One year later, bells rang while paper fell over the Nasdaq trading floor.
Blue and silver confetti reached the balcony. Mr. Sterling stood on my right, grinning, while my executive team cheered and opened champagne on my left. The screen around the building displayed our ticker: GNSYS.
Genesis AI was officially a public company.
I had rung the opening bell moments earlier. Its vibration still ran through my hand. For one second, I remembered the red light in Apex Tech's server room, then looked back at GNSYS on the screen.
Someone handed me a champagne flute. I raised it high, the crystal catching the light from a thousand flashing cameras.
"To the architects. To the builders. To Genesis."
"To Genesis!" they answered, and we drank.
That evening, the celebration moved to a Manhattan
