The Courbet Connection (Book 5) (Genevieve Lenard) (11 page)

“Yes, there is.” She got up while tapping on her tablet. The large screen against the wall came to life. Displayed on it was a website. “In order to understand Silk Road, you bunch of non-techy people first need a quick lesson on Tor.” She pointed at the screen. “This is the big, bad, evil Tor.”

“Why are you being hyperbolic?” I asked.

“Because most people think Tor is the dark net, the evil net.”

“Isn’t it?” Manny asked.

“No. It’s just as evil as the internet you guys use every day. It is possibly much more helpful than the normal net. You see, Tor was initially sponsored by the US Navy. The original purpose of starting Tor was to create a safe place where crimes could be reported anonymously. Truly anonymously. It was also supposed to be a safe way for political dissidents, journalists and people living in politically unstable territories to report, connect and communicate with the rest of the world.” She paused theatrically. “Of course, I believe the US just wanted to be first to catch anyone willing to come over to their side.”

“Could you first give us the facts before your theories?” I realised my tone had been impatient and I added, “Please.”

“Not as much fun, but okay. Tor is also useful for people living in the witness protection programme and for undercover cops to stay in touch with their families and team. See, it has a lot of fantastic uses.”

“How does it work?” I had read up on it, but hoped Francine could add to my minimal knowledge.

“It’s called The Onion Router for a reason. If I visit your website using Tor, it won’t be a straight visit. My activity will
be encrypted and then bounced through a network of relays around the globe before it reaches your website. The encryption is multi-layered like an onion and therefore the name. If anyone, and by anyone I mean the NSA, CIA or one of those places, wants to eavesdrop on my internet movement, they won’t be able to—”

“Because the relays form too many layers between the original visitor and the end destination to identify either’s IP addresses at the same time.”

Francine pointed dramatically at me. “And that’s why you’re the genius. You’re one hundred percent right.”

“Why didn’t I know about this earlier?” I considered myself rather well-informed about the internet.

“Are you hiding from someone?” Francine asked. “Want to communicate secretly, don’t want anyone to know which sites you visit?”

“No.”

“That’s your answer. Unless you’re an undercover cop, a journalist, or someone like Snowden—who, by the way, used Tor to send the initial files to the newspapers—you won’t even think about needing a secret internet. Most people’s internet use is boring. Emails, social networks, maybe the odd illegal movie download, but generally nothing interesting. They’re also careless when using the internet. They use the same password for every single place they go to, never check their privacy settings and reveal details about their personal lives—all things that can be exploited by internet baddies. Even fewer people are paranoid enough not to have public profiles, not use social media and wipe their browsing histories frequently. Then there is the miniscule percentage that need to or want to use Tor.”

“I’m waiting for the ‘but’, supermodel.”

She sighed. “Unfortunately, it’s also the perfect place for crooks to hide. As you can imagine, many child pornography sites have made their way to Tor. Since no one can trace the origins, you’re quite safe uploading those awful videos as well as watching them.” She folded her arms. “May they all burn in Hades.”

“There is really no way at all to trace them?” I found that hard to believe.

“There’s always some way to get into places, my bestest friend.”

“Do you spend a lot of time there?” Colin asked.

“It’s a safe place for hackers to communicate, so yes. But most of my time I spend on the normal internet. That’s where the real secrets are. Companies think their systems are safe with the software and security they had specially designed, but often they’re stupidly easy to get into. And there I find all the dirt.” Her smile was genuine. “My favourite places are the financials. I’ll never be as smart as our Genevieve, but even I can spot the ways they try to hide stuff. Silly little people.”

“Tell them about Silk Road.” Vinnie nodded at us, his body language clearly communicating that he knew about this topic.

“This is something our resident weapons expert would be familiar with.” She winked at Vinnie. “Silk Road is, was, then is, then was the eBay or Amazon of Tor.”

“You don’t make sense.” I hated when she did that. “Does Silk Road exist or not?”

“The site is still online, but not really functioning. It’s had a lot of problems with its bitcoin protocols and millions were stolen.”

“English, supermodel!” Manny slapped his hand on the table. “Speak the Queen’s language, please.”

“Should I speak slower too, handsome?” She laughed when he made a guttural sound similar to a growl. “Okay, let’s first look at Silk Road. The first version of it was started as an online market, selling all kinds of things. It went live early 2011. What made it so very controversial was that it was not only selling books, clothes, art, computer equipment and other stuff. It was also trading in drugs, weapons and even assassinations.”

“That is outrageous.” It was the first time Phillip said anything. “If they were trading in those last three products and services, I have to wonder about the art that was sold there. Why didn’t we know about this, Genevieve? We might have been able to locate numerous stolen artworks on there.”

“We have.” Colin’s soft answer reminded me that his work for Interpol stretched further than the few investigations we handled. “Millard might not be familiar with Silk Road and all its functions, but every law enforcement agency’s cyber-crimes division knows it very well. We’ve located many works through Silk Road.”

“Are they still selling drugs, guns and murder?” Manny asked.

“No.” Francine tapped on her tablet and an article came up on the screen. “In late 2013, the FBI managed to shut down Silk Road. They arrested a man who had only been known as Dread Pirate Roberts.”

“What a ridiculous name,” Manny muttered.

“Of course you would think that. I’m not even going to try and inform you about the poetic meaning of that name.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Well, Dread Pirate Roberts was arrested and charged for a gazillion crimes, including murder for hire, drug trafficking and money-laundering. That didn’t seem to stop these guys. A month after the pirate’s arrest, another, or maybe the same, Dread Pirate Roberts relaunched the site. The next month three more people were arrested in connection with Silk Road. Another person took over the site for a while until their bitcoin protocol showed vulnerabilities. Now it’s pretty much dead.”

“I suppose they received all their payments in bitcoins, right?” Phillip was rather well-informed for a man of his generation.

“Yes. In case someone doesn’t know what bitcoins are, I’ll explain quickly. They were created in 2009 by some fabulously mysterious person only known as Satoshi Nakomoto. If you have a powerful computer, you can mint the coins by using your computer to solve stupendously difficult math problems. These problems are progressively made more difficult to avoid the number of bitcoins from growing too fast. It’s an online currency only and is the world’s first decentralised online currency. A central bank is no longer needed to issue this currency.” She winked at Manny. “Only you and your powerful equipment are needed.”

“Where is it used?” I asked. “Only in this secret internet?”

“Oh, no, there are shops in the US that accept bitcoins for their products. It’s not caught on much in Europe yet, but in some places in the US it’s quite common. On the internet you use, there are marketplaces that also accept bitcoins, but on Tor it is the preferred currency.”

I had so many questions, it was hard to choose just one. “How many other online markets are on Tor?”

“Quite a few, but not many are actually noteworthy. They start up, but are soon either shut down or close down on their own. The FBI is quite good at getting to the source and closing shop for them.” She smirked. “There was one site that was stupid enough to make two amateur mistakes, one worse than the other. Firstly, the products they had on offer were not all legal. Secondly, and the worst mistake, they accepted not only bitcoins, but payment through PayPal and Western Union. That made it easy for law enforcement to trace payments. Stupid.”

“What about Caelan’s new site?” Vinnie asked. “Did you find it?”

“Did I ever.” She tapped her tablet again and the screen displayed the storefront of an online store. “Lady and gentlemen, I present to you Sher Shah Suri.”

Vinnie laughed. “Say what?”

“Sher Shah Suri.” Colin tilted his head. “Hmm. That’s smart and also very interesting.”

“Maybe to you. To me it’s impossible to pronounce. I bet no one can say that five times in a row.” Vinnie chuckled again. “Why do you think it’s interesting, dude?”

“The real Silk Road was also known as the Silk Route,” Colin said. “It was actually a few routes that extended over more than six thousand kilometres connecting the East to the West—China to the Mediterranean Sea. It got its name from the lucrative trade in Chinese silk during a span of four centuries starting at two hundred BC. Nomads, monks, soldiers and obviously traders and merchants used this route.”

“Well, that’s all fine and dandy,” Manny said. “What about this shitty sherry show?”

Colin smiled. “Sher Shah Suri was a man also known as the Lion King. He was the founder of the Sur Empire in North India early in the sixteenth century. In his attempt to grow his empire he rebuilt a major road going from his territory to the south. It was then known as the Great Road. Today it’s known as the Grand Trunk Road, still a major north-south road.”

“The owners of this new online store weren’t very imaginative.” People were inherently lazy and loved to copy rather than create something new. “Replacing one trade route with the name of someone connected to another. Not very original.”

“Well, there’s no way I’m saying that tongue-twister.” Vinnie leaned back in his chair. “I’ll stick with SSS.”

“That’s how it’s referred to on Tor as well.” Francine sat down. “It took me surprisingly long to find it. I must say these
guys really hide themselves well. And you can enter by invitation only.”

“That’s not a good way to do business,” Vinnie said. “Don’t you want more people to find your online market?”

“One would think so. I suppose it’s because SSS is pretty much doing what Silk Road was shut down for.” Francine tapped on her tablet again. There were a few loud inhalations in the team room. On the screen was a page with different product photos, all in the same category. I counted twenty different handguns on display. Francine tapped again and another page came up, full of semi-automatic weapons.

“Those are illegal to own in most EU states,” Manny said.

“That’s another thing that sets SSS apart from Silk Road, who did most of their trade in the US. Since the Post Office in the US doesn’t check packages sent within the country, it was the perfect way for drug dealers to mail heroin, cocaine or prescription pills to the recipient. If the buyer was smart, he would anonymously rent a mail box a town away from his own, collect his drugs and no one would ever suspect a thing.”

“I h
ate to say it, but it
is
smart.” Phillip shook his head.

“But that’s the US.” Francine changed windows and showed a map of Europe. “See those twenty-six countries that I highlighted?”

“The Schengen countries?”

“We know that nobody checks at the borders if you drive from Spain to France to Germany to Holland to Italy.”

“Holland doesn’t border Italy,” I said.

“Ignore her.” Manny waved his hand at me. “Tell us why you highlighted the countries.”

“Because SSS offers a service to courier your drugs and guns for an extra fee. These guys smuggle these things from one country to the next. If I live in Hungary and want a semi-automatic gun that’s for sale in France, it’ll be delivered to a place of my choosing in Hungary.” Again she changed windows to what looked like a forum. “Here are quite a few discussions about the fantastic service SSS offers. Some of the people here have bought drugs from SSS and had them delivered the next day. Same with the guns. I didn’t have enough time to have a thorough look at the SSS site and to read through all the threads on the forum, but what I’ve found so far is quite shocking.”

“Have you found Courbet’s painting?”

“No. I plan to do that this morning.” She looked at the door. “Unless Caelan arrives and generously shares with us what he was talking about.”

Manny looked at his watch. “Doesn’t look like he’s an early bird. I suggest we all get on with what we’re getting on with. If that little bugger shows up, we’ll take it from there.”

“Doctor Lenard! Doctor Lenard! I’m here! It’s Caelan! I’m here!” The shouting came so suddenly that I jumped in my chair. I looked around Colin, who was sitting next to me in my viewing room. Through the glass door I saw Caelan peering around Vinnie, trying to see into my room.