On the day martial law is announced and put into effect, the whole city of Nova Aria is on fire.
Lou is stuck on her way home from work. She calls Robert, her distant ex-boyfriend for help, right before a bus crashes into her car. Little does Lou k...
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QLSolutions was an up-and-coming company-a rising star in many fields-but not a lot of people knew its CEO had almost driven the company to the ground.
In fact, no one had known how bad the company's finance was until it got audited. Turned out, besides millions of krones QLSolutions had owed with back tax and bad loans, its CEO had also been lying to the shareholders for months about how profitable the company actually was.
After the news of QLSolutions being in the red came out, the company's stocks became worthless overnight. Herman Lang, the CEO, had some choices. He could either file for bankruptcy and step down, sell the company, or find a way to pay back all debts. The man didn't want to let go. QLSolutions had been Herman's brainchild since the day he graduated from college. His blood and tears had been poured into it, but Herman also couldn't pay the debts.
In the middle of that storm, a blessing had been bestowed upon Herman Lang.
For years, everyone had heard about the conflict, or more like a full-blown war, between General Fernando Castillon and two other generals, Regan and Stanley Hansen. The Hansen brothers came from a long line of politicians and businessmen. The older one, Regan, had wanted to run against Castillon for a long time.
The Federation, at its core, was a dictatorship. To sit in the Citadel's Red Office, one needed a strong military background and the support of all the top generals. Regan had control over many with his unlimited pocket and influence, but some still refused to come to his side.
Castillon had been in power for decades. Many of his loyal subordinates were in core positions. Many owed him favors throughout their careers. Defeating Castillon was as challenging as uprooting a giant tree with bare hands.
When Crow's people attacked Nova Aria, one of the Federation's major cities, the demand for clocyn skyrocketed. Clocyn was the heavy metal used in almost everything. It could only be extracted from a handful of mines around the country. The Hansen brothers had been fighting with Castillon for years over the right to control them, but everyone knew it was time for a substitute.
Herman Lang had promised the generals he could deliver something like that. This could be the most genius or stupid plan Herman Lang had come up with. Either way, he was desperate. His intention was to make something similar to clocyn, knowing it could be costly and nearly impossible. He only needed it to be close enough to fool everyone, then sell it to whichever party paid the higher price while getting a few extra favors from both sides to get his company out of the hot water.
Little did Herman know, Castillon had come to me.
Zedlum, or Element Z as we called it, was a synthetic element that my team had accidentally created. It would've been a 'happy accident' if it didn't get me visual impairment, but that was a story for later.
The element was highly active and unpredictable in its natural form. It had all the characteristics of clocyn, plus more. The potential was unlimited if we could find a way to effectively control it. Needless to say, Herman was happy out of his mind.
