Cora had seen corruption before. It had always been there, lurking beneath the surface, shaping the world in ways most people didn’t bother to notice. It was a whisper in backroom deals, a handshake between billionaires, a quiet rewriting of laws to favor the powerful. But under the Black Circle, corruption was no longer hidden. It was no longer something that needed to be justified. It was the system itself. The floodgates had been thrown open, and now everything was for sale.
The Chairman had never promised justice, never promised fairness. He had promised vengeance, retribution against the ones his followers had been told to hate—immigrants, liberals, intellectuals, free thinkers, artists, scientists, the weak, the vulnerable. The people who had stood in the way of the old order reclaiming its throne. But while his supporters screamed for blood, the ones pulling the strings looted the country blind.
The laws hadn’t just changed. They had ceased to exist for the powerful. Magnus Vail had ensured that loyalty was the only thing that mattered. The Department of Faith dictated morality. The Department of Prosperity controlled the economy. And now, the Chairman’s Justice Department ensured that the only crimes worth prosecuting were the ones committed by those without power.
It started small—one pardon, then another. A mayor caught taking bribes, fixing permits in exchange for campaign donations, a clear case of fraud. But then he stood on stage next to the Chairman, pledged his loyalty, called his prosecution a political witch hunt, and the charges disappeared. Another official, caught embezzling public funds, simply switched sides, gave a speech about the dangers of liberalism, and was welcomed with open arms.
“If you stand with us, you will be protected.”
That was the message. Not justice. Not fairness. Obedience.
The purges were swift.
The Justice Department was gutted overnight. The very same prosecutors who had once gone after corrupt politicians, corporate fraudsters, and foreign agents were fired, replaced, or reassigned. Magnus Vail’s people seized the federal databases, locking out investigators, deleting entire case files. The FBI’s financial crimes unit was dismantled. The counterintelligence task force—the one that had investigated foreign election interference—was erased from existence.
When reports surfaced about billions of dollars in foreign money flooding into the Circle, about entire politicians being bought and sold, about massive cash transfers from foreign banks to Circle-aligned companies, Cora had waited for the outrage.
It never came.
Because there was too much happening, too fast, too loud.
Every day, there was a new manufactured crisis. A new distraction. A new fire set to keep people from seeing what was really happening.
A border skirmish with Canada. A terrorist threat that never materialized. A purge of “radicals” from universities. A ban on foreign journalists. A new religious decree from the Department of Faith. A declaration of war.
Alex had called it a firehose of misinformation.
“They’re overwhelming us,” he said one night, his voice hoarse from exhaustion. “There are so many crises happening at the same time that no one can focus on what really matters. We’re watching the fires burn, but behind the smoke, they’re looting everything.”
Cora had seen it firsthand. The old elite, the wealthy, the ones who had already hoarded more than they could ever spend, were getting even richer.
The market surged under the Black Circle. Stocks soared as the government funneled trillions into defense contractors, fossil fuel companies, surveillance tech, and private prisons. Inflation was high, but they didn’t care—they owned the right investments.
The older generation was making a killing.
While their children struggled to pay rent, they boasted about record 401(k) gains.
While wages stagnated, they bragged about dividends and stock buybacks.
While food prices skyrocketed, they still went out to dinner, took vacations, lived comfortably in their fully paid-off homes.
And when younger generations spoke up, called out the injustice, pointed to the growing divide, they were met with mockery and condescension.
“Work harder.”
“Stop complaining.”
“Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”
It was infuriating. The world they had grown up in was not the world their children lived in now. Jobs that had once paid a living wage now barely covered rent. College degrees that had once been tickets to a better life now buried people in debt. Owning a home, starting a family, achieving even the smallest fraction of the American dream was impossible.
And yet, the older generation continued to parrot the lies they had been fed.
They believed what the news told them. They believed the firehose of propaganda.
The economy was booming. The nation was thriving. The Chairman was making America stronger than ever.
It was a lie, but it didn’t matter.
They had gotten theirs.
And now, the ladder was being pulled up behind them.
Cora thought about Alex’s words that night as they watched another speech from the Chairman, his smug grin beaming across every screen in the country.
“The economy has never been better,” he declared. “The greatest economy in history.”
Alex scoffed. “Yeah. For who?”
Not for the millions of people locked out of that wealth. Not for the people scraping by, working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Not for the young families drowning in debt while corporate profits hit all-time highs.
But that was the perfect con.
The Chairman’s followers believed the lie because they needed to. They had been told that if they were struggling, it wasn’t because of the billionaires hoarding wealth, not because the system had been rigged against them.
No. It was because of immigrants. Because of liberals. Because of the weak.
The people at the top laughed as their supporters blamed each other, fought amongst themselves, hated the people they were told to hate.
And while the country burned, while people tore each other apart, the ones in power walked away richer than ever.
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