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laptop and find a spot in a cafe where your screen won’t be visible to anyone. Get a large coffee, sit
down, and don’t get up except to stretch.” Given that there was nowhere for Ross to sit that adhered
to that protocol, he turned around and walked back outside.
He had a lot on his mind, as always. He had made plans with Julia to video chat that evening.
“Can we skype tonight?” she had asked over e-mail.
“Sure, what time?”
“Is 8 my time good?”
“Sure, see you then,” he wrote, following up with a “:)” as he knew exactly what kind of Skyping
they’d be doing.
The air was calm as Ross contemplated where to go next. He needed Wi-Fi but didn’t have many
options at 3:00 p.m. in this sleepy corner of the city. He looked to his left, in the direction he had just
come from, and knew Cup Coffee Bar had closed an hour earlier. Straight ahead of him cars streamed
by, a woman walked with her daughter, and two men sat on a wooden park bench, one staring at his
laptop, the other looking at his phone. Ross continued to scan the street, his eyes sliding past the
burrito shop, then past the local pub, until he turned to his right, staring up at the Glen Park Public
Library.
3:03 p.m.
Jared and Thom sat on the bench, gazing straight ahead as if they were in a staring contest with the
coffee shop. Jared’s laptop was open, and Thom had his smartphone in his hand. They could see Ross
walk out of the café, holding on to his bag. Ross was peering around, and then he looked directly in
the direction of Jared and Thom as they both quickly looked away, trying to seem inconspicuous.
“I bet he’s looking for Wi-Fi,” Jared whispered under his breath to Thom. They watched out of
the corners of their eyes as Ross walked to his right, toward the public library.
At almost that exact moment Tarbell appeared, his phone in his hand as he read updates from the
undercover agents trailing Ross.
“Where’s he at?” Tarbell asked. Jared motioned toward the library.
At that moment Tarbell, who had gone by the book his entire life, had to decide what to do. He
had studied and practiced for every single moment of his life, no matter how small. Yet now, he didn’t
know if he should follow the rules or break them. He was fully aware that the local FBI office would
be apoplectic if they knew he was contemplating trying to arrest Ross Ulbricht without the SWAT
team present. But he had no choice if he wanted to catch the Dread Pirate Roberts on the laptop. He
looked down at Jared, then over to Thom, then to the library, and a thought rang out in his head: Fuck
it.
“Go to the library and get in position,” he told Thom. Do nothing, say nothing, just blend in.
As Tarbell looked down at his phone, he was fully aware that a few miles south of where he
stood, at that very moment, dozens of SWAT team members were shuffling into a conference room at
the local Bureau office, preparing to run through a drill for how they would apprehend Ross Ulbricht,
guns drawn, the following day. He tapped out another e-mail to let his crew know the plan, that they
were going into the library to try to capture Ross Ulbricht. This meant that the men in that SWAT team
meeting would see the message too, and in a few minutes they would be running toward their cruisers,