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How she gotout of the basement unnoticed, Ellie didn’t know, and she didn’t want to question it.
The last hour had been pure hell, her heart pumping in her chest with such force, she swore it would burst, killing her on the spot.
At one point she’d caught a glimpse of a man who seemed more interested in each and every one of the boxes. He carried a tablet in his hand, his eyes lost to what he was examining. In a slow dance between him doing his work and Ellie trying her damn best not to be seen, she tried to gather whatever bits of information she could about the place. It was only when he’d completed his work, whatever it was, and shut off the lights that Ellie risked climbing up the stairs and getting back to Sam.
When she finally entered their room, night had fallen, and none of the lights had been switched on. It was unusual for Sam not to have returned by this time.
Shaky, Ellie switched on the light and tried to gather her wits so she could coherently explain the situation. Washing up quickly and changing clothes, Ellie was just exiting the bathroom when Sam stepped inside.
Even though she wanted to tell him what she’d discovered, the look on his face, withdrawn, dark and edged with pain, stopped her. Since they’d been forced into captivity, this was the first time she’d seen him looking that way. “What’s going on? What happened?”
She’d never seen Sam with that expression on his face. When she almost leaped at him, his slight movement back told her to keep away.
Sam only shook his head. “I need a shower.”
It was how his silver eyes avoided glancing her way that squeezed her heart with fear. “Wait!” He stopped but didn’t turn to her, and Ellie knew deep down that if she pressed him, he’d only shut down more. So instead, she decided to reach him another way. “I went into the basement.”
As she hoped, he tuned into the word basement. “What?”
“I had an opportunity and I took it.” With as many details as she could, Ellie described everything she’d seen and done. As she spoke, Sam’s guarded expression opened a little. The more she explained, the more she saw interest.
“Cryptocurrency. I should’ve thought about that. No wonder Oz couldn’t work out why, after we’d cut him off financially, Finch could still survive.”
“What’s cryptocurrency? I’ve never heard of it.”
“It’s a digital currency that can be used like normal money to buy goods and services.”
Ellie wasn’t certain she understood. “Okay, but it’s still money. What does it have to do with what I found downstairs?”
“You stumbled on blockchains. They’re used to mine cryptocurrency or bitcoins if you like.”
Now she was completely lost, and it must have shown because Sam started explaining again. “Imagine a computer solving very complex math problems in the bitcoin network, it’s similar to mining gold. Sometimes you’re lucky, sometimes you’re not. Another way to earn bitcoins is to play a sort of verification role. With every transaction done during a day within the network, the system has to make sure there aren’t any anomalies or duplicates. So miners clump transactions into blocks and add them together in a public record called a blockchain. For each block, the miner gets a reward. Not a lot but the more you mine, the more rewards you get.”
Ellie knew Sam had simplified the concept as much as possible, but she still struggled a bit. However, something seemed obvious. “To make money, you need a lot of computers.”
“Yes, and from what you’ve described, there’s a massive installation beneath our feet. I don’t know how much it makes, but it’s obviously enough to keep him afloat and hire all the staff.”
“You said after Finch was accused, his accounts were shut down. But not the cryptocurrency one?”
Sam raked his hair with a frustrated sigh. “It’s easy to stay under the radar in that universe so it’s no wonder the cops couldn’t find him. Not yet at least. But that will change.”
On that cryptic sentence, Sam shed his suit, and pulled out a workout outfit. Sam had closed off again, shutting her out.
“What are you doing?”
“As you said, it’s our only chance. I’ll go to the gym and when I come back, I’ll retrieve the fob and have a look in the basement. It will be after the guards change shifts. I’ll be able to access a computer with an internet connection to contact Lazarus. In the meantime, stay here and stay dressed, just in case we have to move quickly.”
Just as he went past her, Ellie grabbed his arm. “Sam, what’s happened?”
She never thought being shrugged off would hurt that much.
“There is no time to discuss it now if I don’t want to raise anyone’s suspicions.”
But she wouldn’t let him go that easily. “Sam! If there’s something wrong, tell me now. You owe me that much.”
Tense, and towering, dressed all in black, it was as if she was seeing him for the first time.
“Finch showed me your psych report.”
