Meanwhile, in the Bowen Tower – Quantum Veil Command Center3:52 A.M.Carl Bowen stood barefoot in front of a curved glass interface that showed Bowen data collapsing.His bracelet—glowing hot white—flared with every spike in activity.His Chief of Systems, a wiry woman named Allana Bowen, looked up from her console, with sweat on her brow.“They’re using deep-fake economics. We just lost seven percent in our neural IP sectors. The market thinks we’re poisoning people.”Carl's jaw was tight. “We’re not. The Veil is clean. I know that.”“They’ve flooded the sentiment layers. Every time our AIs correct one narrative, three more pop up.”The bracelet on his wrist pulsed.He lifted his hand, his eyes were narrowing. “They’re using Data Fabrication. Khyber tech.”Allana’s voice shook. “What do we do?”Carl Bowen stared at the glass interface in front of him. His mind felt heavy, like something was sitting on his chest. The screen was filled with red graphs and blinking lights. His name, B

Jayden froze.He had heard the name before. He knew who they were. Everyone had. But not like this. Not directly. Not with that tone in Uncle Christopher’s voice.“I thought they went underground, like a little calmer ever since Marvin Richmond died” Jayden said slowly.“They didn’t go anywhere,” Christopher replied. “They just got smarter, more aggressive. Quieter. Now they’re back. And as we speak, they’re lunching direct attacks on the Bowen family. They are tearing holes in the Quantum Veil.”Jayden stood from his chair, walking to the wide window behind his desk. He looked out at the skyline. “How bad is it?”“Carl’s sector just lost seven percent in neural IP,” Christopher said. “In one hour. That’s not just money—that’s entire blocks of memory tech. Just deleted. They’ve flooded the sentiment layers. And they’re using Data Fabrication. Real-time.”Jayden didn’t speak for a moment.He could hear the tension in Christopher’s voice. He could feel the weight of it. The Veil wasn’t

Khyber Control Room – Khyber company headquarters. 4:55 A.M.The room was cold. Silent. Tense.For a long moment, no one moved. Only the soft hum of failing data loops echoed through the walls.Farouq Khyber stood in the center of the control room, his eyes were locked on the massive central display. It was filled with red alerts. Warnings. Failures. Declines.His jaw tightened as one line flashed over and over again:Bowen Assets: Recovery in Progress. Trust Flow +17.2%Lucien Khyber tapped his console, his usual was calm gone. “They’ve reversed the sentiment decay. Bowen’s public trust is stabilizing—fast.”Farouq said nothing. His hands were behind his back. His posture was straight, but his shoulders were tight—tense like a wire pulled too far.Juno leaned forward, scanning one of her dashboards. “They’re blocking our data injections. Every narrative loop we push gets filtered out before it trends.”Maeva frowned. “I’m watching user behavior level out. The fear spikes have collap

Farouq hesitated, watching his brother's silhouette against the rising dawn. For a moment, he considered lying—or softening the truth. But that had already cost them everything.He spoke.“It was Jayden Cole.”Tariq didn’t respond at first. His head tilted slightly, as if the name hadn’t registered.Then he turned around, slowly, his brow furrowed.“Jayden… Cole?”“Yes.”Tariq’s lips curled into a thin, incredulous smile. “You mean the guy who’s been trying to push the Orion commercial campaign up north? The man we targeted last fall? You mean that Jayden Cole?”Farouq gave a solemn nod.Tariq’s voice sharpened. “You’re saying the same man we framed and made the Orions believe that he conspired with the Arceneaux to hack into their satellite? The one we had the Orions kick out of their company, that man just handed us this defeat?”“Yes,” Farouq said. “He’s the one.”Tariq stared at him for a long moment. His face was blank, unreadable. Then, softly, he spoke again.“Explain.”Farouq

Three Days LaterThe world didn’t fall with thunder.It fell in silence. Quiet tremors beneath the skin of power.And by the time the first cracks appeared, it was too late to stop the bleeding.On the first day, Bowen Corporation’s minor markets in the east and south side of Westwood began to stutter.It started with simple delays—a shipment of server-grade lithium failed customs in the east coast.Then, a batch of biofuel credits was suddenly frozen for “regulatory review” in the Jakarta county located at the Eastside of Westwood.There were no big headlines. No flashing warnings.But inside the Bowen analytics hub, red alerts quietly blinked.“We’re seeing abnormal dips in supplier responsiveness,” said one analyst.“We can’t adjust without triggering more price surges.”Carla Bowen’s team pushed for answers. The answers never came.And the Quantum Veil bracelet on Carla’s wrist? It glowed—yes—but it pulsed with uncertainty, not clarity.On the second day, commodity prices for low