“No.” He performed the biometric scan once more, then appeared even more puzzled. “I don’t understand.”

Tanner grabbed Volkov’s wrist and angled the phone screen toward him and Lara. “Balance zero? What are you trying to pull?”

“Nothing.” Volkov raised his hands. “Wait! I have other options.” He pulled up another page on his phone. He signed in, but again a bewildered look crossed his face. “What the hell…”

Volkov waved frantically at a slender man dressed in a stylish gray suit.

Lara leaned toward Tanner. “That’s his finance director, Vincent Kael. I didn’t realize he’d have him here.”

“I did. That’s why I set up the Grand Cayman bank transfer over the phone,” he whispered back. “I needed him to have a money man on duty for authentication.”

They watched as the two men worked on the phone together, trying several more sites.

Volkov dazedly shook his head. “I can’t believe it. Every account, gone. Move everything,” he rasped to Kael. “Now. Before I’m totally wiped out.”

“But sir, I—”

“Now!”

“Yes, sir.” Kael pulled out his own phone and began frantically working.

“Hurry! I told you, do it before I’m totally wiped out.”

Tanner smiled. “My, it’s an old-fashioned bank rush,” he murmured to Lara.

Volkov suddenly looked balefully up at him. “You did this.”

“How? I’ve been sitting here with you. Though if you need some cybersecurity experts, I have some of the best in the world on my payroll.”

Volkov was still glaring at him. “I’ll bet you do.”

Tanner stood and waved his hand over his chips. “Mail me a check once you get things worked out, will you?”

“Tanner!” Volkov screamed with rage.

Tanner pulled Lara to her feet and moved her toward the exit.

She leaned close. “Did you just wipe him out?”

“Not yet. It takes a little time.”

“What just happened?”

“It’s called an Adler move.”

“Is that a poker strategy? I’m not familiar with it.”

“It’s not a poker strategy. In one of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Holmes tricks a character named Irene Adler into revealing the location of a letter by making her believe her home is on fire. She goes right for it. I just updated it a bit.”

“Updated how?”

“I made Volkov believe his financial house was on fire. He doesn’t know it, but he was just connecting to dummy web pages he thinks are his financial institutions. I created those pages myself. His accounts all appear to have been zeroed out. He’s now frantically going to every account he owns in order to move his fortune to safety. He doesn’t realize that my associates are watching every virtual move he and his financial manager are making, every account number, every biometric reading, every password. He’ll be cleaned out within minutes.”

“The Adler move…” Lara said. “I didn’t realize you were such a man of letters.”