“If an unauthorized engineering crew attempted to breach the casing from the surface with diamond drills, the system would register a structural pressure drop and flood forty miles of the tunnel with sixteen million gallons of ocean water, permanently sealing the cryptographic vault from below.”
Cooper pointed his gold pen at the vellum deed in my lap:
“Arthur Vance needed the master cryptographic key card.”
“He needed the sovereign lineal proxy that only Arthur Mercer’s direct biological granddaughter could execute upon the statutory reversion.”
“When Mark reported that you were still in Qatar, that your mother was tied to that bed, and that the Alligator Alley crash was staged for Friday, Arthur believed the board was won.
Believing that Mark would deliver the executed surrender waiver before dawn, Arthur convened an extraordinary emergency midnight session of the Supreme Court for zero-two-hundred hours.
Once that fraudulent waiver was registered, Arthur intended to execute the master conveyance deed tonight, transferring Conduit Ten directly to Valkyrie in Vaduz for sixty billion dollars in carried interest.”
“And tonight…?”
I asked.
Vice Admiral David Mercer checked his chronometer:
“At zero-two-hundred hours this morning, Elena…”
The Admiral tapped his heavy gold signet ring against the titanium case:
