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Later cost more
Author: Addiction
last update2026-01-29 13:33:23

The Silverlake branch no longer felt fragile.

It wasn’t complete, but it was standing. That was enough for Jasper to shift his attention elsewhere. Expansion without control was pointless, and Silverlake had already proven that no city allowed loose ends to exist for long.

Jasper left Silverlake late that night and returned to Ashford by morning. The transition was quiet. He preferred it that way.

By noon, the first meeting was already set.

The Ashford estate sat on the outskirts of the city, old money built into every stone and corridor. The guards recognized Jasper immediately and stepped aside without question. Inside, the atmosphere was restrained, formal, but not hostile.

The head of the Ashford family waited in a private sitting room, hands folded neatly on the table. He rose when Jasper entered.

“You move quickly,” the man said.

“I don’t like pauses,” Jasper replied.

They sat.

Tea was poured. Neither of them touched it.

“You didn’t call this meeting for courtesy,” the Ashford h
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  • A new Threat

    The request for another meeting came without warning.It arrived early in the morning, routed through three different assistants before finally reaching Jasper’s phone. No formal agenda. No written explanation. Just a time, a location, and a polite insistence that his presence was “urgently required.”Jasper read the message once.Then again.“They’re asking again?” Jackson asked, standing by the window.“Yes,” Jasper replied. His tone didn’t change. “Today.”Jackson frowned. “After everything?”“That’s why,” Jasper said. He set the phone down. “They think urgency works in their favor.”Lena crossed her arms. “Or desperation.”Marcus said nothing, but his jaw tightened slightly.Jasper stood. “We’ll go.”Jackson looked at him. “You’re expecting something.”“I’m expecting honesty,” Jasper said. “Or at least an attempt at it.”The meeting took place in a private conference hall overlooking Silverlake’s central district. Glass walls. Minimal staff. The kind of place chosen to project con

  • Status?

    Silverlake Branch.Jasper reviewed the reports again, scanning the logs with precision. The System had compiled every anomaly, every late-night access, every minor misstep that had seemed coincidental. None of it was. Not a single detail.“They tried to destabilize us,” Jasper said aloud, tone calm, almost casual.Marcus leaned against the console, arms folded. “And we know who?”“Yes,” Jasper replied. He tapped the screen, bringing up the mapped access points. “All paths lead to one headquarters. A rival firm. They think they can shake Silverlake.”Lena moved closer, brow furrowed. “We’ve contained the damage, repaired the units, but—”“Not enough,” Jasper interrupted softly. “They need to understand that attempting sabotage has consequences. We’ll visit them.”Marcus glanced at Lena. “You mean… confront them?”“Yes,” Jasper said. He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. Calm carried more weight than anger ever could. “Today.”By mid-morning, the team gathered. Jasper selected a

  • Launch

    Silverlake Branch.The building came alive before sunrise.Lights flickered on across the production floor in timed rows, machines humming into readiness as engineers and managers filtered in with coffee cups and tired expressions. Shifts overlapped cleanly. Schedules were followed. On the surface, everything worked the way it was supposed to.Lena stood near the center console, reviewing the morning output logs. She hadn’t removed her coat yet. She rarely did until the numbers settled.“Line three is ahead,” she said without looking up. “Two percent over target.”One of the engineers nodded. “Calibration held overnight.”“It should,” Lena replied. “That’s not an achievement.”Marcus watched from the upper walkway, hands resting lightly on the railing. His eyes moved more than his head did. Cameras, blind spots, exits. He’d memorized the floor plan within his first week.“Security check completed,” he said through the comm. “No anomalies.”Lena exhaled. “Good.”For a moment, it felt l

  • Adapt

    The days following the campaign passed without much noise, but the effect was impossible to miss.Silverlake noticed.Jasper became aware of it in small ways at first. Messages sent late at night, phrased politely but carrying urgency underneath. Calls routed through assistants who suddenly sounded cautious, as if choosing each word carefully. Names he recognized from financial reports and closed-door deals began appearing on his schedule without explanation, some of them marked as high priority without his approval.He didn’t comment on it at first.By the third day, Jackson placed a tablet on Jasper’s desk without saying anything.Jasper glanced at it once. Then again. He didn’t reach for it immediately.“Investors?” he asked.“Private ones,” Jackson replied. “Most of them don’t usually reach out first.”Jasper finally picked up the tablet and scrolled. Venture capital heads. Silent shareholders. Family-backed funds. People who rarely showed their faces unless they smelled something

  • Spreading

    By the time the Silverlake branch settled into its rhythm, Jasper no longer needed to hover over daily operations. The home robots had cleared internal testing. Production lines were stable. Distribution routes were mapped and guarded. On paper, everything was ready.Paper, however, didn’t build trust.Jasper stood at the glass wall of the branch’s main conference floor, watching staff move below. Engineers crossed paths with marketing leads. Security lingered at the edges, quiet and alert. Everyone was busy. No one was relaxed.He turned when Jackson entered.“They’re ready,” Jackson said. “If you want to start.”Jasper nodded. “Call the marketing heads in. And the PR team. I want everyone in the room.”Jackson tapped his earpiece and moved quickly.Minutes later, the conference room filled. Not crowded, but full enough to feel tight. Screens lit up along the walls. Campaign drafts. Event schedules. Influencer profiles.Jasper took his seat at the head of the table. He didn’t waste t

  • Silverlake branch

    The Silverlake branch didn’t slow down.If anything, the pace sharpened. Production schedules tightened. Development cycles overlapped. Teams rotated through shifts that blurred the line between day and night. The office lights stayed on long after the city outside dimmed.That was when the first problems appeared. Well, more like another round of problems after the first issues the week before...At first, they were easy to dismiss.A prototype froze during a routine calibration test. A system reboot took longer than expected. A sensor misread data it had processed correctly a dozen times before.Minor things.“Probably a bad update,” one engineer said.“Or a hardware conflict,” another added.Jasper listened. He didn’t comment.He stood behind them, hands in his pockets, eyes fixed on the screen as lines of code scrolled past. His expression didn’t change, but his attention sharpened. Small problems never existed in isolation. Not here. Not now.“Run it again,” he said.They did.Th

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