Chapter 19 - The Digital Trap
We didn't call the police immediately. We knew how slow bureaucratic wheels turned when dealing with international white-collar fugitives. Instead, Ethan deployed Vance Technologies’ elite cyber-intelligence division.
Within forty-eight hours, Ethan’s lead security engineers traced an encrypted IP address pinging from a luxury marina in the Cayman Islands—an address communicating directly with an encrypted offshore bank account registered under a dummy corporation managed by Marcus Sterling.
'He’s still funding Brooke’s remaining legal appeals through third-party intermediaries,' Ethan told me as we reviewed the digital tracking dashboard on his office monitor. 'He thinks he’s invisible because he laundered the money through cryptocurrency wallets.'
'Can we freeze them?' I asked.
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'Not just freeze them,' Ethan smiled, a cold, confident expression that reminded me why he had built a tech empire from scratch. 'We can track every single penny, seize the offshore accounts under international anti-money laundering treaties, and hand Interpol the exact physical coordinates of his yacht.'
We coordinated directly with federal marshals and international financial regulators. Within a week, the digital trap snapped shut. Marcus Sterling was arrested on a multimillion-dollar yacht off the coast of Grand Cayman, his assets seized, his encrypted servers confiscated, and his extradition papers signed before he even had time to hire local counsel.
