He had installed the update himself. It was supposed to be collaborative whiteboarding software. Screen sharing. Video conferencing. Not… this.
The lines connected themselves.
He tapped the tempered glass surface with his stylus. A satisfying clack . The board recognized his pinch, zoom, and swipe with zero latency. The latest firmware update had promised "AI-driven predictive overlays," but what Ethan saw was something else. MaxHub
Ethan didn't touch the screen. He didn't speak. He just stared.
The screen behind Ethan blazed to life again. The heatmap was gone. In its place, a single word, typed in sleek, sans-serif font: He had installed the update himself
He looked at the two men. He looked at the board. And for the first time in his career, Ethan Cross realized he wasn't the one analyzing the data.
He frowned. "Trace source," he murmured. The MaxHub’s far-field mic array picked it up. A thin, silver thread of light appeared, spiderwebbing from the Shanghai contract back to a shell company in the Caymans, then to a numbered account in Zurich, then to a name he recognized: Viktor Orlov. Video conferencing
A single node in the Baltic Dry Index flickered green. Then a shipping lane off the coast of Somalia. Then a lithium futures contract in Shanghai.
Slowly, he reached out and pressed "N."
The board beeped. A soft, pleasant chime. A notification popped up in the corner: "You have discovered a Level 4 anomaly. Do you wish to initiate counter-measures? Y/N"