Chapter 10: The Ghost in the Machine
Luca's empire was a ghost, a sprawling digital entity with no physical headquarters. Its heart beat in the encrypted servers of his serviced apartment and in the minds of his growing inner circle. But ghosts needed a nervous system, a way to issue commands, move money, and monitor the world without being seen.
This required a different kind of recruit. Not a soldier or a artist, but a wizard.
His name was Park Min-jae, though he went by the online handle "Cerberus." He was a legend in the darkest corners of the web, a hacker who had allegedly bankrupted a Nigerian oil minister, leaked the emails of a Swiss bank, and vanished from an Interpol watchlist without a trace. He was also, according to Luca's syndicate contacts, a hopeless gambling addict, deeply in debt to some very dangerous people in Macau.
Luca found his address in a dilapidated, high-rise apartment building in the digital wasteland of Sangam-dong. The hallway smelled of stale kimchi and despair. Luca knocked on the door marked 4B.
It was opened by a young man in his late twenties, with pale skin, dark circles under his eyes, and a nervous energy that seemed to vibrate through his thin frame. He blinked at Luca, confused and suspicious.
"Can I help you?"
"Park Min-jae?" Luca asked, though he knew it was him.
"Who's asking?"
"Someone who is about to change your life," Luca said, stepping past him into the apartment without an invitation.
The apartment was a disaster zone of empty energy drink cans, pizza boxes, and high-end computer equipment. Six monitors formed a glowing wall on a cluttered desk, displaying cascades of code, network maps, and a live feed of the Korean stock exchange.
"I'm not looking for any trouble," Min-jae said, his voice tense.
"You're already in trouble," Luca said, picking up a final demand notice from a Macau casino from a pile of trash. "Twenty million won. And that's just to the Golden Dragon. I imagine the others are less patient."
Min-jae's face went white. "Who are you?"
"My name is Luca Moretti. I am here to make you two offers. The first offer: I will pay all your debts. I will clear your name with every loan shark from here to Macau. I will set you up in a state-of-the-art facility with hardware you can only dream of, and I will pay you a king's ransom to do what you love."
Min-jae stared, disbelief warring with desperate hope. "And… the second offer?"
Luca's expression didn't change. "The second offer is that I walk out that door. And tomorrow, the men from the Golden Dragon will come to collect. They won't take your computers. They'll take your kidneys. And your liver. And anything else they can sell."
It was no choice at all. It was coercion wrapped in salvation.
"What do you want me to do?" Min-jae asked, his voice trembling.
"I want you to be my eyes and ears. I want you to build me a wall of silence. I want every transaction I make to be invisible. I want every communication to be untraceable. I want you to hack into satellite networks, government databases, private security feeds. I want to see everything, and I want to be seen by no one."
He gestured to the squalor around them. "This ends today. You will come with me now. You will never look back. You will have a new name, a new life, and a purpose that matters. Do you understand?"
Min-jae, the great hacker Cerberus, looked like a scared boy. He nodded mutely.
"Good. Pack one bag. Only what you absolutely need. Your new world is waiting."
An hour later, Min-jae was sitting in the back of Luca's car, clutching a backpack containing his hard drives and a change of clothes. He was silent, staring out the window as they left his old life behind.
Luca made a call on his encrypted phone. "Valentin? The debt owed by Park Min-jae to the Golden Dragon and associated parties. Clear it. Use the Vienna account. Send a message that the debt is paid in full and that the boy is under my protection now. Any further inquiries will be considered a personal insult."
He ended the call. Min-jae was watching him, a new kind of fear in his eyes. The casual way Luca had just disposed of a life-threatening problem was more terrifying than the threats themselves.
"Who are you?" Min-jae whispered again.
Luca met his gaze in the rearview mirror. "I am the future. And you, Mr. Park, are now its gatekeeper."
He drove towards the mountains, towards the Citadel. He had his financiers, his enforcers, his doctor, his engineer, and now his spymaster. The machine was taking shape. It was a ghost, but soon, it would have a fist of steel.