Page 28 of Justified
“It does.”
“I think you just like getting high,” I quipped.
“That too.”Jordan smiled.
“I took down a dealer tonight, he was selling meth.After watching that live feed, I’m almost inclined to smoke it.I feel like I need to erase the last hour of this night.”
“You and me both.”He walked up to me, wrapping his arms around my waist, and I held him close to me.That was when the floodgates opened and he cried hard, his tears dripping down my chest.“I hope I have the strength to help you take these people down.”
“You will, don’t worry.You won’t have to look at any more videos.Just follow the money trail.We need to find out who these people are, where they are, how they are finding their victims.Together, we can do this,” I said.I kissed his forehead and led him to the bedroom.It was late as fuck and neither one of us were going to have sweet dreams.
Chapter six
Turnsout,Iwasright.Neither Jordan nor I were able to sleep.We both tossed and turned for hours even after the sun rose.Eventually, Jordan had to get up and get ready for school.I struggled to sleep still, but it really wasn’t working, so when Jordan came out of the bathroom, I got up and took a piss.I met up with Jordan in the kitchen over a cup of coffee.
“How tired are you this morning?”I asked, sipping my coffee.
“Exhausted, and if I didn’t have a test to take today, I would totally stay in,” he said.
I nodded.“Be careful.”
Jordan walked over to me, kissed me, and then grabbed his car keys.He was out and heading to school and I was left at home, alone.I looked at Jordan’s computer and wondered if I should try to get on it.In the end, I decided to leave it alone.We still had a laptop and that was the computer I was used to.I got online and looked up the site, “Killing Game”.A few sites popped up about online gaming, or links to video games where people got a chance to kill fake shit.There was the movie, but nothing like what I saw yesterday.No articles about it or anything at all.It really was all about the dark web.It was fucked up.
I decided to take apart the new gun I’d acquired the night before and clean it.The serial number was already filed away, so at least that was taken care of.After about an hour of doing menial tasks, I started to feel sleepy, so I tried laying down again.When I woke up, Jordan was standing over me with a piece of paper in his hand.
I sat up and wiped my eyes.“What’s up?”
“I didn’t find out who is running the site… yet, but I did break through one of their firewalls to discover one of their clients.”
Holy shit!That was amazing.“Really?Who is it?”I took the piece of paper he handed to me and looked over the information and the photo.
“Believe it or not, someone local.I think that’s why it was easier for me to trace the money trail.His name is Walter Darring.”
I shrugged.“I have no idea who that is, other than some sick, rich, son of a bitch.”He looked like a snobby motherfucker, too.Salt and pepper hair, slicked back, beard nicely trimmed.He looked to be about six feet, and I was sure the suit he was wearing in the photo cost more than a year’s rent.
“He’s a multimillionaire,” Jordan said.“A real estate mogul.He lives in the Crystalane neighborhood where all of the other rich folks live.Far away from urban life.”
“What was his screen name?”
“Mr.Jingles.”
“Seems like you found him quickly.”
Jordan nodded.“You can say it was personal.I couldn’t sleep last night, but while I tossed and turned, I had some ideas of how to run a few algorithms.Once I broke through the mainframe—”
“I’m going to stop you right there, because I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.It would be like me trying to explain the components of a gun to you.In one ear and out of the other,” I pointed out.
He laughed.“Fine, I get it.Good thing is, I was able to ferret one of these assholes out.They have a lot of routers bouncing their IP addresses around, but I’m going to find out who they all are.Consider me highly motivated.”
“I’ll check this motherfucker, Walter, out, do some recon.He won’t be enjoying his time on the Killing Game website for much longer,” I said.“I’ll make him suffer like he made that boy suffer.”
Jordan nodded.“Good.”He walked back over to his huge computer station and sat down.I guess he was getting back to hacking, and that meant I needed to get into gear and check out this Walter Darring.I took a quick shower and put on my costume, all but the mask and gauntlets.Those went on last before I left my home.For now, I needed to grab myself something to eat.No good fighting crime on an empty stomach.We had some leftover ribs in the fridge, so I heated that up and ate it.
“We need to get some food in this house,” I said, eating the last of the ribs.
“I’ll write up the list and you do the shopping,” Jordan said.
I frowned as I stepped up behind him.I took a look at the screen and just saw a bunch of numbers and codes, and the shit damn near gave me a headache.I looked down at Jordan and watched for a few seconds as his fingers flew over the keyboard.He was in his world at his computer station.A master at the game.My partner in crime fighting.
