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Chapter 16
FROM AUSTIN TO AUSTRALIA
I’m selling my truck,” Ross told all his friends on Facebook. “Make me an offer!”
Fall had blanketed over Austin, with 2011 nearing its end, and Ross had only two weeks to
get his life packed into boxes and sell everything else before he left town.
Fudging Erica. If she hadn’t posted that tormenting message on Facebook about Ross being a
drug lord or kingpin or whatever, he wouldn’t be in such a rush to leave the country. Weeks before the
chaos erupted he had been thinking of going to see his sister, Cally, in Australia for a while, to get
some space from Julia and his Texan friends and family, but now the trip was a must, and it was on
fast-forward.
Ross was pretty sure he had deleted Erica’s terrifying post in time, but if he had not, and
someone had actually seen it, he would find himself in more trouble than he was capable of dealing
with. He also had no way of knowing if Erica’s Facebook outburst was the last he would hear from
her. If she truly wanted to be vindictive, she could easily go one step further and tell the FBI or DEA,
or even those senators who had painted a bull’s-eye on the Silk Road months earlier.
One thing was certain: Ross didn’t want to take any chances. He scrambled, getting his life in
order to make a quick and easy break from Austin to Australia.
The truck sold quickly. His personal belongings were handed down or given away. He stuffed
other things in boxes and hid them under his bed at his parents’ house, next to the box of Dungeons &
Dragons miniatures he had painted as a child. He packed the few belongings he needed day to day,
including his gray V-neck T-shirt, his single pair of jeans, and, most important of all, his laptop.
Paranoia had started consuming his thoughts, leaving Ross on edge about those around him. Was
the DEA or the FBI hunting for him? Was he a cop? Was she? What did everyone know? But the most
stressful thoughts centered around those whom he had told about the Silk Road.
It wasn’t that Ross had been stupid or naive in telling them about the site. Rather, back then,
when he first shared his secret, Ross could never have predicted that the Silk Road would grow as
big as it had. In his mind on opening day, he had imagined a few dozen people shopping in his online
marketplace. That had quickly turned into thousands. Now, with the media, the senators, and who
knew how many people in law enforcement looking for him, he needed to backtrack.