Chapter 1: The Golden Hour

Alex Reynolds leaned back in his ergonomic chair and watched the numbers dance across his wall of monitors. Three massive screens dominated the far wall of his penthouse office, each one showing different charts and graphs that painted the same beautiful picture. Baba-Yaga coin had climbed from 0.0000027 USD to 0.0000033 USD in the past hour. He still chuckled when he thought about the name. he'd picked it after watching that movie about the assassin one night. Plus, "Shit Coin" was already taken.

He smiled and took a sip of his morning coffee. The view from his office never got old. Forty-two floors below, the city spread out like a game board. People scurried around like ants, probably worrying about their mortgages and grocery bills. Alex had moved beyond such trivial concerns years ago. After all, why worry about paying bills when you could just invent magic internet money out of thin air?

His phone buzzed. A text from Marcus appeared on the screen. "Boss, we need to talk. Now."

Alex frowned. Marcus never texted unless something was wrong. He grabbed his phone and called his right-hand man immediately.

"Marcus, what's going on?" Alex kept his voice calm, but his fingers drummed against his desk.

"Alex, we've got a situation." Marcus sounded stressed. "Three of our early investors are calling. They want their returns. Like, now. Johnson from the Miami group called twice this morning. Said he needs his money back by Friday. He sounded like someone killed his dog or something."

Alex stood up and walked to his window. He could see his reflection in the glass, and it looked confident and in control. Exactly how he needed to feel right now.

"Which investors are we talking about?" He already knew the answer, but he needed to hear it.

"Johnson's group put in two million. The Singapore collective invested three point five. And that tech guy from Austin, Rodriguez, he's in for one point eight." Marcus paused. "That's over seven million, Alex. They're all asking for their principal plus the promised returns."

Alex did quick math in his head. The promised returns would put the total payout at around twelve million dollars. Money he definitely did not have sitting in any bank account.

"How much panic are we talking about here?" Alex walked back to his desk and pulled up his trading platform.

"Johnson was polite but firm. Singapore group sent their lawyer to call me. Rodriguez just kept asking when he could expect the wire transfer." Marcus's voice got quieter. "They're not threatening anything yet, but they're not backing down either."

Alex looked at his screens again. Baba-Yaga coin was still climbing, but the trading volume was low. Most of the recent purchases were his own bots buying from each other to create the illusion of activity. It was like playing chess against himself, except the pawns were dollars and the king was his bank account. The real investor money had been spent months ago on his penthouse lease, the fancy office setup, and "business lunches" at strip clubs that somehow qualified as "blockchain research and development."

"Here's what we're going to do," Alex said. He opened his laptop and started typing. "You're going to call each of them back today. Tell them we're in the middle of a major partnership announcement. Something about expanding into the European markets."

"What partnership?" Marcus asked.

Alex grinned. "The one we're going to make up. Tell them the announcement will happen next week, and after that, their returns will double. Maybe triple. Use excited language. Make it sound like they'd be crazy to pull out now."

He could hear Marcus typing notes on the other end of the call. "Will they buy that?"

"They bought into Baba-Yaga coin, didn't they?" Alex pulled up the coin's price history. Six months ago, he had launched it at 0.000001 USD. The current price of 0.0000033 USD looked impressive until someone realized the entire market cap was still under fifty thousand dollars—roughly the value of the watch he bought with their money. "These people want to believe they're getting in early on the next Bitcoin. We just need to feed that dream a little longer." He smirked, remembering how he'd named the coin partly because it sounded mysterious and partly because "Shit Coin" was already registered somewhere else. That had been a sad day for truth in advertising.

Marcus was quiet for a moment. "How much longer are we talking about?"

Alex opened a new browser tab and searched for cryptocurrency exchanges in Southeast Asia. Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam. All emerging markets with lots of new money and limited crypto experience.

"Long enough for Phase 2," Alex said.

"What's Phase 2?"

Alex had been thinking about Phase 2 for weeks now. The current investors were getting restless, which meant he needed fresh money to pay them off. It was a simple business model, really. Use new investor money to pay old investors, and pocket whatever was left over. Economics textbooks called it a "Ponzi scheme," but Alex preferred "financially creative wealth redistribution with himself as the primary redistributor." The key was always staying one step ahead, preferably in non-extradition countries.

"Phase 2 is expansion," Alex said. He bookmarked several Southeast Asian investment forums. "We're going international."

He spent the next hour researching potential targets. Vietnam had a growing middle class with extra money to invest. Thailand's cryptocurrency regulations were loose enough to operate without much oversight. Malaysia had tech-savvy investors who understood enough about crypto to get excited but not enough to ask the right questions.

Alex's second phone buzzed. A calendar reminder popped up. He had a lunch meeting with Patricia Wong, a financial advisor who specialized in connecting American startups with Asian capital. He had scheduled this meeting three weeks ago, back when Baba-Yaga was just another small-time operation.

Now it felt like perfect timing.

Alex called Marcus back. "I need you to prepare a presentation about Baba-Yaga's growth potential. Make it look professional. Use lots of charts and graphs."

"What kind of charts?"

"Price projections, market analysis, competitive landscape. The usual stuff." Alex opened his presentation software and started creating slides. "Show our six-month growth curve, but don't mention the actual dollar amounts. Percentage growth looks better anyway."

"Three hundred percent growth sounds a lot more impressive than going from basically nothing to slightly more than nothing," Marcus said.

Alex laughed. "Exactly. It's like bragging that your height doubled when you were standing on your tippy toes." He clicked through some template slides. "And prepare a roadmap for the next twelve months. Include things like exchange listings, celebrity endorsements, institutional partnerships. Doesn't matter if we can actually deliver any of it. We just need a fancy slide deck with enough buzzwords to make a Silicon Valley venture capitalist weep with joy."

"Should I mention the trademark issues?"

Alex paused. The Baba-Yaga name was already trademarked by a Russian gaming company, but most investors never bothered to check these things. "No. If anyone asks, tell them our legal team is handling it."

"We don't have a legal team."

"They don't know that." Alex grinned. "For all they know, we have a whole floor of Harvard lawyers in pinstriped suits instead of just me in my pajamas Googling 'how to avoid SEC investigation' at 3 AM."

Alex hung up and focused on his screens. Baba-Yaga's price had dipped slightly to 0.0000031 USD, but that was normal market fluctuation. More importantly, his trading bots were working perfectly. Every few minutes, they would execute small buy and sell orders to create the appearance of active trading.

He opened his cryptocurrency wallet management software. Currently, there were about eight billion Baba-Yaga coins in circulation. Most of them were held by early investors who thought they were getting in on the ground floor of something revolutionary. A smaller portion sat in various exchange wallets, being traded back and forth by his bots.

But Alex controlled the master wallet. The one that could create new coins whenever he wanted. It was like having a money printer, except without all those pesky federal agents watching you. The Federal Reserve had regulations; Alex had a laptop and an energy drink addiction.

Alex's lunch meeting was in two hours. That gave him enough time to do some preliminary research on Patricia Wong's client base. He found her LinkedIn profile and scrolled through her connections. Lots of names from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Kuala Lumpur. Professional photos of people in expensive suits standing in front of skyscrapers.

These were exactly the kind of investors he needed. Wealthy, tech-forward, and geographically distant enough that due diligence would be difficult.

His phone rang again. This time it was Rodriguez from Austin.

"Alex, buddy, good to hear from you," Rodriguez said. His voice sounded friendly, but Alex could hear the tension underneath. "I was hoping we could chat about my investment. It's been six months now, and I'm starting to get questions from my partners."

Alex pulled up Rodriguez's file on his computer. One point eight million invested, promised returns of forty percent annually. The money had come in January, which meant Rodriguez was expecting about three million back.

"Rodriguez, perfect timing," Alex said. He walked over to his window again. "I was literally just reviewing your account. You're going to love what I have to tell you."

"Oh yeah?"

"We're about to announce a major strategic partnership that's going to rocket Baba-Yaga to the next level. I'm talking about real institutional adoption. Banks, hedge funds, the works." Alex watched his reflection as he spoke. He looked confident and successful. "Your forty percent return is going to look like nothing compared to what's coming."

Rodriguez was quiet for a moment. "That sounds great, Alex, but I kind of need my money back. Like, soon. My partners are asking questions, and I need to show them some actual returns."

Alex felt his jaw tighten, but kept his voice smooth. "I totally understand. But here's the thing. If you pull out now, you'll miss out on the biggest opportunity of your life. This partnership announcement is going to happen next week, and after that, we're looking at five hundred, maybe a thousand percent returns."

"Next week?"

"Maybe sooner. I can't give you all the details over the phone, but let's just say some very large institutions are about to discover Baba-Yaga." Alex sat back down at his desk and started typing. "Tell you what. How about I lock in your current position and guarantee you double the promised returns? Instead of forty percent, you'll get eighty percent. But only if you stay in until after the announcement."

Rodriguez was quiet for a long time. Alex could practically hear him calculating the numbers in his head.

"Eighty percent of one point eight million," Rodriguez said slowly.

"Three point two four million total," Alex finished. "More than you ever expected from this investment."

"And you can guarantee that?"

"Rodriguez, I've never missed a payment to an investor. Never." This was technically true, since Alex had never actually made any payments to investors yet. "My track record speaks for itself."

Rodriguez finally agreed to wait until after the partnership announcement. Alex hung up and immediately called Marcus back.

"How did it go with the other investors?" Alex asked.

"Johnson bought the European expansion story. Wants to invest another million when we launch in London." Marcus sounded relieved. "Singapore group is more skeptical, but their lawyer says they'll wait until next Friday for more information."

Alex looked at his calendar. Next Friday was eight days away. That gave him enough time to execute his plan.

"Perfect. That gives us breathing room." Alex opened his crypto wallet software again. "Now we move to Phase 2."

"The Southeast Asia thing?"

"Exactly. I'm meeting with an investment advisor in two hours. She connects American companies with Asian investors." Alex pulled up the presentation he had started working on. "While I'm doing that, I need you to prepare for the coin minting."

"How many new coins are we talking about?"

Alex did some quick calculations. To pay off the current investors with their promised returns, he needed about twelve million dollars. If he could sell new coins to Asian investors at the current market price, he'd need to sell roughly four trillion new coins.

But that would crash the price immediately. He needed to be smarter about it.

"Three trillion new coins," Alex said. "We'll mint them overnight and then slowly release them into circulation over the next month. If we do it right, the price might even go up from increased trading volume."

Marcus was quiet for a moment. "Is that legal?"

Alex had been wondering the same thing. Most established cryptocurrencies had fixed supplies or predictable inflation rates. Bitcoin, for example, could only ever have twenty-one million coins. But Baba-Yaga's whitepaper had intentionally left the supply question vague. Something about "dynamic tokenomics based on network growth." Alex sometimes joked privately that his coin, like its namesake, could appear out of nowhere with impossible odds.

"It's not illegal," Alex said. "And our early investors signed agreements that specifically mentioned potential supply adjustments based on market conditions."

"They did?"

"Check page seven of the investor agreement. Small print near the bottom." Alex had buried that clause on purpose, hoping no one would read it carefully. So far, no one had. "It's written in font size 'microscopic' right after the paragraph about our commitment to transparency. It's practically poetry if you think about it—nobody reads the terms and conditions, not even for their life savings."

Alex spent the next hour preparing for his lunch meeting with Patricia Wong. He created a professional-looking presentation that highlighted Baba-Yaga's growth potential without focusing too much on technical details. The key was to emphasize opportunity while minimizing questions.

His phone buzzed with a text message. Marcus again. "Coin minting software is ready. Just need your authorization to execute."

Alex looked at his screens one more time. Baba-Yaga was trading at 0.0000032 USD. In a few hours, there would be three trillion more coins in existence, but hopefully no one would notice right away. By the time anyone figured out what was happening, he'd have enough new investor money to pay off the old investors and still have plenty left over.

He typed back to Marcus. "Execute at midnight tonight. Make sure it happens gradually over six hours so it doesn't trigger any exchange alerts."

Alex grabbed his jacket and headed for the elevator. Patricia Wong was waiting at an expensive restaurant downtown, probably with a list of wealthy Asian investors who were eager to get in on the next big cryptocurrency opportunity.

Everything was falling into place perfectly.

As the elevator descended toward the lobby, Alex allowed himself a moment of satisfaction. Managing investor expectations was really just a matter of timing and presentation. Keep the current investors happy with promises of future returns, while simultaneously bringing in new investors to fund those promises. It was a delicate balance, but Alex had always been good at juggling multiple priorities. He straightened his pencil-thin tie, feeling unstoppable.

The elevator reached the ground floor. Alex walked through the marble lobby and out onto the busy sidewalk. Around him, people hurried past without looking up from their phones. None of them realized they were walking past a "cryptocurrency pioneer" who was about to "revolutionize digital finance in Southeast Asia"—or as his future prison cellmate might call it, "commit international fraud with extra steps."

His phone buzzed one more time. A notification from his trading platform showed that Baba-Yaga had just reached 0.0000035 USD. A new all-time high.

Alex smiled and flag-ged down a taxi. By this time tomorrow, Baba-Yaga would have three trillion more coins in circulation, and he'd be scheduling meetings with investors from three different countries.

Phase 2 was about to begin.