Page 86 of Mastermind

Theo is typing away on his phone and using the calculator app. “Maybe. What else, Agent Umbra?”

“Well, for one, that company acquired a few small labs around the world. It’s odd . . . the acquisitions didn’t make financial sense until I realized what they were really buying was labs that had approval from their respective countries to do advanced trials—and, in two cases, work with infectious diseases.”

I feel my stomach churn. “Heywood talked someone into buying him an illicit bioweapons program? Who’d be that stupid or evil?”

“He probably lied,” says Mandy. “He may have told them they were working on one thing while doing something else.”

“I don’t think Heywood had to talk anyone into anything,” says Theo.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“In August 2018, Mount Gimli, a Bitcoin exchange, lost eight hundred thousand coins to a hack. The total value was almost half a billion dollars. What was odd was that when it happened, the coins were liquidated very quickly and none of the other exchanges showed an increase. Usually you can see stolen coins move from one market to another in the form of valuation.”

“What are you saying, that Heywood stole it?” I ask.

“I’ve looked at his timeline.” Theo gestures at the paper in front of me. “All his major acquisitions are preceded by a theft in the Bitcoin market. In some cases, they’re big ones. In other situations, it’s something like a bad wallet app that Android users installed that took twenty percent of their money.”

Something that should have been painfully obvious to me comes into focus. “Heywood’s a legendary hacker, so I guess it makes sense he’d go after Bitcoin exchanges and wallets.”

“It gets better or worse, depending on how objectively you look at it,” says Theo. “There have been rumors that some of the initial coins mined were actually done on government computer systems, either with the knowledge of the agencies or behind their backs by people who had access to the systems. Some even suspect that Bitcoin could have been a CIA or NSA invention. I don’t know if I buy that, but it wouldn’t surprise me if people who worked for either agency had been involved. In any event, Heywood may have seen an opportunity. It would also explain the resources he’s been marshaling for his attacks.”

“Heywood is a Bitcoin millionaire?” I say out loud, trying to wrap my head around the concept.

“No,” Theo interjects. “If this theory is true, Michael Heywood is a Bitcoin billionaire.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

ICO

In a secure conference room inside FBI headquarters, Gerald stares at his laptop screen, tabbing through the different parts of the spreadsheet we prepared and shaking his head. He looks up from his computer and across the table at Theo and me. “Is this legit?”

“It’s credible,” I reply.

“A good portion of the wealth he amassed happened while he was in federal custody,” says Gerald.

“And increased when we think he had especially lax oversight. Also, another thing. We wondered how he was able to retain such a high-priced law firm—Keller and Olson? They have a subsidiary that does cryptocurrency investing. Heywood’s made them very rich,” I say.

“That would explain an odd request we had a while ago,” says Gerald. “Nauru, a tiny island country near Australia with huge corruption issues, wanted to have Heywood extradited there to go on trial, prior to completing his sentencing here. Now it makes sense. Heywood probably tried to bribe them so they could bring him under their jurisdiction and give him a new identity.”

“It gets worse,” says Theo.

“How worse?” asks Gerald.

“Heywood may have been behind a number of other cryptocurrencies. We might have no real idea of his true net worth.”

This makes Gerald more agitated than I’ve seen him in a long time. “We’ve sent more than a few billionaires to prison. Almost none of them stayed billionaires. I can’t think of a single one that got richer while he was in custody.”

“We need to figure out a way to go after him,” I say. “He has to be at the center of the Void. He’s got the money and the opportunity to pull it off. I think it’s clear that when he wasn’t leading the CIA around by the collar, Weir was granting him complete, unmonitored internet access.”

“But why?” asks Gerald.

“Why? Because he paid Weir off.”

“Yes, but what did Weir think Heywood was up to? Why was he okay with letting a suspected serial killer and convicted hacker have access to a computer? Weir may be compromised, but he’s not stupid or evil. And that brings us back to the Void. If that’s Heywood’s doing, what’s the point of it?”

“If it’s not data theft? Chaos? Fear? Death? We have all three. Plus, it’s a distraction for whatever he’s been cooking up in those secret labs,” I reply.

“And what do you think he’s doing?”