Te Bai City

During the privatization reforms of the Northern Republic, central envoy Tan Mobai is sent to the northern stronghold of Tebai City to oversee the auction of a mining conglomerate. The central government values it at three billion, but oligarch Sergei manipulates the appraisal and drives the price down to seven hundred million. The two-billion-three-hundred-million gap lies at the heart of every conspiracy and predatory scheme in the book.

On his first day in the country, Tan Mobai witnesses a deal being made in plain sight. Before long, his deputy is drawn into a gambling scheme, his son receives an unsolicited offer from a prestigious London law firm, and a complaint letter meant for the central government is copied and delivered to Sergei's desk. Speaker Vasily throws him a welcome banquet: ten people, nine chairs. The empty chair belongs to his predecessor, an envoy who disappeared four months ago.

Across five volumes, the novel lays out eighteen methods of capital predation, including manipulated appraisals, rigged bids and sham bidders, offshore money networks, and parallel ledgers. The opposing side consists of oligarchs, the speaker, international dealmakers, and insiders at the central bank. Their methods are sophisticated, legal, and intricately connected. Tan Mobai's counterattack begins with planting false information to draw out real evidence, and ends with him handing the proof to Natasha, a journalist who has finally awakened to the truth.

In the finale, Sergei launches his escape and reaches the airport. The one who stops him is not Interpol, but a young tax officer who has been on the job for two years. Citing 4,300 euros in unpaid municipal taxes, the officer detains him for forty-eight hours in accordance with procedure.

At around 500,000 words, the novel avoids preaching. Instead, its plot shows readers how each deal is engineered, how the predators think, and how cracks in the system are pried open. Its central idea: no matter how sophisticated the scheme, it ultimately falls to the detail everyone thought was unimportant.