Just Two Days After Their Wedding, Daniel Stood In The Kitchen And Ordered Emily To Serve His Perfectly Capable Sister.

The sting operation required the flawless coordination of a symphony. Nathan immediately reached out to his contact at the FBI cyber-crimes division, Special Agent Vance, explaining the situation and securing emergency protective custody for Mark’s younger brother. Once the brother was safely off the grid, Mark was ready to play his part.

Emily, Nathan, and Rachel stood in the secure basement room the following morning, watching as Mark sat at a specially configured, isolated computer terminal.

"Croft demanded that I send daily updates to a secure, encrypted email drop," Mark explained, his hands shaking slightly as he hovered over the keyboard. "He tracks the IP address to make sure I am sending it from inside the Clearview network."

"Perfect," Nathan said, checking his watch. "The FBI cyber team has a live wiretap on the routing nodes between this computer and Croft’s server. When he opens the email, they will be able to trace his digital footprint back to his physical location."

"What do I tell him?" Mark asked, looking at Emily for guidance.

"Tell him we panicked," Emily instructed, her voice cold and precise. "Tell him that because of the lawsuit, we are moving Chloe to a highly secure, off-the-books federal safe house in Virginia tonight at 8:00 PM. Give him the exact flight number of a private charter leaving from the municipal airport."

Mark typed the message quickly, hitting the send button with a heavy, final keystroke.

"Now we wait," Rachel said, staring at the screen.

They didn't have to wait long. Less than ten minutes later, Agent Vance called Nathan's cell phone.

"He took the bait, Nathan," Vance reported, his voice crackling over the speakerphone. "Croft just opened the email. But he isn't just reading it. He just deployed a highly illegal, military-grade tracking malware package, trying to infect the Virginia safe house network to spy on the location."

"Can you trace the origin of the malware?" Nathan asked urgently.

"We already did," Vance replied with a fierce note of triumph. "He was so desperate to stop her from leaving the state that he didn't bounce the signal through his usual proxies. He launched the malware directly from his personal terminal in his penthouse suite. It’s a direct violation of federal wiretapping and cyber-terrorism laws."