Page 94 of Counter Attack

“You got it. Tor is what’s known as ‘the onion router,’ meaning information is routed through thousands of layers called relay points.”

Alexis bit her bottom lip. “And that’s what makes it almost impossible for someone to track you.”

Dylan looked away from the computer screen toward them. “Right.”

“Exactly what do you do on the dark web?” Alexis asked.

The look he gave her indicated it was none of her business.

“Let me rephrase that. What do most people who aren’t looking to do something illegal do on the dark web?”

The CSI tech shrugged. “There are legitimate reasons to be on it. People in Russia, China, places where they monitor your email, that sort of stuff—they talk to people on the dark web and don’t have to worry about payback.

“But a lot of people who access the dark web are like meand play games. There are some great horror games that are ‘homemade’ that you can’t find on the regular web. The ones I’ve played are fun. You never know what’s going to pop up on one of them.”

Alexis crossed her arms. “Ethan said he’d found a game that scared him. Something about it saying,‘Alive one minute. Dead the next.’And it had the name Phame attached to it. Do you think you can find that one?”

“After you called, I asked about it in a chat room, and this guy gave me a lead.”

“Did you play the game?”

“No. I haven’t even been there yet, mainly because he said it takes”—Dylan rubbed his thumb and fingers together—“money to play it. More money than I have.”

“Like?”

“A hundred bucks just to get in, and then another hundred to get past the quarter mark. He’d paid the hundred dollars to get in and said it was so scary that he bailed before his time was up. Another person claimed the video showed a couple of photos—in one the person was scared but alive, and in the next one they were dead. And it didn’t look like it was fake.”

“What’s the name of the site?” Nathan asked.

“Frankenstein–Dracula Gambit.”

“You’re kidding.” Nathan turned to Alexis. “It’s a famous chess move.”

50

Nathan’s words chilled Alex to the bone. Could the video game Dylan learned about be the same one Ethan played? Could it have photos of the Queen’s Gambit victims? Alex’s stomach clenched just thinking about how sick someone had to be to create a game based on real murders. Good thing they hadn’t stopped to eat. “How do you pay?”

“The guy said Bitcoin. Another reason I can’t play—don’t have any.”

“Take me to the site,” Alexis said.

Dylan turned to look at her. “You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“If you’re going to play the video game, you’ll need cryptocurrency,” Nathan said.

Alex shook her head. “Let’s look at the site first. See if we can get a lay of the land.”

She moved so that Nathan could watch as Dylan accessed the dark web. With a few clicks, he was at the site.

The home page was dark with red and yellow flames across it. A figure stood to one side dressed in black and wearing a white Vendetta mask. A message appeared—the one Ethan had seen—“Alive one minute. Dead the next.”The message wasreplaced with a photo that lasted only a blink, but it was long enough for Alex to see that it was a woman. She wasn’t sure, but it looked like the third Chattanooga victim. Why hadn’t Madden found this site? What else had he missed?

Across the top was a banner that appeared to be a link—“Enter Phame’s Dark Side.”What was below the banner made everything else click into place.“Ultricem Angelus.”

“Avenging angel?” Nathan said. “Is it possible the killer is a woman?”

“I don’t think I’ve met a woman as bloodthirsty as this killer—not to say they’re not out there. But it confirms the Denton connection, and I still believe it’s connected to me in some way.”

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