The meeting did not appear on any calendar.
It existed anyway.
They called it a table because the word summit implied elevation.
This was not above anything.
It was beneath.
Twelve rooms.
Twelve secure lines.
One synchronized moment.
No flags.
No titles spoken aloud.
Only voices calibrated to neutrality.
The footage played once.
No one interrupted.
When it ended, silence held.
Then—
"Confirm authenticity."
"Confirmed."
"Human?"
"Yes."
"Repeatable?"
"No."
That answer mattered most.
A woman from the eastern bloc leaned forward.
"If this individual acts independently, deterrence models fail."
A man from the island nations replied, "If he does not, legitimacy fails."
Someone else said, "Those are the same failure."
In a separate room, Grant watched the transcript update line by line.
They weren't asking what he did.
They were asking who owned him.
Grant felt something tighten.
"No one," he said to an empty room.
The System observed the table indirectly.
No audio.
No video.
Just outcome vectors.
[SYSTEM PHASE II — STRATEGIC MODELING]
[Risk of multipolar escalation: RISING]
[Ethical debt interest compounding]
It flagged a recommendation.
It did not execute it.
Li Chen sat alone in a briefing room with a glass wall.
Outside, silhouettes moved.
Inside, nothing did.
He stood.
Then sat.
Then waited.
A courier arrived with a single page.
No header.
No signature.
Just a question printed in clean type:
Would you accept international oversight?
Li Chen read it once.
He did not ask who sent it.
He folded the paper carefully.
Placed it on the table.
"No," he said to the glass.
Across the world, the table reacted.
Some relief.
Some alarm.
One voice broke neutrality.
"Then he is a threat."
Another answered immediately.
"Only to those who require ownership."
A second page arrived.
Would you accept a unilateral command authority?
Li Chen smiled.
Just barely.
"No," he said again.
The System pulsed.
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
[User rejecting control frameworks]
[Reclassification pending]
Li Chen felt it—not pressure, but proximity.
As if something vast had leaned closer.
Grant made a decision.
He forwarded a sealed packet.
Not to the table.
To the press.
He did not include footage.
He included doctrine.
At the table, tempers sharpened.
"If we cannot command him—"
"You never could."
"Then we must constrain him."
"With what?"
No one answered.
A third page slid under the glass.
This one was different.
What would you accept?
Li Chen unfolded it slowly.
He looked through the glass.
At the watchers.
At the fear trying to be polite.
"I will accept accountability," he said.
"Not ownership."
The words traveled.
They did not land evenly.
Some heard threat.
Others heard promise.
The System updated one final time that night.
[SYSTEM PHASE II — STATUS]
[User classification: AUTONOMOUS ACTOR]
[Containment: FAILED]
[Coexistence modeling initiated]
Outside, the city lights burned.
Inside, the table adjourned without agreement.
History had not chosen a side.
It had acknowledged a presence.
And tomorrow—
—the world would wake up knowing it was no longer alone at the top.