Donny shrugged. For a lawyer, it was the kind of insult that is also the highest compliment. “If you’re not going to have me killed, can you just explain what this is?”

“This,” said Joyce, “is the infinite source of the Tributary. Sources, really, and maybe not truly infinite, but enough to keep us busy for years. The records of American business.”

“Like accounting records?”

“That’s one element, maybe the most important one. But also contracts. Lots and lots of contracts. Abstracts of title. Secured transactions. Payroll. HR records. Golden parachutes to unpack. And all the sins covered up in confidential settlements—a whole secret history of America ready to be reassembled and revealed.”

Donny looked at the piles with new eyes. He looked at the stacks around the desk closest to them, close enough that he could read what they were. Royalty reports on an oil well. A bank loan for the purchase of exploration equipment. A confidentiality agreement between a software company and an investment bank. A severance agreement with a terminated CEO.

“Where do you get all this?”

“Some of it was left here. But by your definition, we steal most of it,” said Percy. “By our definition, it’s document production.”

“That’s what the office raids are about.”

“Mainly. They are also fun. But the people who did the things documented here are the real thieves. Thieves who keep detailed records of their crimes. Records that go back decades, sometimes centuries, sometimes even farther than that.”

“Do you really think they’re going to let you all get away with this? Everything is already so broken. What good does this do?”

“What good does it do to make the living inheritors of a beautiful continent pay for some of the atrocities by which they have profited? Put a stop to their hedonistic orgy in penthouses while people suffer and animals die outside their gated communities? It’s justice, Donny. Real justice. Not your bogus mano a mano adversarial justice, which does no more than codify and perpetuate the old system, all testosterone-fueled taking, I win, you lose. We are setting up a real reckoning this time. A restoration of true equilibrium. True equality.”

“Economic justice through environmental justice.”

“Right. It’s not just about liberating labor, or abolishing private property. It’s about creating a system that gives voice to the voiceless. And it’s not just class or race or gender that makes you voiceless. Some don’t have a voice at all.”

“Not in a language humans can understand.”

“You understand. Even if you choose to stick to the world you know. That one that gives you your privilege.”

Donny looked at the army of researchers compiling their reports.

“You should come back and join us,” said Joyce. Her hand was on his arm. “You helped find this path.”

“I thought you said I should be shot on sight.”

“I did, actually. But now I can see you half get it.”