Page 32 of The Atlas Maneuver

“You are Satoshi Nakamoto. Millions of people have speculated about your existence, yet here you are in the living flesh.”

This woman was remarkably well informed. Or was she? “You listened in on my conversation at the café.”

Ejima shook her head. “There was no need.”

“Forgive me if I’m skeptical. But for the past fifteen years I’ve lived within a bubble of maximum security. Few on this earth know much about me or of what you just spoke.”

“Atorasu sosa.”

“You’re going to have translate that one.”

“There’s not an exact meaning. But it is the closest description in Japanese to something you know a great deal about.”

She waited.

“The Atlas Maneuver.”

COTTON HAD TAKEN A TAXI FROM DOWNTOWN TO THEJAPANESEconsulate, thinking that was the first place he would look. He had no idea if Suzy was inside or not, but Koger had said to get her back in one piece and he didn’t care what rules had to be broken. He’d left Suzy’s shoulder bag at the café, no need to haul it around, but retrieved her passport, wallet, and phone.

Those could be needed.

The building before him was an art deco mansion among other equally impressive structures in the city’s diplomatic district. Three stories, its stone in varying hues of white and gray, and all surrounded by foliage and an iron fence. One gate led in, flanked on each side by stone pillars. No one guarded the portal, but hespotted cameras. Three he could see. Surely there were more he could not. But he was, as yet, not in their field of view. The answer as to whether this was the right place came when he managed to work his way closer. Parked behind the gate was the same light-colored BMW with the same license plate he’d committed to memory.

Okay.

Time to go to work.

KELLY WAS SHOCKED BY WHAT SHE’D JUST HEARD—THEATLASManeuver—three words grouped together that only a few on earth knew existed. Yet this stranger did. Which meant, “You have eyes and ears inside the Bank of St. George.”

Her captor nodded. “We’ve been watching for a long time.”

All bad. But maybe it could work to her advantage. “Then you know I don’t give a damn what happens to that place.”

“I fully understand that, which is why we are talking.”

“The bank needs me alive,” she felt compelled to say.

Ejima nodded. “On the trip here, in the car, I was informed, by text, of your seizure of the bank’s bitcoin keys. You have them at quite the disadvantage.”

This womanwasremarkably well informed. The bank prided itself on its security. It spent millions every year ensuring it. Yet this foreign agent was privy to things that had only happened in the past few hours.

“Catherine Gledhill now knows just how important you are,” Ejima said. “My congratulations on besting her. She’s a smart, capable, dangerous woman.”

And her friend. But that was now over too.

That part she regretted.

“What do you want?” she asked.

Ejima smiled. “I must confess, the answer to that inquiry has now become fluid.”

“You want to trade me for the Golden Lily wealth?”

“Hardly. We both know that is impossible.”

She wanted to know, “Is the air-gap server frozen?”

“It appears so. And you are the only one who can reverse that.”