FAZER LOGINMelissa noticed it before she understood it. It was nothing dramatic at first—just a subtle recalibration of the room’s oxygen the second he stepped through the frame. Adam walked into the seven a.m. strategy meeting the same way he always did: dark roast coffee in hand, tie loosened at the collar, dark hair still damp from a quick post-workout shower. He took his time setting his phone on the table. He asked about her mother's hip surgery, listening with genuine focus. He complimented Jiang on catching a suspicious routing discrepancy in the overnight logs before anyone on the dispatch desk had even logged in. Ordinary Tuesday pleasantries, on the surface. It was what came immediately after the politeness that made Melissa’s grip tighten around her stylus. "Talk to me about the carriers," Adam said. He sat down, pulled his chair in, and didn't touch his coffee. "All three." Jiang turned his monitor around, his eyes bright with the hyper-caffeinated energy of someone who had be
The office was empty by ten, and Adam liked it that way. Not because he needed the silence to think — he'd learned months ago that silence didn't stop his mind from running numbers, it just gave the numbers more room to echo. He liked it because there was no one around to glance at his face and wonder why he'd gone somewhere else in his head. He sat at his desk with his jacket off and his sleeves rolled to the elbow, the city outside reduced to a grid of scattered gold windows. Melissa had gone home an hour ago, her laptop bag slung over one shoulder, telling him not to stay too late in the tone of someone who already knew he wouldn't listen. Jiang had left even earlier, still riding the high of his first real week on the floor, muttering something about a six a.m. shift shadowing the dispatch supervisor. Adam exhaled and let the interface rise. [Host Status] [Balance: $14,220,410] [Arrogance Level: B+] [Influence: B] He didn't need to summon it, not really. It was alwa
Jiang was still standing in front of Adam's desk, waiting for an answer that both of them already knew was coming.Adam looked at him for a few seconds before finally shaking his head with a faint smile. There was little point in continuing the argument. Jiang had already made his position clear, and after everything they had discussed, Adam knew that trying to force him into a safer path would only lead to another argument tomorrow."Fine," Adam said. "You win."Jiang's expression immediately brightened."I knew you would eventually see reason.""Don't push your luck.""I wouldn't dream of it."Adam gave him a look, but Jiang had already picked up his jacket from the back of the chair."I'll start tomorrow. I want to go through the current maintenance reports before I start making recommendations. If I'm going to be responsible for technical oversight, I need to understand how things are currently being handled.""Talk to Melissa first. She'll give you access to the operational recor
Adam turned away again, walking slowly toward the glass wall that overlooked the central bullpen. The floor was almost dark now, save for the blue ambient glow of idling monitors and the soft perimeter lights reflecting off the polished concrete.He thought back to the beginning of the year—to the claustrophobic boardroom meetings, the late-night strategy sessions where every voice around him had been calculating their own exposure, their own exit routes, their own severance packages if Julian managed to engineer a hostile takeover. In a corporate structure, loyalty was a fluid metric, bound by stock options, career trajectories, and risk mitigation.Except for the man standing behind him.Jiang didn't care about the corporate ladder. He didn't care about executive titles or equity packages. He cared about the fact that they had bled together to keep this company afloat, and he refused to let Adam fight a war of attrition with one hand tied behind his back."If I say yes," Adam said f
"No," Jiang said, and for the first time there was an edge in it, not anger, just weight. "That's what you do for people you're managing. You put the ones you're managing on the safe side of the line and you keep the danger for yourself because it makes you feel like you're protecting them. But you don't manage me. We didn't grow up calling each other brothers for no reason."Adam went still, his hand hovering over the capped marker he’d just set down on the whiteboard tray. The metal frame of the board gave a microscopic squeak under the sudden stillness of the room. Outside, the low hum of the evening traffic on the avenue six floors below bled through the double-paned glass, but inside, the air had gone tight and thin."You call me your brother," Jiang said, taking a step forward. The heel of his boot struck the hardwood with a deliberate, heavy sound. "Not your friend. Not your guy. But a brother. You've said it in front of Melissa, in front of Olivia too. You've also said it in f
The office had finally stopped smelling like a crisis.For weeks it had been coffee gone cold in paper cups, printouts stacked in towers that nobody had time to file, the particular stress-sweat smell of too many people staying too late. Now, with the shadow of the Lacostes dead and buried, someone had cracked a window, and the room smelled like an ordinary afternoon again.Adam noticed that kind of thing now. He hadn't used to. Some weeks ago—back when the Lacostes were targeting the company leaving an invisible wake of deference and anxiety—Adam wouldn't have known his office had a smell at all.He was at the whiteboard with Melissa, walking through the tail end of the transition numbers between Havenridge and The Robinsons—the unglamorous part of a succession, the reconciliation. Not the moment you took the wheel, but the moment you found out exactly what keeping the ship steady had cost."Insurance premium's going to jump regardless," Melissa said, tapping her pen against the boar
It was a chilly Saturday morning so there were not much people out on the street. Most were either sleeping in from the stressful weekdays or passed out from partying on a Friday night.A tall wiry built youth, with a slightly unkempt dark hair, just walked into a clothing store.The store had jus
Olivia's POVThe night air was a bit chilly and slightly biting to the skin but Olivia stood at the entrance of her place of residence, a seven-floor building. She lived on the top floor because it was the cheapest and therefore it was also unfortunately the smallest.Taking in a deep breath, Olivi
Startled at the unexpected question, Adam stumbled over his next words. Misunderstanding his lack of answer as implied consent, Olivia brought up her phone immediately. "I might know someone who can help us... If we call the police-" she began rambling, her hands trembling. Talking her hands int
Adam leaned back slightly in his chair, his expression neutral despite the shifting tension around the table.Olivia was still standing.Melissa was still seated.Daniel glanced between all three of them like he'd just walked into a conversation halfway through and deci







