This digital fingerprint led the FBI agents to a small bistrolike café on Laguna Street in San Francisco called Momi Toby’s. Whoever the Dread Pirate Roberts was, he was either living in San Francisco or had spent some time there. But that was it. One measly clue that possibly pointed to the whereabouts of the Dread Pirate Roberts. “Not much I can do with it,” Tarbell said to Jared. “What am I going to do, send an FBI agent into a coffee shop in San Francisco and tell them to look for someone on a laptop?” Still, they had been scouring the Internet traffic from the café, looking for other leads.
After getting acquainted with everyone and being subject to a few of Tarbell’s “would you rather” jokes, Jared sat down at the computer, which was now an off-line replica of the Silk Road, and he began searching through its contents. He saw the chat logs where DPR had paid the Hells Angels to have people killed, and he saw other messages between DPR and Carl (as Nob) that were, curiously, encrypted and couldn’t be read.
“That’s strange,” Jared said to Tarbell. “You think Carl Force is trying to obstruct our investigation?”
“No clue, but something doesn’t feel right.”
Still, they had bigger things to worry about than a petulant and possibly rogue DEA agent in Baltimore. Jared spent the next few days with the FBI crew, working in lab 1A, delving through the server, listening to Tarbell’s unrelenting jokes, and then ending the evenings at the Whiskey Tavern a few blocks away, where Jared learned what pickle juice and cheap whiskey tasted like. As those nights would come to an end and everyone else went home to their families, Jared would plod back to his hotel room overlooking the sacred ground of the World Trade Center, and he would transform into Cirrus, the online forum moderator on the Silk Road, and spend the evening undercover working as an admin on the site.
A couple of days went by and Tarbell told Jared that “some guy from the IRS is swinging by later . . . Gary Alford or something like that. . . . He wants to take a look at the server.”
“Sounds good,” Jared replied, then looked back at his computer as he continued chatting with the Dread Pirate Roberts as Cirrus.
A few hours later Tarbell entered the lab with an African American man in his wake. “Jared, this is Gary Alford from IRS,” Tarbell said. “Gary, this is Agent Der-Yeghiayan from HSI Chicago.”
Jared looked up at Gary, taking in his wide figure, and as he was about to say hello, Gary looked back at Jared with confusion and frustration.
“Why does he get to bring his devices up here but I have to leave mine downstairs?” Gary asked Tarbell.
Tarbell had no desire to explain that Jared was working on his computer undercover and simply replied, “Different rules for different folks.” Gary didn’t like this answer and seemed even more annoyed now than he had been a few seconds earlier.
Jared then watched Gary peer up at the butcher paper on the wall with the words “silk road” written across the top. He was inspecting it, noticing all the Princess Bride jokes in the corner of the page and the IP addresses sprinkled everywhere. Gary seemed to be even more annoyed when he saw this, as if there was a party going on that he hadn’t been invited to.
Tarbell then introduced Gary to Thom Kiernan, the computer forensics expert, who said he would help Gary dig through the Silk Road server. Tarbell then sat back down at the table in the center of the room, unaware, or not caring, that Gary was crestfallen that he wasn’t involved in their investigation.
In a sulky mood, Gary got to work searching for people laundering money and Bitcoins on the Silk Road, but he kept looking over at Jared and Tarbell and then over at the big sheet of butcher paper. Finally Gary spoke up again. He had also noticed the words “Momi Toby’s café” on Laguna Street in San Francisco written under one of the IP addresses, and he asked what it was.
Tarbell, his head buried in his computer, explained that it was the one place that the Dread Pirate Roberts had logged in to the server. The only clue they had tying DPR to a location.
“Huh,” Gary replied. “I have a guy in San Francisco.”
“Oh yeah?” Tarbell said nonchalantly. “You’ll have to give us his info.” Gary seemingly didn’t like this answer, either. Jared watched this interaction take place, and he felt somewhat bad for Gary, who was visibly perturbed. But Jared also knew exactly what Tarbell was thinking, because Jared was thinking the same thing: A guy in San Francisco didn’t mean anything. There had been two dozen people whom agents from across the country had suspected of being the Dread Pirate Roberts at one time or another, and half of them were in the Bay Area.
With this retort from Tarbell, Gary peered back at the server and ignored Tarbell and Jared for the rest of the afternoon. A few hours later Gary stood up and walked out. He decided in that moment that this was clearly Tarbell’s investigation and there was no room for him to be any part of it. Based on the mountain of evidence Gary had seen on the server, the butcher block paper on the wall with all those IP addresses, and Jared’s undercover account, Gary decided that there was clearly no reason for him to send the FBI the name of his “guy” in San Francisco.
Chapter 58
JULIA COMES TO SAN FRANCISCO
The train door slid open and Julia walked onto the platform and into another world. She wasn’t sure this was the right stop until she saw the sign that read GLEN PARK. She made her way toward the exit, dragging a large wheelie suitcase behind her.
As she strode into the sunlight of San Francisco, she saw him standing on the street, waiting. His hair was as ragged as it had been the day they met, though he looked slightly different now. He was older? Or wiser? Or tougher? She didn’t know what it was, but something about him had changed. Still, Julia couldn’t control herself. She ran up to Ross and hugged him as she let out a crushing “ahhhhh.” She then stood back, looked him up and down, and blurted out, “Are you serious?” while laughing hysterically. “You’re wearing the same jeans I bought you five years ago!”
Ross looked down and smiled as he reached for her suitcase. “We have to hurry back to the apartment,” he said as they walked briskly along Diamond Street past the nail salons and coffee shops. “I’m picking up some new furniture today.” He explained that he had “moved into this new place a few days ago and—” As he spoke, she interrupted him.
“Let me guess,” she said. “You’ve been living without furniture, right?” Without giving him the opportunity to answer, she jabbed at Ross in a way that few people could. “You’re so cheap.”
As they walked, Julia seemed ready to burst at the seams with excitement about the weekend ahead. Ross had a slight edge to him but listened as Julia asked questions about San Francisco and how much he must love it here. “I’m not sure moving to San Francisco was the best idea,” he lamented, though he didn’t elaborate further.