The math on the amber display made Lin Mei’s stomach drop.
She pulled her Pickett slide rule from her jacket pocket. Her thumb drove the hairline cursor across the white celluloid face.
Forty-nine divided by six. Eight point one six six repeating.
It’s an exclusive OR gate with a hardwired deadlock, Lin Mei thought, staring up at the glowing glass panel. A mathematical slaughterhouse dressed up as corporate governance.
At Oakhaven Academy, Lin Mei had spent two years managing seventy freshmen in Dorm 7, and she knew every administrative trick in the book. Whenever the housing dean wanted to raise dorm fees, he cited an obscure charter amendment that gave students zero voting rights and called it fiduciary duty.
Silas Thorne was pulling the exact same con on a grand municipal scale. Instead of housing fines, Thorne used thirteen thousand eight hundred volts of current.
“He’s not bluffing,” Lin Mei shouted across the table, steadying her voice. “Look at the legal syntax in the amber glass, Julian! It isn’t an operational regulation--it’s a foundational equity lock!”
Around the table, the crew reacted instantly.
