Location: Singapore Streets & Industrial District
Time: 7:48 PM – 7:30 AM Local Time
Rex moved through Singapore like a ghost haunting his own crime scene. Without the hum of electronics, the city had reverted to an older rhythm—children laughing in courtyards, elders sharing stories on void decks, mahjong tiles clattering on marble tables. The analog heartbeat was slow, fragile, temporary.
His shielded phone buzzed. Not a text—a quantum-encrypted data packet assembling itself into a holographic projection. Nicholas materialized beside him in the alley, translucent but perfect in detail.
"Magnificent work, Rex." The CFO's voice cut through bone conduction, calm as a predator. "You've proven what I suspected—that the right person with the right access can bring down any system."
Rex studied the hologram, recognizing the corporate shark beneath the friendly tone. Nicholas wasn't here to praise him; he was here to exploit opportunity.
"Right now, Lizzy is scrambling in emergency board meetings. Shareholders are panicking. The company is hemorrhaging sixty billion in regional disruption." Nicholas's projection gestured toward the darkened skyline. "Your rebellion isn't just personal revenge—it's a corporate restructuring opportunity."
Rex processed the implications. Around him, Singapore balanced on catastrophe's edge. Emergency services struggled without networks. Hospitals ran on backup power. And Nicholas was offering him a seat at the table where the recovery would be managed.
"I'll make this simple," Nicholas said. "Help me remove Lizzy from the CEO position, and you gain real influence over how the company rebuilds. Not just freedom from her oversight—control over the systems she failed to protect."
The hologram flickered as encryption protocols reached their limits.
"I'm sending coordinates. You have twelve hours to decide whether you want to shape this crisis or just watch others profit from it." Nicholas smiled with predatory satisfaction. "But remember—while you're deciding, the board is making decisions about your future."
The projection dissolved. Rex stood alone in Singapore's digital darkness, surrounded by analog life and the weight of impossible choices.
But this time felt different. Nicholas wasn't offering protection or promises—he was offering leverage.
12 Hours Later – Singapore Industrial District
7:30 AM Local Time
Rex found the coordinates led to an abandoned data center—concrete walls thick enough to shield quantum processors from electromagnetic interference. Inside, emergency lights flickered across rows of dead servers and ghostly processing cores. But in the center, a single workstation hummed with life, powered by an isolated fuel cell system.
He approached the terminal. It activated automatically, connecting directly to Nicholas's London office through channels that bypassed conventional infrastructure entirely.
"Time is running short," Nicholas's voice came through military-grade encryption, sharp with urgency. "Lizzy is overextended, the board is fracturing, shareholders are demanding accountability. The company needs technical leadership that can handle system integration without emotional complications."
The workstation displayed real-time corporate intelligence—board meeting transcripts, vote tallies, financial projections. The data flowed through channels Rex recognized from his own network infiltration work. Nicholas had backdoors everywhere.
"The choice is simple," Nicholas continued. "Help me demonstrate that technical expertise can solve problems rather than create them, or watch the board decide your fate without your input."
Rex stared at the data streams. Somewhere in those corporate communications, he could see the shape of the game being played. Not just using his sabotage as leverage, but positioning him as the solution to the crisis he'd created.
Suddenly, alarms began blaring across the workstation. System alerts, network intrusions, conflicting access attempts from multiple sources. The code fragments Rex had embedded in Singapore's infrastructure—his personal backdoors and monitoring systems—were being actively hunted by someone else.
"What's happening?" Rex demanded.
"Government cybersecurity teams are trying to purge your access points from the networks. If they succeed, you lose your only technical leverage over the recovery process." Nicholas's voice carried calculated urgency. "Unless you act now to secure the systems under our control."
Rex's hands moved to the terminal interface. Every instinct warned him this was manipulation, but the data streams showed cascading failures across multiple networks. His code wasn't just being removed—it was being replaced by someone else's surveillance systems.
"Do it, Rex. Show them that technical sabotage can become technical leadership."
Rex made his choice.
His fingers flew across the interface—isolating critical systems, rerouting power, securing communication channels. Every move tightened his control over Singapore's recovering infrastructure while blocking unknown competitors for access.
The data center shook as backup generators strained under sudden load redistributions. Fire suppression systems hissed. Emergency lights strobed. But on the terminal, Rex watched his influence spread—not destruction this time, but careful reconstruction under his technical guidance.
Within minutes, Nicholas's strategic instructions began executing automatically across GDI's global network. Shareholder confidence stabilized. Emergency protocols reorganized. The company's recovery accelerated under Rex's technical expertise.
"Excellent," Nicholas said with satisfaction. "The board is watching real-time system metrics. They're seeing technical competence solving problems rather than creating them. Lizzy's position becomes more precarious by the minute."
Rex leaned back in the chair, watching network control maps spread across the terminal. Every system he stabilized strengthened Nicholas's corporate position. Every protocol he secured demonstrated his own indispensability as a technical asset.
But something nagged at him. The government purging attempts had been too convenient, too perfectly timed to force his hand.
"Nicholas," Rex said carefully. "Who exactly was trying to purge my access points?"
Silence. Then: "Does it matter? You've proven what needed proving. Technical expertise can be channeled toward corporate solutions rather than personal vendettas."
Rex studied the data flows with new suspicion. The network attacks hadn't felt random—they'd felt orchestrated, designed to force him into exactly this demonstration of cooperative capability.
"You staged this," he realized. "The government hunt, the emergency—you created the crisis to make me choose your solution."
"I created the context where you could make an informed choice about your career prospects. The question now is whether you want to maintain the technical influence you've gained, or whether you prefer returning to unemployment and potential prosecution."
Rex looked around the data center—equipment that had once hummed with algorithmic life, now serving as his command center for corporate warfare. His insider knowledge had created this opportunity, but he'd just used it to serve someone else's agenda.
Outside, Singapore's analog heartbeat continued as repair crews restored basic infrastructure, unaware of the information battle that had just determined their city's recovery timeline. Rex had influenced that process through administrative coordination rather than technical sabotage.
The question was whether he'd done it for his own career advancement or Nicholas's corporate ambitions.
In the ruins of Singapore's digital civilization, Rex began to understand that choosing the future was more complex than simply exposing the present. Sometimes it meant deciding which information was worth organizing—and which power structures were worth serving.
Every database was leverage. Every report was currency. And he was just beginning to learn the rules of the corporate game Nicholas had been playing all along.