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"Volkov?"

"Probably."

"Lorenzo?"

"Yes."

"Declan?"

"Yes."

"Santiago?"

"Asterion has serviced Crown business since before any of us controlled our families."

Exactly.

I set the laptop on his desk and turn it toward him.

"I think he's moving OB6 money."

Adrianos doesn't touch the computer.

"Think?"

"I thought you'd enjoy that word."

"I don't."

"I know."

"Proof."

There it is. Not disbelief. Not Are you sure?

Proof.

I show him the obsolete fee. He reads the restructuring documents while I explain what LTP-4 was and why it should have disappeared eleven years ago.

"Yet it didn't," he says.

"Not completely."

I open the transaction list.

"Somebody kept applying it selectively. At first I thought it was theft. It's too small to matter individually, but then I compared the timestamps."

I show him the first match. Then the second. Then the next ten. Adrianos leans forward.

"Seven minutes."

"Every time."

"What does the fee do?"

"Financially? Almost nothing. Operationally? I think it's a marker. The charge identifies the transaction. Seven minutes later, the skim moves."

"Automated?"