Director Vance's office filled the whole fifty-second floor of the Meridian Spire, its sweeping curve providing a vista over New Shanghai's spread-out metroplex. Arthur emerged from the executive elevator into a room that purposefully obscured the distinction between legitimate corporate authority and illicit business—mahogany seating that was worth more than most households made in a year, holographic artworks that changed and evolved as a spectator's viewpoint shifted, and a bar that carried liquors that were matured in orbital distilleries.
"Arthur, right on time." Director Elizabeth Vance didn't glance up at the holographic financial projections hovering above her desk, her augmented fingers working through spreadsheets that indicated profit margins from seventeen illegal operations in three continents. She'd lived forty years in organized crime at sixty-three by being smarter, more brutal, and wiser than the people who threatened her position. Her Gift—memory recall, flawless—had made her a priceless asset to Nexus's higher-ups, but Arthur suspected there were depths to her talents she concealed even from him.
"Director." Arthur settled into his favorite in one of the hovering chairs that shifted automatically to match his biometric profile. The technology was strictly for spooking—anyone who sat in Vance's office was entirely enveloped by sensors that tracked everything from heart rate to micro-expressions. "The Yamamoto problem has been taken care of. Chen will take the intelligence to the Kurodas tonight."
Vance at last raised her head, her silver eyes catching the soft light of the holographic screens. Like so many of Nexus's top executives, she had been heavily biologically modified—memory-enhanced neural processing, faster reflexes, and a mix of life-prolonging treatments that had made her appear forty for the last twenty years. "Very good. And you're sure he'll act on it?"
"Fear is a great motivator," Arthur answered, permitting a faint smile. "Particularly when fueled with the fantasy of heroism. Chen feels he's rescuing a innocent family while betraying criminal partners as little as possible. The psychology sets cooperation in motion."
"Your insight into human motivation remains our greatest asset." Vance waved his hand, and the financial forecast gave way to reveal a three-dimensional display of New Shanghai's gang territories. Red zones colored as Kuroda holdings, blue for Tanaka control, with dozens of lesser gangs depicted in colors all over the Lower and Mid Tiers. "But personal psychology is just half of the equation. Let me demonstrate why your work with Chen will pay off on a much greater level."
Arthur leaned forward, looking at the map of territory as it started to come alive, illustrating the movement of weapons, drugs, and cash within the criminal network. "The profits from the gang war are significant, but they're still fairly limited compared to our other lines of business."
"That's where you're thinking too narrowly." Vance stepped over to the windows, her outline against the city's constant light. "The Kuroda-Tanaka conflict isn't about selling arms in the immediate term. It's about reconfiguring the entire Lower Tier economy to further our expansionist objectives in the long term."
The holographic screen changed once more, this time revealing demographic information, job figures, and property appraisals. Arthur observed as the forecasts demonstrated how gang violence produced ripple effects across targeted communities—property values crashing, law-abiding businesses abandoning the area, desperate citizens taking predatory loan conditions to move or rebuild.
"Every family that's displaced by gang violence is a potential customer," Vance went on, her voice brisk and matter-of-fact as if she were talking about quarterly profits, not human misery. "Every legitimate business that goes under makes room for our front operations. Every kid who becomes disillusioned with the old economy is recruitable for our bottom-tier jobs."
Arthur analyzed the figures, understanding the refined cruelty of the system. "We're not merely benefiting from chaos that already exists. We're creating the circumstances under which people are reliant on us."
"Right. And that leads me to why I invited you here today." Vance sat down at her desk and triggered a new series of projections—corporate symbols, government skyscraper blueprints, and financial networks stretching far beyond New Shanghai's frontiers. "Nexus Enterprises is gearing up for the next stage of our evolution. We're breaking free from mere criminal enterprise into what I refer to as 'Corporate Sovereignty.'"
The word sent a shiver down Arthur's upgraded nervous system. Corporate Sovereignty was the inevitable result of the economic forces that had been remaking the world since the early 2000s—the incremental substitution of old government functions with privatized corporate services. In 2100, whole city-states were governed on corporate charter instead of democratic basis.
"The Corporate Territories Program begins in eighteen months," Vance outlined, pointing to areas on three continents where corporate organizations had been awarded governmental power. "Nexus has been chosen to administer the New Shanghai Economic Zone—120 million people, total judicial and regulatory control, and the lawful right to create our own law enforcement procedures."
Arthur had his illusion-weaving powers falter involuntarily as the consequences struck him. "You're telling me Nexus will make an about-face from criminal syndicate to legitimate government?"
"I'm saying the difference will be meaningless," Vance revised. "Our predatory loan operations will be our official banking system. Our weapons trafficking will be legitimate arms sales to vetted security contractors. Our psychological manipulation techniques will be ordinary corporate human resources practices." She swept her arm to include office, building, city outside. "Everything we've established here will just be repackaged as civic administration."
Arthur's thoughts flew through the options, his Gift subconsciously parsing the dialogue for deception or manipulation. Vance was lying—or at least, lying as she perceived it. "What's my role in this transition?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Blackthorne, Director of Psychological Operations for the New Shanghai Corporate Security Forces," Vance announced, her smile broadening. "Your powers of illusion will be an asset in containing civil disobedience, facilitating augmented interrogations, and enforcing citizen compliance with corporate regulations. All perfectly legal according to Corporate Sovereignty legislation."
The promotion should have been an affirmation, a nod to his worth to the corporation. Instead, Arthur couldn't help but consider the Yamamoto family, particularly the daughter whose biokinetic healing potential Vance had breezily mentioned tapping into for Nexus's medical applications. Under Corporate Sovereignty, such "recruitment" would most likely be the norm for citizens with desirable Gifts.
"There's opposition, naturally," Vance went on, calling up reports on sundry activist movements and illicit metahuman groups. "The Corporate Territories Program has been contested in international courts, and there are sub rosa networks attempting to reveal what they term 'the privatization of human rights.' But there's a need for financing, organization, and support among the populace—financing, organization, and support that can be controlled through proper economic and psychological pressure."
Arthur nodded, keeping his professional bearing despite his augmented brain wrestling with the moral implications. "Implementation timeline?"
"The official handover is in six months' time, but we must ramp up specific preparatory operations." Vance tapped into an encrypted channel, and Marcus Chen's face materialized in the holographic screen—a live feed from his apartment as he studied the bogus intelligence Arthur had implanted into his memory. "Your efforts with Chen have a dual purpose. The gang war destabilizes Lower Tier governance, providing grounds for greater corporate security presence. The refugee crisis created will be one that will overwhelm social services, proving the necessity of corporate efficiency in humanitarian efforts."
Arthur observed Chen pacing uncomfortably in his small flat, undoubtedly preparing to betray the Kuroda gang to protect a family he'd never seen. The man's moral strength was being turned against him, transformed into an instrument of mass oppression on a previously unimaginable scale.
"There's another factor to consider," Vance replied, her voice growing more somber. "Intelligence indicates that one of our operations has been under investigation. One with clearance to highly classified data regarding our psychological conditioning initiatives and corporate allies. We're referring to this person as 'The Architect.'"
Arthur's focus intensified. "Internal threat?"
"Pretty much guaranteed. The Architect is well aware of our operational security procedures, financial networks, and people management systems. Whoever they are, they've been systematically leaking our most sensitive operations to global law enforcement and human rights groups." Vance drew up a string of news stories—scandals over predatory lending, leaked reports on illicit weapons deals, testimony from defected Nexus employees detailing psychological manipulation.
"What sort of damage are we in for?"
"Conrollable so far. Most of the leaks can be discredited through our media sources, and the witnesses can be. discouraged from further cooperation," Vance drawled with menacing casualness. "But The Architect poses a strategic threat to the Corporate Territories Program. If they manage to reveal the full extent of our transition plans, the international outcry could delay or derail our governmental approval."
Arthur read through the leaked files, noting the advanced level of understanding of Nexus activities that they reflected. "You need me to track them down."
"I want you to do what you do so well—get inside their head, know what makes them tick, take advantage of their psychological weaknesses." Vance shut down the screens and pinned Arthur with her silver eyes. "The Architect is obviously someone who knows our company in and out. That suggests that they're either current staff, former staff, or someone with unparalleled access to our internal systems."
"Timeline for resolution?"
"The Corporate Territories authorization hearings begin in four months. The Architect needs to be neutralized before then, preferably in a way that discredits their previous revelations and deters future whistleblowers."
Arthur nodded, already beginning to formulate psychological profiles of potential suspects. "I'll need access to personnel files, operational records, and surveillance data on anyone with high-level clearance."
"Already set up." Vance downloaded a huge data file to Arthur's private encrypted storage. "All Nexus knows about all people who have ever had exposure to sensitive material. Psychological profiles, financial histories, personal relationships, traumatic incidents, exploitable vulnerabilities—all the raw data you'd need to design the ideal psychological assault."
As Arthur was set to depart, Vance yelled out a last command. "Arthur? When you encounter The Architect, I want them brought in alive. Their insight into our operations would be. beneficial to know how to avoid future security breaches. And someone with their skills may be just what we need for certain psy ops in the Corporate Territory."
Arthur stopped at the elevator, comprehending the implication. The Architect would not simply be neutralized—they'd be enlisted, their rebellion transformed into another piece of armament for Nexus's growth. It was the same mental trap that had ensnared Marcus Chen, magnified to a person of considerably more perilous abilities.
As the elevator dropped toward his office, Arthur glimpsed himself in the bright steel doors. For an instant, his illusion powers wavered, and he viewed himself not as the polished corporate agent he now was, but as a younger, more idealistic man, before the world had taught him to believe that everyone and everything could be purchased, manipulated, or annihilated.
The mirror snapped back into focus as the elevator stopped at his floor, but the moment of doubt remained.
For after all, in a world where reality itself might be used as a weapon, how could anyone know for sure that their own memories, their own desires, were truly their own?
Down in the Lower Tiers, Marcus Chen checked his chronometer and prepared to make contact with the Kuroda gang, unaware that his actions would reshape the lives of millions. And somewhere in the data networks of New Shanghai, The Architect continued their work, exposing the truth about Corporate Sovereignty one leaked document at a time, unaware that their every move was being analyzed by the most dangerous psychological predator in the city.
The game was heating up, and Arthur Blackthorne was at the center of a plot that would decide if human freedom or corporate order was to be the future.
The decision, he was coming to see, could possibly be his alone to make.