she organized it like downtown Seattle, with some main streets and some side alleys. The more obscene the nature of the business, the narrower and darker the alley was.
Cindy found more than a dozen sites set up by hired assassins. One of them was the site mentioned in her online chat a week earlier: Assassins Inc.
For the right price, there were scores of men (she assumed they were all men) who would kill whoever you wanted.
Most of the sites were priced competitively, all offering their services for about $20,000. They didn’t bother using bitcoin amounts, but she knew that’s how they’d want to be paid. Half up front, half when the victim was dead.
Cindy noticed the time on her computer said it was after 4:00 a.m. She yawned and stretched and reluctantly closed out of Tor and shut off her computer.
Chapter 4
July 5
Avril McKay wasn’t much of a sleeper and tonight was no different than any other night.
A Tuesday night in mid-summer, no school, not many friends who lived nearby, same old tension between her mom and dad. She woke and stared at the ceiling, not even thinking about what time it was. It never really made much of a difference. It was dark, so it wasn’t close to morning. Other than that, she didn’t care a whit what time it was.
As always, she lay awake and just listened to the sounds of the house. She heard the quiet hum of the air conditioner but nothing else.
“Good,” she whispered.
There’d been many times that she’d woken to all kinds of bad sounds coming from her parents’ bedroom. She hated those nights.
Avril never told any of her few friends that her dad was very mean. Nobody would believe her, ’cause he always looked cheerful and happy whenever anybody was around. It was only when she and Mom were alone with him that his face crunched up with anger, and that’s when she truly felt fear.
So far he hadn’t hit her, but sometimes he’d come very close. She could see it in his eyes, the cruel streak staring at her as if she were an evil witch that needed to be destroyed.
Mom always managed to stop him before anything happened, but Avril knew that she usually paid for that later. The bangs and whimpers coming from the master bedroom made her imagine all kinds of terrors. She never asked Mom about it. She never had the courage.
Mom would deny it anyhow.
Even at ten years old, Avril knew things no child should ever know. The biggest thing she knew was to keep it all a secret.
She hopped out of bed and pulled the curtains apart, letting moonlight stream into her room.
There was a two foot by two foot table sitting under the window, with a couple of Avril-sized chairs. She shuffled over to her closet and found her stuffed pink bunny, Juicy. Juicy was huge, almost three feet tall. Dad had won her at some type of game at a carnival when Avril was a baby. Juicy had been her constant friend ever since.
“You’re white,” she said as she settled the rabbit into one of the chairs. “’Cause you won last game.”
Sitting in the middle of the table was a chess set. She set up the white pieces in front of Juicy and placed the plastic black pieces in front of herself.
“What do you want to move?”
Avril stared at Juicy, waiting for her to answer.
“Pawn? Which one! I can’t just guess!”
She reached over and moved Juicy’s king’s pawn ahead two spots.
Avril wiped her eyes with her clenched fists, trying to wake herself up a bit.
She loved the quiet of the middle of the night. It was the best time to play chess and the perfect time to just sit and not fret about anything.
Chess had been her focus in life since she was six years old. She played it every minute she could, and the times she wasn’t playing, she was studying. She could play out dozens of the most famous games ever played from memory. Even though Bobby Fisher died long before she was born, she knew every move he’d made to defeat Boris Spassky to win the World
Cindy found more than a dozen sites set up by hired assassins. One of them was the site mentioned in her online chat a week earlier: Assassins Inc.
For the right price, there were scores of men (she assumed they were all men) who would kill whoever you wanted.
Most of the sites were priced competitively, all offering their services for about $20,000. They didn’t bother using bitcoin amounts, but she knew that’s how they’d want to be paid. Half up front, half when the victim was dead.
Cindy noticed the time on her computer said it was after 4:00 a.m. She yawned and stretched and reluctantly closed out of Tor and shut off her computer.
Chapter 4
July 5
Avril McKay wasn’t much of a sleeper and tonight was no different than any other night.
A Tuesday night in mid-summer, no school, not many friends who lived nearby, same old tension between her mom and dad. She woke and stared at the ceiling, not even thinking about what time it was. It never really made much of a difference. It was dark, so it wasn’t close to morning. Other than that, she didn’t care a whit what time it was.
As always, she lay awake and just listened to the sounds of the house. She heard the quiet hum of the air conditioner but nothing else.
“Good,” she whispered.
There’d been many times that she’d woken to all kinds of bad sounds coming from her parents’ bedroom. She hated those nights.
Avril never told any of her few friends that her dad was very mean. Nobody would believe her, ’cause he always looked cheerful and happy whenever anybody was around. It was only when she and Mom were alone with him that his face crunched up with anger, and that’s when she truly felt fear.
So far he hadn’t hit her, but sometimes he’d come very close. She could see it in his eyes, the cruel streak staring at her as if she were an evil witch that needed to be destroyed.
Mom always managed to stop him before anything happened, but Avril knew that she usually paid for that later. The bangs and whimpers coming from the master bedroom made her imagine all kinds of terrors. She never asked Mom about it. She never had the courage.
Mom would deny it anyhow.
Even at ten years old, Avril knew things no child should ever know. The biggest thing she knew was to keep it all a secret.
She hopped out of bed and pulled the curtains apart, letting moonlight stream into her room.
There was a two foot by two foot table sitting under the window, with a couple of Avril-sized chairs. She shuffled over to her closet and found her stuffed pink bunny, Juicy. Juicy was huge, almost three feet tall. Dad had won her at some type of game at a carnival when Avril was a baby. Juicy had been her constant friend ever since.
“You’re white,” she said as she settled the rabbit into one of the chairs. “’Cause you won last game.”
Sitting in the middle of the table was a chess set. She set up the white pieces in front of Juicy and placed the plastic black pieces in front of herself.
“What do you want to move?”
Avril stared at Juicy, waiting for her to answer.
“Pawn? Which one! I can’t just guess!”
She reached over and moved Juicy’s king’s pawn ahead two spots.
Avril wiped her eyes with her clenched fists, trying to wake herself up a bit.
She loved the quiet of the middle of the night. It was the best time to play chess and the perfect time to just sit and not fret about anything.
Chess had been her focus in life since she was six years old. She played it every minute she could, and the times she wasn’t playing, she was studying. She could play out dozens of the most famous games ever played from memory. Even though Bobby Fisher died long before she was born, she knew every move he’d made to defeat Boris Spassky to win the World
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