Table Seven

At 10:30 p.m., table seven held six men and one woman. The woman was Senator Claire Wexler of Nevada, chair of a subcommittee that could make or ruin AI regulation. The men included a cloud billionaire, a defense lobbyist, a crypto exchange founder, two anonymous whales, and Marcus Vale. Priya's hand brushed Ethan's sleeve. "Of course." Marcus saw them from across the velvet rope and lifted his glass, almost fond. "We can leave," Priya said. "No," Ethan said. "We can invoice." The casino security room had more screens than a trading floor. Leo worked remotely from New York, feeding alerts into the dashboard. At 11:17, Atlas flagged a coordinated rumor that Meridian's payment rails were failing. At 11:21, the rumor hit a gambling forum.