.

Professional boundaries. She'd learned the term in HR training, right after "don't sleep with assets." Some rules existed because someone else had already made that mistake.

On the padel court, Helena's racket connected with the ball, a perfect smash that Marcus couldn't return. He clapped, admiring, then bent to retrieve the ball. Helena's eyes met Elena's through the glass—cool, knowing, triumphant.

You're running out of time, that look said. I know everything.

Elena's phone buzzed. Marcus: *Can we meet later? Need to tell you something.*

Three dots, then a deletion. Then: *Never mind. Forget I said anything.*

She set down her martini, untouched. The game had changed. Now she had to decide whether she was still playing—or running from the consequences she'd invited in.