The handwriting was his usual: sharp, angular, efficient. The title was underlined twice, in pencil. LOTTONOMICS (Alias' working notes) "Lotteries are not games of chance, they are systems of allocation without mediation. Their efficiency lies not in hope, but in their capacity to bypass negotiation, hierarchy, and bargaining. They eliminate the costs of decision-making. No adjudicator, no appeals, no lobbying. They unmask the farce of meritocracy." Alias had double underlined that line. "In ...

Outside, the streetlights cast long shadows on the cobblestone alleyways of Lisbon’s old quarter. She had chosen this café deliberately—anonymous enough to disappear, yet warm enough to soothe the constant tension she carried with her. She exhaled, rolling the porcelain cup between her palms, staring blankly at the dark liquid inside. "Alias and Steenberg?" she wondered ... Two men who, at first glance, seemed like absolute opposites. One, a ghost moving in the periphery, designing systems th...

The storm had rolled in quickly, the rain streaking down the floor-to-ceiling windows of Steenberg’s office in Basel. He had turned off the overhead lights, leaving the room dim except for the soft glow of his desk lamp. The file lay open before him—frustratingly thin, more inference than fact. He exhaled, rolling the cap of his Montblanc pen between his fingers. Alias. He had been the one to coin the name in internal memos, a placeholder for the unknown architect of Pegged. A name that sugge...