The market opened with instability already in motion, and volatility did not always begin with a dramatic drop. Sometimes it announced itself through delay. Numbers that should have moved with confidence began to twitch in uneven patterns. Buy orders arrived, then vanished. Support levels held for minutes, then fractured under pressure that seemed to come from nowhere.
By nine-fifteen, Adrian's company had already entered dangerous territory. The stock had dipped, recovered, and dipped again in sharper waves.
Inside his headquarters, the executive floor was quieter than usual, but it was not calm. The silence carried the weight of people who understood exactly what those movements meant.
Analysts were no longer watching with curiosity.
They were watching with concern.
Adrian stood in his office, the floor-to-ceiling screen ahead of him displaying real-time market movement. Red and green lines cut across the graph in violent swings, each one sharper than the last.
