The morning after the blackout, the sun rose over a city that was cold, angry, and tired. But the factory was still humming.
I sat in my office, reviewing the damage report, when Seraphina slammed the door open. She didn't knock. She never failed to knock unless the sky was falling.
"He's gone," she said, breathless.
"Who?"
"Dr. Aris. The Head Alchemist. And the master drive containing the Halo Formula is missing from the server room."
I stopped typing. I didn't look up immediately. I took a slow breath, processing the implications.
Dr. Aris was the only person alive, other than myself, who understood the synthesis process for the Void Suppressant. If he took the formula to the First Prince, Valerian wouldn't need to pay my subscription fee anymore. If he took it to Kaelen, the Anarchists could reverse-engineer it to create a permanent cure, destroying my leverage over the army.
"Time of departure?" I asked.
"Two hours ago. He disabled the cameras in the lab."
"He thinks he's clever," I said, standing up and buttoning my jacket. "But he forgot to read the Employee Handbook."
I pulled up the employee tracking grid on the main screen.
Every high-level Vayne Corp employee wore a VayneCom. It was a perk of the job. It was also a shackle. Even if you turned it off, the mana-signature of the device was bonded to the user's bio-rhythm.
A red dot was moving rapidly across the map, heading west into the Badlands.
"He's heading for the Dead Chapel," I noted. "A rendezvous point. He's selling me out."
"Nero," I said to the shadows in the corner. "Get the car."
Vehicle: Vayne-1 Interceptor Location: The Badlands
The Vayne-1 was not a carriage. It was a low-slung, matte-black wedge of mithril and aerodynamics, powered by a high-output mana-turbine engine. It didn't have wheels; it hovered on a cushion of repulsive gravity magic.
We tore across the cracked earth of the Badlands at 200 miles per hour.
"He is stopped ahead," Nero reported from the passenger seat. "One kilometer. The ruins."
I saw the dust trail. A stolen delivery truck was parked next to the skeletal remains of an old stone chapel.
I pulled the interceptor into a drift, the mag-lev engines screaming as I parked directly across from the truck.
Dr. Aris was standing by the chapel archway. He held a silver data drive in his trembling hands. He looked like a man on the edge of a breakdown.
He saw me step out of the car and flinched, clutching the drive to his chest.
"Going on a sabbatical, Doctor?" I asked, my voice amplified by the car's speakers. "You didn't fill out the request form. HR is going to be furious."
"Stay back!" Aris screamed. He pulled a pistol—a Vayne Corp model, naturally—and pointed it at me. His hands shook so hard I was worried he'd shoot his own foot.
"I won't do it anymore, Lucas! I won't be your drug dealer!"
I walked forward slowly. Nero flanked me, a silent wraith.
"You were paid handsomely, Aris. You have a penthouse. You have tenure."
"I have blood on my hands!" Aris yelled, tears streaming down his face. "I created a drug to enslave an army! I watched you turn the power off on families last night! You're a monster!"
"I am a businessman," I corrected. "And you are stealing company property."
"I'm giving it to Kaelen!" Aris spat. "He promised to destroy the formula! He promised to set the soldiers free! I'm ending your monopoly!"
The shadows inside the chapel lengthened. They stretched out like oil, pooling around Aris's feet.
A figure stepped out of the darkness.
Kaelen.
He looked even worse than the last time I saw him. His corruption was spreading, the purple veins now reaching his neck. But his eyes were lucid.
"Let him go, Lucas," Kaelen rasped. He placed a hand on Aris's shoulder. A shimmering dome of Void energy enveloped the scientist. "He wants to be free. Something you wouldn't understand."
Nero stepped forward, his blade materializing. "My Lord. Permission to engage?"
"Stand down, Nero," I said.
I didn't draw a weapon. I didn't charge a spell.
I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
"You misunderstand the situation, Aris," I said, unfolding the document. It was his employment contract. "I don't own your work. I own you."
Aris looked confused. "What?"
"Clause 9, Paragraph C," I read aloud. "The Magical Non-Compete Agreement."
I looked at the trembling scientist.
"Any attempt to share, sell, or destroy proprietary Vayne Corp intellectual property results in immediate termination. And I don't mean fired."
"It's just paper!" Kaelen snarled. "He's protected by the Void! Your laws don't apply here!"
"It's not a law," I smiled coldly. "It's a Soul-Binding."
I ran my thumb over the signature at the bottom of the page.
[Contract Activated.]
The effect was instantaneous.
Aris gasped. He dropped the gun. He dropped the drive.
He grabbed his throat.
Golden chains—ethereal, glowing runes of absolute order—erupted from his skin. They wrapped around his chest, his arms, his neck. They weren't external; they were squeezing him from the inside.
"Gahh... ack..."
"You signed it freely, Doctor," I said, watching him fall to his knees. "In exchange for your stock options."
"Stop it!" Kaelen roared. He tried to slash the golden chains with a Void blade, but the blade passed right through them. The chains weren't physical; they were conceptual. You couldn't cut a concept.
Aris looked at me, his eyes bulging, capillaries bursting.
"Please..." he wheezed.
"Breach of contract acknowledged," I said. "Penalty: Liquidation."
CRACK.
The chains tightened. Aris's body went rigid. His eyes rolled back into his head as the magical backlash scrambled his brain, erasing the neural pathways that held the formula.
He collapsed face-first into the dirt. Dead.
The golden chains faded into mist.
Kaelen stared at the body. He looked up at me with genuine horror.
"You killed him..." Kaelen whispered. "With a piece of paper."
"He breached the terms of service," I replied, tucking the contract back into my pocket.
"Nero. Retrieve the asset."
Nero walked past the stunned Anarchist leader. Kaelen didn't move. He knew he couldn't stop it. He had brought a sword to a lawyer fight.
Nero picked up the silver data drive from the dust. He wiped it on his cloak and handed it to me.
I looked at Kaelen one last time.
"You want to destroy the system, Kaelen? Fine. But remember: inside the system, I am God. Don't try to poach my staff again."
I turned and walked back to the car.
Location: Vayne-1 Interceptor (Returning to City)
The drive back was silent.
I held the data drive in my hand. It was cold. A man had just died for it.
"Seraphina," I said, tapping my comms.
"Boss? Did you find him?"
"Asset secured. The personnel issue has been resolved."
"Is Dr. Aris... coming back?"
"No. He decided to retire early."
I looked out at the bleak landscape of the Badlands.
"Scrub the entire Bio-Lab team, Seraphina. Fire them all. Severance packages included."
"All of them? But who will run the synthesis?"
"Replace them with the new Automaton Researchers we acquired from the Atlantis blueprints," I ordered. "Machines don't have consciences. Machines don't have families. And machines don't try to be heroes."
"Understood, Boss."
[ System Notification: Asset Secured. ]
[ Traitor Liquidated via Contract. ]
[ New Tech Unlocked: AI-Driven Research. ]
[ Effect: Research speed +50%. Morale Penalty removed. ]
I tossed the drive onto the dashboard.
The Civil War was escalating. The Church was hostile. The Anarchists were growing.
I couldn't afford human error anymore.
From now on, Vayne Corp would be perfectly, terrifyingly efficient.