Page 25 of The Atlas Maneuver

Perfect. Samvel Yerevan’s stash was now within the bank’s control. Kyra had come through again.

More good news.

She left the cordon bleu on her plate and fled the dining room, taking the private elevator down to the basement. All of the bank’s computer servers were housed two floors belowground.

Once the realm of Kelly Austin, but not anymore.

Through a series of doors where both retina verification and digital codes were needed to release the locks, she entered a small windowless room with a single server and two desktop terminals. The air-gap server kept a record of all of the bank’s bitcoin accounts, constantly updating the private keys. Its isolation, with no internet access, assured that no one could breach the server without being physically inside this room. One of the desktops was linked to it by cable. The other desktop was connected to the bank’s mainframe and all of its assorted systems, open to the world through the internet. Usually others would do what she was about to do, but Catherine thought it better, under the circumstances, to handle this transfer herself.

She sat down in front of the terminal for the air-gap server and gained access to the bank’s bitcoin accounts. Only herself and three others had such privileges, the room monitored 24/7 by closed-circuit cameras. She located the wallet that she’d directed Kyra to use and saw that 41,448.78 bitcoin had been deposited. Their intel on Yerevan placed his ownership at that amount. But that was the thing about bitcoin. You never knew exactly what the other person owned until you were able to identify their wallet.

Thankfully the bank possessed that capability.

She also confirmed that Kyra had withheld the agreed-upon one percent for her fee.

She needed the most current keys for the six wallets where she planned to store the new acquisitions. That was another thing about bitcoin. The original source software encrypted each transaction with a string of characters. A ledger of every coin’s movement was published across the entire network, which meant thatevery wallet in the world, and there were over three hundred million, was listed on the internet. No owners were named, no buyers and sellers identified, but every buy/sell to and from each wallet was there for all to see. That meant, unlike other forms of wealth or currency, the world knew exactly how and where every bitcoin existed, just not with whom. This transparency was another popular trait bitcoin owners cherished. But it also allowed the bank to keep a close eye on everything.

She slid the chair over on its casters and tapped the keyboard for the air-gap server, securing the latest six private keys for the designated wallets. She then entered those into the other desktop and, through the internet, set up a transfer of the 41,448.78 bitcoin to the six wallets in equal installments of 6,908.13 each.

She tappedENTER.

The move happened in an instant and the screen for the desktop verified the deposits into the six wallets.

Perfect.

She was about to leave when the screen for the air-gap desktop suddenly changed. On its own. Odd.

A message appeared.

IF YOU’RE READING THIS THEN YOU’VE REQUESTED A NEW KEY OR KEYS. IT OR THEY ARE YOUR LAST. BEFOREILEFTIMADE SOME CHANGES. YOUR ACTION HAS ENCRYPTED THE AIR-GAP SERVER, OVER WHICHINOW HAVE TOTAL CONTROL. IASSURE YOU, THERE IS NO WAY TO OVERRIDE OR DISCONNECT FROM WHATI’VE DONE. ANY ATTEMPT WILL ERASE THE KEYS TO ALL OF THE WALLETS, ALONG WITH THE INTERNAL HARD DRIVE BACKUPS. YOUR ONLY WAY TO ACCESS THOSE WALLETS NOW IS THROUGH ME. AND, BY THE WAY, IQUIT.

She struggled to breathe.

Oh, no.

CHAPTER 16

COTTON HEARD WHATSUZY HAD SAID.

I am Satoshi Nakamoto.

A friend of his back in Copenhagen was big into bitcoin. They’d talked about it several times and he’d learned all about Nakamoto. Or at least what was supposedly known, which was not much.

The general consensus?

A pseudonym for the person or persons who created blockchain. One of the few contacts Nakamoto made with the world came in an internet paper published on October 21, 2008, that first explained blockchain. Every year that day was celebrated worldwide by cryptocurrency enthusiasts, and some say that document was one of the most innovative ever written. But who was Nakamoto? Some postulated that it might be a team of people. The use of words likeweandourin the paper gave credence to that conclusion. But, in reality, Satoshi Nakamoto was a total and complete mystery.

Which, to Cotton, also described bitcoin.

Truth be told, it seemed more like high-stakes gambling based on blind faith that, one day, somebody would come along and pay you more for the coin than it had cost. But as his friend back in Denmark would say, that also explained nearly every government-issued currency in the world, which were also unsupported byanything tangible. For that fiat money to work the holder had to believe in the government issuing it. For bitcoin to work the holder had to believe in Satoshi Nakamoto.

So he said, “You’re going to have to explain yourself.”

“I can do that, but I hope you’re not the same naïve young lawyer who liked to cheat on his wife and hop into my bed.”

“I assure you,” he said. “I’m anything but naïve. You just told me that you’re the one who started bitcoin. That’s a little much.”

“It may be. But it’s true. I created the name myself.Satoshiin Japanese means ‘quick-witted.’ It seemed appropriate.”

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