Page 127 of The Atlas Maneuver

“Then came bitcoin.”

Heads were nodding in agreement.

“Governments and many financial institutions will tell you that bitcoin is volatile in value. A risky investment. But these are the words of those who don’t understand it, from those who fear it. The crusade to absorb bitcoin into the cracks of the existing financial systems around the world has begun. The goal of many seemsto be to swallow bitcoin, process it, integrate it, devolve it, and keep it stagnant in the gears of a failed financial operating system. The Bank of St. George rejects that. Why? Because bitcoin is inherently anti-establishment, anti-system, and anti-state. It undermines governments and disrupts institutions because bitcoin is fundamentally humanitarian. Something the existing financial systems are not in any way whatsoever. But that philosophy does not scare us.”

She’d delivered similar speeches before, but tonight’s felt especially poignant. And her audience seemed receptive.

“Bitcoin is not supposed to work within our current financial mechanisms. It needs no entities of authority to acknowledge it, incorporate it, regulate it, or tax it. Bitcoin does not pander to power structures. Quite the contrary. It disarms them.”

Heads were bobbing.

They were listening.

“Bitcoin exists in anonymity. Satoshi Nakamoto’s facelessness is symbolic of this characteristic. Privacy is the whole point. Bitcoin means to channel economic power directly through the individual. It was never intended to be integrated. It is not just a currency, a commodity, or a convenience. Just like the internet gave information back to all of us, bitcoin will give financial freedom back to the people. Bitcoin will allow you to shape your world without having to ask permission.”

Time to bring the message home.

Gunfire erupted.

CHAPTER 73

COTTON UNLATCHED THE WINDOW AND SWUNG THE DOUBLE PANESoutward. The two men were fleeing right toward him through the garden twenty feet down. They’d yet to notice him so he grabbed their attention with a burst from the automatic rifle that peppered the ground right in front of their path. Both men stopped, looked upward, and sent silenced rounds his way. They both scrambled for cover behind two tall palm trees with thick trunks. Cotton dropped back from the window, his rifle remaining at ready.

“Two men below,” he said to the guard with him in the room. “They just killed your guards at the tent. Get down there and cut them off.”

The man nodded and rushed from the room.

He turned his attention back to the window. The two below seemed to be waiting for him to reappear, ready to fire. But they were using small-caliber pistols with sound suppressors. Not all that accurate at this distance. He had a short-barreled automatic rifle and, more important, knew how to use it.

He planted rounds into both trees.

That should get their attention.

AIKO ADVANCED TOWARD THE GUNFIRE, ROUNDING THE TENT ANDspotting two bodies on the ground. She then saw two more men huddled behind trees, their attention on a second-story window where a rifle was firing. That had to be Malone. She was unarmed but saw that the two dead guards had carried weapons. So she eased herself close and relieved one of the corpses of a pistol. Then she quickly assumed a position behind another mature palm and readied herself. It had been a while since she’d fired a weapon.

But she was an excellent shot.

The garden before her was illuminated from both ground lighting and floods atop the surrounding buildings. More than enough for her to see. The two armed men were unaware that they’d been flanked, so she decided to alert them by firing into one of the tree trunks.

Both men whirled to face her.

COTTON HEARD THE SINGLE SHOT THAT CAME FROM THE DIRECTION OFthe tent and spotted Aiko huddled in a defensive position. The two men had turned her way so he used the distraction to lay down another salvo of bullets that stirred the dry ground into a dust storm.

“Lose the weapons,” he called out. “You’re surrounded. And I won’t say it again.”

Aiko came to her feet and fled the tree, her weapon aimed ahead, advancing straight for the two threats, her focus down the gunsights on the targets. Damn. He liked her courage. No hesitation. Just jump right in.

The two men dropped their guns.

“Hands up where I can see them,” Aiko yelled, still moving.

Both raised their arms to the night sky but Cotton noticed something in one of the hands, the fingers cuffed around a small object.

Not a weapon.

He focused hard in the dim light and aimed the rifle. “Drop whatever that is you’re holding.”

The man did not comply.