My Ultimate Sign-in System Made Me Invincible - Chapter 470 Those In The Shadows
Chapter 470 Those In The Shadows
The room existed in a state of deliberate obscurity, with no windows or external cameras, located three floors below a nondescript office building in a city that didn’t matter, accessed through corridors that weren’t on any architectural plans.
The lighting was kept deliberately dim—not dark enough to impair vision, but subdued enough to make facial expressions harder to read, to create the kind of atmosphere where people spoke more carefully.
Seven figures sat around a circular table. No hierarchy visible in the seating arrangement, though anyone who understood organizational dynamics would have recognized the subtle cues, like who spoke first, who others deferred to, whose silence carried weight.
They called themselves the Meridian Continuum, though the name existed only in their private communications and had never been spoken aloud outside rooms like this one. Not a conspiracy in the conventional sense. More like a coordination mechanism for people who’d found each other through shared frustration with how the world was run and shared certainty that they could run it better.
Some had intelligence backgrounds. Others came from defense contracting, advanced technology sectors, or financial manipulation. What united them wasn’t ideology, as their politics ranged across the spectrum.
What united them was the belief that the current power structure was obsolete, that the old guard holding the reins had become too cautious, too risk-averse, too concerned with stability when the moment demanded transformation.
And the conviction that they, specifically, should be the ones to force that transformation.
The man who’d called this emergency session looked around the table, his expression unreadable in the dim light. “I’m sure every single one of us has seen Nova Technologies’ latest announcements and has read them more than twice. What do you think about it?”
He paused, letting the question settle. The silence that followed was heavy with implications no one wanted to articulate first.
Finally, the woman to his left spoke. She’d spent fifteen years in signals intelligence before transitioning to private sector work that straddled the line between legal consultation and something considerably less defined. “Is it real? I mean, is technology like that actually real? Precision medical infrastructure? Medical nanites that can cure anything?”
She leaned forward slightly, her voice carrying genuine uncertainty mixed hidden calculation of her own. “I understand that Nova Technologies is revolutionary. We’ve seen what they can do with Lucid and Lucid Air. We’ve watched their space demonstrations. But this is something else entirely. The Studio announcement, I can reconcile with—it’s advanced media generation, impressive but conceptually comprehensible. But medical nanites that regrow organs and reverse neurological damage? I find it almost impossible to believe.”
“Why?” The question came from across the table, delivered with the kind of simplicity that suggested the speaker already knew the answer and was testing whether others did too.
The woman turned toward the voice, her eyes narrowing in the dim light. “Why? Because it’s not just impossible—it’s outrageous! Do you understand what technology like that actually means? The level of advancement required? We’re talking about programmable machines operating at cellular resolution, with sufficient AI to make autonomous medical decisions, all powered by energy sources we don’t understand. That’s not an incremental step forward. That’s a leap that shouldn’t be possible with current scientific understanding.”
“I know what it means.” The third speaker was a man whose background included stints at DARPA and three different defense contractors, always working on projects classified above levels most people knew existed. “It means we finally have access to exactly what we need to achieve our goal.”
“Only if the technology is real,” the woman stressed, her frustration evident. “We can’t build strategy around capabilities that might be exaggerated or fabricated.”
The DARPA veteran looked at her with something approaching pity. “Have you actually taken time to properly analyze their first device? The Lucid? People call it a high-end gaming device, but that categorization completely misses what it actually represents.”
He pulled out a tablet, its screen casting faint blue light across his face. “Do you understand the computational power contained in that ‘ordinary looking device’? Do you comprehend the capabilities of the local processing AI systems?”
His voice gained intensity as he continued. “I’ve had access to the device for three weeks now—won’t say how I acquired it, but I’ve been running tests that would horrify most security professionals. With the Lucid’s processing capabilities and the AI’s optimization algorithms, I could potentially penetrate the Pentagon’s most secure systems in seconds. Not minutes. Seconds. I could accomplish objectives that would take conventional cyberwarfare teams days or weeks, and I could exit without leaving even the microscopic traces that current intrusion detection systems are designed to catch.”
He set the tablet down, his expression intense. “That’s not theoretical. I’ve mapped the attack vectors. The computational architecture of the Lucid is decades beyond anything currently deployed in government or military systems. So when Nova Technologies announces medical nanites, when they claim capabilities that sound impossible, I believe them. Because they’ve already demonstrated technological superiority that shouldn’t exist, and they’ve done it in a consumer device that people use to play games.”
A fourth voice entered the conversation, this one belonging to someone whose wealth came from pharmaceutical investments that spanned multiple continents. “The device’s power is acknowledged. But capability is irrelevant if we can’t leverage it. Nova Technologies has been meticulous from the beginning—everything about their operations is concealed. Their supply chains are opaque. Their R&D facilities are unidentifiable. Their personnel are untraceable.”
He gestured with obvious frustration. “More critically, they’ve made certain that no one connected to any governmental organization can acquire their core products. Every pre-order lottery has excluded buyers with intelligence or military affiliations. They’re deliberately keeping the technology out of official hands. So regardless of how advanced the Lucid is, we can’t access it through conventional channels, and without access, we can’t control it.”
“Is that really what you think?” The DARPA veteran’s voice carried a edge now. “That we’re completely locked out?”
“It’s not what I think—it’s what the evidence demonstrates,” the pharmaceutical investor replied. “Nova Technologies’ operational security makes them impossible to penetrate through traditional means. They’re completely closed off.”
“They were completely closed off,” the DARPA veteran corrected. “Past tense. But the Medical Nanites announcement changes everything. Clinical trials mean physical facilities. Volunteer selection means application processes. Regulatory observers mean institutional interfaces. They’re creating multiple new vectors for access that didn’t exist before.”
He pulled up another document on his tablet. “And perhaps most significantly, we now have confidence about the CEO’s identity.”
The woman from signals intelligence leaned forward. “You mean the kid? Liam Scott?”
“Exactly. Him.” The DARPA veteran’s expression suggested he’d been waiting for this moment. “The CIA has a file that theoretically connects him to Nova Technologies with high to extreme confidence. They’ve built the case through financial analysis, movement patterns, communication networks, and about a dozen other indicators. The only thing they lack is definitive proof that would satisfy a court, but intelligence work rarely operates at that evidentiary threshold.”
“So what are you suggesting?” The signals intelligence woman’s tone carried wariness now. “You know why those agencies haven’t moved on him despite their confidence, right? There’s a reason people with access to the world’s most sophisticated surveillance infrastructure are being cautious.”
“Of course I know!” The DARPA veteran’s composure cracked slightly, revealing frustration that had clearly been building for weeks. “They’re cowards. The CIA has capabilities that most governments would kill for—signals intercepts, satellite surveillance, human intelligence networks, computational analysis tools that can predict individual behavior patterns. But instead of using those resources, they’re paralyzed by caution.”
His voice rose slightly. “They’re scared that someone powerful is backing him? What absolute nonsense. A teenager with unclear origins suddenly appears with world-changing technology, and their response is to watch from a distance and hope he doesn’t notice? That’s not strategy. That’s institutional cowardice.”
The pharmaceutical investor’s voice cut through with cold pragmatism. “You think their caution is nonsense? Then explain how an eighteen-year-old acquired a private A380 that’s been modified with overwhelming technical advantage. Explain the wealth concentration that happened without any visible source. Explain the technology deployment that outpaces anything in the public or classified sectors.”
He paused, letting the questions hang. “Use your brain for once. There are explanations for all of those things, and none of them are comfortable.”
“Damn it!” The DARPA veteran slammed his hand on the table, the sound sharp in the confined space. “Why are you all scared of a kid?”
“We’re not scared of him specifically,” the signals intelligence woman said, her voice maddeningly calm. “We’re being appropriately cautious about an unknown variable with demonstrated capabilities we don’t understand. And if he is connected to Nova Technologies—which seems increasingly certain—then we have even more reason for caution.”
“What they displayed during those livestreams? The spacecraft capabilities, the apparent space infrastructure, the technology that violates known physics? I can confidently say that an organization with those capabilities could inflict catastrophic damage on human civilization if they chose to. Not destroy completely, necessarily, but certainly disrupt to the point of collapse.”
The DARPA veteran laughed, the sound bitter. “Wipe out humanity? Sure. That’s a reasonable assessment.”
Another member spoke up—someone who’d been quiet until now. This one’s fortune came from pharmaceutical manufacturing, and the Medical Nanites announcement had personally cost him approximately $8 billion in market valuation overnight. “I don’t care about Liam Scott’s mysterious backers or Nova Technologies’ hypothetical destructive capabilities. I care about one thing: the Medical Nanites represent the single greatest profit opportunity and the single greatest threat to my existing business in modern history.”
His voice carried cold calculation. “I will not allow them to demolish my pharmaceutical empire while I sit passively. That technology needs to be controlled. Either we control it directly, or we control the entities that deploy it, or we at least position ourselves to capture value from its deployment. But standing aside while they restructure the entire healthcare economy? That’s not an option I’m willing to accept.”
“Exactly!” The DARPA veteran seized on this. “The Medical Nanites represent opportunity we must control. It’s our pathway to achieving what we’ve been planning—taking power from the ossified old guard who’ve been running the world with excessive caution for decades. Nova Technologies has the tools we need. We just need to force access to them.”
The meeting’s convener spoke again, his voice carrying the authority of someone used to making final decisions. “Our objective remains clear, even if the approach needs adjustment. Nova Technologies as an entity is beyond our current reach—their operational security is too sophisticated, their infrastructure too opaque. But we have a softer target: Liam Scott himself.”
He steepled his fingers, a gesture that somehow carried menace in the dim light. “We don’t need to penetrate the company directly. We simply need to create enough pressure on Scott that he either gives us access voluntarily or makes mistakes that create exploitable vulnerabilities. And if it turns out he has no actual connection to Nova Technologies, his personal wealth alone makes him a valuable target. No teenager should command billions in assets. Those resources would serve the greater good better in our hands.”
“And how exactly do we pressure him?” The signals intelligence woman’s skepticism was evident. “Direct approaches have obvious risks.”
“We don’t approach him directly.” The convener’s smile was cold. “Scott has a close circle. He has people he trusts enough to spend time with publicly. That circle represents vulnerability. But we’re not going to be the ones testing that vulnerability.”
He pulled up a dossier, sharing it across the secure network to the others’ devices. “There’s a group operating in Washington DC. They call themselves the Maybourne Group. They are just as ambitious as us. They’ve been making inquiries about Scott for the past month, trying to determine leverage points, exploring whether his wealth could be… redirected toward their interests.”
“You want to use them as a test case?” The pharmaceutical investor’s eyes narrowed. “See what happens when someone makes a move on Scott, gauge the response, learn from their mistakes before we commit our own resources?”
“Precisely. We provide them with information and resources—enough to make a serious attempt, enough to see what kind of response it generates. They take the risk, we observe the results. If they succeed in creating leverage, we can negotiate for access to whatever they acquire. If they fail, we learn what defensive capabilities Scott has and adjust our approach accordingly.”
The convener’s expression suggested satisfaction with his own strategy. “And there’s a secondary benefit. The CIA, FBI, and other agencies have been too cautious in their approach to Nova Technologies. A high-profile incident involving one of their persons of interest might force them off the sidelines, create institutional pressure to act, generate the kind of chaos that creates opportunity.”
He looked around the table, his smile widening slightly. “It’s been too quiet lately. Too stable. The intelligence agencies have been operating in peacetime mode for too long. Let’s shake them up. Let’s create the kind of situation that demands response rather than observation.”
His voice dropped slightly, carrying a weight that made the others lean forward. “It’s time for the Meridian Continuum to start testing the variables. We will create conditions that force the kind of transformative change the world needs, whether the old guard wants it or not.”
Around the table, the others nodded slowly. Some with enthusiasm, some with resignation, but all with the recognition that a decision had been made.
They would move against Liam Scott through intermediaries. They would test his defenses, probe his capabilities, and determine whether he represented an exploitable vulnerability or an obstacle to be navigated around.
And regardless of the outcome, they would use the chaos generated by that testing to advance their larger agenda—taking power from those they viewed as too timid to use it properly.
But they were wrong about many things—about Liam’s actual capabilities, about Nova Technologies’ true nature, about their own ability to control forces they didn’t understand.
But they believed they were being strategic, careful, and appropriately ambitious.
And that belief would lead them to make moves that would have consequences they hadn’t anticipated and couldn’t have prepared for.
