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Lark laughed again. “I’ve got some feelers out on Ely, but I think Jada is further along than I am. We should have something solid in forty-eight to seventy-two hours.”

“But I have something,” Gideon chimed in from where he was sitting at the dining room table beside Jada. They were both behind their laptops.

“Spill it.”

It was clear Kostya was losing patience. Mateo knew he didn’t like the idea of someone besides himself having to do protection duty on Lark when she went to Oregon.

“Franklin Talbot’s hedge fund wired out a substantial sum the same week we were in Turkey trying to rescue his son.”

“So?” Mateo tilted his head as he looked at Gideon. “Their hedge fund is one of the biggest in the country. They must take in and send out money thousands of times a week. How could you pinpoint something that would be related to the Kraken?”

“Well, my smart friend who told me to follow the money.” Gideon flashed his blindingly white smile. “One thing the hedge fund does not do is handle cryptocurrency, but⁠—”

“But every bad actor in the world is using cryptocurrency to handle their transactions,” Mateo finished for him.

Gideon and Jada both nodded.

“Where did they send the money?”

“To a smallish bank that has its headquarters in Annapolis. It’s called Lionel Security and Trust Bank. The money sat in an account there for over a month, before it was converted to cryptocurrency and half of it was transferred to the Cayman Islands and then smaller amounts to banks here in the States and overseas. Jada and I are still working on who those accounts belonged to.”

“There are a shit-ton of government regulatory and compliance issues when dealing with large cryptocurrency transfers. How much did the hedge fund deposit?” Lark asked.

“One hundred million dollars. The hedge fund paid in cash. It was the bank that converted it, so they were the ones who did the currency exchange. It’s not unheard of, as long as they follow the rules,” Jada responded.

Landon whistled. “I can’t imagine that much money. Imagine paying any company that kind of money.”

“It was for his son’s life,” Jada pointed out.

Landon shrugged. “I guess if you’re a billionaire…”

“Who handled that transaction?” Mateo wanted to know.

“They’re no longer with the bank, and no longer living in the US. They took their payoff and ran, is my guess.” Jada grimaced. “But another big deposit was made to the same account two weeks ago, and it was converted to cryptocurrency and deposited to a different account in the Cayman Islands. It was handled by MacLaine Taylor Simpson. Jada and I are looking to find more information on him. He’s our target. What we do know is that he started within two weeks of the other guy leaving.”

Before anyone could say anything, Mateo spoke up. “I’m on it.”

“You don’t even know what that means,” Kostya looked over at him.

“It means while Gideon and Jada backtrack the money, I get close to MacLaine and find out what he can tell us about the depositor and what he can tell us about the account he transferred money into. Better yet, he can also tell us about the transfer that was made a couple of months ago.”

“Just how do you intend to get close?” Lark arched an eyebrow at him.

Mateo laughed. “I’ll wing it.”

“Not good enough,” Lark said, shaking her head.

“Yes, it is, Solncè. Let it go,” Kostya murmured.

Mateo had heard Kostya call Lark that Russian word a few times, so he’d looked it up. It meant Little Sun. It fit. Kostya turned to him.

“Mateo, are you sure your head is⁠—”

“Lieutenant, I wouldn’t volunteer if I wasn’t one-hundred percent good to go.”

Kostya nodded. “All right then. Is your truck one-hundred percent good to make it up to Maryland?”

Mateo glowered at his team as they all laughed at Kostya’s question.