Chapter 5 - The Honeypot Trap
Although Carter and Evelyn were sitting in the Travis County Detention Center waiting for their arraignment hearing, the battle for Lone Star Logistics was far from over.
On Friday morning, Marcus called me into my corporate office.
"Maya, Carter's defense attorney just filed an emergency motion for bail, set at two hundred thousand dollars," Marcus explained. "And someone posted it within an hour."
I raised an eyebrow. "Who? Evelyn didn't have liquid cash left after we froze her Vance Horizon accounts."
"Apex Freight Systems," Marcus replied grimly. "Arthur Sterling paid his bail. Sterling knows Carter is facing twenty years in prison, and he's using Carter’s desperation to force him to hand over the master encryption key to your route-optimization software before Carter goes to trial."
"So Sterling wants to finish the job Carter started," I said, leaning back in my leather chair.
"Exactly. If Sterling gets his hands on that master key, Apex can deploy your algorithm across their fleet, undercutting our prices by forty percent overnight. By the time we win a patent infringement lawsuit three years from now, Lone Star will be bankrupt."
I looked out at the logistics yard visible from my third-story window. Dozens of blue Lone Star trucks were pulling out of the bays, carrying goods for medical centers, grocery chains, and local businesses. Hundreds of drivers, mechanics, and dispatchers depended on my company for their mortgages, their children’s health insurance, and their futures.
I wasn't going to let a desperate ex-husband and a ruthless corporate predator burn it down.
"Marcus," I said, a dangerous plan taking root in my mind. "Does Carter still think he has an undiscovered backdoor access into our secondary backup server in San Antonio?"
"He might," Marcus said slowly. "He created an administrative profile under a fake IT contractor name four months ago. We found it during the audit, but we haven't disabled it yet."
"Don't disable it," I ordered. "Leave it open. But link that profile directly to a honeypot server loaded with watermarked, self-executing tracking code."
Marcus smiled—a sharp, wolfish grin. "If he logs into that server to download the master key, the code will instantly ping the Texas Department of Public Safety with a real-time digital signature and location feed."
"Let's see how far Carter is willing to sink to buy his mother's freedom," I said.
That evening at 11:00 PM, I sat in the command center of the Austin Police Department Cyber Crime Unit alongside Detective Mark Dawson. Three large monitors flickered with network traffic data.
"He's taking the bait, Ms. Lin," Detective Dawson said, pointing to a flashing red node on the screen. "An IP address originating from a luxury hotel suite downtown—registered under Apex Freight’s corporate account—just initiated a remote desktop connection to your San Antonio backup server."
"Is Carter the one typing?" I asked.
The system logged the keystrokes. A live camera feed—hijacked from the hotel room's smart TV through a federal warrant—lit up the left monitor.
Inside the hotel room, Carter sat at a glass desk, sweating profusely in a wrinkled shirt. Standing behind him, pacing back and forth with a glass of gin, was Evelyn. Her hair was messy, her manicured nails chewed to the quick.
"Hurry up, Carter!" Evelyn’s voice came through the audio feed clearly. "Arthur Sterling promised us five million dollars in an offshore Swiss account the second you hand over that master key! We can take the private jet to Cabo tonight before the prosecutor files the new indictment!"
"I'm trying, Mom!" Carter yelled, wiping sweat from his eyes. "The transfer protocol is slow! It's downloading the master encryption files now... sixty percent... seventy percent..."
Detective Dawson looked over at me. "That's unauthorized access to protected critical infrastructure under Texas Penal Code 33.02. A third-degree felony with enhanced federal cybercrime penalties."
"Hit the switch, Detective," I said quietly.
On the monitor, Carter’s computer screen suddenly turned pitch black.
A red emblem of the Texas Rangers popped up on his display, followed by a bold text line: SYSTEM TERMINATED. FEDERAL SEARCH WARRANT EXECUTING.
Carter shrieked, slamming his hands onto the keyboard. "No! No! It's locked! It deleted the files!"
"What?!" Evelyn screamed, dropping her glass. "What do you mean it deleted them?!"
The heavy oak door of their hotel suite shattered open with a loud explosion. Flashbangs lit up the room as a federal SWAT team swarmed the suite, weapons raised.
"FEDERAL AGENTS! GET ON THE GROUND! GET ON THE GROUND NOW!"
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Evelyn dropped to her knees, screaming at the top of her lungs, while Carter fell flat on his face, sobbing hysterically as heavy tactical boots pressed his head against the carpet.
Through the live camera feed, I watched my coward of an ex-husband get pinned to the floor, his grand dreams of stolen millions vanishing into handcuffs for the final time.
