The sun filtered through the tall, tinted windows of Gumua's Central Bank headquarters, casting sharp lines across the polished granite floor.
David adjusted his tie as he stood beside the VaultPay stand-in CEO, a British-born fintech consultant named Clive Matheson, whose carefully greying hair and controlled charisma exuded credibility.
Across the table sat Governor Ayoola Fata, a stocky man in his late sixties with silver temples, steely eyes, and a reputation for cutting through corporate jargon like a scalpel through silk.
Several senior advisors flanked him, each carrying slim folders, pads, or tablets as they prepared for the pilot integration meeting.
The introductions were brief. Formalities had been handled already.
"Let's get to it," Governor Fata said, steepling his fingers. "Your platform, VaultPay. Walk me through how this integration will work—start to finish."
Clive nodded. "Of course, Governor. VaultPay operates as a hybrid infrastructure. On the frontend, it provides mobile-based micro-payment solutions—wallet creation, merchant onboarding, remittance processing. On the backend, it connects directly with regulated financial rails, with full compliance mirroring per jurisdiction."
He clicked a button on his tablet and a projection appeared on the sleek screen behind him.
"This is the modular architecture. Each transaction is broken into micro-fragments, passed through encrypted multi-channel routing, and then reassembled before settlement. That allows for extremely low fraud exposure, real-time reconciliation, and most importantly, adaptive compliance."
David watched closely as the Central Bank team leaned forward. That was the hook. VaultPay wasn't just safe. It was smarter than what they were using now.
Governor Fata glanced at his advisor. "What's your analysis?"
The advisor replied, "Sir, if their system performs even half as well as they claim, it's miles ahead of what our interbank switches can currently do. Especially in terms of reach to rural populations."
"And latency?" Fata asked.
"Sub-three seconds average for domestic transfers," Clive answered smoothly. "Even cross-border—depending on regulatory partners—we average below ten."
Fata grunted thoughtfully. "What about fraud monitoring?"
David answered this time, his voice calm and calculated. "VaultPay incorporates a real-time risk dampening layer. Every transaction is scored through a behavior simulation engine. Anything outside predefined thresholds is auto-flagged and rerouted for manual audit."
"And data sovereignty?" the Governor pressed.
"Fully customizable. Your data remains within your borders. We already have server presence being scoped out locally. We plan to set up a data centre this week," Clive added.
There was a pause, as Fata leaned back in his chair.
"Alright. Let's proceed with the pilot. I want it rolled out in three zones. Rural, urban and institutional. We'll monitor the performance over four weeks. You'll coordinate with our tech bureau."
He looked to David. "We'll also need a whitepaper on long-term infrastructure merging. We're not looking for another foreign solution. We're looking for a partner who's ready to help build one of our own."
David gave a small nod. "Understood, Governor. We'll send a full timeline by tomorrow morning."
The meeting ended with firm handshakes and guarded optimism. Progress had been made but the real deal was yet to come.
They still have a meeting with the country's central government figures later in the afternoon.
Even without being told, David could already guess how the conversation will go.
...
Later that afternoon, the VaultPay team found themselves walking into the presidential annex—a nondescript government building just outside the capital's administrative zone.
Inside the main conference room, high-ranking figures from Gumua's central government were already waiting.
The room was heavy with influence—senior advisors from the President's cabinet, key ministers from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Intelligence, Ministry of Infrastructure, and two men whose plain suits and sharp gazes screamed power.
As they settled into their seats, Clive gave the same opening remarks, walking them through VaultPay's potential for economic modernization, tax system integration, and its ability to generate national data sovereignty without relying on legacy Western or Chinese providers.
At first, the ministers listened politely. They asked standard questions about transaction integrity, system uptime, and recovery protocols.
But halfway through the meeting, the questions shifted.
"You mentioned this system could interface with government disbursement programs," said the Minister of Finance, adjusting his glasses. "Could it also be used for, say… private funds? Moving money discreetly in and out of the country?"
David didn't flinch. He tapped his watch twice under the table—a subtle signal.
Back in his room, Tyler sat at his desk of the study, earpiece in, listening to the conversation unfold through the secure call relay. He'd expected this moment. He was ready.
"Yes," David said, speaking slowly. "VaultPay's modular routing system allows custom nodes to be created for specific transaction types."
He paused as Tyler's voice echoed through the earpiece.
"Tell them private routing layers can be added discreetly. And that we can create dual visibility—one for internal tracking, and one for external audits."
David relayed the message almost word for word.
The room fell silent for a moment.
The Minister of Intelligence cleared his throat. "And what incentive would we, as partners, be receiving? If we allow this platform to be embedded at a national level, I assume we're not just talking about patriotic duty."
Tyler's voice came through again.
"Say this exactly," he instructed.
David nodded slightly and repeated it: "VaultPay allocates equity-based incentives in its rollout regions. Key stakeholders can be assigned profit-share nodes—disguised as regional infrastructure contracts. These nodes receive a quiet dividend through the system's internal routing mechanism."
The men around the table began to shift forward in their seats.
"You mean… we'll get a slice of every transaction?" asked one of the advisors.
"In effect, yes," David said. "Your departments will be given infrastructure oversight contracts. The actual dividends will be tied to performance metrics but… rest assured, the flows will be consistent."
One of the unnamed men—the quiet one in the far corner—finally spoke.
"And this won't show up in IMF reports? Or financial watchdog alerts?"
Tyler's voice was clear through the line.
"Say this—'VaultPay operates with compliance camouflage. No node appears irregular, no flow looks artificial. It will look like operational logistics, nothing more.'"
David repeated it, and when he finished, the quiet man nodded once.
"Then we have a deal."
The room relaxed. Smiles appeared. A few of the ministers leaned back in satisfaction, whispering to one another.
But the Intelligence Minister raised one more question.
"And security?"
David glanced at Clive, then answered directly. "VaultPay's core node in this region will be isolated behind an offline-trigger kill switch. If the system is ever at risk, we can nuke the internal ledger and route everything to clean fallback nodes. Nothing gets traced and nothing gets seized."
The men were silent again, but this time with a kind of reverent respect.
The meeting ended minutes later. No documents were signed, but the tone had shifted.
VaultPay hadn't just accepted, it had been welcomed.
And the men who ran Gumua were now personally invested in seeing it succeed.
As they left the building, David stepped aside and spoke quietly into his phone.
"You heard all that?"
"I did," Tyler said calmly. "Good work. We got what we want."
David smiled. "What's next?"
"Prepare for the pilot launch. Begin the final preparations. We go live in three weeks."
Then the line went dead.
....
In the study, seated at the desk was Tyler with a bright smile on his face. He had captured his prey with his honey trap, now it was time to start exploiting them.