The conference room at Synapse Dynamics was suffocatingly silent, the only sound the occasional tapping of fingers against polished steel and the soft hum of the holo-displays surrounding them. The CEO - Tim Chen- sat at the head of the table, hands folded, expression calm as the members of the C-suite shifted uncomfortably in their seats. They were all present—except for Victor Kane, whose seat remained conspicuously empty.

  The absence was palpable. Victor had been the company's rising star, his intelligence and ambition unmatched. He had been Tim's protégé, someone who had climbed the ranks with the promise of one day taking over the reins of Synapse Dynamics. Now, he was dead, and no one had any clear answers.

  The head of security, a thick-necked man named Kessler, stood stiffly as the board scrutinised him. His usual air of authority was gone, replaced with the cautious demeanour of a man on the defensive. He had already been chastised multiple times, and the meeting had barely begun.

  “The fact remains,” said the head of HR, a woman named Marlena Korr, her voice edged with irritation, “that an intruder managed to infiltrate our highest-security facility, gain access to restricted floors, and leave without a trace. Meanwhile, Mr Kane—one of our top executives—is dead.”

  Kessler exhaled sharply. “As I was about to say—”

  “No,” Korr cut in, leaning forward, her tone sharp. “We don’t need excuses. We need action. A bounty should be placed on the intruder’s head. Make them too afraid to ever show their face again.”

  The head of Accounting scoffed. “That’s a ridiculous expense. Skilled bounty hunters don’t come cheap.”

  “And what would be worse?” Korr shot back. “Spending money on eliminating a threat or letting this become a media circus? If we don’t act swiftly, it will come to light that someone breached our security and walked away without a single consequence. That’s a PR disaster waiting to happen.”

  “Speaking of media,” the head of PR, a sleek man named Halverson, interjected smoothly, “a public manhunt isn’t ideal. We don’t want our investors in a panic. A corporate assassination scandal? That’s a nightmare.”

  “The alternative,” Kessler said, taking the opening, “is that it wasn’t murder at all.” The room went silent as he tapped his console, displaying forensic findings in a glowing holographic readout. “Victor Kane had been dead for hours before the break-in. All signs point to suicide.”

  The words hung in the air like a weight. Kessler seemed to expect immediate resistance, but the response was slower than anticipated. Korr’s lips curled into a thin line of scepticism. “Convenient,” she muttered.

  “Not necessarily,” Halverson mused. “A suicide is quieter. It won’t make waves like an assassination would.” He turned to the CEO, watching for his reaction. “If we push this as a suicide, we control the narrative.”

  The board exchanged uneasy glances. Tim Chen, who had remained silent up until now, let out a slow breath and finally spoke. “We all agree that keeping this out of the headlines is our priority. No public bounty. No high-profile mercenaries. We tighten security. Kessler, you’ll get a small force—no more. Hunt this man down. Find out what happened.”

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  Kessler inclined his head, his posture slightly more relaxed now that he had some semblance of control over the situation. “I’ll lead them personally.”

  “Good,” Tim murmured, his voice cool, detached. “Then we’re done here.”

  The meeting ended with a collective sigh of relief from the board members, all eager to leave the room and escape the palpable tension that had filled the air. Tim remained seated, however, his hands still folded before him, his mind racing. Victor had been more than just a valuable asset. He had been someone Tim had invested in, someone he had thought would help carry the weight of the company into the future. Now, that future felt uncertain. Had Victor really been scheming against them? If so, what was the intruder retrieving? And why had Victor been involved in something so dangerous? But the biggest question of all remained: if Victor had truly been involved in something underhanded, why die in the process?

  None of it made sense.

  Tim rubbed his temples, his frustration mounting. There were too many pieces of the puzzle missing, and the closer he got to figuring it out, the more elusive the answers seemed. The whole situation reeked of something deeper, darker, and more insidious than a simple corporate espionage case, this could be career ending if managed poorly. Something had gone horribly wrong, and Tim had no idea how or why.

  Taking a deep breath, he activated his VR interface. The world around him dissolved into digital abstraction, the familiar, sterile environment of his office replaced by the cold, mechanical landscape of Synapse Dynamics’ inner sanctum. In the VR space, the board of directors materialised—blurred figures, their faces obscured, their voices distorting as they spoke. When they weren’t speaking, they remained eerily still, frozen in place like statues. The figures always looked the same, yet there was something about them that Tim found unnerving.

  Tim had grown accustomed to this strange form of communication. In fact, he preferred it—it kept things distant, impersonal. But today, he couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that the situation had already slipped for beyond his control. He stood up in front of them, his hands clasped behind his back, waiting for their input.

  “The C-suite believes it was murder,” he reported, keeping his tone even. “Kessler is convinced otherwise.”

  “He is right to be,” one of the figures responded.

  The CEO frowned. “I find it hard to believe. Victor Kane was ambitious, driven. His rise through the company was meteoric. Why would he kill himself?” He hesitated. “And why would someone break in just hours later, tamper with his implants, and disappear without a trace?”

  Silence.

  The CEO’s frustration grew. “What was Victor’s role? Was he a spy? Did he betray us? None of this makes any sense.”

  Chen tried his best to remain calm, relaxing his clenched fist that had gone pale with tension.

  The directors did not answer his questions. Instead, one of them finally spoke, their voice warping as if pulled through layers of interference. “Your focus for now should be on stabilising the company and keeping employee morale high. You must await further instruction.”

  The CEO’s jaw tightened. “And the intruder?”

  “We will handle it.” came the disembodied response as the board of directors faded away, signalling that the meeting was over.

  The transmission ended, leaving Tim standing alone in the sterile void of the VR space. The questions lingered, unanswered and growing more urgent with each passing moment. He couldn’t escape them. And the more he tried to focus on the company’s future, the more he found himself drawn back to the mystery of Victor Kane’s death.

  The answers, he knew, were buried deep. And it would take everything he had to uncover the truth.