The twin-turbo V8 engine let out a low, bass-heavy rumble that bounced off the polished stone walls of the Zenith residential pavilion as the charcoal-gray Audi RS 6 Avant cleared the security gates. It was Tuesday morning. The air coming through the cracked window was cool, carrying the scent of damp earth mixed with the distant, faint roar of morning traffic from the city’s financial center.
Jake sat back in the passenger seat, tapping his thumb against his knee. The four-minute blackout from yesterday had left a dull ache behind his eyes, but the Nimodipine capsule he’d taken at dawn was finally working. The throbbing pressure behind his left temple had settled down into a quiet, manageable numbness.
Elias guided the station wagon through the sharp turns of the upper-tier roads, his hands steady on the steering wheel. Above Elias’s head, the glowing, translucent bullish trend line Jake had first spotted yesterday was still there, floating through the upper cabin air like a golden thread tracking upward.
"The periter at the hospital is secure, Mr. Rivers," Elias said, glancing briefly at the rearview mirror before checking his side mirror. "The transport vehicle for Miss Aliya and your mother is scheduled to arrive at the recovery wing at ten o’clock sharp. The discharge paperwork is already signed."
Jake nodded, keeping his eyes on the road ahead. "Good. We’ll head straight to Aurelia Capitals first. Let’s not keep the board waiting."
The private executive elevator inside Aurelia Capitals rose with a quick, silent pull, opening directly into the glass-walled boardroom on the top floor.
As the frosted doors slid open, the rich scent of dark espresso hit Jake first, followed by the quiet chatter of the board. He stepped into the room, realizing—as had beco a habit lately—that he was the last one to arrive.
Before pulling out his chair at the head of the table, Jake paused, his eyes sweeping across the room. Above Marcus, Adrian, Noah, and Leon, the exact sa translucent, glowing golden lines hovered in the air, each one angling sharply upward. Every single one of them, Jake thought, his eyes lingering on the golden arcs. Aurelia Capitals really is a gathering of monsters. He let his gaze drift across the empty corners of the room. Up until now, every person he had encountered since gaining this vision carried a bullish trend. It made him wonder. What would a bearish trend line actually look like? A dark red decline? A downward spiral? He still hadn’t t a single person whose luck or market value was crashing hard enough to show it.
"Well, look who finally decided to join us," Leon Hart called out from the far end of the long mahogany table. He was leaning back, a lazy smirk on his face as he twirled an expensive fountain pen between his fingers. "The undisputed king of market timing, but you still can’t sync a wristwatch, Jake. We were just about to vote on handing your shares over to the public fund."
Noah Chen leaned forward from across the table, his eyes narrow and completely dry.
"At least Jake doesn’t bring a dia circus and a non-disclosure lawsuit with him every ti he steps into a secure room, Leon," Noah said, his voice flat and biting. "At least he didn’t try to smuggle Elizabeth Roys into our eting."
Leon’s smirk vanished. His shoulders squared, and a dark flush crept up his neck, contrasting sharply with his neat tan. "That was entirely out of my hands, Noah, and you know it. The Roys family is a massive PR asset for our luxury developnts down the line. I didn’t exactly have a choice when she insisted."
Jake watched Leon’s defensive posture. It made sense. Elizabeth Roys wasn’t just another socialite; she was the daughter of the country’s military Commander and a powerful mber of parliant. The Roys family held an iron grip on the Republic’s high society. Even though all five n sitting in this room ca from massive, wealthy conglorates, none of them could afford to lightly offend soone with that kind of state power backing them.
"Then manage your assets better," Noah muttered, turning a page on his tablet and ignoring him.
Between them, Adrian Vale sat perfectly still. His fingers were laced together on the dark wood, his face an unreadable mask of cold, upper-class discipline. He didn’t say a word, but his steady, heavy gaze was enough to make Leon clear his throat and quiet down, dropping his pen onto his notepad.
"Alright, let’s clear the air," Marcus Sheele interrupted. He tapped his tablet firmly against the table to get everyone’s attention. "Jake is here. Let’s lock in the official minutes. We have too much capital moving this morning to waste ti on bickering."
Marcus swiped his fingers across the screen, sending a massive, detailed map of regional trade routes and city zones onto the center glass display wall.
"Let’s look at the construction logistics," Marcus said, his voice sharp and businesslike. "As of nine o’clock this morning, the bridge loan cleared through Adrian’s family equity wing. The funds are officially sitting in the Sterling escrow account. Julian Sterling’s international construction arm—the heavy machinery, the deep-water port permits, and the northern transit infrastructure—is legally ours."
Marcus leaned forward, his eyes fixing on Jake. "But that’s only half the map. To control the whole region, we need the dostic footprint. The ridian Group’s local construction subsidiary is still active, holding the city developnts, the residential zones, and the local labor unions. Our next step is the structured acquisition of that arm. Since we’re neutralizing the hostile takeover threat against ridian, they’re handing over their entire construction subsidiary to Aurelia Capitals as a performance fee."
Marcus let out a short, cold laugh. "We’re taking a pri asset for pennies on the mark because they have their backs against the wall. Once that transfer is complete, Aurelia will own the entire secondary physical supply chain from the northern borders right down to the city streets."
Noah nodded, pulling up another docunt. "And to make sure everything moves smoothly without regulatory interference, we need to sign off on the asset releases. We already lifted most of the legal seizures against Sterling Infrastructure yesterday afternoon, but we need a formal board agreent today to completely lift the restrictions so the transition can finalize."
Marcus looked around the table. "Any objections to lifting the remaining seizures?"
Adrian remained silent, his expression giving nothing away, while Leon simply shrugged. Noah checked a box on his screen. Jake kept his gaze on the map, tracking the massive lines of territory they were consolidating. They aren’t just taking over businesses, he realized, watching the interlocking assets on the screen. They’re squeezing Julian out from both sides, using his own regional infrastructure to choke out his remaining options.
"Sign it off," Jake said quietly.
Noah tapped his screen, finalizing the order. "Done. The legal blocks are officially dismantled."
An hour later, the eting broke up with short nods and the rustle of closing briefcases. As the others began to leave, Jake stepped out onto the private corner balcony, letting the sharp, biting city wind hit his face.
His phone vibrated deep in his jacket pocket—a long, steady buzz. He pulled it out and saw the encrypted line from his primary financial handler.
He swiped the screen. "Speak."
"Mr. Rivers, it’s done," Samuel Carter’s voice ca through the speaker, crisp and noticeably lighter than usual. "The off-market blocks cleared the clearinghouse just a few minutes ago. Every ledger entry has been checked and secured through our primary custody accounts. You are officially holding a full sixteen-percent equity stake in the ridian Group. The institutional voting rights are registered under your na."
Jake tightened his grip on the phone, a quiet, solid warmth settling in his chest. Sixteen percent of ridian. While the rest of the city was watching Julian Sterling drop like a stone, he had stepped into the shadows and bought up a massive piece of a traditional titan for absolute dirt.
"Good work, Samuel," Jake said, keeping his voice level. "Are the transaction trails covered?"
"Completely clean, sir. To anyone looking from the outside, it looks like a standard institutional shift between holding trusts," Samuel said. "Your na won’t trigger a public disclosure until the regular quarterly registry update."
"Perfect. Keep a close eye on the volu. I’ll call you before the afternoon session," Jake said, ending the call.
He stood by the glass railing for another minute, looking down at the tiny, moving cars on the streets below. The board was moving on construction, his personal wealth was growing, but the real power still ca from the numbers he moved himself.
He turned back inside, nodding to Elias, who was already waiting near the door with his coat. "We’re done here, Elias. Let’s get down to Apex Plaza. I need to get to the terminal, look at the midday market volatility, and give Silas his trading targets for the afternoon."
"Understood, Mr. Rivers," Elias said, stepping ahead to hold the door.
As they walked down the wide corridor toward the private elevator, Jake watched the golden lines shifting slightly above Elias’s head. He began calculating the possibilities. If he could read these trends perfectly, he could anticipate a CEO’s failure before the board even t, or catch a company’s rise days before the first press release. But the missing piece of the puzzle still bothered him. To truly understand the limits of this vision, he needed to see the opposite end of the spectrum. He needed to see what happened to a person’s line when they were completely ruined—to see exactly what a bearish trend looked like before the ax fell.
The elevator doors opened with a soft chi. The market was moving into its peak hours, and with ten billion marks at his disposal, Jake was ready to step back onto the trading scene and take his cut.
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