34856893457934

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Ross was ebullient as he bent down to one of the lower shelves and pointed at a random tray. “Look at this one,” he said, his finger traversing the air as he spoke. “And this one, look at that.” Julia saw that on each shelf there sat a white tray almost two feet in diameter—more than a dozen in all—and that inside these trays were hundreds of tiny shoots sprouting into the air. From a few feet away, they looked like platters full of baby porcupines. She moved closer, now peering directly into one of the white trays, and was astonished at the sheer number of brown and white mushroom stems. These were not normal mushrooms. She knew perfectly well that they were magic. “Look over here at this one.” Ross beamed. She turned, seeing what he was pointing at; a plump hazel and milky-colored button that looked like it was ready to be picked and sprinkled on top of a salad. He was as proud as a parent. As Julia inspected further, she started to estimate how many mushrooms he was actually growing. It was easily more than a thousand, maybe even double that. Plucked from their rectangular white plastic homes, the contents of these trays could probably fill a large black garbage bag, or even two. “How much does this place cost?” she asked. “It’s 450 dollars a month.” “It’s a total shit hole.” Ross laughed. This was fine with him. A shit hole, after all, was the perfect place to operate a secret drug laboratory. The entire operation—his massive shroomery, the seeds of what he hoped would be his burgeoning Silk Road empire—would end up costing him more than $17,000, including rent and supplies, which were endless. There were the petri dishes, tape, and glue guns; the ingredients, including peat, gypsum, and rye; and the kitchen supplies, like the pressure cooker and kitchen timer. All of it had added up very quickly. As for the return on his investment, he estimated he could get $15 or so per gram for the mushrooms. Given that there would be several kilos of product at the end of the yield, he could easily make tens of thousands of dollars in profit. But—and this was a big “but”—this was a lot of mushrooms to offload, and it wasn’t obvious that his Web site was even going to work. Would people want to buy magic mushrooms off a stranger on the Internet? “Aren’t you worried about getting caught?” Julia asked. “Of course,” he replied, as if it were the most obvious question in the world. “But I need product for my site.” He reminded her that no one else knew about this hideaway. He had taken the proper precautions to stay covert during his shroom-growing phase and even read the book The Construction and Operation of Clandestine Drug Laboratories, which was essentially a Dummies guide for setting up a felonious drug lab. Though most people would have been shocked or distraught or entirely terrified to discover their boyfriend managing a secret drug farm, Julia was intrigued by the idea—she felt like someone who knew a secret no one else should know. In her mind, while she knew Ross could get into trouble if he was caught, she didn’t envision the consequences being that severe; it wasn’t like Ross had driven her to a secret meth lab or a heroin-making facility with a dozen half-naked workers. These were just a few trays of mushrooms. Ross, on the other hand, was fully aware exactly what could happen if he was caught. Texas’s merciless laws could result in five to ninety-nine years in prison for four hundred grams of mushrooms. Ross’s secret farm was currently growing almost a hundred pounds of hallucinogens.
“We should go,” he said to Julia as they walked back into the living room, and he once again placed the black rag over her eyes, tightening the slipknot to block out any light. The door lock clicked; then she heard the jingle of keys as he bolted the lair shut behind them.
Page 3 and 4: Portfolio/Penguin An imprint of Pen
Page 5 and 6: No man, for any considerable period
Page 7 and 8: 20. The Dread Pirate Roberts 21. Ca
Page 9 and 10: Author’s Note My mother, who pass
Page 11 and 12: PART I
Page 13 and 14: look for anything out of the ordina
Page 15 and 16: pills that had been arriving, week
Page 17 and 18: Five Years Earlier
Page 19 and 20: hand in marriage (Say yes, please s
Page 21 and 22: Chapter 3 JULIA VIE Julia Vie’s f
Page 23 and 24: “Oh, no, no, no,” Julia said as
Page 25 and 26: American drug laws. “Take your se
Page 27 and 28: His hope was that this gig would le
Page 29 and 30: Chapter 6 THE BONFIRE Ross swerved
Page 31 and 32: As they joined the group around the
Page 33 and 34: Chapter 7 THE SILK ROAD Stuff, to R
Page 35 and 36: computer screen, he daydreamed that
Page 37: to push Ross’s intelligence, with
Page 41 and 42: at the University of Texas, and ask
Page 43 and 44: Chapter 10 WHAT GOES UP MUST COME D
Page 45 and 46: Now, rather than split his time amo
Page 47 and 48: enough, someone was. You could buy
Page 49 and 50: Chapter 12 A BULL’S-EYE ON MY BAC
Page 51 and 52: transaction. This would require rew
Page 53 and 54: libertarian theory. When the tête-
Page 55 and 56: Chapter 14 WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! Tea
Page 57 and 58: Chapter 15 JARED AND THE FIFTY-TON
Page 59 and 60: themselves. The issue, Jared reiter
Page 61 and 62: A few days before he left for Austr
Page 63 and 64: Chapter 17 CARL FORCE’S TOMORROW
Page 65 and 66: Carl thought about it for a moment.
Page 67 and 68: Ross interacted with dozens of diff
Page 69 and 70: caught up in the conversation to se
Page 71 and 72: Then there was the challenge of buy
Page 73 and 74: Chapter 20 THE DREAD PIRATE ROBERTS
Page 75 and 76: What a brilliant idea. Ross loved i
Page 77 and 78: He soon realized that this site cou
Page 79 and 80: people, the risk was worth the rewa
Page 81 and 82: Ross’s cut from the commission fe
Page 83 and 84: Chapter 24 CARL, ELADIO, AND NOB Fo
Page 85 and 86: Chapter 25 JARED’S CHICAGO VERSUS
Page 87 and 88: The Baltimore attorney then explain
Page 89 and 90:
commission,” Ross wrote in a lett
Page 91 and 92:
world businesses when a CEO is oust
Page 93 and 94:
Nope. Not going to happen. Carl had
Page 95 and 96:
This place was special to Ross for
Page 97 and 98:
Chapter 29 VARIETY JONES GOES TO SC
Page 99 and 100:
him break a drug dependency, and en
Page 101 and 102:
But if Ross wanted to keep growing
Page 103 and 104:
Chapter 31 ROSS SILENCES JULIA Ross
Page 105 and 106:
away. Heading into the darkness, al
Page 107 and 108:
Chapter 32 CHRIS TARBELL, FBI A que
Page 109 and 110:
took his SATs in high school he did
Page 111 and 112:
After breakfast each morning, while
Page 113 and 114:
other start-up in the city would ha
Page 115 and 116:
There were two main aspects of the
Page 117 and 118:
Chapter 35 BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!
Page 119 and 120:
For the backup plan to the backup p
Page 121 and 122:
the site had grown, DPR’s message
Page 123 and 124:
This wasn’t a vacation. It was hi
Page 125 and 126:
When his new friends asked Ross wha
Page 127 and 128:
Chapter 38 CARL LIKES DPR On paper
Page 129 and 130:
are safe from the laws of your nati
Page 131 and 132:
Chapter 39 KIDNEY FOR SALE! Ross st
Page 133 and 134:
On the black market a person’s ki
Page 135 and 136:
Chapter 40 THE WHITE HOUSE IN UTAH
Page 137 and 138:
pup, tried to bite another agent’
Page 139 and 140:
Chihuahuas. Green went on like a sc
Page 141 and 142:
Chapter 42 THE FIRST MURDER Ross ha
Page 143 and 144:
started to wonder if he might not h
Page 145 and 146:
usts with physical drugs, not digit
Page 147 and 148:
Portland, looked like she was going
Page 149 and 150:
into the hospital room as they wept
Page 151 and 152:
Chapter 45 GARY ALFORD, IRS The sid
Page 153 and 154:
He started with the Gawker article,
Page 155 and 156:
It was, after all, his legacy, the
Page 157 and 158:
Chapter 47 GARY’S BIG CHANGE Ever
Page 159 and 160:
to go and feed a parking meter. So
Page 161 and 162:
you were only giving them half of y
Page 163 and 164:
“Let me tell you a little parable
Page 165 and 166:
your side” capacity—tried to wa
Page 167 and 168:
Chapter 50 A PARKING TICKET ON THE
Page 169 and 170:
Another search showed that Ross Ulb
Page 171 and 172:
unclear what, if anything, was on t
Page 173 and 174:
Chapter 52
Page 175 and 176:
take a few breaks to watch Louis C.
Page 177 and 178:
The agent asked again. “Andrew Fo
Page 179 and 180:
Chris Tarbell had decided he wouldn
Page 181 and 182:
By the end of Jared’s presentatio
Page 183 and 184:
Chapter 54 JARED BECOMES CIRRUS Whe
Page 185 and 186:
plastic. When the woman from Texas
Page 187 and 188:
Chapter 55 JULIA IS SAVED! HALLELUJ
Page 189 and 190:
Chapter 56
Page 191 and 192:
Dylan waited for Ross to respond, b
Page 193 and 194:
Chapter 57 ONWARD TO FEDERAL PLAZA
Page 195 and 196:
Angels to have people killed, and h
Page 197 and 198:
Chapter 58 JULIA COMES TO SAN FRANC
Page 199 and 200:
She nonchalantly came up the stairs
Page 201 and 202:
“We’re going to read from the T
Page 203 and 204:
Chapter 60 THE PHONE CALL Gary sat
Page 205 and 206:
She turned back to her computer and
Page 207 and 208:
Dread Pirate Roberts was a twenty-n
Page 209 and 210:
caught in a tree in the park and ha
Page 211 and 212:
Chapter 62 THE PINK SUNSET Pink. Th
Page 213 and 214:
was logged in to the site and arres
Page 215 and 216:
even stop crossing the line, Carl d
Page 217 and 218:
Even if anyone had noticed the SUV
Page 219 and 220:
laptop and find a spot in a cafe wh
Page 221 and 222:
“Sure,” DPR wrote. “Let me lo
Page 223 and 224:
“I am Special Agent Chris Tarbell
Page 225 and 226:
Thom and the other agent started ch
Page 227 and 228:
And then there was Julia, who had p
Page 229 and 230:
Chapter 68 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Page 231 and 232:
The defense knew an insurmountable
Page 233 and 234:
He continued walking through the sp
Page 235 and 236:
man. Gravity doesn’t care if you
Page 237 and 238:
Chapter 71 THE PLURAL OF MONGOOSE I
Page 239 and 240:
Chapter 72 THE MUSEUM Along Pennsyl
Page 241 and 242:
high school, René, about their fut
Page 243 and 244:
the perils lovingly and yet resolut
Page 245 and 246:
For over a year after the Silk Road
Page 247 and 248:
Young Ross in elementary school in
Page 249 and 250:
Ross with his parents, Lyn and Kirk
Page 251 and 252:
The NOMMO Club at Penn State Univer
Page 253 and 254:
The Silk Road Web site, which offer
Page 255 and 256:
Jared Der-Yeghiayan of the Departme
Page 257 and 258:
Force disguised as Nob, his online
Page 259 and 260:
Chris Tarbell of the Federal Bureau
Page 261 and 262:
Curtis Green, known on the Silk Roa
Page 263 and 264:
Curtis Green’s staged murder, an
Page 265 and 266:
Notes on Reporting Each and every d
Page 267 and 268:
Acknowledgments I’d like to start
Page 269 and 270:
Bibliography Bauer, Alex. “My Roo
Page 271:
What’s next on your reading list?
show all

34856893457934

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?