Chapter Two: Before the Trap Closes

“Whenever you say that, somebody breaks down a door.” “This time they may break the hotel.” Su Lan stared for a second, then signaled her cameraman to begin streaming. Lin raised the first hand during questions. “Mr. Zhou, what is your system latency?” “The lowest in the world. Point eight milliseconds.” “Then why is the market feed on your screen three seconds ahead of the public exchange?” The hall went quiet. Zhou smiled. “Our system predicted it.” “No. Your system replayed it.” Lin connected his terminal to the media display. Two curves appeared and matched perfectly. “The demonstration uses data from three minutes ago, while the real market feed is delayed by three seconds. Anyone standing in the past can predict the future.”