← THE MELLON WING THE INHERITANCE REVIEW BOARD • SESSION 4 • THE DISCRETIONARY LINE
$250,000,000MONEY REMAINING
$0TOTAL SPENT
0RECORDS PRESERVED
0WITNESSES PROTECTED
0%AWARENESS RAISED
LINE CONSUMED0.00%
COLUMN A • LOGISTICS$0
COLUMN B • VISIBILITY$0

KEYS — H HISTORICAL ALLOCATION • X CLEAR THE BOARD • ENTER SUBMIT • TAB TO A SLIDER, THEN ← → TO ALLOCATE • MAX ON ANY ROW FUNDS ALL 2,500 WITNESSES AT ONCE

The Historical Allocation

The board keeps a model of how this subject has been funded. Not by any one person — by everybody, together, for twenty years. Here it is beside the cheapest complete fix available on your board this afternoon.

COLUMN B HEAVY • THE MODEL
How It Has Been Spent
—
RECORDS PRESERVED
COLUMN A FULL • AVAILABLE TODAY
What It Would Cost To Fix
—
RECORDS PRESERVED

 

Illustrative model. The board is describing a pattern of spending, not a person. Nobody is accused of anything anywhere in this cabinet.

The Board Has Opened
A Discretionary Line

$250,000,000. It is not real money and it is not anyone’s money. The board constructed it out of a spreadsheet for one reason: to remove the only excuse this subject has ever had.

Because sitting in the chair opposite you is the best-resourced advocate this question has ever had. The name on the museums and the universities. Decades at the top of Defense intelligence. The clearance, the committee staff who return calls, the Rolodex, the standing to be taken seriously in a building where almost nobody is. On paper, the one person who could have fixed the logistics.

And the evidentiary standard of this entire field is still a man in a garage with an unlabeled chest freezer.

Instructions From The Board

  • FOURTEEN LINE ITEMS. Eight in Column A. Six in Column B. Allocate as much or as little as you like.
  • COLUMN A — LOGISTICS. Coolers, tripods, bags, filing fees, storage, a lawyer’s phone number. Cheap. Preserves records.
  • COLUMN B — VISIBILITY. Galas, documentaries, keynotes, rebrands, retainers, a coin. Expensive. Raises awareness.
  • THE SCORE IS RECORDS PRESERVED. Not dollars moved. Not awareness. Records.
  • WATCH THE MONEY REMAINING. The board considers that number the entire point of this exercise.
  • THIS IS NOT AN ACCUSATION. Nobody in this room is charged with anything. The only allegation on the docket is UNSPENT CAPABILITY.

Registry on file: 2,500 witnesses. Every one of them currently owns a phone and nothing else.