The Price of Being Seen

Her voice softened, just enough to become more dangerous. "Ethan, listen. If there is anything ugly, tell me before I step on it." The old Ethan would have begged her to believe him. The new Ethan heard the shape of a deal. "Give me two hours," he said. "For what?" "Proof." He ended the call and did what StrataQuant had once paid him badly to do: he followed metadata. The screenshots had been posted by an account created three days earlier. The phrasing matched stock-promo spam. The same image compression appeared in two other smear posts against traders who had criticized pump groups. Ethan built a thread, careful and factual, showing the pattern without overclaiming. Then he waited. At 12:30, Colin Mercer called.