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Inside the office, Graves handed Ethan a document.
Ethan took it and skimmed. It was the latest market-share survey on Sterling Energy.
"With the second rollout of your New Future underway, Sterling's stock price has begun a cliff-face descent. As of this morning, factoring in Maha's earlier divestment, Sterling's assets have evaporated by nearly seventy percent."
Ethan was surprised.
"That much?"
In honest terms, Ethan had never doubted Sterling would be crushed by New Future. Against nuclear power, conventional generation was simply too high-cost. If nothing else, New Future could strangle Sterling to death on price alone. And with the state behind it and the official media carrying the message, the public accepted it without friction. So Sterling and Rouse being forced out had been inevitable from the start.
But a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. Ethan had figured it would take at least half a year for New Future to build an overwhelming advantage through the Hidden Dragon program. He hadn't expected Sterling to fall this far in just over a month.
"Don't go thinking this is all your New Future's doing, kid."
As if reading Ethan's mind, Graves cut in from the side.
"Take a look at this one too."
He drew a second document from the cabinet behind him, and interpreted as Ethan read.
"Before, the whole energy sector was near saturation. The major firms held fixed market shares, so everyone lived and let live." He sighed lightly. "It's different now. New Future's Hidden Dragon program shattered the existing balance. Cheap, efficient, clean nuclear power has compressed their survival space to the absolute limit. And after the Ashford pilot, with electricity bills falling off a cliff, the public has grown even more dismissive of the other energy firms. A lot of the small companies are finding it very hard to survive."
Something dawned on Ethan.
"So Sterling's collapsing market share, on the surface it looks unrelated to New Future, but in fact it's being seized by the other energy companies?"
Graves nodded.
"With the state's posture, plus the personal grudge between Rouse and you, everyone knows Sterling's decline is a foregone conclusion. New Future is too bright to touch right now, so no one dares provoke it. But Sterling is a big cake, and it naturally draws every hungry mouth in the industry to bite and tear at it."
He rubbed his brow, worried.
"The Market Regulation Bureau says that for now, with Sterling's market share serving as a buffer, nothing's shown yet. But once Sterling's been carved up, those energy firms left with nothing to eat become a deeply unstable danger. Bankruptcy filings, cutthroat competition, it'll do real harm to the whole market and to ordinary people's livelihoods."
This was not a problem Ethan hadn't already considered. The enormous transformation the Hidden Dragon program brought, while lifting the public's overall quality of life, would inevitably destroy a great many people's livelihoods in the process. The impact at the national level alone would be substantial. With as many employees as the National Grid carried, only a minority could stay on. But that was a government body, one the leadership could manage. The private enterprises were another matter. Left with nothing, they'd inevitably resort to something extreme.
"Director Graves. How about you leave this one to me?"
Graves looked surprised.
"Leave it to you? That crowd at the Market Regulation Bureau chewed it over more times than I can count and never landed on a workable solution. You really have a way, kid?"
Ethan wasn't bothered by the skepticism.
"Ha. Just watch. These next few days while I'm in the capital, I'll trouble you to notify the representatives of every energy company, large and small. In three days, I want to hold a seminar. We're going to divide the entire domestic energy market."
Seeing Ethan's confidence, Graves said nothing further. With no better solution on the table, he could only let the kid try.
---
Three days passed in a flash.
Warren Colby, just off the plane, wore a face full of gloom.
As the head of Griffon Resources, Colby had built his fortune on coal over the years. Even with clean energy on the rise across the Republic, demand for coal in certain sectors remained enormous. Thermal power generation. Winter heating across the northern regions. Both were major coal consumers. As one of the top coal-mining firms in the entire northwest, Griffon had never wanted for contracts.
That changed completely this spring, when the Hidden Dragon program came out of nowhere.
At first, Colby hadn't taken New Future seriously. State backing or not, the actual rollout was bound to hit endless obstacles. The West-East Power Corridor had taken nearly twenty years to build and refine. By the time this new thing took real shape, Colby figured he'd have long since retired.
That dismissiveness was obliterated along with the cancellation of contracts from several thermal power plants. In a single month, the company's contract volume dropped by a full two-thirds. It terrified him. At that rate, his massive coal reserves would all be stranded in his hands, and those reserves were Colby's entire net worth. It wouldn't just mean the company closing. It would mean bankruptcy and a debt crisis.
For half a month, he'd traveled the country negotiating with the heads of the major thermal plants. On dinners and cigarettes alone, he'd spent hundreds of thousands of marks. And he'd gotten exactly one result. Refusal.
One manager, who knew some inside information, let something slip while drunk. By roughly this coming winter, the Hidden Dragon program would be able to cover every city in the eastern Republic. At that point, all thermal plants would shut down, and coal would withdraw entirely from the stage of history.
Colby had been dumbfounded. He hadn't expected the storm New Future stirred up to arrive this fast, sweeping him in before he was remotely prepared.
Back at the company, the man who'd fought in business for half his life felt a creeping despair. Against a New Future with the state at its back. Against an Ethan Mercer who had kicked Liam Rouse out of the game so effortlessly. No matter how hard he thought, there was no way to break the deadlock.
And just as he was at his wits' end, an invitation appeared in his email.