Leo took a deep breath and went into performance mode.
"Betrayal?"
Leo shook his head, walked over to Byers, and clapped him on the shoulder.
"No, gentlemen, you've misunderstood."
"That wasn't a betrayal."
Leo turned to face everyone.
"It was a joint stress test."
"A stress test?" Byers was stunned.
"That's right."
Leo began his performance.
"You all know what the situation was back then. Our note system was developing too fast—faster than anyone expected."
"In just a few short months, we built an independent, closed-loop financial system covering seven cities, with hundreds of millions of US Dollars in circulation."
"This raised alarms in Washington."
"My sources told me the Federal Reserve was watching us, the Treasury Department was watching us, and the titans on Wall Street were watching us."
"They suspected we were creating an independent currency. They were looking for an excuse to kill this system."
Leo lowered his voice.
