1st Case - James Patterson Page 0,55

said. “You know that?”

I shrugged it off. “Anyone would do what they could for this guy,” I said.

“Some people, but not everyone,” Billy told me. Given his years with the Bureau, I figured he would know.

Out on the street, my new phone gave an unfamiliar chime. I looked down and saw it was a text notification, with a message from Justin.

Chocolate shake tomorrow? he’d written.

Now it was my turn to smile.

You got it, I wrote back. See you then.

Something about that request, for a simple thing like ice cream, felt hopeful to me. I knew Justin had been permanently scarred. He’d probably never be the same again, but I could tell he wasn’t giving up, either.

He was going to be okay. Maybe not soon, but eventually.

And that was the best news all day.

CHAPTER 59

GEORGE MET ME outside the office again that evening and drove me over to Eve’s. Her place was way more comfortable than mine, but I doubted she was going to be okay with having him inside.

I bought dinner for all three of us, even if he did have to eat his in the car.

“I won’t be more than a few hours,” I told George. I hoped that was true. Working the electronic angles on this case was, for me, a very easy hole to fall into. But I was going to try to get us both back to Somerville before the middle of the night, if I could.

Meanwhile, I settled in at Eve’s array and went to work on the app again, dissecting its code and looking for any new updates I could find.

Eve spent the night coming and going. She’d check on me, answer a few questions, and then disappear again. I could feel her holding back, probably for my own sake. I think what Billy said that morning had stuck to both of us. She couldn’t prop me up forever. At some point, I was going to have to stand on my own, and we all knew it.

That said, I wasn’t above leaning on my other friends for help. So as soon as Eve went to bed, I called and checked in with A.A.

“How’s it going over there on the dark side of the moon?” I asked.

“Frustrating,” she said. “But interesting.”

“Go on.”

“It’s not hard to find people talking about FNC,” she said. “The problem is knowing what to believe.”

“Nothing new there,” I said. The anonymity of the dark web definitely cuts both ways. Anyone can post whatever they like, which means you have to be on your toes about truth versus fiction and information versus misinformation.

Meanwhile, I may not have been able to discuss the specifics of the case with A.A., but as a general topic of conversation, this was fair game. In fact, A.A. and I had discussed the Free Net Collective several times in the past, mostly at MIT and long before I was at the FBI. Anyone with an interest in coding, hacking, and the dark web knew about FNC, at least in theory.

“For whatever it’s worth,” she went on, “most of the chatter is about everything they did before they went underground. Or out to sea. Or wherever the hell they are.”

“So have you been able to find anything current at all?” I asked.

“Again, it’s hard to say,” she told me. “But there is one thing. I found this user who goes by Hermes online. Have you ever heard of him?”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Hermes, as in the messenger of the gods?”

“And the god of transitions and boundaries,” she said. “Yeah. He’s positioning himself as some kind of go-between with FNC. He says he can offer direct access for a hefty Bitcoin exchange, but only if you download his app first. Of course.”

Just that word, app, burned right through the phone line into my ear. Was this the exact, full-circle moment I’d been hoping for?

“What kind of app?” I asked.

“Some kind of private chat platform,” she said. “I only mention it because he’s been just about everywhere I’ve looked. But likely as not, he’s some pimple-faced fifteen-year-old in a basement in Teaneck, New Jersey. You know what I mean?”

“That sounds about right,” I said, playing it off. On the inside, though, my mind was reeling.

Maybe this was a nonstarter, like A.A. said. Then again, maybe not. And there was just one way to find out.

“So where do I find this Hermes dude, anyway?” I asked.

CHAPTER 60

THE FIRST THING I did was launch Tor, which was the go-to software for