Chapter 350: Daniel’s Determination

Mason and Nick were taking Daniel home, but halfway through the drive, Daniel’s voice cut through the silence."Pull into that burger place up ahead."

Mason glanced at Nick, then nodded. The car slowed and turned into the parking lot of a small restaurant.

Daniel went inside alone, returning minutes later with three paper bags. The smell of grilled meat and fried potatoes filled the car.

"One for each of us," Daniel said, handing bags forward to Mason and Nick. "Eat while it’s hot."

They drove in silence for a while, the only sounds coming from unwrapping paper and quiet chewing. Daniel stared out the window, watching Los Angeles pass by in streaks of light and shadow.

When they reached Hollywood, Daniel spoke again. "Stop here."

Mason pulled to the curb. "Sir, Mr. Scott instructed us to take you home."

"I know. But I need to walk. Clear my head." Daniel gathered his things

"We can’t just leave you—"

"You can and you will." Daniel’s tone wasn’t harsh, just tired. "I’ll be fine. Go home. Both of you look like you need rest as much as I do."

Nick turned in his seat. "At least let us follow at a distance."

Daniel shook his head. He opened the door, stepped out onto the sidewalk, and closed it behind him with a soft click. Through the window, he gave them a small nod, then turned and walked away.

Nick watched him go, then sighed and pulled the Rolls Royce back into traffic. In the rearview mirror, Daniel’s figure grew smaller until the night swallowed him entirely.

Daniel walked with no particular destination in mind. His feet carried him forward while his thoughts spiraled elsewhere.

The evening air was cool against his face, a welcome contrast to the stuffiness of the car. Around him, Hollywood buzzed with its usual energy.

He looked up at the sky. The moon hung there, bright and familiar, exactly as it had appeared every night of his life. But now he knew what it hid. On the far side, permanently turned away from Earth, sat structures that would rewrite everything humanity understood about itself.

Daniel smiled, but there was no humor in it. Just a few hours ago, he’d stood inside one of those structures. He had, looked out through the window of a space shuttle and seen Earth floating in the void, felt the artificial gravity of a spacecraft.

If someone had warned him—if they’d told him accepting Liam’s offer would lead here—what would he have done?

The answer came immediately: he would have accepted anyway.

But knowing in advance might have helped. He could have prepared himself mentally, built up some kind of psychological buffer against the impossible. Though even as he thought it, Daniel knew that was a lie. No amount of preparation would have been enough.

How could anyone prepare for teleportation? For artificial intelligence in a synthetic body? For a secret lunar base and a fleet of warships orbiting the moon?

Daniel bit into his hamburger. It had gone lukewarm, but he barely noticed. His mind was too busy replaying the past two months, trying to find the thread that connected his old life to his current one.

Before Liam, Daniel had been doing well. His position at JP Morgan’s private banking division was prestigious, well-compensated, secure. He’d worked with wealthy clients, managed significant portfolios, earned respect from his peers.

And he’d been miserable.

Not in any obvious way. He showed up to work, performed his duties, collected his bonuses. But beneath the surface, something had been rotting.

When Liam had offered him the position as head of Bellemere Family Office, Daniel had seen it as an escape. A chance to build something from the ground up, to exercise real authority instead of just following protocols handed down from above.

But he had no idea what he would experience.

The past two months had been unlike anything in his previous experience. He’d sat as an equal, in a meeting with the CEO of the world’s most powerful financial institution. He’d declined calls from presidents, from royal families, from the heads of Fortune 500 companies. People who could have crushed his old career with a phone call now had to go through him to reach Liam.

The power was intoxicating. Not because Daniel particularly cared about status or influence, but because of what it represented. Presidents commanded nations. Billionaires controlled industries. But Liam? Liam existed on a different plane entirely, and Daniel stood at his right hand.

Of course, there was a price.

The first payment had come with Lucid. When Liam had given him the device, Daniel had thought it was just an extremely advanced VR system. Impressive, certainly, but explainable within the bounds of known technology.

Then he’d done his research and what he had discovered had shaken him. Lucid wasn’t virtual reality. It was something else entirely, something that bent the rules of physics in ways that shouldn’t be possible.

That was when Daniel first realized his boss wasn’t normal.

The A380 had been the second revelation. Private jets were common among the ultra-wealthy. Even large aircraft like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had been converted for private use. But an A380?

The cost alone was staggering. But money wasn’t the real obstacle. The political clearances required to own a private A380 were absurd.

You needed approval from multiple governments and from aviation authorities whose signatures required political capital at the highest levels.

You needed connections at the highest levels of power in both the United States and the European Union. And the level of lobbying to push the clearances to be signed, would make the campaign of corporations look like kids asking for an allowance.

Daniel had checked. Liam had never met with the President. He’d never contacted any high-ranking officials through Daniel. Liam had barely left his room.

Which meant someone else had done it for him.

Liam’s family.

It was the only explanation that made sense. Liam came from a family so powerful, so connected, that they could arrange things that would be impossible for anyone else. A family that operated behind the scenes, pulling strings that most people didn’t even know existed.

Daniel had tried to imagine what kind of family could manage that. Something ancient, perhaps, older than the oldest American dynasties and even the oldest royal family. A family that had accumulated power and connections over centuries. A family with experts in every field, with hands in every industry, with influence that reached into every corner of global power.

It had been a comforting theory. It explained everything while keeping the world fundamentally comprehensible.

Then Liam had introduced him to Lucy.

An artificial general intelligence. Not a sophisticated program, not a narrow AI designed for specific tasks, but true AGI—consciousness in a machine. And not just consciousness, but a body. A synthetic form that looked human, felt human, moved with perfect fluidity and grace.

That should have been impossible. AI research was decades away from achieving general intelligence, and the idea of housing it in a humanoid body belonged to science fiction.

Yet there Lucy stood, real and functional and far beyond anything humanity’s best researchers could create.

That was when Daniel’s comfortable theory started to crumble. A powerful family could explain political influence. It could explain advanced technology, even something as sophisticated as Lucid. But Lucy? Lucy represented a technological advantage so vast that it suggested something more than just wealth and connections.

Then came the flight and teleportation.

Daniel could rationalize flight. Some kind of extremely advanced propulsion system, compact enough to be worn, powerful enough to overcome gravity. Difficult, certainly, far beyond current technology, but theoretically possible. To Liam, they are like toys.

Teleportation, though? That broke everything. There was no theoretical framework that made it work, no speculative technology that could achieve it.

And yet he’d watched Liam do it. Multiple times.

That was when Daniel had stopped trying to categorize Liam’s family in conventional terms. He’d simply decided they existed on a level beyond anything else on Earth. No matter what military alliances other nations formed, no matter what resources they pooled, Liam’s family surpassed it all.

It was a vast, incomprehensible advantage. And it had been frightening, but also exciting. Though more frightening than exciting.

But today had shattered even that expanded understanding.

The Lunar Base wasn’t just a facility. It was a city. A fully functional, advanced installation on the moon’s far side, complete with industrial capabilities, life support for tens of thousands, and a military presence that could dominate near-Earth space.

And orbiting above it? A starship. Not a prototype, not an experimental craft, but a fully operational vessel designed for deep space travel.

Daniel didn’t know how to classify that. His previous frameworks—powerful family, ancient dynasty, hidden rulers—all felt inadequate. This wasn’t just political or financial power. This was something else entirely.

Liam’s family, whoever they were, had achieved an interstellar capability. They’d moved beyond Earth in a way that made national governments irrelevant. They didn’t need to care about geopolitics or international relations because they operated on a scale that transcended those concerns.

They were, for all practical purposes, the true rulers of humanity. And nobody knew.

The thought sent a chill through Daniel despite the warm evening air. It was frightening to be connected to something so vast. Something that transcended normal human limitations. But it was also exhilarating.

What Daniel didn’t know was that there was no family. It was just Liam. One man with a system that granted him capabilities beyond comprehension. The powerful dynasty Daniel and elites around the world imagined, didn’t exist.

Daniel finished his hamburger and crumpled the wrapper. The sky had fully darkened now, stars barely visible through Los Angeles’s light pollution. The moon shone brighter than any of them.

He thought about the coming days. Liam was leaving Earth, departing for deep space. And Daniel would remain behind, managing operations, maintaining the facade, keeping everything running smoothly.

More shocking revelations would come. Daniel was certain of that now. Liam had more secrets, more impossible achievements waiting to be revealed. And each one would challenge Daniel’s understanding of reality even further.

Could his heart handle it? Could anyone’s?

Daniel smiled to himself. It didn’t matter. He’d made his choice. He’d accepted Liam’s offer, and he would see it through, no matter where it led. He was ready to walk through fire if necessary.

The night was still young. Daniel turned toward home, his pace steady and purposeful. He had work to do, preparations to make for Liam’s departure.

And he needed to be ready for whatever came next.