Dark Web

By Daniel West

WARNING: ADULT CONTENT
This book contains dialog that includes, explicit sex, graphic violence, drug abuse, and mathematics. It is not intended for, and should not be distributed to, any person, or persons, under 21 years of age.

Graphic sex, gratuitous violence, copious amounts of drugs, Murder, Mayhem, Fraud and Identity theft. Hey… it’s just another typical day on the darknet.

The dark hero has to convince himself that he is a dark knight fighting for a greater good in order to justify his actions.
His fatal flaw is that everything he touches turns into complete and utter darkness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387156696

Book preview

Dark Web

Dark Web

Psychological Thriller

Daniel  West

Dark Web Is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Places and events have been created for effect

© Copyright 2017: Daniel West and Gestalt Epiphany, Ltd

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States.

ISBN 13 - 978-1-387-15669-6

9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

First Edition

Other Books by the Author

Dancing in Hell

A Guide to Surviving Your Spouse’s Mid-Life Crisis

Swan Song

Satire

Czech Mate

Psychological Thriller

Acapulco Gold

Psychological Thriller

Deadly MILF’s

Psychological Thriller

The stunning conclusion to the Czech series

The Charleston Shuffle

Psychological Thriller

The Spider and the Fly

Psychological Thriller

DreamScape

Psychological Thriller

The Burning Bush

Satire

Extreme Hunting

Season 1

Galactic Pirates

Sci Fi

The Admiralty

Book 2 of Galactic Pirates

The Ambien Defense

Legal Thriller

Dark Web

Psychological Thriller

Acknowledgments

"I won’t let you go"—James Morrison

I thank my son and coauthor, Daniel West, Jr., for standing by me all these years and helping produce this book

Table of contents

Dedication_

Dreams Become Nightmares_

Turning Gold into Lead_

The Ashes Scatter_

Tears Fall Like Rain_

Coming Soon_

About the Author_

Dedication

Jessica Smith-Tennes

Revenge – Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse

The idea for this book was inspired by, Jessica Smith-Tennes, it is a tale of betrayal and revenge.

If Jessica’s father was alive today, he would want the entire world to know that Jessica’s husband, Keith, killed the only daughter of Garland and Josephine Smith.

When Keith learned that his wife, Jessica, was diagnosed with cancer, instead of giving her the moral support that she needed in order to beat the ordeal, he chose to abandoned her and deprive her of the care that she deserved.

After abandoning her, he chose to terrorize her by breaking into her house, on at least three separate occasions, and refused to tell her what he was after. Once she had him locked out, he confessed that he had hidden silver coins and bullion inside the house, and he wanted it back.

His father had obtained this silver by refusing to pay the IRS and hiding his assets in this silver. His father had decided that owning this silver was worth leaving the comfort of his family and friends to spend the remainder of his life being confined inside a Federal Prison, being anally probed by a group of amateur Proctologists.

Keith, as did his father before him, determined that possessing that silver, blood money, was worth more than Jessica’s life and happiness.

Even after Jessica retrieved that silver and returned it to Keith, he continued to harass her. He refused to release his claim on her house and forced her to spend the next eight months in the courts, and her lawyer’s office in order to save her home. The first year after a diagnosis is the most crucial time to receive early treatment and obtain the best possible outcome.

Keith Getz deprived Jessica of that, thereby costing her the most valuable thing on earth… her life.

May he rot in Hell for putting his greed over the value of the life of a loved one.

WARNING: ADULT CONTENT

This book contains dialog that includes, explicit sex, graphic violence, drug abuse, and mathematics. It is not intended for, and should not be distributed to, any person, or persons, under 21 years of age.

Graphic sex, gratuitous violence, copious amounts of drugs, Murder, Mayhem, Fraud and Identity theft. Hey… it’s just another typical day on the darknet.

The dark hero has to convince himself that he is a dark knight fighting for a greater good in order to justify his actions.

His fatal flaw is that everything he touches turns into complete and utter darkness.

Dark Web

Psychological Thriller

Daniel  West

Prelude

Jessica read an ad on Craigslist:

Has your spouse been cheating on you?

Has your significant other done you wrong?

Bring me their personal information, and in return I will give you a one-hundred-dollar bill and a solemn promise that they will regret the day they chose to do you wrong.

Contact: [e-mail]

Jessica opened her laptop and sent an email to that address, she decided that she was going to get even with her husband for cheating on her.

When you find that one person who connects you to the world, you become someone different, someone better. When that person is taken away from you, what do you become then? ~ John Reese

Dreams Become Nightmares

Kevin sat in one of the rear booths in the Peachtree Diner. He chatted on the internet with one of his friends as he waited for his final customer of the day to arrive, "I have no use for humanity. There are billions of monkeys typing on billions of keyboards all around the world. Yet, the net result of all of that effort is that the internet is not a work of art, it’s a cesspool of garbage.

"Humanity was given the greatest tool of self-liberation that was ever conceived of, but instead of freeing themselves from the shackles of oppressive regimes, do you know what they are actually doing with that tool?

They watch porn, they go shopping, they play stupid video games, and they lie to each other in chat rooms. It’s like giving a Chimpanzee an assault rifle, instead of using it as the powerful tool that it is, he either throws it down and abandons it as being worthless to him, or he uses it as a club. That, my friend, sums up the net worth of the entire human race.

Kevin looked up as he heard the door chime go off. A beautiful, middle-aged, woman with long wavy Auburn hair was entering the diner. Kevin spoke to his friend, I gotta go, my next pigeon just flew into the coop.

Kevin’s friend laughed, Have fun.

Kevin logged off the chat window and closed his laptop, he waived toward the woman, Lady. I’m back here.

Jessica glanced toward the young man and nodded, she walked over to the booth and took a seat discretely across the table from the young man. She held out a manila folder as she asked, How does this work?

Kevin chuckled lightly, Not so fast, Tiger. Slide your driver’s license over here. I need to know exactly who I am dealing with. For all I know, you could be a police setup.

Jessica pulled her license out of her purse and slid it toward Kevin. Kevin used his cell phone to take a snapshot of Jessica’s driver’s license, and then slid it back to her.

The waitress walked over to the table and asked, Can I get you anything?

Kevin nodded, Sure thing. Bring each of us a cup of coffee and a slice of hot apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Jessica started to protest, I won’t be here that long.

The waitress laughed, "Honey, that’s what they all say, but they all do stay that long." She smiled knowingly as she walked away from the table.

Kevin waited until they had privacy again, "Jessica, that is your name, isn’t it? I am going to slide a hundred-dollar bill toward you, and then you are going to slide that envelope this way. After that, we will just sit here and have a pleasant conversation."

Can’t I just leave?

"You could… but then neither of us will have the answers that we need. I may ruin people’s lives and credit for a living, but I have my own moral code. I only do it to people who have it coming to them.

If this husband of yours isn’t a cheater, then we can end this business righthere, and no one will get hurt. If you are setting up an innocent man… Well, let’s just say that I have some very elaborate ways of turning the table on you. So… to prevent any of that from happening, we will just sit here and have a pleasant little chat, and we will both get the answers that we need.Jessica nodded, Fair enough. As she slid the manila envelope across the table.

Kevin took the envelope and slid it, unopened. Inside the fold of his laptop. He slid the hundred-dollar bill across the table to Jessica.

Jessica frowned, Aren’t you going to look inside the envelope?

No. I trust you, and I know who you are. Kevin stared intently into Jessica’s eyes, Tell me why you think your husband is cheating on you. Have you ever seen him with another woman?

"No. I haven’t seen him with another woman, but he just disappears for days at a time, with no explanation, and he is a pilot, so he can be having an affair anywhere in the world. There’s no way I could have him followed, or catch him in the act. But a woman just knows these things, he has been acting distant and detached lately."

Kevin nodded, "You appear to be in your mid-forties, and I assume your husband is the same? At that age, some men just need some private time to get their head back on straight. It is possible that he is just going off to a cabin, or the ocean, to think and reevaluate his life.

"As for hiding an affair, if you give me ten minutes on the internet, I can track his movements and hack into hotel camera feeds, anywhere in the world. If he is cheating on you, I will have evidence of it."

Jessica nodded, Then, do it, but I don’t want to see any pictures of that woman. His name is Paul Kirschner, he is a pilot for Airmasters.

Kevin pulled out his laptop and flipped it open, he started preforming a ‘deep search’ of this Paul Kirschner, tracking all of his credit transactions and movements over the last three months.

Kevin nodded in recognition as the waitress placed the coffee and the hot apple pies in front of him, and Jessica.

Thirty minutes into his search, Kevin looked up in frustration, "The guy is definitely hiding something, but he’s damn good at it. He seems to go completely off the grid for days and weeks at a time. I can’t say that it is an affair he’s having, but it’s something, and in case you didn’t know, he’s hiding money… a lot of it."

Jessica smiled at Kevin, Thanks, I knew that it wasn’t just all in my head. I knew that he was up to something, and after seeing you do that search, I don’t feel even slightly bad about not being able to figure out what that something actually is.

***

Paul sat in the rear area of a sandwich shop in South Atlanta. He opened his laptop and logged onto the TOR network. From there, he went to the site for ‘Midlothian Murder Mysteries.’ The heading under the nameplate read, ‘Where readers hire writers to write the exact story that they want to read. Paul logged in to the ‘writers’ section of the site, using the screen name, Saintie Claws.

Paul went straight to the story that he truly longed to write. It was the epic tale of an adventure to Saudi Arabia, in which, the hero of the story slew the financial kingpin of a human trafficking network.

Paul knew that he could write a masterful thriller about that grand adventure, but he had two problems. The writer’s fee to secure that story was out of his reach, and that story was listed in the ‘Unsanctioned’ list.

Midlothian Murder Mysteries, classified their ‘stories’ in three different categories.

Fully Sanctioned, meant that the reader’s information had been verified, the subject matter was genuine, and the end product had been paid for in advance.

Partially Sanctioned meant that some key aspects of the storyline could not be verified, but the funds were available to any writer who wrote that particular story.

Unsanctioned meant that writing that story would be extremely difficult, and that notice of intent had to be given at least thirty days in advance in order to have the funds available if the writer was able to actually create that story. But with great risk came great rewards. The Unsanctioned story that Paul wanted to write paid a mindboggling two thousand five hundred bitcoins, about three million US dollars.

Paul’s current dilemma was the five percent writer’s fee that he had to pay upfront in order to secure that particular story. He currently did not possess the one hundred and twenty-five bitcoins that he needed to lock in that particular story.

Paul shook his head in frustration, well… one epic adventure deserved another. He did possess the bitcoins, and talent, necessary to parlay his funds into the required amount. All he needed to do was set up a nice little clean up mission, and write at least forty stories within the same week, it would be difficult to pull off, but Paul was confident that he could do it. Besides, this run would be a good way to hone his skills before he entered into the big game.

Paul went through the, Fully Sanctioned, list and started looking up stories in which pedophiles were murdered in revenge for the trauma that they had caused their victims. Paul had his own moral code, stories in which people were killed in order to collect inheritances or insurance payoffs paid a hell of a lot better, but Paul refused to write any story that did not involve a rapist, or a child molester, being murdered.

Paul entered his search parameters and came up with almost ten thousand stories that needed to be written. He shook his head, so many juicy stories, and so little time to write them all. He narrowed his search to a two-hundred-mile radius of Atlanta, Georgia, and still came up with a mind boggling, eight hundred, prospective stories that needed to be written.

Paul pulled up an online map and charted a path heading north along I-75 to Cincinnati, Ohio, then heading east along I-74 to Indianapolis, Indiana. From there, he headed south along Interstate 65 to Birmingham, Alabama, and finally, following Interstate 20 east, he returned to Atlanta, Georgia.

In order to fund his Epic tale. he needed to pinpoint at least forty stories that he could write along that route. Each of those stories had to pay a minimum of twenty bitcoins.

Paul opened a grid search map on his laptop and started pinpointing towns along that route that had stories, fitting his criteria, that needed to be written.

Once he had his possible candidates list trimmed down to fifty, he started using street map views of the locations, to find the easiest stories to write and then be gone before any cops showed up to spoil his adventure.

The readers, on this particular website, preferred to pay for stories in which the killer gets away with the crime.

Paul settled on a list of forty-two names, no two stories would be written in the same town, and no two stories would be written using the same storyline.

There would be a lot of suicides, car accidents, and home fires. An occasional home invasion, robbery, and murder wouldn’t hurt, especially in the larger, crime ridden, cities. And if that ‘home invader’ happened to get particularly brutal with his victim… so much the better.

Paul found an ad for an interesting story that needed to be written in a town north of Atlanta, in a city not too far east of I-75, Ronald Gainey, age 42, Dalton, Georgia, molested at least seventeen boys, ages 7 to 9. The payout to the author was twenty bitcoins.

Paul decided to pay the deposit. (five percent commission fee to the book agent), was just 1 bitcoin.

Paul clicked on the link in order to accept the writing assignment. He transferred the bitcoin from his offshore account at a casino in the Bahamas, then signed his user name, Saintie Claws, to the job credit. Under the heading, ‘How does the victim die?’ Paul wrote Victim has a heart attack after smoking a cigar, Coroner misses the excessively high amount of nicotine in his system.

Paul started singing softly to himself as he finalized the names on his list, Oh you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why, Saintie Claws is coming to town, he sees you’ve been molesting, he knows you’re a per-vert, he knows that you’ve been as bad as it gets, so get ready to eat the dirt. Oooooh, you better write your will, you better, buy a pine box, ya gotta get right with God, I’m telling you whyyyyyy. Saintie Claws is comminnn toooo townnnnn.

Paul finalized his list with a name from his own hometown. Striking a target in his hometown was against all of his own personal rules, but this one was different, he would make an exception in this case.

Name: Doug Williams, age 34, Atlanta Georgia. Brutally raped (doing severe physical damage) to at least four different girls, ages 5-7.

As Paul paid the deposit. to the book agent, signed his screen name, Saintie Claws to the contract, and filled out the cause of death, ‘Jumped off the roof of his apartment building out of remorse for his actions’, Paul started whistling the tune Brighten the corner where you are.

The cause of death he listed, was a very important aspect of this process. When the book agent confirmed that the actual cause of death matched the storyline, the book agent would automatically transfer the writer’s fee. to the account of the author who paid the deposit and signed their screen name to the contract.

If a writer had to improvise, and change the storyline, at the last moment, it could get a bit problematic to get paid for their final rendition of the actual story.

In those cases, it was important to contact his publishing company as quickly as possible, and explain the final editing that had to be done, before news of the changes became public knowledge.

That way, a writer still received the proper credit for their intellectual property. Getting paid for their artistic ability is very important to any aspiring writer.

***

Jessica finished off the last of her hot apple pie, she excused herself and stood up from the booth, as she slid the hundred dollar bill back to Kevin, I don’t need the money, I am quite well off.

Kevin Chuckled softly as he slid the bill back to her, "You do need this money. It is an important part of your revenge fantasy. Taking the money ensures that the information you provided will get acted on. No one wastes an investment.

Buy yourself a souvenir to remember this by, perhaps a piece of jewelry. Every time you see it, or wear it, you will be reminded of the fact that you refused to just sit back and be a victim.

Jessica nodded and took the hundred-dollar bill as she left.

Kevin watched that pretty little ass sway as she walked out of the diner, he shook his head thinking, I could have talked her into giving me a piece of that ass, but she isn’t the type of woman who would like it the way I like to take it. She’s far too classy for S & M.

Kevin snorted in amusement as he looked at the Manila envelope tucked neatly inside his laptop, this Paul, character, is a complete and total idiot for cheating on a woman like her, a man couldn’t hope to find a better piece of ass. 

Kevin picked up his gear and placed it inside his carrying case, before heading over to the counter to pay the waitress.

Kevin walked down Peachtree Street heading toward his apartment building, he passed Maya standing on the side of the road, she was wearing her white crop top blouse and a black mini-skirt.

Kevin called out, Follow me home, I’m having some coke delivered, it’s going to be a good day for me.

Maya frowned, You hurt me the last time I partied with you.

Yes, and I’m going to hurt you this time too, but I pay well and its better than hooking on a street corner.

Maya took a look at the people in the cars that were starting to cruise the area, she turned to Kevin and nodded, OK, but try not to tear me open this time, it takes a long time to heal.

Kevin snorted in amusement, I’ll do my best.

Maya followed Kevin back to his apartment, Kevin flipped open his laptop and logged onto the TOR network. He pointed toward the bathroom, You might as well go in and take a shower, the runner will take about an hour to get here, and I have some serious transactions to make. I think this latest ID packet will be a huge score. We will just have to see how the bidding war goes.

Maya turned on the shower, then stripped down, she stuck her head out the door and called out to Kevin, Order a pizza too, I’m hungry.

Kevin nodded, Is Pepperoni, OK?

Sure, I don’t care. She closed the door and stepped into the shower.

Kevin perused the deals on coke before deciding where to make his purchase, he typed in the amount desired and transferred the bitcoins to the dealer. He opened a second window to Mario’s pizza on the WWW, and ordered a large pizza, paying for his purchase with bitcoins.

Kevin reopened his TOR window and uploaded a copy of the pilots gate pass to his bidding site, blocking out all of the vital information, then he posted the ad, "I have a Super Primo ID kit for sale. I have all the usual ID information, but as a kicker, I have an airline pilot’s boarding pass and his bank account information. I am told that he earns about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year.

"Who knows how much moolah may be in that bank account, or what some sly person can do with his credit information. Did