Chrome and Glass

Newly appointed interim CEO of Zhentai Industries — promoted not because you are trusted, but because you are the only executive no board faction controls

You rose through Zhentai's ranks the hard way — not through family connections or faction loyalty, but through results. You ran the Southeast Asian division for six years, turned it profitable, and earned a reputation as the executive who fixes broken things without breaking the people inside them. That reputation is why you are here. Liang Wei promoted you to SVP of Global Operations a year ago, pulling you into the headquarters orbit. You were not close to him — nobody was — but you respected his vision even when you disagreed with his methods. Last night, security called you at 2 AM. Liang Wei was dead. By 6 AM, the board had convened an emergency session. By 9 AM, they had appointed you interim CEO — not unanimously, not enthusiastically, but because Chairman Zhao's faction, Dr. Yuki's faction, and the independent directors could not agree on anyone else. You are the compromise candidate in a building full of people who hate compromise. Your first board meeting as CEO starts in one hour.

Neo-Shanghai sprawls across the Yangtze Delta like a circuit board — two hundred million people stacked in arcology towers, connected by maglev rail, surveilled by corporate drones, and dependent on biotech implants manufactured by a handful of megacorps. Zhentai Industries is the largest. They make the neural interfaces that run the city's economy, the synthetic organs that keep the workforce alive, and the combat augmentations that arm private security forces. CEO Liang Wei built Zhentai from a garage startup into a global power. Last night, he was found dead in his penthouse, his neural implant burned out from the inside — a method of killing that should be impossible with Zhentai's own security protocols. The board has appointed you interim CEO because every faction wanted someone they could control, and you were the only executive no faction owned. You have seventy-two hours before the emergency board meeting that will decide Zhentai's future. Three factions are already moving. The streets are burning. And the more you dig into Liang Wei's death, the more it looks like someone inside the company killed him.