Page 74 of The Atlas Maneuver

“Which eye do I paint first? To set the goal?”

“The left side, from the doll’s perspective. Left is always considered higher in rank.”

And here she was, sitting in the left seat of the car.

Moving toward her goal.

With Cotton Malone.

COTTON DECIDED TO SHIFT GEARS AND TRY THE HONEST APPROACH. “I know that Kelly Austin created bitcoin and now the Bank of St. George is weaponizing it. Something called the Atlas Maneuver. But I have to say, I have doubts. Bitcoin has been around for a long time. It’s a niche product. Something long-term investors and people who think they’re going to get rich quick toy with.”

“That’s where you are wrong,” Ejima said. “True, it is an investor tool. Mainly used by people who have no idea what they’re doing. But it is also something much more potent. A weapon that, if channeled properly, can be wielded with devastating results.”

Okay. This woman knew things. Clearly. And he recalled what Suzy had told him.They have a spy in the bank.“You’ve been watching all of this?”

She nodded. “For some time now.”

“To what end?”

“At first? We were after the gold. But that changed once we learned of the Atlas Maneuver.”

The PSIA had long been a friend of the United States, working closely with American intelligence. He’d always found them top-notch and trustworthy. And this woman seemed no exception.

“Our intent was to stop the bank,” she said. “How? That remained to be seen.”

He knew better. “And by stopping you could expose everything the CIA had been doing?”

“I will not deny that we remain irritated by America’s hypocrisy. Kelly Austin forced the issue, though, when she unexpectedly involved the CIA. We had no choice but to act. We took her for her own protection.”

“Then strangled her.”

“It was merely a means to acquire her undivided attention. But she is the one who placed herself right in the middle of a war.”

“Between the bank and Japan?”

She shook her head. “Between the bank and the CIA.”

He recalled more of what Suzy told him last night.

“There’ve been countless bitcoin transactions. The whole thing has become everything I imagined it to be. And more. Much more. So much that a few years ago the CIA demanded the Bank of St. George shut the platform down. But the bank refused, saying that it had expanded and grown far beyond what was practical to end. So when the CIA could not get the bank to stop, it began a massive, worldwide disinformation campaign. People were told how bitcoin was being used by terrorists and criminals, with little to no accountability. By money launderers and tax evaders. The whole concept was painted as something sordid and nefarious. If you owned bitcoin you must be trying to hide something. All designed to scare people into staying away from it. Then there were the so-called environmental impacts. Supposedly, all those computers mining for coins consumed a huge amount of electricity, which affected the planet.”

“That doesn’t make much sense.”

“Because it’s false. There have been countless studies on this. Bitcoin accounts for about 0.001 percent of the world’s electricity consumption. That’s a pretty tiny percentage. The energy wasted in the American electrical grid is three times the energy used by bitcoin globally.”

“But no one checks the details. Right?”

“Exactly what the CIA was counting on, and the wasted-energy argument gained some traction. But it still couldn’t stop the momentum.”

“So why did you go to them?”

She shrugged. “I wanted to stop the bank, so what better place to head for help than its sworn enemy.”

“Is Kelly Austin safe?” Ejima asked.

“She is.”

“Then perhaps we might work together, toward a common goal.”