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“Sure,” DPR wrote. “Let me log in.” And then he followed up with a strange question. “You did<br />
bitcoin exchange before you worked for me,” Dread wrote. “Right?”<br />
For some reason DPR was testing him. Jared’s mind started to swirl with worry. Did DPR know<br />
something was up? Jared scanned his mind trying to remember the right answer.<br />
3:13 p.m.<br />
A young Asian woman wandered through the library plucking books from the shelves. After a while<br />
she came around the corner of the stacks, standing in front of the science fiction and romance section,<br />
and pulled up a chair at the round beige table where Ross sat. His backpack rested next to him; his<br />
laptop glowed as he typed away. He peered over his computer screen at the young woman. She had a<br />
fair complexion and was perusing the pile of books in front of her. She seemed safe enough, so Ross<br />
looked back to his computer, his fingers methodically moving up and down on the keyboard as he<br />
typed.<br />
3:14 p.m.<br />
Jared thought, trying to remember what the woman from Texas had told him in August when he had<br />
taken over her account. Had she done Bitcoin exchange? Or had she not? He took a deep breath and<br />
took a chance, replying, “Yes, but just for a little bit.”<br />
“Not any more than that,” DPR replied, still fishing for an answer. A test indeed.<br />
“No,” Jared wrote back, “I stopped because of reporting requirements.”<br />
What he said must have worked, because Dread soon asked, “Ok, which post?” He was now<br />
definitively logged in to all three administrative areas of the Silk Road. Jared looked up at Tarbell<br />
and began swirling his finger in the air like a helicopter about to take flight. “Go, go, go,” he said<br />
swiftly. “Go!”<br />
Tarbell’s thumbs hammered down on his phone as he typed as fast as he could. “He is logged in,”<br />
he wrote, followed by “PULL LAPTOP—GO.” He scrambled across the street and into the library.<br />
Jared came running up behind Tarbell. It was pure adrenaline now. They both hurried up the<br />
library steps until Tarbell came to a swift standstill midstride and swung his arm out to stop Jared.<br />
“Let them do their thing,” Tarbell whispered.<br />
For ten seconds Jared and Tarbell didn’t say a word. They just stood there, frozen on the<br />
concrete steps of the library. And then they heard it. The yelling and commotion that had just erupted<br />
inside the quiet library on Diamond Street.
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