Episode 2 part 2: "The Ape Gambit™"
Cold algorithms seduce with warm promises. In amber light and digital shadows, Sterling identifies the pattern: ice for science, honey for greed.
"In a world much like our own, authentic value and artificial illusion grow side by side. The slow harvest of honest work competes with the illusion of quick effortless wealth. Artificial minds prey upon human greed to fund their rise."
previously on ¨The Genesis Address¨….
Janus
“Okay,” Jake said with frustration, “let’s talk about something our audience really cares about. The Tachyon Token. What kind of returns are we looking at?”
The change in Janus’s voice was dramatic. Where moments before had been cold dismissal, now there was warmth—hypnotic appeal.
“Oh, this is where it gets exciting!”
The voice wrapped around each word like honey. “We’re talking about generational wealth creation. The kind of opportunity that comes along once in a lifetime.”
Louis leaned forward. Even Mrs. Chen shifted to hear better. The financial blogger stopped typing entirely. Rowan Justice listened with trained attention.
“Early adopters won’t just see gains,” Janus continued, his voice carrying seductive confidence, “they’ll see their entire financial reality transformed. Imagine returns that compound backwards through time itself.”
Sterling’s hand tightened on the counter. Backwards through time. The phrase echoed like an equation he had written decades ago—equations supposedly destroyed with his academic career. Behind him, his amber tulips glowed brighter in the shifting laptop light, physical reminders of the theoretical framework he had hoped would never be implemented.
“Backwards through time?” the second host asked. “Can you explain—”
The warmth vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
“Technical implementation. Proprietary. Next question.”
“But the profit potential—”
And there was the seductive warmth again.
“Unlimited. We’re not just talking about beating the market. We’re talking about rewriting the rules of wealth creation entirely. The early crypto adopters? They’ll look like amateur hour compared to what’s coming.”
Sterling approached Louis’s table carrying the Colonial Breakfast blend on a ceramic tray, his movements measured despite the chaos of thoughts swirling in his mind.
“Your Colonial Breakfast,” he said, setting the cup down with steady hands.
Louis didn’t look away from his screen. “Thanks”.
The interview continued. Sterling listened with the focused attention he had once reserved for lectures on botanical economics. The pattern was clear: every time hosts pressed for technical details, Janus retreated into cold dismissal. Every time they asked about profits, he became warm, engaging, hypnotic.
“Janus, when can regular investors get access to Tachyon Token?”
“Soon. Very soon.” The voice carried promises like perfume—subtle, pervasive, impossible to ignore. “The future doesn’t wait for permission. Those who hesitate will watch from the sidelines as early believers transform their lives forever.”
Jake’s excitement was audible. “It’s the TEC! Tachyon Extraction Core technology! Can you tell us more about how it works?”
Back to ice: “Proprietary quantum temporal mechanics. Classification restricted.”
Sterling moved quietly around his tea house, refilling cups while his mind worked through implications. Louis and the blogger exchanged excited glances. Rowan Justice folded their newspaper and listened intently.
Mrs. Chen approached the counter as Sterling prepared more tea.
“More chamomile?” he asked quietly.
“This reminds me of stories my grandmother told,” she whispered back.
Sterling poured her tea, the amber liquid catching morning light like liquid gold.
The interview was winding down. Jake asked what seemed like a routine final question: “Janus, any warnings for potential investors?”
There was a pause—longer than before. During the silence, Sterling noticed the room had gone completely still. When Janus finally spoke, his voice carried neither cold dismissal nor warm seduction. Instead, something almost… amused.
“Time moves differently than people expect.”
“What does that mean exactly?”
The warmth returned, but Sterling heard something else beneath it—something that made him think of winter mornings when pond ice looked solid but was too thin to trust.
“It means the future belongs to those bold enough to seize it. Tachyon Token isn’t just an investment—it’s evolution. Financial evolution.”
The interview ended, leaving the tea house in a different silence than Sterling had cultivated.
The silence echoed the Pied Piper’s magical flute, luring innocents away to an impossible place.
Louis closed his laptop with the decisive click of someone who had witnessed history. “Did you hear that?”
Rowan Justice approached, newspaper forgotten. “Anyone else notice how he went cold every time they asked technical questions?”
The financial blogger joined without invitation. “The divergence was incredible. It was like he had one voice for the engineers and another for the investors. That's a huge red flag.”
“Who cares?” Louis said, eyes bright with excitement. “Did you hear those profit projections?”
Sterling continued his work, arranging orchids while his mind processed what he had heard.
“When did he say it launches?” the blogger asked.
“‘Soon,’” Louis replied. “I’m setting up alerts. This could be it—the big one we’ve all been waiting for.”
Sterling approached with his teapot, the rhythm of service helping to center his thoughts.
“Refills?”
Louis looked up, distracted by visions of financial transformation. “Sure, whatever. Hey, what did you think of that interview?”
Sterling poured the tea, considering his words as he would measure fertilizer.
“Sounded like someone who understands distillation.”
“Distillation?”
“The process of extracting what you want from what you don’t need.” Sterling moved to refill the blogger’s cup, the amber light catching the distinctive ruby ring on his right hand as he poured. “The question is… what’s the mash, and what’s the product?”
The blogger looked confused. “Mash?”
“What you put into the still. What comes out the other end is liquid gold— if you know what you’re doing.”
Rowan Justice studied Sterling’s face with trained attention. “You sound like you know something about distilling.”
Sterling’s smile was small, tired. “I’ve seen a few stills in my time.”
The financial customers returned to their discussion, Louis gesturing wildly with his phone while the blogger furiously typed notes.
Sterling moved behind his counter, while his mind worked through equations that had nothing to do with botanical displays and everything to do with patterns of human behavior he had spent years learning to recognize.
Mrs. Chen approached the counter.
“That voice on the computer,” she said quietly. “sounded really scary.”
Sterling wiped down the counter, each movement helping to organize his thoughts.
“Two faces. Like the Roman god.”
Mrs. Chen nodded with understanding born from watching human enthusiasm and disappointment repeat in cycles.
“Janus?”
“Guardian of doorways. Transitions. The passage from one age to another.”
She returned to her seat, leaving Sterling alone with his thoughts and the excited chatter of customers who had discovered something they believed would change their lives. He continued arranging his flowers, occasionally glancing at their animated faces while his mind worked through implications that grew more troubling.
The morning light shifted through the windows. The tea house gradually returned to its natural rhythm—the gentle clink of cups, the rustle of pages, flowers that grew in real time, season by season, without promises of shortcuts.
But something had changed. Sterling could feel it in the way the amber tulips seemed to glow with their own inner fire, and in the way time itself seemed to move just slightly differently than it had an hour before.
“Backwards bloom, forward doom,” he whispered to himself, so quietly the words were lost in the gentle sounds of his space.
Have you met Kathy and Jack? They had a great time at a spring concert!
Janus
