Paul and Justin worked as quickly as they could to move Justin's assets off the grid. They knew they probably wouldn't succeed in moving all of them. Already, they found themselves stymied in a number of places by Hanover-Rush and federal regulators. Fortunately, Paul had already established some secret channels for rapid conversion of fiat money to gold coins and platinum bars. The value of Justin's remaining assets was so large that they decided not to bother with the lower priced precious metals.

They also decided to invest some of his assets in diamonds because of the ease of transportation they entailed. Once they took delivery, they planned to convert them to gold and platinum through other, underground channels Paul maintained for the First Agorist Bank. Diamonds might not make a good long-term investment, given the nature of the diamond cartel, but in the short-term they proved a useful medium of conversion.

Justin placed a secured call to Tom Robinson, his attorney, to find out how the legal situation progressed. Once he got Tom on the phone, he found the man quite agitated.

“Justin!” his attorney reported to him. “I did as you asked. I hired top attorneys on your behalf who filed lawsuits with courts in three different jurisdictions. However, the opposition has already mounted a considerable counter-attack. Each suit we file, they counter-file with government affidavits stating that the cases should be sealed under the authority of the Patriot Act and the State Secrets provisions of the law! Government attorneys argue that you are under investigation as a terrorist threat to the nation, and their unproven claim satisfies the judges to seal the cases every time. We are getting nowhere fast.”

“What about the transfer of my assets?”

“They stymied me from taking any further actions in that regard. Already, they froze your remaining assets. The FBI seized your Long Island estate. They even held your butler, Charles, and Mr. Stevens, your equestrian master, for a short while, until I succeeded in getting them released from custody. I don't know what happened to Mrs. Pomfrey. She seems to have disappeared entirely. I instructed the others to stay away from the estate from now on, and I told them I would cover their expenses for the immediate future. I also left a note to Mrs. Pomfrey, for when she returns. I trust that meets with your approval?”

“Yes, that's fine. Set up trust funds for them, please. But what about my estate and my other holdings? What else can I do?”

“Nothing! All those new laws that passed after 9/11 which they claimed they would only use against foreign terrorists they have aligned against you. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised.”

“No, I suppose not. Well, it sounds like you did all you could do, Tom. Other than continuing to follow up on the cases already filed, I think you should withdraw from the field, so to speak.”

“Thank you, Justin! I began to worry that all this might undermine my practice. No offense intended.”

“None taken,” Justin said, although it bothered him how easily the feds had stolen his remaining funds. He realized that Tom's experience working on his behalf showed beyond doubt that the federal government now had far too much power for its own good. When honest, wealthy, prominent citizens could lose their property (and their liberty) with so little due process and even less cause, what hope remained for the rest of the population?

Fortunately, he and Paul managed to rescue a portion of his holdings. The price of the rescue was enormous in terms of bribes and smuggling fees, and by the time all of them moved back under his control, away from the prying eyes and hands of his enemies, they estimated less than 25% would remain. Still, they hoped in the long run it would suffice.

Besides working to extract Justin's remaining assets from the above-ground system, Paul also gave Justin a first-hand introduction to how banking took place underground. It impressed Justin how much of an infrastructure Paul already had in place, although he could see many places in the chain that needed improvement and duplication. Too many links in the chain had only one option. They agreed that the entire chain needed duplicating many times over before the bank could grow sufficiently to bring down the enormously high costs of doing business “off the books”. In short, they had their work cut out for them.

They also discussed the message they would give jointly to the American people. This required extensive arrangements with their new AU friends to insure the protection and well-being of themselves and their families. Once they made their case to the world, the danger to all of them would increase exponentially. As top-priority targets of the powers-that-be, they expected to stay in hiding for at least a year or two–perhaps longer.

They agreed on the need to generate false credentials for their bank employees to use when interacting with the outside world. They must make these credentials iron-clad and convincing. It would mean slowly and painstakingly unearthing officials, fellow travelers and patriots willing to use their positions in government and business to further the cause.

That night at the end of the WNN Evening News, anchor Dolf Spitzer wound up his nightly broadcast with a bombshell announcement.

“Finally tonight, with the country facing an unprecedented economic crisis arising from the mortgage and real estate industries, a crisis that affects the most powerful, some might say the most hallowed financial institutions in the country and in the world, WNN has obtained a secret video recording of a top level meeting by financial leaders which brings into question what all of us thought we knew about the causes of the crisis. We will broadcast that video tomorrow evening, immediately following our regularly scheduled news broadcast. I will literally go underground to make that historic broadcast, at which time we also plan to interview via satellite the three financial leaders who attended that meeting. This is one broadcast you won't want to miss! I'm Dolf Spitzer. Good night from all of us at WNN Evening News.”

Paul and Justin sat with the others in the TV lounge, having just finished their dinner. Of course, they knew about the WNN announcement in advance, the reason why they all gathered to watch it.

“Well, there is no going back now,” Justin observed.

Paul agreed. “Good thing we succeeded in transferring all of your assets that we could reach before the feds got to them. After tonight, anything we haven't already grabbed will become permanently unrecoverable.”

Lizzie turned to Janice, who quietly sat in a corner of the room by herself away from the rest of the socializing that evening.

“I suppose this is a stupid question, but are you sure about the security for the broadcast? I mean, this is the first time the feds will take a big interest in AU activities. I'm worried about how dangerous our lives are about to become.”

“Relax,” Janice assured her. “We've got it covered. We have contingency plans behind our contingency plans. We'll be ready for whatever they throw at us.”

Lizzie nodded soberly.

“It's just that I have this feeling that we have a great, big target painted on our backs now.”

“I thought you were the one who said we needed to take a stand on this?” Justin said.

“I did, and I still say so, but that doesn't mean I want to be hauled up before a judge on some bogus charge concocted by some hotshot prosecutor trying to make a name for himself.”

Janice smiled at this but added nothing to her earlier comment. What more could she add?

As the evening progressed, the other major news networks picked up the WNN announcement and began speculating what they would see on this mysterious video. AJ reported that online forums and chat rooms buzzed with excitement in anticipation of the WNN broadcast the following evening, while bloggers predicted everything from another major bank failure to war with China in their wild, speculative feast. Significantly, though, no one seemed to have any accurate idea of what the mysterious WNN broadcast would actually comprise.

A poll of likely voters showed that the opposition party's presidential candidate's lead had expanded in the race with only days left before the election. Commentators speculated that if the ruling party's candidate didn't make significant headway soon, election night could turn into a very long and uncomfortable affair for the ruling party. Nearly all commentators from both sides of the aisle agreed that the public's shift in support to the opposition party derived directly from the financial crisis.

Meanwhile, above ground, Nevio Roone took a phone call from David Knight in which he briefed the CEO about their progress at Yankee Stadium. The report pleased the top man, who ordered Roone to get on the phone with the NYPD and the FBI to coordinate a raid into the presumed underground facility. Phone lines between top NYPD and FBI officials buzzed with activity in preparation.

The AU had sympathizers and spies within the NYPD who reported that something was up, but they remained unable to discover any of the details of the upcoming operations and activities. So far as the AU knew, its Yankee Stadium secret remained just that–a secret. Nevertheless, the elevated levels of “chatter” caused AU leaders to raise the overall underground alert level to Orange.