Liana faced the ultimate professional dilemma: she had a potentially career-defining artifact but could not risk showing it to anyone, fearing her colleagues—especially Tassos—might steal the claim. She needed to verify the map's geological claims without revealing the source.
Her only safe confidant was Dr. Alistair Finch, her retired Ph.D. mentor, who still ran a small, underfunded geophysics lab. Liana told Percy they were going on a "special field trip." She used $300 of the newly liquid CBC cash to pay the lab's equipment usage fee, ensuring a clean, legitimate transaction for Percy's trust fund.
Percy understood that Finch was the perfect, isolated verification tool. As Liana gathered her structural data notes, Percy handed her a folded, crisp $5 bill. "Buy Dr. Finch a real Toronto breakfast, Mama. He always likes the cheese bread from that bakery." The real purpose was to ensure Liana was distracted and away from the equipment momentarily.
Liana and Percy took the subway to the old Geophysics building. Finch, a kindly but absent-minded man, was happy to see her. She presented him only with a detailed structural analysis derived from the forged map: the complex isoclinal folding and the precise coordinates of the supposed anomaly, framing it as a "theoretical exercise based on early 1980s data."
While Finch was busy loading Liana's coordinates into an early-model magnetic field simulator, Liana used the $5 to walk down the hall to fetch the famed cheese bread. This was Percy's opening.
Percy, with the agility of a three-year-old on a mission, slipped a small, unlabeled plastic baggie into Finch's highly secure, industrial rock grinder. The baggie contained a tiny, unremarkable chip of quartz—geologically irrelevant now—but its subsequent presence, embedded in the grinder's residue, would later serve as a traceable anomaly linking Liana to the lab on this specific day. The Academic Leak was set.
Liana and Percy waited patiently while Finch ran the simulation. The result flashed on the screen: "Structural Signature: Confirmed Anomaly. Unusually High Tensional Stress Pattern." Finch was stunned, confirming that Liana's theoretical structure was geologically sound. Liana was intellectually committed; the map was a genuine discovery, not a hoax.
They took the subway back to the apartment. Percy, satisfied with the academic validation, needed to move Liana to the next, crucial step: legal insulation.
"Mama," Percy said quietly, pointing out the window at a massive Bay Street skyscraper, "We need to talk to the lady who owns the big desk. The one who signs the paper, not Mr. Harding. The one who wears the serious shoes."
Liana, her mind reeling from the structural confirmation, knew exactly who he meant: Helen "The Hammer" Raskin, the most powerful corporate lawyer in Harding's firm, specializing in financial defense. She immediately rationalized the need: "Yes, Percy. If this map is real, we need the best defense possible. We need a shield against Dr. Tassos." The decision to engage the corporate shield was made.