Nigel led them to a table just outside the library and explained the Jake situation. Jet cringed when she heard Jake's name. Unfortunately, Jet knew Jake well. A couple of years ago, Jet's father got transferred to a military base just up the coast from Milford as a civilian contractor. During her first day at school, Jake made several unwanted advances toward Jet, which continued for more than a month. Jet liked to study outside the school gymnasium because it provided a semi-private, quiet area to study when it was too cold or rainy to practice. One day, Jake appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her by the arm.
“Get your hands off me, Creep!”
Jet shoved Jake back hard enough for him to lose his balance. As Jake stumbled, Jet spun around to flee, but another slightly shorter boy blocked her path. She attempted to run past when Jake grabbed her arm and started pulling her toward the gymnasium. She wriggled and almost broke free.
“Hold on to her, Donnie!” Jake yelled.
Before she knew it, she was in a darkened room. She had been so focused on Jake and his intent that she realized, too late, that the boys were carrying her to another area inside the gymnasium.
“Watch the door!” Jake said as he slammed it. Jake hurled her into an area that resembled a storage room. As she tried to get up, he pinned her down to the floor and immediately started kissing her.
Repulsed by his touch, she started screaming.
Jake backhanded her and quickly cupped his hands over her mouth. “If you do that again, I'm going to hurt you really bad, Bitch!”
He groped for the buttons on her blouse, but they wouldn't come free. Jet bit her lip and sobbed.
Is this really happening? Jet thought. At that instant, she heard voices.
“What are you doing here with the lights off, Young Man?” Mr. Robinson asked Donnie.
When Mr. Robinson got no response from Donnie, he pushed him aside and started flipping switches for the main gymnasium and adjacent hallways.
Startled by the change in ambient light, Jake stood up and attempted to flee toward the opposite end of the room where another door was barely visible.
Jet heard a loud crash. Jake was trying to move several tables that were placed in front of the door. Seconds later, the door of the storage room was flung open; it was Mr. Robinson.
Jet’s vision blurred as the tears flowed.
“Jet, are you okay?” Nigel asked. He had a worried look on his face. She shook off the bad memory.
“Yes, I would love to help you with your Jake problem, Nigel,” Jet said.
Nigel let out a small but meaningful smile.
“Since Jake doesn't want to give his information to Pretzelverse to help unlock his account, I'm thinking of finding an exploit of some kind to break into the account system. I read somewhere that there is malware, rootkits, or other software that can help me,” Nigel said. “But I don't know where to look for them.”
Jet didn't like hearing desperation in Nigel's voice. To her, Nigel had always appeared confident during their encounters at school.
“I think I have a solution that doesn't involve hacking and poses less of a risk than what you're proposing.”
Nigel thought for a moment, then asked, “What do you have in mind?”
“A lot of people answering phones at companies give out information to people claiming to be someone else all the time,” Jet explained. “After assembling a voice modulator circuit, you or I could sound like anyone.”
Nigel was stunned. He never knew it was that easy to fool people.
“Have you done this before?” Nigel asked.
“Well, it's complicated!”
Nigel didn't want to press the subject.
“How do I get my hands on a modulator device?”
“I know someone who knows someone.”
“Well then, let’s get started,” Nigel said with excitement in his voice.
Jet smiled in response. “It all starts with a pretext, a scenario that the person on the other end of the conversation must believe in order to obtain information or convince them to do something.”
“A believable story,” suggested Nigel.
“Exactly! You catch on quickly,” Jet said. She winked at Nigel.
“Since we can’t just make up a believable story on the fly, we need to set some goals. We need to ask ourselves some questions,” Jet continued.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“What kind of questions?”
“We need to get Jake off your back. That is our main goal,” Jet said. “Then we need to figure out the other details, such as the person we will be contacting and what information they will require. When you created Jake's avatar, what was his age?” Jet asked.
Nigel had painted a picture of a twenty-three-year-old college student attending nearby Milford State University. Unfortunately, that persona required some documentation they didn't have. Nigel would need to submit two forms of documentation, such as a driver's license, a utility bill, or a tuition bill. None of this was available, and forging one would take an enormous amount of effort.
“That is true for most people,” Jet said as she smiled at Nigel. She didn't want Nigel catching on that she liked him, but she couldn't help it—they had chemistry. “We can find just about anything on the Dark Web servers. We just need to work out the details on price,” said Jet.
“Should we go inside?” Jet asked. “There is little Wi-Fi signal here.”
“I have an amplifier,” Nigel said. “My friend, Milo, makes the best antennas.”
“Cool.”
“So you know how to access the Dark Web?”
“Sure,” Jet answered.
“Really! Can you show me how?” Nigel asked.
Jet explained that a special piece of software called a Virtual Private Network (VPN) was necessary to maintain anonymity. A special web browser was also required. Once Jet tested the connection, she demonstrated the use of a browser called MORP. “The Multipoint Online Remote Privacy was developed by the U.S. military to protect covert communications,” Jet explained. “The software is also used by criminals, freedom fighters, and privacy-concerned citizens.”
“Okay. I need to either create fake documents to show to Pretzelverse or hack into the electrical company for a recent bill,” Nigel said.
“Both options are risky, but we should be able to create some convincing forgeries of an electrical bill,” Jet said as she launched the MORP software. “There have been thousands of company breaches over the years, and Jake's mother's information is probably already on the Dark Web. Let's run a search.”
Jet frowned. She only had three signal bars on her laptop. She needed at least four bars to create a secure, reliable, and untraceable connection.
“Is there a way you can boost the signal, Nigel?” Jet asked.
“Yeah, let me switch bands,” Nigel said.
He adjusted the input gain on the radio in order to get more power to help boost his signal. He had to be careful because Milo said that the police often scan the area near public places for unusually strong signals. Nigel didn't think it was a problem tonight since it was a cold fall night, and he hadn't seen a soul on the street since he met Jet.
After some time, Jet handed the laptop to Nigel. He looked closer at the directory listing on the screen. The structure looked similar to that of a directory listing on a personal computer, with one exception. The file names seemed to be random strings of alphanumeric characters, all with the same extension: “un.”
“What is this? It looks like random strings,” Nigel said.
“The file names are purposely vague,” Jet said. “Some of these files contain links to other sites; others contain information. It is hard to tell without opening the files.”
“Is it safe to open?”
“It depends. These files can contain almost anything.”
“Then how do we safely find the information without getting into trouble?”
“On the Dark Web, it's very easy to get your computer infected if you click on any links or open the wrong file,” Jet explained. “But there are methods to anonymously open these files, and to request information.” Jet opened another window that contained a text document with several notes. “This is my cheat sheet. I had to write several algorithms to get it to work. I created a program that implemented each algorithm that scans and learns from each website. It's sort of like a search engine but on a smaller scale. I call it SpiderJet.”
Jet chuckled as she said the name of her pet project aloud.
“SpiderJet is based on recursion theory, which is like peeling the layers of an onion. You see how each piece is put together as you unravel it,” Jet said excitedly.
Jet searched her SpiderJet log for information about counterfeiters. She saw hundreds of hits in her saved index.
“Let's try one of these!” Jet said as she copied a cryptic link to her Scratchpad program, which allowed her to verify the link before going to it in the browser.
“I started using Scratchpad because I accidentally made a typo and got a very disgusting picture back once,” Jet said.
Jet trembled slightly. It could have been the cooling weather, but Nigel didn't think so.
After verification, Jet was on the intended Dark Web site. It looked like the most basic web page ever. It contained only a few icons with some text below each one. The site's name caught Nigel's eye.
“Who names their website Ye Olde Info Shoppe?” Nigel asked.
“You see all sorts of site names here. Some have really rude names, so try not to get offended if you see any.”
The first image displayed a picture of a driver's license with a caption which read, “Best Quality Licenses, any state for 0.516 DB.” The second picture was a passport. What caught his eye was a picture of an envelope. The caption read, “Address Verification, any address in the US, 0.751DB.”
“There.” Nigel pointed to the envelope picture. Jet hovered over the picture with her cursor for a moment. A small window appeared with the word “safe.” She clicked on the link, and a single page of links appeared. Nigel scanned the list for a moment before instructing her to click on a link that read, “Purchase Address Verification Service.”
What appeared next was a generic-looking form that asked for several pieces of information, including a photo.
“Be careful here, Nigel,” Jet cautioned. “You don't want to provide any personal information here, or anywhere else on the Dark Web, for that matter. You don't know who is requesting it, or if this site will provide you with what you want. We have to verify the merchant first.”
“How do we do that?”
Jet pulled up another MORP browser window that looked like a discussion forum. “This site is called Dark Web Cred, and it allows users to post reviews on merchants and transactions.”
After scanning these sites for the next twenty minutes or so, she finally came across some reviews for the site. Overall, the site had a score of 4.6. Not bad, but Jet had seen several other sites with higher ratings. She decided it was safe to use the site, but instead of using the form, she clicked on a nearly invisible link that read, “Contact site administrator.” The link was pale yellow on the white background—very easy to miss!
Nigel was beginning to realize that attention to detail was vital when dealing with the Dark Web.
A new window appeared in the foreground with a textbox, reply address, and a send button. Jet typed, “Interested in product, need escrow service, provide escrow wallet address,” and provided a return address of, “fountain_spade.leaf.un,” then clicked send.
“It’s done. When I get a reply back with a suitable DB wallet address, we can purchase the service,” Jet said.
“What is DB?”
“Oh, I forgot to mention it. It stands for Digibit, a digital currency. Almost everything on the Dark Web accepts Digibit.”
Jet glanced at her watch; it was nearly ten. “I’ve got to go, Nigel. Can we pick this up tomorrow?”
“Sure thing. Thanks again for all the help tonight.” He smiled at her as she left, and his smile lasted for much longer than she was in his sight.