WARNING: Dark-Net – a concept you will come across in the story sounds sinister enough to be tempted to explore but be warned if you haven’t done your homework/research about the Dark-Net, if you are not aware of the security issues and how to manage them and if you don’t have proper anti-malware software installed – STAY AWAY FROM EXPLORING SOMETHING YOU MIGHT REGRET LATER.

**

As I lay there bleeding, unable to move, what bothered me most was she was going to die too. The psychopath of her brother – Ryan who had no shred of humanity or remorse in him was going to kill her if I didn’t give them what they wanted but I knew I couldn’t give them what they wanted. I looked at her trying to apologize, but I couldn’t when I saw her face was bloodied beyond recognition. It tore me to the core to see her in the state that she was in but if I gave them what they were asking for I was going to betray one true friend that I had ever made in the life that was filled with betrayal. I would be murdering one family that had taken me in (in a way) without expecting anything in return.

Ryan took out a gun and held it to her head giving me an ultimatum “You have until 10 Jared. Or Rachel my dear sister here dies.” He started the countdown “10, 9, 8, 7, 6…”

**

Do you like to do your shopping online? Yeah, I like it too. Except the things I usually shop for aren’t available on your regular websites like the Amazon or eBay. The things I shop for are available on the websites like AlphaBay, SilkRoad3.0 and such – web sites that your regular search engines like Google and Bing can’t index. The websites I visit belong to a secluded part of the internet called Dark-Net – only a tip of a larger iceberg called Deep-web.

You ask how come a common hitman like me knows about this stuff, about the part of the internet that requires extreme skills of internet security and sometimes hacking even. Well, I am a learner – I wouldn’t say a quick one but I learn.

It was 5 years ago that I was saved by this eccentric kid from an attempted murder, he twisted his ankle in the process so I took him to the hospital and when we were waiting for his family to arrive we started talking. I came to know that he loved everything about computers but couldn’t afford to become a professional because he was from a poor, single-parent family and his mother could make ends meet with utmost difficulty let alone afford to send her son to a college.

I believe in Karma, so to balance the bad I did in the world to some extent I offered to sponsor his education. When his mother wouldn’t accept it I confessed to her that I wished I had someone who had sponsored my education when I was growing up so that I didn’t end up being the criminal that I was. That made her rethink and she reluctantly agreed to accept my money. In due course of time, she even accepted me as part of her family.

It was about two or three years later that I came across this word – Dark-Net and I knew there was only one person I knew who would know what it was – the kid. The next time we met I asked him and that was how I was introduced to the darker part of the internet.

Until then I was but a regular goon in Hall’s gang – one of the two gangs in the city. But my introduction to Dark-Net which not many knew about at that time was what made me stand out to be noticed by my boss. I secured so many highly profitable, illegal deals that included drugs and assassinations that he started to favor me more than anybody in the gang and obviously overnight stardom earned me enemies within the gang, including my boss’s own son Nick – which I failed to notice in the light of being drunk in my success.

Whatever was happening, a smart part of me knew that I wasn’t supposed to expose the kid to the gang. To keep them from exploiting his talents and I did exactly that. Nobody – including my boss knew my source.

**

It all started to crack down when the kid visited me at my home once. By this time, he knew what I was up to and seeing me looking for a drug deal, stated “All work and no play makes jack a dull boy.”

“Done with your practical exam?” I asked him as a way of reply without looking up from my laptop.

“Yup nailed it, you know what? Let me teach you how to have fun while working.” He said pulling my laptop towards him. “Bro, how many times do I tell you to update the security on a regular schedule?” he said looking at my system – though I have become a pro in dealing with the online, illegal markets he still takes care of security measures and other background, technical stuff that is required to maintain my anonymity.

“Come on kid, what are they going to get from me even if they hack my system or location?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes “Probably millions worth of bitcoins?” he said referring to the digital currency that is usually used in the Dark-Net trades but knowing that I would never listen to him, he lightened up and added “Do you want to know what the Dark-Net is speaking about our honorable prime minister?” he asked me with an evil grin.

I smiled back humoring him. Giving him a leeway for not taking his warnings seriously. One link led to another and we ended up on a defunct chatroom – that revealed stuff we would never have expected. The kid proactively connected a hard drive and started downloading the contents of the site. It was seconds later that the chat was wiped clean.

We sat there in silence staring at the computer. After a moment, he exclaimed “Oh god! What should we do? Should we take this to the police?”

That set the wheels in my head spinning “do you know the percentage of the police that is corrupt in the system?” I asked.

“A lot…” he replied realizing.

I nodded “Close. And listen I will take care of this and if you want to keep your family safe – not a word to anyone, even the best of your friends. Do you understand?” I asked. He nodded. If anything else I knew that the idea of a threat to his family, his mother would keep him grounded.

I should have heeded my own warning but instead, the greed of being in the good graces of my boss made me make two calls – the first one to my boss and the second one to the Prime minister himself who had always supported our rival gang – the Masons. Yes the mafia gangs do have the support of politicians most of the times and it is rare but it does happen sometimes that the supporting politician is the prime minister of the country.

As expected there was an attempt on my life the following day but we were prepared, I had hidden the drive in my safe house that nobody knew of. This mistake on his part to secure the evidence further gave us an edge over the minister when we visited him on his birthday to make a deal – he was to convince the Masons to share their harbor port with us to get the shipments without the headache of customs that we usually dealt with if the shipment was to arrive in any other harbors other than the one that was three states away. We wanted to secure something closer to home.

That was when I met Ryan– a total psychopath who liked to kill just for the sake of it and his sister Rachel who was visiting the prime minister as part of the entourage of the family visit – a total contrast to her brother. Something clicked that day, Rachel and I started seeing each other in secret. Throwing caution to the wind that it wouldn’t end well if either of the gangs came to know of our tryst.

**

She looked around to make sure she wasn’t being followed and then walked to a house. I smiled to myself. It was fun to watch her take that extra care. I opened the door even before she knocked and she fell into my arms.

“What makes you smile today mister?” she asked.

“It’s fun to watch you take that extra care to keep me safe. You know all this wouldn’t be needed if we just told your father about us.” I said mockingly.

“Yeah, and it wouldn’t take much longer after that for you to be staring at the end of a .380 caliber gun.” She said not at all entertained.

“I thought your father was against guns,” I said having never seen Mr. Mason carrying a gun.

“He hates them but that doesn’t mean he is dumb. He always carries one, .380 being his favorite in his IWB -concealed holster.” She said getting further frustrated.

“You alright?” I asked.

She shook her head “I hate it. I hate being around my father and idiot of a brother. I hate to be around crime all day.” She ranted and then suddenly smiled saying “I am lucky I met you. How the hell did you get to blackmail the Prime minister of the country?” she asked as always surprised.

Nothing got into my head after her word that she hated crime because I felt guilty “Rachel, do you truly love me?” I asked.”

“What do you mean?” she asked surprised.

“I know nothing about survival other than through crime and you just said you hate crime. The crime was the reason for how we met. Do you even understand what you are saying? Do you know for sure that I am not some mistake?” I realized the moment I said it that I shouldn’t have said that. But it was too late. She walked away, tears in her eyes.

**

It had been a week since she spoke to me. I tried calling her number repeatedly and she rejected my calls repeatedly. It was with that frustration that I set up a pickup deal worth 7500 bitcoins equal to more than 10 million USD (more than 670,000,000 Indian rupees) for my gang. As always I chose random goons from the gang for pickup and gave them the details of the pickup, got drunk to overcome the frustration that Rachel wasn’t picking up my call and passed out.

I woke up to the ominous trilling of my phone. I looked at the time and it was 2 in the morning. I looked at the number but didn’t recognize it. I would have usually not answered but the hope that it might be Rachel made me answer it and heard a very low voice from the other end.

“Sir, this is Keller.” It took me a moment with sleep, hangover and frustration over not hearing Rachel’s voice, to realize that Keller was the police officer I kept on a payroll for information.

“What is it, Keller?” I replied realizing it must be important if he was calling me at this time.

“Sir, I heard that they have proof about a deal that you are making and they are sending out teams to make arrests. One team is getting ready to come to your house now.”

I looked at the time again it was too late to save the goons at the pickup. I made a quick decision; I had to get out of the house. I thanked Keller as I looked out the window and cut the call. I grabbed my gun, a couple of bullet magazines; smashed my laptop, put the hard drive in a bucket of soda, dumped some sugar and salt-pepper for good measure and then, dumped my cell phone in the fish tank, grabbed my coat and exited the house. As I turned the corner, the unexpected happened. The members of my own gang were waiting to ambush. In the confusion that it was one of their own and with confused loyalties; I was shot in the leg but was able to make it out of the ambush alive.

**

Running from cops and running from my own people. I was able to recollect my thoughts only after I was able to do basic first aid to the gunshot wound on my leg in my safe house. I could have gone to the kid’s house but I didn’t want to take the chance of exposing him. Being pursued by cops was one thing but by my own people? I realized my only lead was Keller. It was a risk I had to take – I called him from a payphone.

“Hello?” he answered his phone.

“Keller, are you alone?” I asked before revealing anything.

“It’s been very long time Dave. Good to hear from you.” He replied and said off the phone to someone “Dave, my longtime friend. I need to take this call.” a couple of minutes ticked by before he spoke again.

“Sir, I heard what happened at your house. Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yes Keller, I need to ask you something,” I said not wanting to waste any time “who brought in the evidence against me?” I asked when he didn’t interrupt.

“That would be Drake sir.” He replied after a pause.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes sir, 100%”

“Is this Drake corrupt?”

“To the core sir, he is corrupt to the very core. They say he has no morals left.”

“Where can I find him, Keller?” I asked.

After I got the details, I hung up the phone and checked my gun. I was down to the last 10 bullets of my ammo. I had made a decision to not put any ammo or guns in the safe house as a strategy to escape police if need be but I regretted the decision now. I had 10 bullets left to get my life back. To make the most of the meager number of bullets I had, I broke off a PVC pipe to make it into a makeshift silencer.

It was evening when I stepped out of the house. I waited for Drake to take his wife’s Chihuahua for a walk as was his usual regime according to Keller and followed him. When I was sure he was alone, I made my move. “Hello, Drake.” I greeted him with my gun.

He was terrified. He didn’t make a move for his gun which meant he wasn’t carrying any but he did look around for an escape. I fired a shot into the air through the silencer warning him I was serious. Another shot to his leg and a dozen of questions later I got the answers that I was looking for. I took his phone and tied him to the tree with his dog’s leash as a good measure and left.

**

Nick, I should have known, I should have guessed. I had sensed that he had a disliking for me but I didn’t realize that it was to such an extent that he would go against his own father. I knew how he did it – if I had paid enough attention when making the deal on the Dark-Net by not thinking about Rachel I would have realized that it was a trap and if I had heeded the kids warnings to update my security frequently I would not have given the police the evidence they needed to make a move against me and it was too late to care why. I only wanted to prove it to my boss so that I could have the hit placed on me taken down.

I knew Nick’s daily schedule. I waited for hours in the alley of the parlor that he regularly visited. When I had all but given up hope that he would come today, Drake’s phone rang and it was Nick’s number. I wanted to hear what Nick had to say to Drake. Timing myself not to exceed 60 seconds if they were somehow tracking the phone if they had found Drake, I answered. The voice on the other end knocked the wind out of my lungs. It was small, it was as if she was tired – it was Rachel.

“Rachel?” I asked forgetting about the 60 seconds window.

“Jared, they know. They know that we are together.” She said in between sobs,

“Who knows?” I asked wondering.

“My father, brother and your boss – they know.” She said “They think I know where you are hiding and want to know but I don’t know where you are Jared.” She said coughing.

“Where are you now?”

“At our house.”

“Rachel, hold on. I will be there” I said controlling my anger.

**

I took down five goons at the Mason’s house before I ran out of ammo and was caught. I was dragged into the living room of Masons. I saw Mr. Mason and my boss Mr. Hall sitting on the table while Nick and Ryan stood behind them. My eyes searched for Rachel and I found her silently sobbing in a corner.

“Why?” I directed the question to my boss.

He took his time to arrange his golden eagle pin on his tie and admiring his rings on the finger before he answered “I came to know that you were ready to turn into a witness for the state all for the love of his daughter.” He pointed at Mr. Mason “Now, I can bribe to get my people back but disloyalty is the top crime on my list Jared. So, I made a deal with Mr. Mason here. They are protecting the Prime minister and they want to know who your source is. He offered to use his daughter as bait to draw you in to help me get my revenge and all they wanted was a name.”

“I take it that Nick was the one who told you I was planning to turn into witness?” I asked my boss. I immediately saw Nick make a move for his gun. Fortunately, my boss had anticipated this move. He held up a hand to stop Nick and said “What are you suggesting Jared?”

“Get your contacts in the police, ask around. Nick was the one who tipped off the police.” I just wanted to earn back a little of my boss’s support if I had to get out of here alive. It didn’t matter anyways in the end.

It happened so fast. I didn’t realize it until I saw the gun in Nick’s hand, shock on my boss’s face, and anger on Ryan’s face and cry from Rachel that I was shot – in the torso this time. I buckled unable to support my own weight.

I heard two more shots and saw that Nick and my boss were shot – in the face by Ryan this time. I heard a scuffle of boots from Hall’s gang and then Ryan shouted “You guys are outnumbered three to one” and they were “surrender, and I will let you live.”

One by one they were foolish enough to surrender and when all of them did – it was a massacre.

He then turned to me “Now, Jared about you.” As I hung on to my dear life, he pushed Rachel close to me. “You give me this geek’s name or she dies.” I looked at her trying to apologize and he gave me the ultimatum “… 5, 4, 3…” something unexplainable happened. Mr. Mason who had been a silent spectator until now was standing in front of me, in between me and Ryan “Ryan, enough!” he shouted “This isn’t how you do business. If you keep on breaking your promises and killing people for no reason at all nobody will trust us to do business with us.” He looked down at me and said “Take him to the hospital” He indicated at two of his goons

As the goons made an indecisive move to take me to the hospital, I heard a shot and Mr. Mason came crashing down in front of me, surprise stuck on his face and blood trickling from his forehead. When I looked up expecting to see Ryan – thinking how immoral he had to be to kill his own father, I saw Rachel standing on her own, the tiredness and pain in her eyes gone, with a gun in her hand. She uttered a single word and I was convinced I was dreaming “Idiot” she repeated.

She ranted “He should have realized by now he had no control over the gang. Father, why couldn’t you just keep your mouth shut?”

She looked at my surprised face and smirked. “Jared. I had such a perfect plan. If all had gone according to the plan only two people would have died – you and your geek. This is all messed up. Your friend Nick ruined everything by becoming greedy. All for what – approval of his father, he should have known that power is for the taking.”

She wiped the blood on her lips. “In the fear of losing you and in the process losing your geek I had to ask Ryan here to step in.”

All I could think of was “Why?”

She exhaled in frustration “In all the assassination game of his brother that our beloved prime minister played – you missed one thing – the assassin. I was the assassin. If the prime minister was going under he would take me with him. Now with so much power around, can I let that happen? No.”

“Now, for the sake of inexistent lurve that we had” she mocked “tell me who it is dear.” She held on to my collar and whispered the last part in my ear seductively.

“Over my dead body” was the best reply I could come up with. “So be it,” she said and pointed the gun at my heart and I fired. Before Ryan could realize that it was me who had fired I shot him too. I had remembered in the panic of a moment from our conversation that Mr. Mason, whose dead body had fallen close to me, always concealed a gun on him.

In the confusion that followed – about all of the leaders of the two gangs dead, I dragged myself out alive and drove to the nearest doctor I knew – money can buy most of the things in this country including the silence of a doctor.

**

As I lay recuperating from the wounds I started to recollect – how did I ever end up loving Rachel? But in my line of work where trust and loyalties are hard to come by it was more than likely to happen. And then when I realized all I had for her now was hate, I started to think if it was ever love? May be not – if I did truly love her I might have given up the kid when I saw her being threatened. I think some part of me knew the truth even though I didn’t or maybe they were all just convenient, co-incidental circumstances that led me to where I am right now – I will never truly know. Whatever the reason, the people who truly deserved to live – the kid and his mother are alive. As for me coming out of it alive, for the lack of a better word I would say I was just the casualty of the war in totally wrong sense.

The two gangs who posed a threat for the kid didn’t exist anymore as for the prime minister himself, it so conveniently happened that some anonymous stranger posted the details of the planned assassination of the Prime minister’s brother on the internet. They couldn’t track the whistle blower because; he had used a dark-net browser probably a TOR to cloak his identity. When they did try to track him down they found out that his signal ended in a far off island where our country didn’t have an extradition treaty. As for the prime minister the opposition and the public asked for an investigation and he was found guilty.

The first thing I did when I was able to walk on my own was to set up a bank account and deposit money more than enough to support the kid in his education and gave the details to his mom for safe keeping.

“Is this a good bye son?” She asked me sadly wondering if I was going away.

I thought about it and said “No it isn’t.” and it wasn’t. How could I ever let go of one good thing that happened in my life? This was merely a break. A break to make sure that the dust I had stirred up has truly settled down.

“We will be waiting for you.” She said.

“And I look forward to see you soon, mom.” I said. It was only when she smiled and patted on my cheek I realized that I had called her mom for the first time.

I now have a family in the true sense.

**The end**