Chapter 3: The Digital Handcuffs
The silence that followed was broken by the sound of sirens in the distance. Evelyn looked at her phone, her fingers trembling as she tried to refresh the banking app. It was gone. The balance didn't show zero; it showed Access Denied: Federal Seizure Pending.
"The moment you entered the final authorization code," Arthur continued, "the system recorded your IP address, your keystrokes, and a biometric scan of your face from the kitchen camera. It was a mandatory compliance check for such a large transfer. You didn't just rob me, Evelyn. You uploaded your own confession to the FBI's cloud servers."
Evelyn looked at the kitchen door. Arthur’s security team stood there, impassive. The trap had been set months ago, the moment Arthur noticed the first discrepancy in the company ledgers. He had waited, patient as a spider, for her to make exactly this move.
