Because Mei-ling said, “Do it.”
I quickly stepped out from behind her, my gun aimed at the man’s head.
“Get away from the computer,” I ordered.
I knew he understood me. Mei-ling had said he was fluent in English.
Gongsun’s eyes stared at the gun in shock –
And then, stupidly, he glanced back at the screen and reached for the mouse.
Rather than shoot him and announce our presence, I settled for pistol-whipping him.
One blow across the face sent him reeling to the ground.
“Try anything,” I snarled as I pointed the gun at him, “and I’ll kill you.”
He cowered on the floor with his hands over his head.
“Keep the door closed,” I said to Mei-ling as I sat in Gongsun’s office chair.
I peered at the monitor and clicked through open browser tabs until I found what I was looking for.
I immediately recognized the layout for Kryptexa, one of the largest international crypto trading platforms. I had an account myself.
Gongsun had kept his Kryptexa account page in English, thank God.
I checked the screen for the amount of crypto in the account –
And froze in shock.
Total assets were listed as 4167 Bitcoin.
Over 250 million dollars US.
Either Gongsun was a moron to keep that much crypto in one place…
Or this was merely what flowed in and out daily.
If that was the case, the Syndicate was a multi-billion-dollar operation –
And a much bigger organized crime front than I had realized.
Whatever the case, my bad luck had turned around in an instant.
I quickly navigated to the Transfer screen and entered the 36-digit address for one of my own crypto accounts.
Then, in the ‘Total Amount To Transfer’ box, I entered 4165 Bitcoins, which left two Bitcoins for transfer fees.
The screen prompted me for a two-factor authentication code, which make it harder for hackers to steal your money. The codes were generated by special apps on a cell phone and refreshed every 60 seconds.
Luckily for me, Gongsun had left his cell phone on his desk.
I looked for the app used by Kryptexa –
Ah, there it is.
Seconds later, I typed the authentication code into Kryptexa and the transfer was cleared to go.