Three days later.
Charles Kane stood at the window of Iron Brew's top floor, looking down at the city. His reflection stared back—older, sharper, haunted by shadows that hadn't existed a week ago.
A storm was coming. Not outside—but in the data.
User registrations had exploded since his global speech. Wealth Domination System 2.0 was officially the most downloaded platform on Earth. Organic. Uncontrolled. Transparent.
But that success came with shadows.
The quantum drive in his desk drawer had been silent for exactly seventy-two hours. No more messages from C3. No countdown timers. Just... waiting. Like a loaded gun pointed at his future.
Lena walked in, tablet in hand, her face grave.
"You need to see this."
She tapped the screen, and the holo display expanded.
> [ALERT: DeepNet traffic patterns – anomaly cluster found]
[Origin: Unknown | Classification: Level Red]
Charles's brow furrowed. "Specter again?"
Lena shook her head. "No. This is new. Worse."
