I hooked the laptop up to my phone’s hotspot and opened an encrypted browser window.

My fingers moved over the keys as I typed in the address for my base credit union account.

This was the direct-deposit savings account where my hazardous duty pay had gone every month while I was overseas.

There should have been forty-five thousand dollars in it, built up over nine straight months of deployment.

I took my bank security token out of my pocket and typed the six-digit code into the prompt.

The loading wheel spun four times before the main account dashboard came up on the screen.