Chapter 16 - The Meeting At The Bank Of England
By 10:00 a.m. the following morning, we stood inside the heavily fortified subterranean vaults of the Bank of England in the financial heart of London.
A senior bank director, trembling slightly under my father’s imposing gaze, unlocked the massive steel door of Vault 7.
The heavy door swung open to reveal rows of antique velvet-lined deposit boxes and a single glass display case in the center.
Inside the glass case sat the original 1920 corporate charter, bearing the signatures of my great-grandfather and the British lords.
I stepped forward, putting on white archival gloves to inspect the parchment pages under the bright halogen examination lamps.
“Is it authentic?” my father asked, standing guard by the vault entrance with his hands clasped behind his back.
“It’s authentic,” I confirmed, running my finger along the embossed wax seal of the British investment council.
“But it’s missing the final codicil—the addendum signed in 1925 that transferred all overseas voting rights back to the American branch.”
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The bank director gasped, his face turning pale as he checked the secondary filing ledger on the wall rack.
“That codicil… it was removed from our registry database ten years ago by an authorized proxy,” the director stammered nervously.
