Chapter 17

Massive circular screens glowed at the ICTF Cybersecurity Center in Eisenfeld as streams of data cascaded down like waterfalls. Iris stood at the control console, staring at the chat history from an encrypted chatroom. It was one of the dark web forums associated with the Ghost Ship case, in which users traded organs, human lives, and weapons for bitcoin. Three days ago, a new account named BlackRose became active. It had posted several messages openly taunting the ICTF, as well as a blurry photo of Iris' side profile during the Bellarom operation. Nate's low voice sounded behind Iris. "They're baiting us. The IP address of this account went through multiple layers of redirection and points to a small island nation in the Southern Osteryn region in the end, but that's just a cover." Iris enlarged the image. The angle was strange, as if it had been secretly captured from above. Then, she recalled the second floor of the auction that day. Aside from Nate, there had been several peo