Some criminals run. Bertrand builds the exit.

In middle 1990's the wreckage of Reagan's America, one man decides the rules are the real crime. Gifted with a photographic memory and a ruthless instinct for survival, Mark doesn't just hack the financial system-he redesigns it. From helicopter labs in Texas to offshore webs in Hong Kong and Brunei, he constructs a double life: spiritual teacher by day, digital ghost by night.

But the façade begins to crack.

When a partner is arrested and federal heat closes in, Mark must outwit governments, erase his trails, and escape the gravitational pull of the average life he was born to die in. Every forged identity, every shadow company, every dollar moved brings him closer to one question:

Can you win if the system always eats its own?

BERTRAND is the true story of a man who became the law his enemies obeyed-until his own mask began to crumble. Told with literary force and unflinching clarity, it unfolds across military hangars and nightclubs, Buddhist abbeys and Orthodox cathedrals. The second installment in a gripping trilogy, this book blends the psychological grit of Ozark with the precision of Michael Clayton, the disillusioned heat of Blow, and the existential weight of Fight Club.

For readers who crave suspense that's real, stakes that aren't manufactured, and a protagonist who refuses redemption.