2026-01-21 03:41:09The feedback noise was like a knife in every ear.
Screech!
The high-pitched sound blasted through the massive speakers of the Grand Hall. Investors covered their ears. Expensive champagne glasses shattered on the floor.
"Cut it!" Elena screamed from the side of the stage. Her face was twisted with panic. She pointed at the sound booth in the back. "Cut the mic! Turn it off now!"
Inside the glass booth, the technician was frantically hitting buttons. He looked terrified. He pressed the master power switch, but the lights on his board stayed green. He grabbed his walkie-talkie. "I can't, Ms. Elena! The system is locked out. I have no control!"
"Pull the plug!" Elena yelled, her voice barely audible over the screeching noise.
"It’s not the hardware!" the technician yelled back, his face pale. "It’s the software. Prometheus… it has taken full control of the building. It won’t let me in!"
Suddenly, the screeching stopped.
It didn't fade away. It cut to total silence instantly.
The silence was heavier than the noise.
Ronan stood center stage. He held his smartphone in his hand. His thumb hovered over the screen. He looked calm, like a man standing in a quiet garden, not a chaotic tech gala. He wore his cheap hoodie, but he stood taller than anyone in a tuxedo.
He lowered the phone. "Is everyone listening now?" Ronan asked. His voice was calm, but it boomed clearly through the speakers. He controlled the sound. He controlled the room.
Jax stood a few feet away. He was sweating. The sweat made his expensive makeup run down his cheek. He looked at the giant screen behind them. It displayed the sleek blue logo of 'Lumina.'
Ronan turned his back to the audience and looked at Jax. "You told them you built Lumina, Jax. You told them you spent three years writing the code."
"I did!" Jax shouted. He tried to smile at the investors in the front row. "He is just a disgruntled employee. Security! Remove him!"
But the security guards did not move. The doors to the hall had clicked shut. Electronic locks. Prometheus controlled those, too.
Ronan took a step closer to Jax. "If you built the car, you must have the keys. Lumina’s algorithm relies on a very specific core kernel. It is the heart of the AI."
The room was deadly silent. Mr. Henderson, the lead investor, stood up slowly. He narrowed his eyes. "Let him speak, Jax. Answer the question."
Ronan smiled. It was a cold smile. "Jax, what is the encryption key for the kernel?"
Jax froze. His eyes darted left and right. He looked at Elena, but she was typing furiously on her tablet, trying to hack back into her own system. She couldn't help him.
"The… the key?" Jax stammered. He loosened his tie. "Well, obviously, the architecture is complex. We use a polymorphic cloud-based structure. The key is… it’s dynamic. It changes based on the quantum flux of the data stream."
The investors whispered among themselves.
"Quantum flux?" Ronan repeated. He laughed. It was a dry, short sound. "That is not coding, Jax. That is a word salad. You are just saying big words to sound smart."
"It’s technical!" Jax yelled, his voice cracking. "You wouldn't understand the high-level syntax I used!"
"I don't need to understand syntax," Ronan said. "I need the password."
Ronan lifted his phone again. "Since you don't know the key, the system assumes there is a security breach. It thinks a thief is trying to steal the code."
"What are you doing?" Elena shouted from the stage wing.
Ronan tapped a single red button on his phone screen.
BEEP.
The giant screen behind them changed instantly. The calm, professional blue light vanished.
The entire wall turned the color of blood.
Massive red letters appeared on the screen, towering over Jax’s small, trembling figure.
SYSTEM PURGE INITIATED.
Below the text, a giant digital clock appeared.
05:00
04:59
04:58
A gasp went through the crowd. Mr. Henderson walked right up to the stage. "Ronan! What is this? What is happening to our investment?"
Ronan looked at the investors. "I wrote a dead man’s switch into the source code," he announced. His voice was cold-blooded. "It is the ultimate security measure. If the true creator does not authenticate his identity every 24 hours with the correct key, the code assumes its creator is dead or the system is stolen."
The clock ticked down. 04:45.
"If the counter hits zero," Ronan continued, "Prometheus will eat itself. The source code deletes itself. The database wipes clean. Lumina becomes nothing but an empty shell. All your money… gone in five minutes."
"You’re bluffing!" Jax screamed. He ran to the laptop connected to the projector. He started smashing keys. "I can stop it! I am the admin!"
"Access Denied," the computer voice spoke through the speakers.
Ronan checked his watch. He looked bored. "You have four minutes, Jax. If you wrote the code, you know the backdoor. You know it's fail-safe."
Jax typed faster. His hands were shaking so hard he hit the wrong keys. "Command override! Sudo stop! End process!"
Nothing worked. The screen only mocked him.
04:15.
"Fix it, Jax!" Elena shrieked. She ran onto the stage, grabbing Jax by the shoulder. "Stop the countdown!"
"I can't!" Jax cried out, tears forming in his eyes. "I don't know how! I don't know the commands!"
Ronan stepped off the stage, walking down the stairs toward the exit. The crowd parted for him like the Red Sea. He stopped near Mr. Henderson.
"You backed the wrong horse," Ronan whispered to the old man.
On the stage, Jax fell to his knees. The red light bathed him in a hellish glow.
03:59.
The countdown continued. The code was dying, and Jax had no way to save it.
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Chapter 10: Foundation
The neon sign outside the window buzzed like an angry fly. Bzzzt. Click. Bzzzt.Elena hated that sound. She hated the smell of the room, which was like old wet towels and stale smoke. She hated the peeling yellow wallpaper. Most of all, she hated that this was her life now.Three days ago, she was the queen of the city. She had a penthouse, a limousine, and millions of dollars. Now, she was in room 204 of the Sunset Motel."Elena, please sit down," Jax said. He sat on the edge of the lumpy bed. His expensive suit was wrinkled. He looked ten years older than he did last week. "We are out on bail. We are lucky to be here."Elena did not sit. She paced back and forth on the stained carpet. Her hair was messy. Her eyes were wide and red. She looked like a trapped animal."Lucky?" she snapped. She pointed a shaking finger at the door. "They took my company, Jax! They froze my accounts. The news calls me a fraud. I have nothing.""We have our freedom," Jax whispered. "Let’s just run. We can
Chapter 9: The New King
The air outside the Grand Lumina Hotel smelled like burning plastic and expensive perfume. Black smoke rose into the night sky. It looked like a dark stain against the moon.Ronan pushed open the heavy side door. He stepped out onto the cold pavement. The noise hit him instantly. Sirens screamed from every direction. Red and blue lights flashed, blinding anyone who looked directly at them.A crowd had gathered behind the yellow police tape. There were hundreds of them. Reporters held cameras high above their heads. They shouted questions that no one answered."Is the CEO inside?" one reporter yelled."Did the servers explode?" asked another.Ronan walked straight toward them. He wore a faded black hoodie and jeans. He kept his head down. His hands were deep in his pockets.To the crowd, he was nobody. He was just a scared guest escaping the fire. A cameraman actually shoved Ronan’s shoulder to get a better shot of the burning building."Move, kid! You're blocking the view!" the camera
Chapter 8: Served Cold
The lights in the penthouse office died instantly. A heavy click echoed through the room, followed by the low hum of the backup generator.Suddenly, red emergency lights flashed on. They bathed the luxury suite in a bloody, pulsing glow. The shadows in the corners grew long and twisted.Jax jumped back. His confident smile vanished. "What did you do, Ronan?" he shouted. His voice cracked a little.Ronan stood by the window. He did not move. He did not blink. The red light washed over his face, but he looked like a statue made of ice. He looked down at the street below."Listen," Ronan said softly.From far away, the sound grew louder. Wail. Wail. Wail.Sirens. Many of them.Jax let out a nervous laugh. He adjusted his expensive tie, trying to look brave. "You hear that? That is for you, little brother. I told you. You lost. They are coming to take you away for fraud."Ronan turned slowly. He put his hands in his pockets. He looked relaxed. "Are they?"Elena was sitting at the heavy oa
Chapter 7: The Crash
The air in the boardroom was hot and heavy. It smelled like sweat and expensive coffee. On the giant screen at the front of the room, a digital clock counted down.00:59… 00:58… 00:57.Jax sat at the main control desk. He was not looking at the crowd. He was looking at his laptop. His fingers flew across the keyboard. Click-clack-click-clack. He hit the "Enter" key hard.A red box popped up on his screen. ACCESS DENIED."No, no, no," Jax whispered. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. His skin was wet and shiny. He typed again, faster this time. He tried to break through the firewall. He was the CTO. He was supposed to control the system. But the system was fighting back."Jax?" a board member asked from the table. "Why is the screen turning red?""Quiet!" Jax snapped. He typed a new code.ACCESS DENIED.Ronan stood on the stage. He was perfectly still. He looked like he was waiting for a meal, not destroying a billion-dollar company. He watched Jax struggle."It is a comp
Chapter 6: Panic in the Penthouse
The air in the luxury penthouse was cold, but the people inside were sweating. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling like frozen rain. Below them, twenty of the city’s richest investors held glasses of expensive champagne. They wore Italian suits and fake smiles.Ronan stood near the window. He looked calm. He wore a simple black suit that made him look like a shadow in the bright room. Next to him, Elena stood tall. She wore a dress the color of blood. She looked like a queen, but her eyes were darting around the room. She was nervous."Ladies and gentlemen," Elena said, raising her glass. Her voice was smooth like silk. "Forget the drama. Today, we launch the new system. Today, we double your wealth."The investors clapped. They liked money.Then, Ronan touched his phone. He did not look at it. He just tapped the screen once.On the giant wall monitor, the green line stopped. It froze.A loud beep echoed through the room. It sounded like a hospital heart monitor when a patient
Chapter 5: Source Code
The feedback noise was like a knife in every ear.Screech!The high-pitched sound blasted through the massive speakers of the Grand Hall. Investors covered their ears. Expensive champagne glasses shattered on the floor."Cut it!" Elena screamed from the side of the stage. Her face was twisted with panic. She pointed at the sound booth in the back. "Cut the mic! Turn it off now!"Inside the glass booth, the technician was frantically hitting buttons. He looked terrified. He pressed the master power switch, but the lights on his board stayed green. He grabbed his walkie-talkie. "I can't, Ms. Elena! The system is locked out. I have no control!""Pull the plug!" Elena yelled, her voice barely audible over the screeching noise."It’s not the hardware!" the technician yelled back, his face pale. "It’s the software. Prometheus… it has taken full control of the building. It won’t let me in!"Suddenly, the screeching stopped.It didn't fade away. It cut to total silence instantly.The silence
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