In a dark room, lit only by the glow of computer monitors, a man code-named "Blue" sat at his desk. A lit cigarette dangled from his lips, and a cup of cooling coffee sat on his desk, amid scattered papers.

He typed the last code phrase, and his secure chat client connected to their secure chat server.

"White: So good of you to join us, Blue."

Blue snorted in disgust. White always got snippy when things didn't go well.

"Blue: Why thank you, White. It always feels wonderful to receive such a warm greeting. Especially when I'm early."

Blue's daddy always said, "Kill'm with kindness." Then his mom would add, "Yes. Choke them to death with a barrel of syrup."

"White: Green, what happened? You said Radius wasn't going to disrupt our plans because they too needed BallSoft and Yoctoly's GPU services."

"Green: Radius migrated to their own data centers! And they didn't buy GPUs from Blit Blaster or any of the other players."

"White: Blue? You said the properties they bought couldn't possibly house enough compute for them take their services on-prem."

"Blue: They were consuming more than half of all the GPU capacity at BallSoft and Yoctoly. For them to migrate their services to their own data centers, each of those properties would need to host at least 50 megawatts of compute. Each. And none of their properties are wired for that much juice."

"White: Then where the fuck are they getting their compute?"

"Blue: Their own data centers."

"White: ..."

"Blue: My calculations were based on the assumption that they would have to use known tech, GPU's from Blit Blaster or servers from Cerebras. And yet, I confirmed that they are hosting their services on their own data centers. My conclusion: they have superior chip tech. Vastly superior chip tech."

"White: And? You're supposed to be the best hacker on the fucking planet. Is that seriously all you can tell me?"

"Blue: Their security is airtight. I've never seen anything like it. Worse, they bite back. I've had to abandon three proxy services just to escape the pursuit of their cyber guard dogs."

"Green: If it is true that Radius has vastly superior chip tech, then not only is our plan for the Rothschilds a complete failure, but we will be taking a bloodbath. We are too heavily leveraged to get out of the market before news of Radius's migration goes public."

"White: I see. Try to salvage what you can. Red, your top priority now is to learn everything you can about this new chip tech Radius appears to have. Get people inside, pronto."

"Red: Understood. And the other matter?"

"White: Keep digging. See if there is any connection between our disappearing girl and Radius."

"Red: That seems unlikely, but I'll know more once I get people inside Radius."

"White: And Blue, keep trying. Coordinate with Red. Once he has someone on the inside, maybe they can get you the access we need."

"Blue: Understood."

"White: Alright. That's it for today. Sign off."

"Red: Out."

"Green: Out."

"Blue: Out."

Blue took a long drag of his cigarette, then leaned back in his chair as he blew out the smoke slowly.

This was turning into a real shitshow, and he was seriously considering triggering his retirement plan early.

——————————

Mark Miller, assistant director of the Federation External Security Service in charge of covert assets, was watching the latest financial news on the T.V. mounted on the wall of his office.

"The S&P 500 is down 15% this week as shares of Blit Blaster continue to tumble on news that GPU demand has fallen off a cliff. And AI stocks are down across the board as the mass migration to Radius continues."

"Analysts claim that unless AI-n-stein pulls a rabbit out of their hat, they will continue to lose market share at an accelerated rate. Shares of BallSoft and Yoctoly also trended lower this week as investors are concerned about potential losses from GPU-related capital expenses."

"In related news..."

The box on the assistant director's desk buzzed, and he muted the T.V.

"Yes, Nina?" he asked after pressing the talk button.

"Sir, Alvin from the Albion division is here."

"Great, send him in."

The door opened, and Alvin, the chief of his Albion division entered.

"Have a seat, Alvin."

As Alvin walked towards one of the assistant director's guest chairs, he glanced at the muted T.V.

"What do you think about Radius, sir?" asked Alvin as he sat.

"At the moment, I'm just glad they're a Federation company. The Sericans were catching up to us on AI tech and that had a lot of people nervous. But with Radius currently dominating the market, we gain a bit more breathing room."

"Do you think AI-n-stein will be able to catch up to them? Their last attempt was a bit lackluster, especially after being embarrassed by Radius's watermarking."

"I never did like Hammond Saltzman. I always thought he was a bit too full of himself. So, this seems like a good thing. Both for him and for the Federation."

"Yeah," said Alvin. "I know what you mean. Some of the analysts have been talking, and some expressed concern with the potential long-term impacts AI could have on the job market."

"They're worried about skill erosion," said the assistant director.

"Yes, sir, and so am I, though it seems like Radius is pushing things in a different direction. Their student accounts are a real boon, if you ask me. My son used to complain about doing writing homework, and my wife had to force him to do his homework at the kitchen table so she could ensure he didn't have an AI do it for him."

The assistant director chuckled. "Yes, we've had to do the same thing with my youngest daughter. She just doesn't understand how important it is for her intellectual growth to do the writing herself."

"That was true for my son as well. Until he got his Radius student account. Now he doesn't complain about his writing assignments. He doesn't love them, but his attitude seems to be trending positive."

"That's good to hear," said the assistant director. "We just got notification that our daughter's school will be getting their student accounts in a few weeks. So that's something to look forward to."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.