Page 19 of Justified (Ruthless Vigilante #1)

Chapter six

T urns out, I was right. 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.

“Why do I have to do the shopping?” I whined.

“Because you will be available during the day and I do all of the cooking. Don’t be a bum.”

I chuckled and walked towards the table where my mask and gauntlets were.

“Fair enough. All right, stay safe,” I said as I slipped on the rest of my gear and grabbed my provisions bag before climbing in behind the wheel of my car.

Using the remote control, I opened the garage door and pulled out.

Crystalane was a very rich suburb just outside of the city.

It would take me at least an hour to get out that way.

Good news was that it was now past rush hour and traffic wasn’t so terrible.

I drove out to the address Jordan gave me.

It took an hour and fifteen minutes to get there.

That was with me driving at least thirty miles an hour over the speed limit.

I’d love to be able to fly. That was an ability I really wished I had.

I parked in an alley two blocks away from the location after I drove past it.

Walter’s home was awfully grand. At least two-thousand acres of land covered with trees.

Of course, that was all I could see as I drove by.

I was pretty sure there was a pool, tennis court, guest home, and a huge, sprawling mansion.

That was typical of these types of estates.

Sometimes life just wasn’t fucking fair.

I traveled back to his property on foot.

From what I could tell, there wasn’t much security.

I did spot some cameras, and I managed to avoid them thanks to the binoculars I carried in my utility belt, which had both infrared and night-vision capabilities.

I continued to make my way through his property, passing his tennis court, private pond, and the swimming pool.

The guest house was on the other side of the mansion.

The closer I got to the house, the more cameras there were.

He also had a few security guards monitoring the area.

So far, I’d only counted four. I was sure there were more inside monitoring the camera feeds.

Another little device I had with me to avoid this mess was an EMP generator that carries enough power to knock out all things electrical within five-hundred yards.

That was good enough to knock out the power in this mansion.

Perhaps, I would talk to Jordan to see if it would be possible to piggyback on some asshole’s satellite so I could get some extra eyes inside these locations I was always scouting.

I found myself a comfortable spot with a good vantage point.

I was going to be there for a while. I looked into my bag of provisions and pulled out a bottle of water and a stick of beef jerky.

I watched the grounds for hours, memorizing the routines of the security guards.

As the sun started rising, I found another hiding position, one that would give me cover during the day.

Sitting there surveying the house was boring as fuck, but also something I was well trained at.

At around seven a.m., a limousine pulled up to the front and one Mr. Walter Darring walked out of the front door of his mansion with what I assumed was his assistant.

He was an older gent, at least sixty years of age.

Mr. Darring wore an impeccable suit of ashen gray.

A businessman by day and a monster by night.

I guess many of us had dual roles. He climbed in the car with two more security guards dressed in black suits.

Well, now I knew how the man traveled and how many people he had under his employ for protection on the road.

I needed to figure out which would be the best way to take him out. At his home or on the street?

Taking him down on the street might be too public. I wanted to do this with stealth. I decided to go home for now and come back tonight. I was going to need my tranquilizer rifle for this one.

“I have another name for you,” Jordan said when I returned.

“I need to take a shit and get a few hours of sleep. Then I want a real meal when I wake up,” I said, snatching off my mask as I made my way towards the bathroom.

“Umm, okay,” Jordan said. “Do you want to know about the new target?”

“Not right at this moment. Tell me about him when I wake up and can focus better,” I said, then closed the bathroom door. I handled my business, then washed my hands before stepping out. “You don’t want to go in there for a minute. Might want to put a biohazard sign up, just saying.”

Jordan chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Get some sleep. You’ll be busy enough later on, I’m sure.”

I nodded as I took off my jacket and shirt, revealing all of my rippling muscles Jordan was checking out. “Tonight, I will deal with Mr. Jingles, aka Walter Darring.” I took off my leather pants and climbed in under the covers naked. It didn’t take me long at all before I was fast asleep.

“Eric, it’s time to get up now,” Jordan was saying as he shook me awake.

I opened my eyes and rolled over, looking at him. “What time is it?”

“Six p.m., dinner’s ready.”

He walked away and I climbed out of the bed. I took another quick shower and got dressed. When I came out of the bedroom, Jordan was setting up the table for dinner. I took a seat in one of the chairs as he was bringing in the last bowl of food. He set it down on the table and then took his seat.

I looked at the spread of food he’d sat on the table. String beans, mashed potatoes, and meat loaf. “This looks and smells delicious.” I started piling food on my plate, I couldn’t wait to taste it. I was fucking starving.

We ate in silence for a while at first, then Jordan spoke. “Did the surveillance go well?”

I swallowed the juicy meatloaf and nodded.

“He probably has less than ten guards. Once I take out the electrical devices, no one will be able to call out for help or radio for back up. I’ll try not to kill the guards, but if they leave me no choice, I will.

What I want is to grab Mr. Jingles and take him someplace nice and quiet to have my way with him. ”

“Where are you going to take him?” Jordan asked, scooping mashed potatoes into his mouth.

“Someplace dark and dirty, like where his victim was. Anyway, that’s what’s going to happen tonight.”

“Do you want to know about the new target?”

I nodded. “Yeah, sure. Who are they?”

“A local politician.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Are you shitting me? Who?”

“Mayor Cecily Danvers.”

“Jesus. Are you sure about this, J?”

He nodded. “Positive. Trust me, there’s no way I’d be making mistakes about these targets. I know what you’re going to do to them, so I would never make a mistake about who deserves your justice.”

Okay, I believed him. “Is there any way we can prove they are involved? I mean, it looks like it’s building up to be a long list of targets. What if we can turn them in to the police?”

Jordan shook his head. “That was the first thing I tried to do. Even if law enforcement found a way to log into the site, they wouldn’t be able to track who’s bidding.

It’s like you told me, sometimes you have to work outside of the law to get justice.

I’m a criminal hacker, so I didn’t go about gathering my information legally, which means there would be laws protecting them if we tried to use the information we have against them. ”

“What about the money trail?”

“Foreign banks handle the transaction, which means they are not going to be working with the law to rat out their million and billion dollar clientele. They’re not under U.S.

jurisdiction. Not only that, but from what I’ve seen, the money looks to be going into a legit, albeit dummy, business, which is owned by a ghost corporation.

I even found a target who’s in France. He’s also a politician, so there goes your diplomatic immunity.

That’s a bunch of red tape and a lot of untouchable shit thrown into the mix. ”

“Okay, I get it. The law can’t help.”

“That’s why people like them, and sites like this, continue to exist. Don’t you think the government knows about the dark web?

With all of the illegal shit that goes down on that thing, nothing to very little is being done.

We’re in the major leagues with this one, Eric. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“If you think I’m flaking out, you’re wrong,” I told him.

He shook his head. “I don’t think that. But I’m concerned if you think we’re in over our heads. I mean, we’ve never tackled with people like this.”

I sat back in my chair. Of course, my plate was empty because that food had been good as fuck.

“We are in deep, we may even be in over our heads, but like you said… we can make a difference, so it doesn’t matter.

Just make sure you cover your tracks. I don’t want any of them to be able to track you down while we’re hacking their shit. ”

“Oh, trust me, I am taking all of the precautions.”

“I’m sure they thought they were, too. Just make sure you’re doing better than they did,” I said. I stood up and approached him. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, or me for that matter.”

“I am doing my best and that has to be enough, Eric,” Jordan said, looking up at me.

I nodded. “It is.” I leaned down, kissing him.

I pulled back and walked to my gun cabinet, pulling out my tranquilizer rifle and two dart cartridges so I could take out his security.

They might not know about their boss’ evil ways.

They might just be doing a job, so I would try the nice approach first. But if they got in my way, they would be dead.

After I loaded up, I climbed into my car and headed out.

Because of my plans for tonight, it was going to be a long one.