The fire didn't end the war.

It exposed it.

In the aftermath of Coyote's Bar, the Fuse doesn't retreat-it rebuilds. Not louder. Not bigger. Smarter. Across back roads, port cities, and forgotten corridors of power, new chapters rise under the radar, bound by loyalty and governed by consequence.

But smoke never clears clean.

As the Fuse expands beyond Panama City, fractures appear from within. Old allies question command. New leaders test boundaries. And a threat emerges that doesn't come from outside the brotherhood-but from the belief that power can be reshaped without blood.

Joker is forced to confront the cost of growth. Every expansion brings visibility. Every alliance carries a shadow. And every decision leaves a trail that someone, somewhere, is willing to follow back to the source.

Meanwhile, forces long dismissed as burned-out ghosts begin moving again-quietly, deliberately-testing the Fuse's reach, probing its weaknesses, and waiting for the moment smoke turns into fire.

Whiskey and Smoke is a story about rebuilding after destruction, about loyalty strained by ambition, and about the dangerous lie that survival means safety. In this world, nothing stays buried, and every flame casts a shadow.

The Fuse may rise.

But the smoke is watching.