The files arrived on Monday morning.
Donovan had sent them through the formal channel — encrypted, documented, the specific official protocol of a federal consulting engagement. Helen had reviewed and approved the delivery parameters. Aria had the appropriate clearances, which had been processed with the specific efficiency of a department that wanted this collaboration to begin and had moved accordingly.
She opened the files at her desk at seven in the morning with her coffee and the specific focused attention she brought to new client material — or in this case, new case material, which was different from client work in its structure but similar in its fundamental requirement: understand the financial architecture before you can understand anything else.
The Merritt files were extensi
