"She was going to get the story regardless," he said. "We established that a week ago. The question was always whether she got it with our input or without it." He held the look. "You made the correct assessment in real time." "Just—"
"Together," Tav said.
"Together," Alistair agreed.
• • •
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
— NAOMI —
Naomi arrived at 8 a.m. with the printed spreadsheet and the tired energy of someone who had been awake until four and found it entirely worthwhile.
She spread the pages across the kitchen island with the efficient confidence of a person who had found the story in a mass of data and was now presenting it. Tav stood on one side of the island. Alistair stood on the other. Naomi stood at the end and pointed.
"The Ablation Structural Holdings account," she said. "Here. Three years of quarterly transfers, all below the automatic audit threshold by exactly three percent. Not two percent, not five — three, every time. Someone with access to the threshold figures is setting the amounts specifically." She moved her finger across the page. "The transfers originate from the university foundation's general operational fund — routed through a subsidiary that manages infrastructure investment. On paper it looks like building maintenance and equipment leasing."
"But it isn't," Alistair said.
"The subsidiary doesn't appear to own any buildings or lease any equipment." She turned to the second page. "It exists in the university's records as a minor operational line item. No one looks at minor operational line items when they're below threshold and the name sounds administrative." She looked up. "Dean Voss authorized the subsidiary's establishment three years ago."
"He's been running this since the beginning," Tav said.
"Since before your placement," Naomi said. She met their eyes. "Someone needed this infrastructure in place before you arrived here."
"The Amsterdam account," Alistair said.
"Registered six months before your placement," Naomi confirmed. "Which is interesting because—"
She found the page. "The registration date is eleven months after Director Cain took his current position." She looked at them. "He didn't inherit this infrastructure. He built it."
Tav fixed on the spreadsheet.
He was reading it the way he read things that mattered: slowly, with attention to what wasn't there as much as what was. The gaps in the data were as informative as the data itself. The quarterly regularity.
The precise threshold management. The subsidiary's administrative camouflage.
"The Amsterdam entity is private," he said. "Single beneficial owner?"
"That's where I hit the access limit," Naomi said. "Dutch corporate registration is publicly accessible up to the entity level. The beneficial owner structure requires a different access approach."
"I know a financial journalist in Amsterdam who might be able to get further."
"Don't contact them yet," Tav said.
She found his face.
"If someone is monitoring this account's information trail, a sudden external query flags immediately."
He met Alistair's eyes. "We need to know more about who the beneficial owner is before we approach anyone who might alert them."
Alistair was nodding. "Lucien's archive," he said. "If the Protocol has been running for long enough, the financial infrastructure might appear in the operational documentation."
"If Lucien built what he said he built," Tav said.
"He built it," Alistair said, with the quiet certainty. He had been thinking about his brother for twenty-four hours and had arrived at a conclusion.
Naomi looked between them. "why do you believe Lucien is alive?”
