- The Gathering Storm
The politicians smiled, toasting to record profits and the “best economy in history.” But for the people, there was no prosperity—only rising prices, stagnant wages, and an unbridgeable gap between them and the elite. The wealth was there, but they were locked out, watching from the streets as the rich feasted behind glass towers.
- The Coronation of Retribution
Cora and Alex sat in silence, watching as the Chairman took the stage. This was not an inauguration. It was a coronation. The men behind him—his oligarchs, his war profiteers, his billionaires—lounged in their seats, eyes glazed, bodies slumped, high on something far stronger than victory.
- The History of Magnus Vail
Magnus Vail had never been a builder. He had never invented, never pioneered, never created. He took, reshaped, and erased those who had done the work before him. He bought his way into success, rewrote history to place himself at the center of it, and convinced the world he was a genius. His empire was built on deception, his wealth a product of manipulation. And yet, by the time he stood at the right hand of the Chairman, it no longer mattered how he got there.
- The King of the Airwaves
Cora and Alex had tried to break the spell. They had shown the lawsuits, the court transcripts where the network itself admitted that no reasonable person would mistake its content for real news. They had pleaded with their parents to see the truth, to recognize the cycle of fear and outrage that kept them glued to the screen, trapped in a world that didn’t exist.
- The Opposition
The Chairman hadn’t won the election. The opposition had lost it before the first votes were even cast. Their candidate framed the election as a choice between democracy and dictatorship, but that wasn’t what the people saw. They weren’t voting for democracy—they were voting against a system that had already failed them.