Amanda’s smile became radiant, a supernova of condescension and confidence. "We only started operations three weeks ago."
The silence that followed was different. It wasn’t shock. It was a vacuum, a complete absence of sound as two hundred brains bluescreened simultaneously.
"Three... weeks?"
"Yes. Three weeks and two days, precisely. We’re quite new. Our hedge fund just starting. Currently limited to minimum daily returns of only four hundred."
"Four hundred million?"
"Yes, four hundred million daily minimum. Like I said, we guarantee clients five percent returns within first twenty-four hours. Liberation Funds takes only two percent as fee. We expect to remove the cap entirely within six months."
Every person in that room understood exactly what that meant. I could see the calculations crystallizing.
"That’s impossible," Elise said flatly, but the conviction was gone, stripped away by the tidal wave of data Amanda had just unleashed.
"I understand skepticism. It’s healthy. But it means you’re interested enough for proof. The truly wealthy don’t waste time seeking proof unless genuinely intrigued."
"I want proof."
"Of course." Amanda’s gaze flicked to me. I gave her the nod—just a millimeter of movement, the signal we’d rehearsed. The signal that meant: Burn it down.
She raised her left wrist to show off her slick Quantum Watch. "Before I show fund performance, I should mention Liberation Holdings doesn’t just invest in technology. We create it."
The tap was soft. Almost gentle.
The holographic display erupted—not with light, but with presence. A massive, three-dimensional interface materialized above her wrist, fifty-five inches wide, hovering with crystalline clarity. Multiple windows—financial data, trading algorithms, market feeds—floating with perfect resolution.
The light from it painted the front row’s faces in ghostly blue-white, turning their shocked expressions into skull masks.
But that wasn’t what made them gasp.
The hologram was solid. Tactile. Amanda reached out and touched a floating window. It rippled like water, interface adjusting to her gestures with the give of actual matter. Her fingers left no print but created concentric circles of distortion, like touching a pond.
"What the—" someone breathed, the words strangled.
Amanda pinched her fingers, grabbed the holographic display—actually grabbed it, her knuckles whitening—and threw it toward the auction screens.
The hologram flew thirty feet through the air, spinning like a discus, and merged with the 8K displays seamlessly. No lag. No distortion. Data expanded, filling screens with perfect clarity, numbers cascading like waterfalls of light.
The room lost its mind.
People surged forward, climbing over chairs, their $5,000 shoes leaving scuff marks on the marble. A commodities trader shoved a pharmaceutical heir. A shipping magnate elbowed a sovereign wealth fund manager. They pressed against the dais, necks craned, eyes wide as trauma victims.
Not at the financial data. At Amanda’s wrist. At the watch producing tactile holograms. At technology that shouldn’t exist for another decade.
"What..." Elise climbed the dais steps without realizing, standing next to Amanda, staring at the watch like a religious artifact that had just performed a miracle. "What just happened?"
"Oh, this?" Amanda gestured casually, like dismissing a waiter. "The QT-7 Personal Interface Device. Liberation Holdings funding partnership with Quantum Tech. Fully integrated personal computing system with haptic holographic interface, quantum-encrypted communications, real-time AI assistance, with a 100% human personality you can set to your liking and gender too, no limits, biometric security, direct neural-link compatibility."
Science fiction made real, and she was treating it like a party trick.
"The holographic interface uses laser projection and magnetorestriction creating tangible, interactive displays up to seventy inches. Processing power equivalent to fifteen hundred conventional high-end servers, all smaller than a matchbox."
She tapped again. New hologram—three-dimensional hand. She touched it. The holographic hand responded, fingers moving, rotating, and I could see people in the front row flinch as it passed through their personal space, expecting to feel something.
"Full haptic feedback. You can actually feel the holograms. Temperature, texture, resistance—synthesized through magnetorestriction and focused ultrasound. Not just visual. Tactile."
A tech investor—a man who’d funded three unicorn startups—was trembling. "That’s twenty years ahead of Google, Apple, Meta—"
"However, we do provide them to our investment clients and strategic business partners. A perk of doing business with Liberation Holdings. When managing portfolios at our level, you need the best tools available."
The screens showed everything in crystalline detail—no, not crystalline. Surgical. Each digit was a scalpel, each percentage a suture, each graph a perfect incision into their skepticism.
Liberation Funds Performance - First 3 Weeks:
Starting Capital: $8B Week 1 Returns: $7B (+87.5%)
Week 1 Ending: $15B
Week 3 (This Week): $5B (+33.3%)
Current Total: $20B
This Week’s Breakdown: Monday-Friday: $5B in 5 days Average daily return: $1B Consistent across all market conditions.
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