Darkness.
Then pain.
Charles woke up gagged, wrists zip-tied behind a cold steel chair, his vision blurring under white fluorescent lights. The air smelled like bleach and metal—antiseptic death. He blinked, trying to focus through the haze of whatever drug they'd pumped into his system.
A camera lens stared directly at him from the corner, its red recording light pulsing like a mechanical heartbeat.
His head throbbed. How long had he been unconscious? The last thing he remembered was walking into his office after the Nexium Core incident, then... nothing. Just a pinprick in his neck and the world going black.
A man's voice, artificial and distorted through electronic filters, echoed from overhead speakers.
> "Charles Kane. System controller. Founder. Domination architect. We've been watching you for three years, seven months, and fourteen days."
