Jason Wylde's name hadn't been spoken in the boardrooms of Wall Street in years.
Not out of irrelevance—but fear.
His exit hadn't just left a void; it had set off a quiet revolution. One where institutions lost their grip and the public gained tools to question, to verify, to build.
But some of the old guard hadn't let go.
---
Reynolds & Thorn Capital – 56th Floor, Manhattan
In a room lined with mahogany and hushed voices, six men sat around a long obsidian table. The mood was bitter.
"He was just one man," snapped Gregory Thorn, now seventy but still sharp. "And yet the shadow he cast still ruins our quarterly models."
"He rewrote expectations," muttered another. "Shareholder loyalty is collapsing. Young investors want transparency now."
They said the word like it tasted bitter.
---
Enter the Architect
A quiet knock.
A woman entered—mid-30s, sharp eyes, slick suit, and a folder in hand.
"You asked for options."
She slid it forward. The cover read:
> Wylde Protocol Echoes – Risk Matrix Projection
They opened it to see a dense map of institutions impacted by Jason's open-source blueprints.
Government. Education. Finance. Energy. Media.
"He built a system that deletes middlemen," the woman said coldly. "He didn't kill capitalism. He out-evolved it."
Silence.
Then Thorn leaned back and sighed.
"And what do we do with a ghost that won't die?"
---
The Answer Came From Silence
The answer came a week later—not from Wall Street, but from Nairobi.
A startup using Jason's decentralized blueprint launched WyldeChain—a next-gen voting platform.
Within 48 hours, ten nations had requested demos.
Within two weeks, a hundred million users had registered interest.
The market didn't just adapt.
It shifted.
And Wall Street? It trembled.
---
Meanwhile… in the Cabin
Jason carved wood beside the fireplace, a small project for his son's seventh birthday.
Cass walked in with cocoa, smiling. "You hear about Nairobi?"
Jason didn't look up. "Of course."
She grinned. "Want to celebrate?"
He nodded at the log in his lap. "I already am."