While you dropped money on the floor, he finished. Not harshly, just completing the sentence. She couldn't a beat. Yes, she said. While I did that, he let the moment sit for just long enough.
I'm not asking you to trust me because of who I am, he said. I'm asking you to trust me because of what the evidence shows and because every hour we wait is an hour Adrien uses to move further. He paused. You know what happens if he gets the technology out? You read the term sheets.
He heard her breathe once. The kind of breath that is not about oxygen but about decision. I'll send the credentials in 10 minutes, she said. She sent them in seven. The FBI briefing happened at 7:15 that morning in a conference room that Damen's attorneys had reserved at a law firm two blocks from the federal building.
The agent in charge of the financial crimes unit was a woman named Sandra Park, 51 years old, 20 years in federal law enforcement with the particular stillness of someone who has spent decades in rooms where the truth is expensive and everyone in them knows it. She listened to the entire briefing without interrupting. When it was finished, she looked at the stack of documents Damen's team had placed on the table. Then she looked at Damian. 14 Months?
She said. Yes. You've been building this case for 14 months. My team has and you didn't come to us sooner because it wasn't quite a question. Damian answered it anyway.
Because I needed to be certain, he said. And because I needed to own the company before this went federal. If the investigation triggered through external channels without the acquisition in place, Adrien would have had grounds to execute the technology transfer under emergency asset protection provisions. He'd built that into the structure intentionally. He paused.
The acquisition had to close first. Sandra Park looked at him for a long moment. That's sophisticated thinking, she said. He's a sophisticated person. Damian said he deserved sophisticated thinking.
Sandra looked at the documents again. We can have a warrant by end of day, but I want to be clear about something. She met his eyes. Once we move, this is federal. The sequencing, the timing, the public elements.