Chapter Five: Code Puts a Trillion-Dollar Giant on Trial

The Alliance proved that the gray squad's communication signature could have been forged. Lin did not object. He published a minimal reproduction and invited the audience to try. Seventeen seconds later, Xiezhi agreed: forgery was possible. The Alliance table laughed. “Then strike that evidence,” Lin said. The laughter stopped. Two intermediary routes made the money trail uncertain, so he struck that too. He let them attack the third exhibit and the fourth. Xiezhi's projected threads became fewer and brighter. Public audit did not make a model truth. It gave everyone the means to prove it wrong. After three hours, one chain remained. Seven minutes before the assault, the drone firmware had requested a one-time key from an Alliance server.