That the small people they step on will stay silent, and lose the paperwork, and give up.

The whole towering structure of a man like Senator Vance depends on the belief that no quiet public defender will spend eight years documenting him, and no discarded wife will spend a decade copying his ledgers.

He had built an empire on other people’s silence.

He had simply never met these particular quiet people.

Chapter 14 — Lantern

Among the records was a small flash drive, hidden in a false bottom of the box, and on it was a video file, and the file was labeled LANTERN.