"Step away from the acrylic podium right now."
The senior board member walked aggressively onto the brightly lit stage. He wore a tailored grey suit bought entirely with ancient European money. He did not wait for the young founder to finish her opening remarks.
Elena Vance froze completely in her tracks. She gripped the edges of the sleek clear podium. Thousands of elite tech investors stared up at her from the massive convention floor.
"We have a slight change to the evening schedule," the board member announced smoothly into his own silver microphone. "We are going to conduct a live demonstration of our core streaming infrastructure."
The massive digital screens behind them shifted instantly. The AuraStream corporate logo vanished entirely. It was replaced by a highly complex data a
