New Scotland Yard, Interview Room 3
The air tasted of stale coffee and institutional bleach. Stella sat at a steel table bolted to the floor, hands wrapped around a paper cup of tepid tea. Across from her, Detective Inspector Rachel Vance of the Metropolitan Police’s Financial Crimes Unit scanned a tablet, her expression professionally neutral. A one-way mirror dominated one wall.
“You understand,” Vance said without looking up, “this isn’t about belief. It’s about evidence chain. And your evidence chain has more holes than Swiss cheese.”
“The data stream was authenticated in real-time by Interpol’s cyber division,” Stella said, her voice calm. Three hours of sleep in the past forty-eight, but the adrenaline hadn’t fully receded. “Every packet was cryptographically signed from source to
