Back in the States, Jason's name now carried more weight than ever—but weight invited gravity. Gravity, pressure.
And enemies.
Just a week after the PulseCast legal victory, Jason received an invitation—one he didn't expect.
The Everest Summit, an exclusive, off-the-record retreat in Jackson Hole. Only billionaire founders, hedge fund elites, and legacy media moguls got in. The invite came sealed, with only one phrase inside:
> "It's time to sit with the wolves."
Naomi didn't like it.
"These people don't extend hands. They extend leashes."
Jason shook his head. "I need to see who's pulling strings at the top. If we want to play at their level... we need to understand the game board."
---
Two days later, Jason arrived in Wyoming in a private jet—alone.
The Summit was held in a glass-and-wood lodge surrounded by pine forests and discreet bodyguards. No social media. No press. Every attendee had signed an NDA.
Inside, the air buzzed with power.
Jason was greeted by a man in a $30,000 suit, unshaven but sharp-eyed. "You're the PulseCast kid."
Jason offered a polite smile. "Jason Nash. And you are?"
The man grinned. "People call me Magnus. I make governments blink and CEOs dance. Welcome to the summit."
Jason raised an eyebrow. "Sounds exhausting."
Magnus laughed. "It's entertaining—until someone like you walks in and flips a trillion-dollar market."
---
The first night, Jason sat across from names he'd only read about in Forbes.
Adrian Cuthbert, oil empire heir turned crypto hedge fund legend.
Mara Xi, queen of Southeast Asia's streaming wars.
Thomas Reyes, owner of half the U.S. broadband infrastructure.
They didn't treat him like a rookie. They treated him like a problem—one they hadn't anticipated.
"I'll be blunt," Cuthbert said, sipping a hundred-year-old cognac. "You're disrupting too many sectors at once."
Mara Xi chimed in, cold and calculating. "You move like a tech founder, but think like a king. That scares the boardrooms."
Jason leaned back in his chair. "Maybe they should be scared. We're not building apps. We're building platforms people actually love. There's a difference."
Thomas Reyes narrowed his eyes. "Are you open to strategic acquisition?"
Jason looked him dead in the eye.
"No."
---
That night, in his suite, Jason received a handwritten note slipped under the door.
> "If you keep saying no to power, power will stop asking. And it will start removing."
Jason stared at it for a long time.
Then he pulled out his phone and called Naomi.
"Change of plans," he said. "We're opening offices in Singapore, London, and São Paulo. I want PulseCast to be in every timezone by Q4."
She hesitated. "You sure?"
Jason's voice was calm.
"If they want to remove me… they'll have to chase me across the whole damn planet."