by Lynda Filler
“Get brave!” He had to be strong if he was ever going to get out of this.
The elevator opened, two waiters looked at him with disinterest, pushed their carts out, and left.
Miguel pushed the tenth floor.
The knock on the door startled Zach. He pulled out his Sig Sauer. He wasn’t taking any chances. If the bodyguard had come upstairs with him, that son of a bitch was going down. He could feel his anger building. A sudden flashback hit him. The uprising in Beirut, his parents—undercover for the CIA—brutally gunned down, and a seven-year-old boy, now an orphan standing on a pile of rubble with the jawbone of an ass his only weapon.
The knocking forced him back to reality.
He peered through the key-hole. A young boy stood there looking downwards. He could feel his pain through the barrier that separated him.
He opened the door.
The boy hesitated and then walked in.
They stared at each other for a moment. The young man looked up at the sandy-haired SEAL who’s hardened heart was in his throat.
“Miguel.”
Miguel looked behind him and all around the room. Fear emanated from his being. Rachel stepped towards him.
A young man with Mike’s panicked eyes looked at the two of them.
“No, don’t worry. Your mother sent us to rescue you.”
Zach enveloped the shivering boy against his strong hard body. “You are safe now.”
Miguel started to cry.
“It’s okay son, let it go. Your momma is waiting, and your grandfather wants to meet you. Let’s go home.”
Rachel followed the boys out the door. The lookout downstairs had picked up the bodyguard and was taking him in for questioning. This kind of interrogation would be done at an undisclosed location without worry about law enforcement leaks. For once something was going the way it should. Her heart was breaking as she followed the SEAL and the boy; and yet she felt a new kind of hope.
The lyrics of a song that helped her face each day flowed through her mind.
I'm a flame Short of fire. I'm the dark in need of light
Our hearts are like Firestones. And when they strike. We feel the love. And when they strike. We light up the world!
36
Washington, DC
“T
here is no justice for the victims of rape, entrapment, abuse. The system is broken. It takes years for cases to go through the criminal courts. And frequently if corrupt lawyers are working for the criminals, deals get made, and cases are dropped. Sure, the courts are overwhelmed. And if there’s not enough evidence, these traffickers will walk.” Rachel stopped speaking and looked down at her coffee. There was something about Zach she was drawn to. Maybe it was the pain he tried to hide behind his eyes. Or his sad smile. Perhaps the wistful look when he’d watched the reunion of Miguel and Katie. When he asked her to go for coffee, she accepted.
“You and I have both been in the worst kind of combat and often had to make decisions that might not have been acceptable by the guys that sit around board tables and think they’re in control of our operations.” Zach watched Rachel relive the events that left her scarred and angry. Then he began to share something he never thought he would discuss outside an exclusive group of honorable men.
“You know we will get them, right?”
Rachel looked at Zach with a question in her eyes. Then she looked away. She didn’t want to know. Zach continued anyways.
“I want to tell you something.” She sighed, then looked back at the handsome ex-SEAL who had come into her life and knew her personal story—something no-one she worked with would ever know.
“We got those guys. The ones that hurt you.”
Suddenly, Rachel was alert and sat up a little bit taller. She looked directly into the passion she saw burning in Zach’s eyes.
“No one was going to hurt one of ours the way they hurt you. We hunted down every last one of them. We got them all.”
She didn’t know what to say.
“I was involved in a committee when the decision was made to allow women in combat into Special Ops. Those of us on the front lines made a vow that day. If any of our female operatives were ever captured, raped, or tortured, we would hunt down the captors, in our own time, off the books.”
Tears formed in Rachel’s eyes.
“This is the code of honor of a group of warriors who’ve spent their careers in Afghanistan, fighting, giving up everything for their country. And you were one of the women we avenged.”
Silence.
“Hey, look at me.” Zach reached out and touched Rachel. For the first time since she had returned from combat, she didn’t flinch. Then he held her hands while tears rolled down her cheeks.
Two weeks later a team of very fit middle-aged guys entered a warehouse in a weak area by the docks near Washington, DC.
“Look at the smug look on some of their faces. I bet they think that because they are in the USA and not some Eastern European country that they can pay lawyers to fight their cases. Hey, we’re a democracy after all.”
Their captives weren’t sure what was going on. But this wasn’t Russia or China. They figured it was only going to be a shakedown by corrupt cops for cash.
“Let’s explain to the ones that speak English that we’d give them an opportunity to try out for the elite Navy SEALs.”
The American vets laughed. “Sure, let’s take them out for an evening swim.”
There was a look of concern building on several faces, at least the ones who spoke English. “We’ll take them out in the middle of the ocean and let them swim to shore.”
Fifteen men of various nationalities sat on the dirty cement floor gagged and bound. They were no longer smiling.
Four boats went out that night. It was foggy and raining. Once the locator determined they were ten miles offshore, they helped their trainees overboard. Just like in real training, good men required impediments, things that would slow them down, and really force them to reach deep inside their will to survive. These men were chained together in groups of three.
There would be no bell to ring for them to signal they couldn’t take anymore.
37
London, England
“Here’s the deal. Tell me, is selling sex in the UK legal?”
That was not the question Xavi was expecting. Raven continued.
“Not unsurprisingly, the legal situation surrounding brothels in the UK is very confusing. Exchanging or participating in sexual activities for money or other goods is legal in your country—how liberal of you I must say. But many of the activities that surround prostitution are illegal. So, in other words, the act of prostitution is not a problem. However, running a brothel or an establishment is against the law.”
Xavi smiled.
“I think I might understand the concept. Of course, I, personally, have never paid for sex, but I have friends who have!”
“Right,” Luke raised an eyebrow, and both men laughed.
“Okay, so there are many problems with the archaic laws. The biggest being that women are not protected. They can’t solicit on the streets. They can’t group together and share premises which is both a safety and financial issue. They can’t advertise a location. So, it’s like ‘We recognize your profession, but we are going to make it almost impossible to provide your service in a safe, healthy environment.’ Then women—for the most part—are left unprotected subject to all the challenges of working under the radar including sex-trafficking.”
Xavi nodded, still unaware where this was going.
“Control of this business is in the hands of dangerous criminal elements and most of them foreign, except for some of the police who are complicit in the operation of these businesses. What you probably don’t know is in the past year the police have identified approximately 5900 brothels operating in England and Wales.”
Now Luke had Xavi’s attention.
“When you outlaw something, the mafias take over. The brothels
are run by undesirables, are totally unregulated, and harbor hundreds of Eastern European women and underage girls who’ve been brought into the country illegally by sex traffickers. They put them to work, threaten their lives, and keep their income. On the average that’s 48,000 pounds revenue a year. The sex workers are slaves, operating against their will in a country that cannot protect them because they don’t speak the language and are illegal, to begin with. And there’s a definite lack of evidence of an effort by the police to close these brothels.”
“I’m sorry Luke. I should know what’s going on in my own country. Sabi and I are both involved in the United Nations Human Rights Council. There’s no excuse.”
Xavi wasn’t pleased with Luke’s assessment because he knew it must be factual.
“I know you came with a specific need in mind. How can I help?”
“We have an operation planned. We’ve been following a group of traffickers from Kyrgyzstan. They have two people we must rescue. The two are children, seven and nine. We have to find them before it’s too late. And our mutual friend from Geneva reports another child, a fifteen-year-old girl from Kyrgyzstan. Apparently, someone undercover has reported her missing because he overheard an altercation in the police station with her parents. She’s a fifteen-year-old girl.”
Xavi was silent and disgusted.
“We believe the girl doesn’t speak any English. Are you familiar with ala kachuu, kidnapped brides?”
Xavi looked up. “I believe that’s an old outlawed tribal custom of taking women against their will. Am I right?”
“Yes. It’s been outlawed, but it’s not enforced in many countries that practice it. But when you think about it, what a perfect way to abduct girls and sell them into sexual slavery.”
Neither man spoke.
“I think our girl is here in Britain. They will be put to work in the brothels. RB has researched Ilya Ivanov a major crime boss operating in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. We think we’ve determined he owns and operates several ‘Saunas.’ We want permission to bust him.”
There was zero hesitation on Xavi’s part.
“I will give you my permission to run your operation on British soil and deal with the fallout later.”
“Good, now go back to Sabrina. We can’t wait to meet our miracle baby. The Raven Group feel we should be special god-parents to the child. After all, we rescued the mother!”
“I’ll pass the message to the boss. By the way, speaking of bosses, where’s Samaar?”
“Oh, she’s with David and our UK team coordinating the sting.”
Xavi laughed. “So, this was a courtesy call.”
Luke smiled. “I’ll keep you informed. I think you might have a message or two to pass to the Ambassador of China when this is concluded. I’d rather not say why just yet.”
“Cryptic Luke.”
“By the way, do you remember Himanish, with the UNHRC? He’d be very interested in all this.”
Xavi looked strangely at Luke.
“Luke, Himanish is here in town. He attended a talk a couple of hours ago at the Mayfair.”
“Interesting.” Luke needed to get in touch with RB. If Himanish is here, there was more going on than he realized.
“He’s with the UNHRC, and he gave a speech with Sabrina.”
Luke smiled to himself. This was going to be a good day. Everything was running as planned and he was sure they were on the right track.
The two buddies smiled, shook hands and agreed to meet as soon as Luke had anything to report.
38
A suite at the Mayfair, London, England
“I
wasn’t planning on staying over in London. I’m in the middle of an issue in Geneva. But this is quite the surprise. Did you know I’d be here today?”
Cara looked at Himanish with the soft teal eyes he remembered so well. Her red hair shimmered in the early evening sunlight streaming through the window of his suite. He wondered if she was reminiscing about the last time they’d been together.
“Yes, I knew you’d be here. And to answer your second question, I remember every detail.”
They stared at each other.
“I shouldn’t have left.” They both said at the same time. Then laughed.
Their thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. A waiter entered with a cart and began assembling afternoon coffee. Neither of them drank tea.
Yu Yan looked up expectantly, waiting for her mother’s approval before she began to eat the delights.
“Go ahead Miss Yu Yan. You’re my guest today, and as your Uncle, I’m allowing you to have whatever you please.”
Yu Yan looked at her mother and waited.
“Go ahead, but not too much. I don’t want you to have a tummy ache.”
The three sat around a table. Himanish began serving.
“Do you always have to be in control?”
“Okay, you go ahead.” He watched as the woman he loved poured the coffee and prepared a plate for him and her daughter. Of course, she remembered his love of anything chocolate, and if it had caramel, that was an added bonus.
“Tell me, Ms. Yu Yan, how did you select Cara to be your mother?”
“My mom went up there, with the angels, right Mommy? And no one could look after me, so I got a new Mommy to love me.” She looked downward, her eyes brimming, and she tried not to cry.
“Come here little one. Don’t cry. Sit on my lap so we can get to know each other.” Yu Yan looked to Cara for reassurance. Cara nodded.
The mother, an Uncle, and a darling daughter chatted and ate their food. The adults were conversing when Cara motioned to Himanish to be quiet. Her baby had fallen asleep.
“Can we put her on your bed?”
Himanish carried her gently to his bed and laid her down. He covered her with a soft down comforter and gave her a gentle kiss. Then he returned to Cara.
“Tell me how you found her.”
“I was doing a story for a magazine in Ireland. It was an international publication, and they needed someone to travel to China. It was a human rights issue about aborting daughters and mothers who had them anyway. Of course, if a woman had the child despite the laws of the country, her family feared repercussions; so, she found herself rejected by her family and she had to leave her small town.”
Himanish had heard this story from foreign aid workers before, the one-child philosophy for a country with serious population issues. It had changed to two children in 2016 because China realized it was time to make a change to ensure the future of the nation.
“It was a double problem because the man who got her pregnant was in the military. He moved on. No one was talking, but it was probably a rape. The mother was only fifteen.”
There wasn’t much to be said.
“She found herself in trouble, no money, no way to make a living. But she found a British underground group who were willing to take her in. She died in childbirth.”
Himanish looked over at the now sleeping Yu Yan. This was a story that had a happy ending, but how many children were there that never made it, left to starve or worse, be abducted.
“I met the group when I was doing research. Yu Yan was only three.” She looked away from Himanish.
“It took over a year to get her out of the country. There was no legal way, so we smuggled her out. No one wanted her in China, no grandparents. We couldn’t even locate the family. Everyone pled ignorance.”
Cara began to cry. Himanish took her in his arms.
“It was just so sad Himanish. I couldn’t leave her there.”
“Shh, you did the right thing. If criminals can break the law do evil things, why not break it for love? Your heart was always in the right place, Cara.”
“There are so many children in the world who need love. I just want to take them all.”
“Shh, it’s okay, darling. Don’t cry.”
She calmed down, then looked into the eyes of a man who once loved her. He raised his hand to wipe away her tears
.
“You see why I felt I needed to marry to give her a stable home? I mean, if something happened to me, who would look after her?”
“Well, of course, I would. You only had to let me know.”
They were silent both remembering their past.
“And when the opportunity came up to see you again, I had to come here to be sure I was doing the right thing.”
Before either realized what was happening, Himanish was kissing Cara. All his past concerns and petty excuses flew right out of his mind. It was like they’d never been apart.
An hour later, they both fell asleep entwined as one, beside Yu Yan.
39
In the suburbs of London England
T he stakeout was ongoing at twelve well-known brothels—saunas, massage parlors, and venues used illegally for paid sex in the outskirts of London. Each participant had photos of all three children. RB had contacted a trusted source in Kyrgyzstan who reached out to the grateful parents who were able to provide a picture of their daughter. The British operatives, part of an ongoing relationship the Raven Group had in London, were given a hotline directly to Luci upon sighting either, or all three children.
Within twenty-four hours Zaria was captured on video entering a Sauna not far from the Barking Station where she’d arrived days before. She was followed to obtain her location. She wasn’t difficult to follow.
“All we had to do was watch the Russian mobsters. We knew they’d never let her out of their sight. They must be well protected by the police because they’re totally brazen about the business. You’d have to be blind not to see the women working in the establishments are repressed and guarded.”
Luci, David, and Luke proceeded to the address of the young girl and found a large three-story-townhouse guarded by, from what they could tell, five East European men. Using a high-powered lens, they sent the best images they could capture directly to RB. The guards turned out to be known associates of Ilya Ivanov.
They waited until nightfall.
