Stones: Experiment (Stones #3) by Jacob Whaler Read Free Book Online Page B

major gambling ventures, from Macau to Moscow to Las Vegas. Our activities have generated a massive bubble that has gripped financial markets. With the predictive power of the Trading Algorithm, we can and will sustain the bubble for months, bleeding the rest of the world dry.” Elsa pauses and closes her eyes. She takes a deep inhale from a cloud of floating mist. “Recent world events have created even more instability and distrust between nations. A day rarely passes without a new threat of war, cyber or otherwise, in some forgotten corner of the world. The markets are going wild. Chaos is our friend.”
    Ryzaard beams. “What is the current level of our profits?”
    “In excess of 750 billion IMUs.”
    Jing-wei turns to stare at Elsa. “Per month?”
    “Per day,” Elsa says.
    The usual fumbling of jaxes and slates at the table goes silent. Ryzaard stands behind Elsa, his arms folded across the lapels of his tweed suit.
    Kalani drops his club on the table and leans in close to Elsa, his mouth open. “With money like that, we should be wolfing down sushi by the ton. Why are you only paying me—”
    “An annual salary that exceeds the market value of all 176 islands of the Independent Republic of Tonga.” Elsa pushes Kalani back into his chair. “Don’t complain. That’s more than enough for you.”
    “Enough is never enough.” A long string of saliva drips off the tip of Kalani’s tongue. “But the real question is, how can we hide that much money?”
    “If the extent of our operations and profits were known, the market would immediately collapse and the game would be up.” Elsa’s eyes drift up from the slate. “In essence, the market, every market on the planet, has become our captive. The challenge now is to keep it that way. Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill the duck that lays the golden eggs.”
    “That’s
goose
, but no matter.” Ryzaard says. “Our cash flow is adequate for the present. The time is not far distant when the whole concept of money will no longer exist. In the meantime, keep it going any way you can.” He walks a couple of paces to the right and reaches to pick up Kalani’s club, running his thumb along the embedded shark teeth. Specks of dried blood float to the floor. “How is our resident hunter doing with his Mesh-running?”
    Kalani swivels in his chair and looks up at Ryzaard standing directly behind him. “It took a couple of months to repair the damage done by Little John before he died. Getting back into high security US military Mesh-points was easy. Same with the Euro Zone. The real challenge was hacking the quantum-encrypted Chinese datasites.” With a flash of his hands, he pulls his slate out of Elsa’s fingers, gives the slate a hard shake and wipes her data off the screen. “Thanks to Jing-wei, and the four new dedicated cluster systems she found for me, I broke through last week.”
    “Don’t worry, with all your celebrations, we all heard about it.” Elsa reaches for the slate, but Kalani is too quick. “I’m surprised the Chinese don’t already know.” She shoots an eye dagger at Jing-wei.
    “Well done, Kalani.” Ryzaard lays the club back on the table. “Now let’s move on to the location algor—”
    “Wait,” Kalani says. “There’s more. Turns out that most non-Western governments get their encryption protocols from Chinese sources. And the Chinese have direct lines into every client Mesh-point.”
    “In other words,” Jing-wei chimes in. “When we broke the Chinese codes, it gave us access to hi-value government Meshfiles on half the globe.”
    Staring at them, Ryzaard parts his lips. “Incredible. I’m impressed with your achievement. A welcome development.”
    Kalani winks at Jing-wei, drawing her attention. His eyes open wide. He forms words with his lips in silence.
    Shall we tell him the rest?
    Jing-wei shakes her head slowly back and forth and mouths a reply back.
    No way. Too dangerous.
    Ryzaard catches her response