The Signmaker let out a furious cry that echoed through the golden-lit secret headquarters. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to happen!

The Egyptian detective had been promised $100,000 to make sure Yasmin stayed safe no matter what else happened today. Half of the money had already been transferred into his account. But the cop would only get the rest when he delivered the DARE Award winner to Cairo’s airport safely.

Except the satellite image had just shown the detective and his men trying to smash their way into the Adib family’s store. Now they were chasing Yasmin and her brother on motorbikes. A quick hack into the Adib security-camera system provided an audio recording of the kidnapping attempt. The detective had gotten greedy. Clearly he hoped to make a lot more money by holding Yasmin for ransom.

The Signmaker vowed that the detective wouldn’t see another cent. Instead he would pay for his betrayal.

It would be a simple matter to expose the man’s corruption with a single email to his more honest police colleagues. But they wouldn’t catch him before he caught Yasmin. And that wouldn’t be nearly punishment enough for jeopardising the Signmaker’s carefully laid plans.

The Signmaker checked satellite positions but the nearest hackable space laser was orbiting over Iran, nowhere near enough to blow Jackal and his men off their bikes. Throwing one of the police helicopters in the skies over Cairo at them was a possibility, but there was no guarantee of hitting any of the speeding targets.

The Signmaker took a deep breath, setting aside feelings of fury and frustration. Obstacles were opportunities. Challenges produced strength. Strength was power. There had to be a way to stop the detective and his cops.

While their motorbikes were too primitive to be hacked, any AutoDrive cars around them could be controlled remotely. Cairo didn’t have that many driverless vehicles yet, but there had to be a few in the area that could be used.

Face set with a smile, fingers flying across a keyboard, screens flashing new feeds and information, the Signmaker was determined to regain control—at any cost.