Page 99 of Blood Mosaic

“It’s made-up money from computer programs,” Seban said. “You know how countries switched from gold coins to paper money?”

“Yes. A foolish decision.”

“Yeah.” Seban nodded. “This is kind of like that but with computers. Numbers on a screen, boss.”

Tatyana raised a hand.

Oleg frowned. “We’re not in school.”

“It’s slightly more complex than that, but one thing blockchain has in common with precious metals is that it is not connected to an issuing bank or tracked by the government, which makes it very convenient for hiding money you’ve stolen.”

“Hmm.” Oleg nodded. That he could understand. “Electronic transfers of currency are still backed by human governments that have to account for them. So those currencies, even if they are only electronic, can be tracked.”

“Exactly. And cryptocurrency is more like electronic gold that is mined—I’m not going to try to explain the blockchain—but it can be sent through exchanges that aren’t backed by any government.”

Oleg nodded. “I approve of this.”

“Of course you do,” Tatyana muttered.

“Like gold exchanges, boss.” Seban flipped through a newspaper.

“Gold exchanges?” Tatyana looked between them. “Like public exchange markets?”

“The opposite of public,” Oleg said. “Most immortals over a century keep their wealth in precious metals and jewels. Tangible items that don’t lose value.”

She nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Because of that, we have gold exchanges that are exclusively for vampires. You can store gold with them or simply move it through their system.”

“Oh right.” Tatyana nodded. “So instead of having to show up with physical gold?—”

“Oh no,” Seban said. “You show up with physical gold. But instead of, say, having to move that gold on a ship across the Atlantic and risking it getting stolen or the ship sinking, you can show up at the gold exchange in Lagos with ten kilos of gold bars and they send a message to give someone at the gold exchange in New York the same amount.”

Oleg added, “Minus a service fee.”

“There’s always a service fee,” Tatyana said. “But that’s interesting. From what I have found, I don’t think Zara bought any gold with the money she took from you. I do think she bought something physical though.”

“Which is?”

“Real estate.”

Oleg nodded. “I taught her well.”

“It’s nearly impossible to track cryptocurrency exchanges, but most lawyers don’t want to be paid in crypto. If I can find out who she was paying with traceable money, I should be able to find out who she was using to buy her property.”

“Good. Then we can… persuade those lawyers to tell us where Zara spent her money.” Oleg flipped the file closed and shoved the folder through the cage. “So I don’t need to read any of this.”

Tatyana took it. “Not if you don’t want to. I’ll give this to Elene when we get back.”

“Excellent.”

She had a good mind. An excellent mind.

Maybe his little accountant would be able to figure out how to make Zara’s trap better. “You know that you are the bait Mika is dangling to lure Zara back to me, correct?”

Tatyana narrowed her eyes. “Yes.”

“How would you like that trap to snap shut faster?”

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