You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Chapter 48<br />
ROSS GOES UNDERGROUND<br />
It was time to go into hiding.<br />
But this time, rather than the Dread Pirate Roberts having to disappear, it was Ross<br />
Ulbricht’s turn.<br />
A lot of other terrible things had happened since the murder of Green. Someone was looking for<br />
DPR as retribution. The heat was onto him too, with FBI, DEA, HSI, and a slew of other agencies<br />
scurrying around the Silk Road site—a sign that there was no fucking around right now. Time to begin<br />
an emergency landing.<br />
It was early June 2013, and Ross had no choice but to go through the list he had put together<br />
months earlier. The “in case of an emergency” checklist. “Find place to live on craigslist for cash,”<br />
he had written to himself back then. “Create new identity (name, backstory).”<br />
As he scrolled through rental listings on Craigslist, he came across the perfect place: his own<br />
room in a three-bedroom house on Fifteenth Avenue near San Francisco’s Outer Sunset, where he<br />
could pay cash to cover the $1,200 monthly rent. He anonymously e-mailed the lessor and, following<br />
step two on his checklist—“Create new identity (name, backstory)”—rather than calling himself Ross<br />
Ulbricht, he used a completely fictitious name, Joshua Terrey. Another name that he reasoned could<br />
never be traced back to him.<br />
But creating a new identity was going to be difficult. After all, there were already two people:<br />
Ross and DPR. If he had to remember details about a third person, lies would get complicated very<br />
quickly. To ensure that Ross didn’t forget much about Joshua, he stuck to stories he knew when he e-<br />
mailed his new potential landlord. He explained that he, Josh (for short), was twenty-nine years old,<br />
was from Texas, and had recently returned from a trip to Sydney, Australia. “I am a currency trader<br />
and do some freelance IT work as well,” Ross, as Josh, wrote to the couple who were renting out the<br />
apartment. “I mostly keep to myself, spending most of my time working.”<br />
Ross wouldn’t have to worry about any of his real-world friends, like René or Selena, finding<br />
out about his new alter ego Josh, as he had a plan to keep everyone separate, never having his old<br />
friends over to his new place or his new roommates out to meet his old friends. As for Kristal coming<br />
down to visit from Portland, well, that had imploded almost as quickly as it had ignited. As soon as<br />
things started to deepen, Ross lost interest. How could you sustain a relationship with someone when
Change language