The Chicago Mercantile Exchange reeked of burnt coffee and adrenaline. Leo Wu leaned against the frozen pork futures board, his wolf-blood humming beneath a $3,000 Brioni suit. On the trading floor below, human brokers screeched into landline phones like rabid seagulls fighting over trash. Their heartbeats thundered in his skull – 120 BPM, 145, 168. Pathetic.
"Mortgage-backed securities, my ass." He crushed an energy drink can engraved with Fenrir Capital's logo. The aluminum crumpled like a Lehman Brothers balance sheet.
Victor's voice crackled through his earpiece, mingling with the Bitcoin mining rig's whine from their back-alley server farm. "Bear Stearns just dumped another $2.8 billion in CDOs. Their risk models smell fouler than a Jersey landfill."
Leo's golden irises contracted. Through the haze of LCD screens, he saw it – the numbers weren't numbers anymore. Mortgage payment schedules morphed into DNA helices, credit default swaps becoming silver-worm clusters chewing through bond ratings. His newly awakened Wolf King's Pupils flickered with data streams:
Trader 47B – Epinephrine Levels: 0.38 μg/L (Critical)
The Lehmon broker was sweating through his Armani shirt, fingers trembling over MBS sell orders. Leo's claws tore through his gloves. There. The man's carotid artery pulsed like a failing LIBOR rate.
"Place 10,000 BTC shorts on Lehman's 2008-Q3 CDO tranches," Leo growled into his wrist mic. "Leverage 100:1."
Victor's keyboard clattered. "You sure? The Fed's still preaching—"
"The Fed's sniffing glue. That broker's gonna stroke out in 4...3..."
The Lehmon trader collapsed mid-shout, his head smashing through a Bloomberg terminal. Blood sprayed across LIBOR rate projections. Chaos erupted as paramedics slipped on trading slips.
Leo licked his fangs. Copper and fear tasted better than any Michelin steak.
Bitcoin Position: +15,000 BTC (Subprime Rot Detected)
A hologram erupted from his cufflinks – Irene's smirk superimposed over burning mortgage documents. "Enjoying my gift, prototype? The Wolf King's Eyes see through more than spreadsheets."
He crushed the projection. Her laughter lingered like CDO stench.