HOSTILE PROMOTION

At 2:13 a.m., risk analyst Ren Kuroda discovers a number that should not exist. is being routed through thousands of inactive pension accounts—many belonging to the dead. There is no recorded owner, no legitimate custodian, and no explanation for why the hidden block has repeatedly decided the most important votes in the corporation’s history. By morning, the evidence has been erased. Hours later, Kisaragi’s founder collapses before he can name a successor, leaving his children, his chief executive, and the board chair fighting for control of an empire that runs Vesper’s hospitals, transit systems, financial networks, and public infrastructure. Ren is ordered to confess that the discrepancy was his mistake. When he refuses, Kisaragi takes his job, his reputation, and the medical coverage keeping his mother alive. But Ren kept a copy. He has no wealth, no allies he can fully trust, and no official power. What he does have is an understanding of numbers, incentives, and the secrets every faction is desperate to bury. To survive, Ren must make himself too valuable to discard—and too dangerous to remove. In a corporation where every favor carries a price, every promotion creates a new liability, and even the dead can vote, Ren is about to learn the difference between being a pawn and choosing where the board must move. — Description from novelcodex.org