Chapter 15 — Babel's Wrath, A Shaking Empire
1. London, Shadows of a Sleepless, Seething
Canary Wharf, London. Here, where the neural network of global finance entangled itself like a colossal spiderweb, the uppermost floor of a skyscraper, ostensibly owned by an anonymous investment firm, was steeped in an icy silence and taut tension that starkly contrasted with the dazzling cityscape glittering outside. This clandestine space, known as 'The Summit Club,' was a sanctum accessible only to the uppermost 'Inner Circle' members of the 'Babel Foundation.'
Men who, on any other night, would be manipulating the world from their respective domains, were tonight uncharacteristically gathered in emergency session, seated like shadows around a vast, circular holographic table. Julian Adler, the seasoned CEO of 'Alpha Re,' the world's largest reinsurance company; Anja Sharma, the chillingly brilliant strategist of the 'Omega Insurance Group'; and behind them, connected by invisible threads, titans of finance and information industries from every continent. Their faces were deliberately obscured in shadow, yet the hardened expressions and sharp glint in their eyes, occasionally illuminated by the reflections from the holographic screen, were enough to make the very air in the room feel like a sheet of brittle ice.
Projected onto the central hologram was the full narrative of the 'incident' in Kaunas, Lithuania – a meticulously crafted documentary that played out like a waking nightmare for them. An unidentified organization calling itself the 'Kingdom Builder Foundation' had seized control of the situation before ICRA's official intervention, successfully establishing its own relief system and a 'Third Market.' And as a result, along with official UN recognition, there were undeniable signs that the 'disaster data' they had monopolized for decades was now flowing uncontrollably into the public domain. On one side of the screen, the projected short-term financial losses for the 'Babel Foundation' due to the success of the Kaunas Model blinked in ominous, hemorrhaging red. The sum was astronomical, beyond comprehension.
It was Julian Adler who finally broke the suffocating silence. His voice, usually a bastion of seasoned composure and subtle command, was now laced with a well-honed fury and an unbearable sense of humiliation that bordered on the apoplectic.
Adler: "What… what in the blazes is the meaning of this! The Lithuanian affair was supposed to be a minor, entirely manageable 'market adjustment' operation, firmly under our control! Since when do these… these unheard-of, ghostly vermin calling themselves 'Kingdom Builders' have the audacity to create such a brazen, catastrophic circus in our own front yard? Is our 'Kairos Engine' now so utterly inept that it couldn't even predict their movements, Anja?"
His razor-sharp gaze fell on Anja Sharma. Instead of the cool, almost bored confidence she had displayed previously, her expression now held a palpable sense of crisis, a well-concealed rage simmering beneath a veneer of forced composure, and even a hint of genuine bewilderment.
Anja: "There are no excuses, Chairman. This incident unequivocally proves a severe, perhaps even systemic, flaw in our intelligence network and crisis management protocols. That individual known as 'Kingdom Builder,' and 'Lilith Rothschild'… yes, the family disgrace and traitor… our initial reports assessing their collaboration as a minor, localized threat were a fatal misjudgment. To assume they would merely engage in small-scale, inconsequential relief efforts on the Lithuanian border… was a catastrophic error in calculation. It appears the Kairos Engine's predictive models also, regrettably, underestimated the potential impact of such… anomalous and 'inefficient' human intervention."
She swiftly switched the holographic display. Profiling data for Kai and Lilith appeared, alongside the core algorithms of the 'Kaunas Model' they had implemented in Lithuania, and a real-time visualization of the 'data of life' currently being generated and traded through that model, depicted as a complex, ever-expanding, and for them, utterly terrifying graph.
Anja: "Their 'Kaunas Model,' Chairman, goes beyond merely delivering relief supplies efficiently. It is simultaneously striking at the three core profit structures we have painstakingly built and refined over decades. Firstly, their transparent supply chain and direct contracts with local producers neutralize our price-setting power, effectively eliminating the 'disaster premium.' In Lithuania alone, at least 30% of our projected short-term profits have already evaporated into thin air. Secondly, their 'data-driven self-reliance support' is fundamentally undermining our long-term strategy of securing political influence by fostering excessive dependency in regional governments and populations. They are teaching independence, not reliance – an uncontrollable, cancerous variable." She paused for a moment, her gaze slowly sweeping across all the 'Inner Circle' members in the room. Her eyes were chilling, yet within them, a certain desperation, almost a plea, now flickered.
Anja: "And the most critical threat, the third, is their so-called 'Open Data Hub.' As you all know, Chairman, the very power of 'Babel' stems from predicting the future. We have exclusively collected all global disaster information – the 'Raw Stones of Disaster,' if you will – and processed it through our proprietary 'Human Misery Forecast System' to generate immense wealth. Precisely predicting who will despair most, when, and where the greatest suffering will occur, and investing in that fear and despair has been our core business model. Some, I hear, even call it the 'market for trading pain.'" Her voice remained cold, yet a carefully suppressed fury, perhaps even a hint of fear, resonated within it.
Anja: "However, that 'Kingdom Builder' and Lilith are now attempting to transfer what they call the 'Records of Life' – data they collected in Lithuania – to international organizations and, more alarmingly, to other financial groups. If that information is disclosed and analyzed, not only will the accuracy of our 'disaster prediction,' which we've monopolized for decades, be compromised, but our entire investment algorithm and profit structure based on it could evaporate in an instant. It would be like… removing the bottommost card from a meticulously constructed, impossibly tall house of cards, Chairman. We've already received intelligence that several rival groups have begun developing 'new risk calculation methods' based on that data, and even more distastefully, initiating ventures like 'ethical technology investments' under the flimsy guise of 'humanitarianism.' This is not merely a matter of losing a few billion, or even a few trillion. This is a direct negation of our 'Babel Empire's' very reason for existence, a clear declaration of war, an unforgivable act of high treason!"
An icy silence, heavier and more profound than before, descended upon the conference room. No one dared to speak first. They, who had once believed they held the world in the palm of their hands, manipulating its fate like omnipotent gods, had finally, shockingly, realized that two nameless heretics and the small, disruptive 'model' they had created could shake their entire empire to its very foundations. Fear, like a virulent contagion, began to swiftly, almost gleefully, corrode their arrogant souls.
Finally, Julian Adler spoke again. His voice, devoid of its earlier rage, now held the chilling calm of one who had made a final, irrevocable decision, and the terrifying, almost palpable bloodlust of an old predator cornered, ready for one last, savage kill.
Adler: "Anja, your analysis, as always, is precise. They have dared to lay hands on what is forbidden, to strike at our very heart – they have awakened Babel's deepest ire, the Yeokrin (the reversed scale on the dragon). And quite painfully, and unforgivably, so. It is clear we can no longer stand by and merely observe."
His gaze, like chips of obsidian, fixed on Anja Sharma. It was the look a master gives to his most loyal, most lethal hound, awaiting the final, inescapable command.
Adler: "That their next destination is Nairobi, Kenya, has already been flagged multiple times by the 'Kairos Engine's' early warning system. We also have a rather… 'special laboratory' there that we've been cultivating with great care and expense for a long time, do we not, Anja? Perhaps they intend to target it, the fools. You have, I trust, prepared a way to extinguish this unpleasant, irritating ember, definitively, and very, very quietly?"
A predatory smile, far colder and more cruel than before, touched Anja Sharma's lips once more. She inclined her head, a gesture of absolute, unwavering obedience.
Anja: "Yes, Chairman. All preparations are already complete. 'Operation Nairobi Shield.' This time, we will permit no variables, no miscalculations, no miracles."
Her final words, like a pronouncement of doom for a terrible festival of blood yet to unfold, pressed down upon the cold air of the conference room with an even heavier, more suffocating weight.