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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, sadinsider@gmail.com (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

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