Chapter Four: A Dead Man's Voice

The screen offered one escape: buy a convertible note controlling Lancheng Pharma, a company due to be suspended over six clinical-trial deaths. Price: three million, exactly all Shen owned. The ring heated, pulsed five times, and displayed 09:30, +31. It appeared to promise a rally. “Too perfect,” Shen said. He overlaid the ring's signals with network traffic. Before each flash tonight, the underground server had emitted a low-frequency burst. At least here, the ring was not reading markets. Someone was feeding it answers. The Oracle Ring could be spoofed. “Then what about the three million it helped you make?” Su asked. “The nickel shortage was real. The ring only made me see it sooner.