The rain came down hard that morning, as if the sky itself was spitting on him.Kai Everhart stood outside the café with soaked shoes, a crumpled résumé, and a stomach twisting with hunger. A plastic bag barely shielded his only good shirt from the downpour. He had walked five miles to beg for a part-time dishwasher job that paid less than minimum wage. It was already filled.The manager didn’t even look him in the eye. As he turned away, his phone vibrated, another message from his ex. "Are you still breathing, trash? Should’ve stayed in your lane."His fingers tightened around the device until his knuckles went white. He didn’t reply. What could he say? She had moved on with a man who wore Rolexes and drove a car that cost more than Kai’s entire block. Last month, she dumped him in front of a crowd, calling him a "charity case with delusions of grandeur." People laughed. He didn’t sleep for three nights after.He walked. No money for the bus. Just enough coins for a stale bun at

The call ended, and silence returned to the war room, but Kai’s pulse roared in his ears like a war drum.He stood slowly, fingers brushing the cold silver nameplate. His name. His chair. His empire.Thorne stepped beside him, arms behind his back. “You handled them better than expected.”Kai didn’t answer. Instead, he turned to the screen still displaying the last face, the woman in red lipstick. Her eyes were sharp as glass, her smile smooth as silk. She had said her name was Valencia Calderón, from Madrid. Oil. Arms. Influence.“I want a file on everyone from that call,” Kai said.“It’s already printed.”“And that woman. Valencia. What’s her angle?”“She was your grandfather’s ally… and rival. They played the game well. Sometimes together. Sometimes against each other.”Kai narrowed his eyes. “She smiled at me like she already planned my funeral.”Thorne nodded slightly. “She likely has.”Hours later, Kai walked the grand halls alone. He wasn’t used to silence this big. The kind o

The Everhart boardroom felt colder than usual. Not physically, spiritually.Thorne stood to Kai’s right like a shadow given form, while Dr. Vael watched silently from the corner, pen already dancing across her notepad.Twelve chairs surrounded the obsidian table. One now belonged to Kai. Eleven others were occupied by the Board , a collection of power brokers, empire-builders, and apex predators. Most of them were old. Well they were all together dangerous. Each held just enough power to be useful… and just enough ambition to be fatal.Valencia Calderón entered last. She wore red, always red, with lips to match. Her eyes flicked across the room, then landed on Kai.She smiled like someone who had tried to slit your throat and now wanted to toast to it. “Mr. Everhart,” she purred. “So glad to see you... intact.”Kai said nothing. Thorne slid a sleek black box in front of him. The chip recovered from the attacker.Kai pressed a button. Valencia’s own voice filled the room, “Strike befo

"Every empire has a price. But some things aren’t sold, they’re unleashed." Lazarus Codex, Vol. II.Location: Undisclosed Subterranean Bazaar, Istanbul, Midnight. No maps. No signs. No law.You don’t find the Blood Auction. You’re either invited…Or you're hunted until you wish you were never born.Kai Everhart had just received an invitation. Gilded. Coded. Delivered by a man missing two fingers and his tongue.On it: Item #77: Asset Sample, Ash. Gene Class: Firstborn – Omega Tier. Status: Active. Threat: Uncontained.Kai didn’t breathe when he read the last line, “Opening bid: $8,000,000 in weapons grade crypto. Buyer receives a full Lazarus file + genome sample.”If that sample was real, the entire world could replicate Ash. Or worse, build more.The Blood Auction was held beneath an abandoned Ottoman crypt. Torch-lit walls. Vaulted stone ceilings. The scent of incense and iron.Guards in suits and ceremonial bone masks lined the walkways. High rollers sat in private booths behind o

“The first phase of every empire’s fall begins with silence. The silence of banks closing, networks freezing, and kings pretending nothing is wrong.” Thorne, Field Memoirs of a Ghost Asset.Location: Geneva, Switzerland. Scene: Global Wealth Crisis, 43 hours post-Crownfall.It had started. Crypto exchanges freeze. Stock markets drop 30% in 12 minutes. Biometric wallets lock globally. The world's elite scramble for answers. But no one can trace the source. No one… except Kai.Nova hacks the last node inside Ash’s corrupted Crownfall terminal.Coordinates flash: Zurich, Mumbai, Lagos, Seoul, and the Everhart Reserve. “It’s a cascade attack,” Nova whispers. “A digital guillotine. He’s cutting the financial head off the planet.”Oracle, still recovering but conscious, decrypts the countdown logic. Ash had embedded sleeper malware in every ultra-wealth financial institution using Lazarus shell corporations. “If triggered, the system will destroy digital wealth records. Freeze sovereign tr