The Rise Of The Quintillionaire

Chapter 2

Six months later. 

The air was clean, cold, and sharp. Geneva, Switzerland, was a quiet place. High up in the snowy mountains, far away from the dirty streets of the city, sat a massive private medical building. It did not look like a normal hospital. It looked like a fortress made of white stone and clear glass.

Inside the largest room, Alex Carter stood perfectly still. He was looking out a huge glass window. The window stretched from the floor all the way up to the high ceiling. Outside, the great Swiss Alps were covered in bright white snow. The sky was a clear, icy blue.

Alex looked down at his hands. He slowly closed his fingers into tight fists. He felt the power in his muscles. Six months ago, these hands were burned, bloody, and weak. He had been crushed under a heavy, burning beam. He had been left to die like a trapped rat by his wife and his best friend.

But now, he was fully healed. In fact, he was better than healed. 

The doctors in this secret facility were the best in the entire world. They did not just fix his broken leg and his burned skin. They rebuilt him. He spent months pushing his body to the absolute limit. Every day, he lifted heavy weights. Every day, he trained in martial arts and combat. Now, his body was sharp, hard, and dangerous. His shoulders were wide. His chest was thick with new muscle. When he looked in the mirror, he did not see the soft, kind firefighter anymore. He saw a predator. He saw a weapon. 

"You are staring at the snow again, Alex," a deep, slow voice said from behind him.

Alex did not jump. He did not even blink. He knew the man was there. He slowly turned around.

Sitting in a high-tech black wheelchair was Victor Sterling. Victor was a very old man. His hair was pure white, and his face was covered in deep wrinkles. He looked frail, but his pale blue eyes were sharp and fierce. They were the eyes of a king. 

Victor Sterling was the head of the Sterling Consortium. He was not a millionaire. He was not even a billionaire. Victor was a quintillionaire. The money he controlled was a secret from the rest of the world. The Sterling Consortium was a hidden shadow economy. Victor owned the central banks in Europe. He controlled the money that governments used to build roads and armies. If a country needed to fight a war, they had to ask Victor for money. If a king wanted to stay on his throne, he had to keep Victor happy. Victor owned the world, but he stayed hidden in the shadows.

"I am looking at the cold, Victor," Alex said gently. His voice was no longer raspy. It was smooth and deep. "I like the cold. Fire takes things away. Ice keeps things exactly how they are."

Victor smiled. It was a small, proud smile. "Six months ago, my men found you under that burning warehouse. You fell through a hidden smuggler’s door. It was a door my people built many years ago. They pulled you out of the ashes. You were broken. You were burned. You were dying."

Alex nodded slowly. "I remember the dark. I remember a voice telling me to hold my breath."

"Yes," Victor said, rolling his wheelchair a little closer. "I watched you heal, Alex. I watched you scream in pain during your surgeries. But you never gave up. You used your anger to stay alive. Your anger kept your heart beating."

Victor stopped his chair. He reached his wrinkled, shaking hand into his coat pocket. 

"I saved you for a reason, Alex," Victor continued. His voice became very serious. "You are my blood. You are my sister’s grandson. You are the last living piece of my family. For years, you ran away from me. You ran away from our family's money. You changed your name. You wanted to be a normal man. You wanted to live a simple life in a simple house."

Alex looked down at the floor. It was true. Since he was a young man, he had hated the dirty games of rich and powerful people. He just wanted to help normal people. That was why he became a firefighter. He wanted to be a humble savior. He wanted to do good things in a bad world. 

"And look what your simple life gave you," Victor said softly, cutting into Alex's thoughts. "It gave you pain. It gave you betrayal. You tried to be a good man, Alex. But good men are weak. The wicked people in this world will always eat the good men. Marcus Vance and your lovely wife, Lisa, proved that to you. They chewed you up and spit you into the fire."

The names hit Alex like a punch to the chest. Marcus. Lisa. 

He remembered the cold, empty look in Lisa's eyes as she watched him burn. He remembered Marcus holding her arm. His chest suddenly felt very tight. A dark, ugly rage boiled deep inside his stomach. 

Victor held out his hand. Sitting in his palm was a single card. 

It was the black Sterling Apex Card. 

It was made of heavy, solid metal. It was completely black, with no numbers and no name printed on it. In the top right corner, there was a tiny, silver eagle.

"This is your birthright, Alex," Victor said. "There is no spending limit on this card. No bank can track it. No government can stop it. With this card, you can buy whole cities. You can destroy huge companies in a single hour. It is absolute, total power."

Alex stared at the black card. The metal looked cold. 

"I ran from this power my whole life," Alex whispered. "I thought money was an evil thing."

"Money is just a tool," Victor replied. "A hammer can build a house, or a hammer can break a skull. It just depends on who swings it. You wanted to save the world with water and a hose. But you cannot wash away evil, Alex. You have to crush it."

Alex closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. He thought about his old life. He thought about the small house he shared with Lisa. He thought about the business he built with Marcus. All of it was a lie. They had laughed at him behind his back. They had planned his murder so they could steal everything. 

His old life was dead. The good, humble firefighter died in the flames that night. 

Alex opened his eyes. They were completely cold. He reached out and picked up the heavy black card. 

"I will take it," Alex said, sliding the Apex card into his pocket. "I tried to be their savior. Now, I will be their nightmare. I will take everything they love. I will break them into tiny pieces."

Victor leaned back in his wheelchair. He looked very pleased. "Good. The jet is ready and waiting for you. Go home, Alex. Show them what happens when you wake a sleeping dragon."