And this is the thing that most people, facing a scheme like this, never grasp in time: that you cannot win by taking the avenues the fraudster has prepared for.

If your opponent has planned for a move, making that move plays into their hands.

The only way through a fully prepared defense is to do the one thing it has not prepared for, to come from an angle the planners did not imagine, because they were so busy defending the front door that they left a window open.

My whole career had been the art of finding that window.

And as I stood there, letting them believe every exit was closed, I was already, quietly, through it.