Bitcoin Billionaire: I Regressed to Invest in the First Bitcoin!-Chapter 259: The Lawyers are Here

The silence after Darren’s words wasn’t just thick; it was absolute, suffocating, like the air had been sucked out of Meeting Room C.

Lilian Greaves remained perfectly still, but the transformation was terrifying. Her storm-grey eyes widened with a shock so profound it bordered on horror.

The blood drained completely from her striking, angular face, leaving it a stark, ashen mask beneath the harsh fluorescent lights. The meticulously constructed wall of professional detachment has finally cracked, even for a little bit.

How dare he? How dare he mention her father. Her deepest, most private wound, the wound that defined her relentless pursuit. This rigid fucker just laid it bare in this sterile interrogation room.

The unspoken question screamed in her mind: ’How? How could he possibly know?’

Darren held her shattered gaze, his own expression unreadable, a predator watching its trap spring shut. He didn’t gloat. He didn’t press. He simply let the devastating knowledge hang in the air, letting it erode her composure grain by grain.

Then, with deliberate slowness, he reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone. When he read the message, a short smile curved in his lips, before disappearing quickly after.

"I believe I’ve successfully kept you occupied here for as long as necessary."

Lilian blinked, the raw shock momentarily receding behind a surge of confusion and dawning fury. "What?"

"My legal counsel," Darren continued smoothly, rising from his chair with unhurried grace, "has just arrived. They require a moment to... cross-check the procedural legitimacy of this rather impromptu federal visitation." He walked towards the door, not caring about the emotional earthquake he’d just triggered within her.

Lilian’s shock curdled into pure, icy annoyance. Arrogance? Calculated obstruction? It felt like both. She shook her head slightly, as if to wake herself up.

"Mr. Steele," she began, regaining some of her fierceness through sheer force of will, "this delay tactic is—"

He didn’t let her finish. He opened the door.

Standing in the hallway were Jonathan Vance and Daisy Chen. The undefeated law team of Steele Investments.

"Agent Greaves," Vance said, stepping in. "Jonathan Vance, lead counsel for Steele Investments and its subsidiaries. This is my colleague, Daisy Chen, specializing in regulatory compliance and federal oversight law."

After shaking hands, he took a seat and Daisy followed. "May we?"

Lilian watched, then waited.

Vance scanned through the warrant quickly, furrowing his brow each time he saw a questionable sentence.

Lilian spoke after a while. "What is this time wasting for? Your client is obstructing a lawful investigation under the Capital Asset Oversight Motion, Section B-2. This warrant grants immediate access."

"Lawful is a term requiring precise definition, Agent," Daisy Chen countered smoothly. "Section B-2, subsection 4, explicitly requires ’reasonable prior notification’ for non-emergency inspections of privately held financial infrastructure, barring exigent circumstances demonstrably linked to imminent systemic risk."

She tapped the copy of the warrant she held. "This was served less than ninety minutes ago. Where is the documentation proving exigency? A flagged transfer report, as referenced here," she gestured towards the flowchart still on the table, "requires verification before warrant issuance under standard DOJ protocols, especially when targeting a facility not yet operational."

She looked directly at Lilian. "This lacks the requisite predicate. It appears procedurally premature, and yet somehow malevolently intentional."

Vance agreed, of course. "Furthermore, Agent, the warrant specifies access to ’core operational logs’ and ’encryption key histories.’ However, the statutory language in B-2 refers to transactional records and asset verification logs relevant to the specific flagged activity.

"It does not grant carte blanche access to proprietary network architecture, security protocols, or the master keys securing millions in digital assets. Such access poses an existential security risk and falls far outside the scope of your stated investigative concern – anomalous transfers potentially linked to an inactive site." He held up the warrant. "This is overbroad. Dangerously so. We will be filing an immediate motion to quash."

Lilian bristled. All this legal pushback was starting to piss her off. If there was something she hated, it was freaking lawyers!

"The ’R. Talmor’ entity is directly linked to this address! The transfers originated during Navarro’s testing window! The scope is directly relevant to establishing the method of potential circumvention! If Mr. Steele and his operations have nothing to hide, facilitating full transparency should be a priority, not met with obstructionist legal maneuvers!"

Vance wanted to laugh. "Oh don’t give me that. We all know here that transparency, Agent Greaves, operates within the bounds of law and reason. We are not obstructing; we are ensuring due process is followed to protect our client from governmental overreach that could cripple a legitimate enterprise. ’Nothing to hide’ is not a legal standard compelling surrender of trade secrets and critical infrastructure access."

Daisy looked at Darren who nodded. There was a small silence before she spoke again.

"However, Agent Greaves, in the spirit of cooperation once procedural legitimacy is confirmed, and to expedite the resolution of what we are willing to believe is a significant misunderstanding..." She extracted a thick sheaf of documents. "...we are prepared to grant conditional access under strict protocols."

Lilian eyed the documents warily. "Conditional?"

"Precisely," Daisy said, laying them on the table. "First, a formal acknowledgement signed by you and your supervising ASAC, affirming that this inspection, initiated without proper prior notice, is proceeding at the Department’s discretion and assumes full liability for any operational disruption, data breach, or security compromise arising directly from your access."

She slid the first document towards Lilian. "Second, a non-disclosure agreement specifically covering any proprietary technology, security methodologies, or non-relevant financial strategies observed during your inspection.

"Third, a strict access protocol agreement: our IT personnel (Kara DeAndre) will facilitate all log retrievals; you will observe but not operate any terminal directly; access to cold storage encryption keys is categorically denied – asset verification will be performed through hashed, read-only summaries generated by our systems."

Vance added, "And we require immediate written confirmation from the Department’s General Counsel acknowledging receipt of our motion to quash and agreeing to state any enforcement action based on evidence gathered until the motion is heard. Sign these, Agent, and you may proceed under our supervision, within our defined parameters. Refuse, and we adjourn until the courts decide the warrant’s validity. That process could take weeks."

Lilian stared at the documents, then at Vance and Chen, then at Darren, who watched impassively from near the door.

’Fucking lawyers...’

They were forcing her to legitimize a potentially flawed warrant on their terms, accepting liability, and locking her out of the most sensitive areas anyway. Refusing meant delay, potentially letting trails go cold. Accepting meant playing entirely by their rules.

Her jaw tightened. The investigation couldn’t stall. She needed to see something. Anything. Who knows, maybe they’ll slip!

"Pen," she said with a clipped voice of annoyance.

Daisy produced one instantly. Lilian scanned the dense legalese, her mind racing but her training overriding the turmoil Darren had caused. One by one, she signed the documents. After, Vance countersigned as witness.

"Copies," Daisy said smoothly, producing them.

Lilian took hers, folding them precisely and tucking them inside her blazer. "Satisfied?"

"For now," Vance replied mildly. "Kara will escort. Agent Greaves."

Darren stepped aside as Lilian walked towards the door he held open. Her gaze, cold and furious, met his for a fleeting second. She said nothing, sweeping past him into the hallway.

Darren followed her out, closing the Meeting Room door behind him. Kara and Amelia were waiting a few paces down the corridor, near the elevator that will lead to the Operations Room.

Kara looked tense; Amelia, watchful.

Darren approached them and asked with a low voice. "What’s the status?"

"We’ve hidden everything. The R. Talmor pathway is rerouted through dummy logs showing standard test patterns. Cold storage access points are showing the sanitized hashes only. She won’t see anything real."

"Good," Darren said, a single syllable of finality.

Lilian turned then, facing them. She met Darren’s eyes first, remembering what he had said to her.

She slowly approached him with an icy glare. "Everything is cleared now, Mr. Steele," she said. "Your company... is an open book for me to read."

Darren held her gaze, utterly unbothered. Then he gestured towards the elevator. "Right this way then, Agent Greaves."