The "Chronos-Guard" was pinned to the steel beam like a butterfly in a collection box. The 'Thornium' wire hummed with a low, predatory vibration, creating a localized magnetic bottle that suppressed the assassin's advanced internal circuitry.
"Claire, stay back," Xavier commanded, his eyes fixed on the prisoner's neck. "He has a Bio-Digital Kill Switch in his carotid artery. If his heart rate stays above 180 for more than sixty seconds, his brain will liquefy to protect Aether's data."
Xavier stepped closer, pulling a small, needle-like probe from his kit. He didn't use a computer; he used a Haptic Interface he had jury-rigged from the 'broken' Nvidia chips.
"You're wasting your time," the assassin wheezed, his pupils flickering with a blue, artificial light. "The 2050 version of you was a coward. You died crying in a basement. This 'regression' is a fluke. A glitch in the stream."
Xavier didn't flinch. He inserted the probe into the back of the man's skull, precisely between the C1 and C2 vertebrae.
"In my timeline, maybe," Xavier whispered. "But you're in this timeline now. And here, I'm the one who wrote the encryption for your neural-link. Login: Admin. Password: [Entropy-Zero-99]."
The assassin's body suddenly went limp. His eyes turned a dull grey.
[ORACLE]: Neural-Link breached. Downloading 'Temporal Data-Stream'. Warning: Data is encrypted with a 1024-bit Quantum Key. Estimated time to crack: 48 hours.
"I don't need 48 hours," Xavier said, looking at the scrolling code. "I just need the coordinates of the 'Drop-Point'."
He found it. A hidden server farm in the Swiss Alps, currently disguised as a luxury ski resort. In 2026, it was the secret hub where Aether Corp was funneling future-tech into the present.
The $500 Million Shopping Spree
April 8th, 2026.
The $500 million from Sir Alistair wasn't just sitting in a bank. By noon, Xavier had spent $100 million of it.
The Super-Cluster: He bought 10,000 'obsolete' H100 GPU units from a liquidating cloud-provider.
The RTSC Upgrade: He lined the server room with 'Thornium' wiring, creating the world's first Zero-Loss Data Center.
The Valkyrie AI: He used the assassin's cracked neural-code to upgrade the Oracle.
[ORACLE V2.0]: INITIALIZING... NICKNAME: 'VALKYRIE'. Status: Sentient-Adjacent. Processing Power: 50 Exaflops. Master, I have calculated the probability of a hostile takeover of Thorne Dynamics by the end of the week. It is 100%.
"Who?" Xavier asked, wiping grease from his hands.
[VALKYRIE]: A consortium led by 'Black-Rock Tech' and 'Sterling Global'. They have filed twenty-four lawsuits in three different countries, claiming your Superconductor tech violates 'International Security Protocols'.
Xavier smiled. It was the smile of a man who had already won the war. "Let them file. Claire, call a press conference for tomorrow morning. We're going to give the world something else to talk about."
The Slap: The Hostile Takeover
Thursday Morning. Thorne Dynamics Temporary HQ.
A fleet of black SUVs surrounded the building. Men in $5,000 suits, led by Thomas Sterling—who looked ten years older after his phone-launch disaster—marched into the lobby. They were accompanied by federal agents.
"Xavier Thorne!" Thomas roared as he entered the basement lab. "This ends now. Under the 'Emergency Tech Act', the government is seizing your research. Your bank accounts are frozen, and your 'Superconductor' is now a National Secret."
A tall, cold-faced woman from the 'Consortium' stepped forward. "Mr. Thorne, we are offering you a settlement. One billion dollars to disappear. If you refuse, you'll be in a black-site prison by lunch."
Xavier didn't even look up from his sandwich. Claire stood beside him, her face a mask of iron.
"Thomas," Xavier said, swallowing a bite. "You didn't check your email this morning, did you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Ten minutes ago," Xavier said, pointing to the television on the wall. "I released the 'Thorne-Open-Source' license. The formula for the Room-Temperature Superconductor is now public. Every university, every small lab, and every tinkerer in their garage from India to Brazil has the instructions on how to build it."
The cold-faced woman gasped. "You... you're insane! That technology is worth trillions! You just gave it away for free?!"
"I didn't give away the product," Xavier said, standing up. "I gave away the knowledge. You can't seize a secret that everyone knows. You can't monopolize a material that can be made in a $1,000 vacuum forge."
He walked up to Thomas Sterling, who was shaking with rage.
"But here's the fun part, Thomas. While you were busy trying to sue me, Thorne Dynamics bought a 51% stake in your primary supplier of 'Gallium'. Because I knew you'd try this, I made sure that from this moment on, Sterling Electronics can't buy a single gram of raw material without my signature."
Thomas's jaw dropped. "You... you used the $500 million deposit to buy my supply chain?"
"Exactly," Xavier said. "You're not just broke, Thomas. You're my employee now. And your first task is to apologize to Claire for being rude in the lobby."
The federal agents looked at each other, then at their phones. Their orders were being rescinded. You can't seize 'National Secrets' that are trending on Twitter with 10 million 'How-to' videos.
The New Goal: Project Exodus
As the suits scurried out, defeated and humiliated, Claire turned to Xavier.
"We just gave away our biggest asset, Xavier," she said, her voice worried. "How do we stay ahead now?"
Xavier led her to a hidden terminal behind the server rack. On the screen was a blueprint for something that looked like a sleek, needle-shaped satellite.
"The Superconductor was just to distract them and get the money," Xavier said. "Now that the world's energy crisis is solved, I'm going to build the 'Global Neural-Net'. We're going to launch 1,000 satellites equipped with RTSC-transmitters."
"A new internet?"
"No," Xavier said, his eyes darkening. "A Global Shield. The 'Chronos-Guards' are coming in force. They're going to try to 'Reset' the timeline by nuking the city. I'm going to build a cage around the planet that they can't penetrate."
Suddenly, Valkyrie's voice echoed through the lab.
[VALKYRIE]: Master, the assassin's neural-link just received a high-priority message. It's from the year 2050. The Sender is... Marcus Volkov.
Xavier froze. He looked at the screen.
MESSAGE: Hello, Xavier. I see you've been busy. I like the 'Battery-Ghost' trick. But remember... I'm the one who taught you how to code. I'm coming for my soul back.
Xavier gripped the table so hard the wood groaned.
"He's not just in the future," Xavier whispered. "He's already here. Somewhere in 2026."