Daniel sat and rolled his chair to the third monitor. He logged into his encrypted email—the one he wasn’t allowed to check on his cell phone, even though that was encrypted too. Some things were too sensitive to take chances with.

When it came to the US government’s handling of nefarious activity, people typically thought of the FBI and CIA. Few knew the US Treasury Department was the only government agency with its own in-house intelligence division. The extremely capable men and women out of Quantico and Langley were damn good at what they did, but when it came to financial crimes—especially those related to terrorist activity—there was no farming it out.

Daniel had just completed his second full year with the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network—FinCEN to those who worked there. With a vote of confidence he’d damn well earned from his superior, Lowell Dwyer, he’d been assigned to work on a joint task force with DHS in Austin.

Agents within FinCEN’s Intelligence and Enforcement divisions had detected activity that led them to believe a hotel chain based out of San Antonio, with properties across the Caribbean and Central America, was using software developed by Trendsetters IT Solutions to launder money. After further digging and bringing in Homeland Security, the two agencies determined that Hughes Hospitality wouldn’t be able to execute that level of concealment on their own. There had to be someone inside Trendsetters helping them out. Daniel was tasked with uncovering the connection between his new tech employer and the hotel conglomerate.

He’d thought the hardest part would be getting hired on by the firm. Their turnover and attrition rates were practically nil due to the attractive salaries and outrageous perks Trendsetters offered their employees. Once he’d jumped over that hurdle, Daniel had assumed the complexity of the assignment would be on par with the others he’d completed since joining FinCEN.

It wasn’t.

The tech company had a security outfit unlike any he’d seen, and in this first week he hadn’t gotten close to infiltrating it. He’d barely figured out where the damn security team was located, let alone gained access to their system.

“But I will,” Daniel murmured as he read over the emails that had come to his inbox since he last checked it. He made several notes and shot off a half-dozen replies. There seemed to be more activity than usual for this late in the day, but then again, there was no such thing as a normal nine-to-five at FinCEN. When he left Trendsetters in the afternoon, he gave himself a couple of hours to exercise and have dinner. But by eight p.m. he was in front of this wall of computers, hard at work. He’d take a day off once this case was solved and the proper people were behind bars.