33

RETURN TO HADES

As the three men discussed Cha0 and his possible
whereabouts, Mert could tell from their questions
and comments that they knew neither Cha0's
identity nor Lord Cyric's. The two agents told Mert
that he would have to return to Turkey,
re-establish himself on DarkMarket and flush
out Cha0 and his colleagues. They surprised
him even more by telling him that one of their
people controlled the DarkMarket server. Thus
they could easily help to get him back on the boards.

As far as Mert could ascertain, the FBI now
wanted to move in on all the remaining central
players on DarkMarket: Cha0, Lord Cyric, Master
Splyntr, Shtirlitz and Grendel. They had not told
him how exactly, but he was evidently supposed
to be instrumental in all this. It was not a
prospect he relished, but then neither was a spell
inside one of France's prisons, which were
rumoured to be among the most unforgiving in Western Europe.

The American agents offered Mert some vague
promises and armed him with a phone number
and email address for Lucy Hoover, the
Assistant Legal Attaché at the US Embassy in
Istanbul. He was also given an email account,
[email protected] (Mert chose the name),
through which he could leave messages for her.

Mert's sojourn in the Languedoc is the second
episode from his dream world that is not
verifiable. But he did establish contact with Lucy
Hoover of the FBI, who was in Turkey at the time.

Mert had been away for two months when he
arrived back on 2nd March 2008. The first thing
he had to do was devise a plan of action. He
decided to approach the news organisation and
TV station, Haber 7, offering them an interview in
which he promised to reveal the secrets