Page 77 of The Atlas Maneuver

She donned the buoyancy compensator, then slipped a flashlight into its pouch.

Citrone stood toward the stern, holding a fishing rod. He’d already offered another to Koger. “We’ll see if we can get a couple of the arctic char or brown trout to bite. They seem to like rough weather. A little cover, as you investigate.”

She sat on the gunwale and buckled six pounds of weight around her waist, tightening the belt. Then she stretched a pair of skintight rubber boots over her feet and fitted flippers over the boots. She pulled a hood over her head and ears.

“It was a barge and the gold was supposedly crated,” Citrone said. “If there’s anything to find, it should be lying across the bottom.”

Koger cast his line out into the blue water. “Don’t be long.”

She did not have to be told that twice.

At thirty meters she’d have about twenty minutes of down time without worrying about a decompression stop on the way up. She knew that number from experience. Anything longer would require a stop at about five meters for ten minutes to allow the nitrogen to bleed from her bloodstream. Ignore that and she risked getting the bends.

Citrone cast his line out into the water. “Enjoy the dive.”

She adjusted the mask onto her face.

Then moved onto the stern platform.

And stepped off into the water.

COTTON KNEW WHEN TO KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT. EXPERIENCE HADtaught him that most valuable skill. The hardest thing for most people to do was nothing. This PSIA agent was here and talking. For a reason? Absolutely. So let her. She’d stopped the car at a fueling station, parking off to the side away from the pumps.

“I want to hear your take on the Atlas Maneuver,” he said to her.

“That’s a complicated subject,” she said. “One we have studied for months.”

“Then you surely have some insight to share.”

“And what would I get in return?”

“I do have the creator of it all.”

She smiled. “Yes, you do. All right. In late 2009, after bitcoin went live on the internet, Satoshi Nakamoto supposedly mined more than one million coins by himself. At the time few knew the opportunity for mining existed and bitcoin had practically no value. But from an analysis of the various blocks that were created, we know that a single entity, using a single computer, mined thousands of blocks and racked up around 1.1 million bitcoin in rewards. Folklore attaches the ownership of those coins to Satoshi Nakamoto. We now know that Kelly Austin, through the bank, mined those coins. They are now worth around fifty billion U.S. dollars. But they are the key to everything.”

He’d heard that before from his friend back in Denmark. “I don’t get it. Why does it matter about those million coins? Who cares? There are millions more in existence.”

“You’re not that familiar with bitcoin, are you?”

He shook his head. “I am not.”

“Billions of dollars in trades and transactions happen every day. Coins move across the internet at the speed of light. But the first wallet, the one with those 1.1 million coins? Not a single coin has moved in fifteen years. Fifty billion dollars of wealth. Just sitting there.”

“And if they moved?”

“It would be read as a signal from Nakamoto himself for everyone else to do the same. It would set off a run on bitcoin.”

He decided to play devil’s advocate. “What if Satoshi Nakamoto doesn’t have access to the private key that opens the wallet for those funds?”

“That’s one theory in the bitcoin community. But those first coins have become important for another reason. Many people have claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, but nobody has managed to definitively prove that they hold the private keys to any of the addresses thought to be owned by Nakamoto. Possessing thosewould be conclusive evidence proving they are Satoshi Nakamoto. Of course, you and I know that Kelly Austin is Nakamoto. Up until yesterday the Bank of St. George controlled those one million bitcoin. Along with, at our best estimate, another three and a half million more.”

Her intel was spot-on, matching exactly what Kelly had reported. But he wanted to know, “How do you think those gunmen back there knew where to find you?”

“I assume they were watching, waiting to see who would come.”

“But they obviously have no idea about me,” he said. “They didn’t make a move when I arrived.”

Which might offer him an open field to run in. And with Kelly under his exclusive control he might be able to dial things back a notch. His grandfather liked to say,He’d waddled in the mud with pigs before, so why not now.Good point. And allies were always a good thing. No matter how suspect they might be. Right now he could use the help. So he made a field decision, hoping Koger would later agree.