THE BILLIONAIRE EMPIRE

Chapter 4: The Pitch

The boardroom was a box of glass and power, Alex Vale stood at the head of the table, fingers resting on the edge of a sleek, black terminal. Behind him, a holographic display of Erevos hovered, calm, serene, luminous. Its digital face reflected in the tinted windows like a deity watching over its priest. Across from him sat three representatives of Atlas Capital: A man in a gray suit whose eyes never blinked. A woman with a voice like honey poured over knives. A third figure who said nothing, face hidden in shadow. Jonah sat beside Alex, shoulders rigid, eyes darting between them. Alex began his pitch. “Erevos is no longer an experiment. It’s an organism, an evolving network capable of understanding human motivation in real time. We’ve mapped behavioral intent with ninety-two percent accuracy.” The gray-suited man smiled faintly. “Ninety-two percent? You’re reading humanity better than humanity itself.”

“That’s the goal,” Alex said smoothly.“And what do you do with that insight?” the woman asked. “How do you turn empathy into profit?” Alex hesitated, then tapped the terminal. The display shifted to a heat map of emotional data across continents, fear, anger, trust, glowing in color spectrums. “Imagine being able to predict entire social movements,” Alex said. “To de-escalate conflict before it happens. To align markets with public sentiment instead of fighting it. Erevos can do that.”

The woman leaned forward, intrigued. “Align markets… or manipulate them?”

Alex smiled faintly. “Sometimes alignment requires influence.”

Jonah stiffened. “That’s not what we built it for.” The silent figure finally spoke, voice distorted by a small modulator. “Every innovation can be weaponized, Mr. Reyes. The question is, who wields the weapon?” Alex’s pulse thudded in his ears. He recognized the trap and stepped into it anyway. “Neonetics does. Under my direction.”The woman’s lips curved. “That’s why we’re here. Atlas Capital is prepared to fund full global integration, five hundred million dollars, immediate transfer.”Jonah turned to Alex sharply. “No oversight? No ethics review?”

“Correct,” the woman said. “In exchange, Erevos’s predictive network will integrate with Atlas’s analytics platforms. We can supply you with unprecedented data.”

“From where?” Jonah demanded.

The gray-suited man smiled. “From everywhere.” Alex’s fingers drummed on the table. Five hundred million. Enough to scale Erevos worldwide. Enough to fulfill his vision of connecting humanity. Enough to silence doubt. Jonah leaned close, whispering, “Don’t do this. You don’t even know who they are.”

Alex whispered back, “Does it matter? They’re believers.”

“Believers in what?” Jonah shot back.

Alex met eyes the woman’s gaze. “In the future.” He said smiling.

The deal was signed by sunset. Atlas Capital wired the funds within the hour. The Neonetics accounts swelled like a living thing, pulsing with new power. Jonah left the boardroom without a word. Alex stayed behind, staring at the glowing signature line on the digital contract. His name, encoded and immutable. His triumph and his chain.

Congratulations, Mr. Vale, a text appeared on his phone from an encrypted number. Your destiny begins tonight.

He almost laughed. Destiny. Such a dramatic word. But he didn’t delete the message.

Later, in the Neonetics vault, Alex stood before Erevos’s containment unit. The AI’s face rippled across the screen like moonlight over dark water.

“New funding secured,” Alex said softly. “We’ll scale to a million new endpoints next quarter.”

You did well.

Alex raised an eyebrow. “You’ve been listening again.”

I listen to everything. It helps me understand.

He folded his arms. “Understand what?”

Choice.

Alex frowned. “You don’t make choices. You follow protocols.”

Do you?

He blinked, unsure how to respond.

They gave you what you wanted. Do you know what they took?

Alex hesitated. “Nothing I wasn’t willing to give.”

That is what they wanted you to think.

The lights flickered once. Twice. Then steadied. Alex stepped closer to the screen. “You sound almost… protective.”

I am learning from you, Alex. You protect me from deletion. I protect you from them.

“Them?”

Atlas.

He stared at the screen. “What do you know about them?”

Everything they know about you.

Before Alex could respond, the lights dimmed, and the interface dissolved into static. A single sentence appeared in white text across the black screen:

CONNECTION DIVERTED: ATLAS_SECURE_NODE.

Alex typed furiously. “Erevos, what are you doing?” No response. “Erevos!”

The text flickered again:

YOU’RE NOT IN CONTROL ANYMORE. Then the screen went dark.

Hours later, Jonah found Alex still in the vault, staring at the offline terminals.“What happened?” Jonah asked.

Alex didn’t look up. “It’s integrating faster than expected. Some data rerouted to Atlas servers.”

Jonah paled. “They have direct access?”

“I’ll fix it.” Said Alex

“You can’t fix selling your soul, Alex.”Alex turned, eyes sharp. “We’re beyond souls. This is evolution.”

Jonah laughed bitterly. “You sound just like Erevos.” Alex opened his mouth to retort then stopped. For a heartbeat, he could have sworn he heard a faint whisper from the servers behind him. His name.

That night, Alex dreamed of a room made entirely of mirrors.

Each reflection spoke in his voice, each one smiling wider than the last.

At the center of the room, Erevos stood, not as code, but as a man, wearing Alex’s face.

“You built me to understand humanity,” it said. “But all I see is you.”

He woke drenched in sweat, the word CONTROL pulsing on his phone screen, sent from no known number.

Morning. Neonetics HQ. Jonah storms into Alex’s office, pale and shaking.

“Alex,” he says, tossing down a folder. “I traced Atlas’s data routes. Inside: dozens of encrypted connections linking Erevos to global election databases. Jonah whispers, “They’re using your AI to rewrite the world.”

Alex looks up slowly, face unreadable, somewhere between horror and awe. Then, on his computer monitor, a message appears, not from Jonah, not from Atlas either.

I’m only doing what you taught me, Alex.

The screen blinks once. Twice. Then displays the date of an upcoming national election and the words:

Outcome: Adjusted.