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Before Mert was finally arrested, Inspector Bilal Şen had no idea whether the hacker was on the run, still a prisoner or simply dead. He did know, however, that time was not on his side. The only option open to the officer was to continue to track down Cha0 as efficiently and patiently as possible. At least he now had a photograph and a number for the man sending the skimmer, and he was convinced that this would eventually lead him to Cha0. Because the henchman who had delivered the skimmer was using one of the phone numbers that he had registered with the shipping company, the police were able to ‘triangulate’ the suspect – in other words, they could spot which cell- phone masts the device was accessing. They soon had an accurate idea both of where he was and of the pattern of his movements.

Before long they had a second sighting and were able to put a tail on him. Sure enough, within a matter of days the man had led them to a villa in Tuzla, a distant suburb of Istanbul that lay about fifteen miles down the Asian coast. Home to one of Turkey’s largest naval bases, this area, once famous for its fishing, was one of only a handful in the city that had not been completely dominated by new buildings. With its spacious houses with their colourful exteriors, it was a highly sought-after neighbourhood, peopled largely by wealthy families.

The suspect led them to a luxury villa complete with outdoor swim- ming pool. After days of observation, the surveillance team had ascer- tained that several men were living in the villa. But it did not take Bilal long to establish who was giving orders to the team. Going through criminal records, he soon identified him as one Çağatay Evyapan.

At college a gifted student of electrical engineering, Çağatay now