Two days have passed and everything was going well. Chris was making progress at work. Almost every one of his team members respected and liked his zeal for technology.That night, after he had finished work, Chris and Adrian went downtown to somewhere that looked like the out-sketch of the city.It was the quiet loft space he had asked Adrian to secure for him.Adrian stood beside a long table filled with hardware components.“You’ll need more processing power if you want real-time global modeling,” Adrian said calmly.“I know.” Chris responded. He looked like he was deep in thought.“I’ve arranged secondary servers offshore. They are discreet, reliable and scalable.”Chris looked at him. “Thank you.”Adrian gave a slight nod.“You’re building something that can’t be contained inside corporate politics. You’ll need insulation.” Adrian said.Chris looked at all the things he had prepared. This was it. He remembered how he couldn’t afford to launch the first AI app by himself because o

By the time Chris presented the official Aurora roadmap two weeks later, the atmosphere had changed.The board questioned aggressively.“Is this scalable?” one of the members said.“Is this stable?” another asked“Are we exposing ourselves?” another one also said.Chris noticed it immediately.This wasn’t random. This was prepared skepticism.He adjusted. Didn’t get defensive. Didn’t over-explain. He simplified things. Reframed them and demonstrated cost-benefit in cold numbers.But afterward, Elena made some findings and called him back into her office.“Dave pre-briefed two board members,” she said calmly.Chris didn’t look surprised. “That’s allowed.”“Yes.” Elena said calmly.She studied him carefully. “You don’t seem angry.”“Should I be?” Chris asked.She stepped closer. “He’s trying to limit your authority.”Chris nodded slightly. “That’s expected.”“And you’re fine with that?” Elena asked, confused.“I’m fine with proving him wrong.” He said calmly with a smile.That answer di

Chris turned toward him calmly. “Short-term acceleration doesn’t build dominance.”There it was. The quiet clash between themElena’s eyes moved between them.Dave pivoted not emotionally, not reckless. “I’m not attacking innovation. I’m protecting the runway. My proposal is simple. Temporary funding reduction for Aurora. Reallocate toward immediate revenue-generating verticals.” Adrian said thoughtfully.He was being professional and rational. He wasn’t sabotaging.He was framing Chris as brilliant but impractical.Elena exhaled slowly. “Temporary reduction?” she asked.“Six months,” Dave said. “We stabilize. Then reassess.”Silence.Chris knew what this was. Dave wasn’t destroying Aurora. He was to starve it till the company would giveElena looked at Chris again. “You’re confident Aurora doesn’t stall under partial restriction?”Chris met her gaze evenly. “I won't stall, Ms. Elena.”It wasn’t arrogance. It was a fact.Elena studied him longer than necessary.And Dave noticed.After

Three weeks have passed and it was finally the Launching day of the Aurora project.The conference room at Elena Mayer’s office was filled with project leads, engineers, and department heads. The large oval table gleamed under the overhead lights, and a screen at the end displayed the Aurora project launch timeline.Chris sat quietly, arms folded, reviewing the metrics on his tablet. Beside him, was Donny, his assistant for the Aurora project, ever observant, made subtle notes, ready to assist if necessary.Elena stood at the head of the table, calm but authoritative. “Thank you all for coming. Today, we need to decide who will oversee the public launch of Aurora. It’s critical that this is done flawlessly. The project is too important to leave to chance.”There was a pause as eyes shifted around the room. Many looked at Chris.“I think it’s clear,” one senior engineer said, leaning forward, “Chris should handle it. He’s done the most work, knows the system inside out, and has already

Three days have passed since Chris’s big success and it was like any other day as Chris lazily lounged on his sofa, reading books to relax his mind.He was done with the Aurora project and is taking a break from AEIGS. He was engrossed in his reading until he heard his phone beep.The message was clear. “Meet me now, son.” It was the godfather.Chris jumped from the sofa and in a few minutes he was ready as he stepped out of his building. He had tried to reach out to Adrian but he didn’t pick his calls.He sent him a message, “Meet me at the godfather’s, Adrian.”The city stretched below in a million sparkling lights, indifferent to the silent drama unfolding in the top floor of the Mikaelson Syndicate headquarters.Chris Green’s footsteps echoed softly against the polished marble floors as he entered the Godfather’s study, a place he had been summoned to but had never expected to feel this weighty.The Godfather sat behind a massive mahogany desk, the kind of desk that seemed less fu