In the underbelly of Manhattan, in a bar that didn't advertise and never needed to, a familiar face returned.
Grey suit. Polished watch. Calm confidence that made sharks pause.
Maxwell Drake.
Jason's old fixer.
The last time anyone had seen Maxwell, he was "retired," living somewhere in Patagonia with a collection of rare wines and an encrypted phone line connected to no one.
But now he was back. And he wasn't alone.
---
A Silent Pact
He met with three people that night—none of them known to the public, all of them major players in shadow economies:
A Saudi telecom kingpin,
A rogue AI researcher from South Korea,
And a European venture capitalist blacklisted on five continents.
Maxwell didn't mince words.
"Jason Wylde changed the rules. The old institutions can't compete. But I've built something that doesn't need to compete."
He dropped a silver data crystal onto the table.
"WYLDENET. A ghost network riding beneath global infrastructure. Real-time decentralized neural mesh."
The AI researcher paled. "That's not possible."
Maxwell smirked. "I know. That's why I stole it."
---
Jason Gets the Message
Three days later, deep in the mountains, Jason received a package by drone.
No sender.
No note.
Just a silver data crystal and a timestamped message.
> "Time to finish what you started. Or someone else will." — M.D.
Jason stared at it for a long moment before plugging it into his secure terminal.
Lines of code unraveled. Protocols he'd designed—but never released.
They'd been improved.
Enhanced.
Weaponized.
---
In Geneva
Cass, now seated at a conference table with delegates from twenty nations, glanced at her phone.
A silent alert:
> WYLDENET SEED NODE ACTIVATED.
Her eyes widened.
Jason hadn't done this.
Which meant… someone else had.
She stood abruptly. "I need a secure line. Now."
---
The Decision
Jason watched the data cascade across his screen. If released, WyldeNet would change the world again—faster, more radically, less controlled.
Too many pieces were in play now.
Cass in Geneva.
Maxwell reemerging.
Governments scrambling to react.
Jason stood from his terminal and looked out into the sunrise, a fire stoked inside him.
He whispered to himself,
> "If the world wants the king back… let's give them something better."