by R. T. Wolfe
Jess kept an eye out the windshield but turned his head enough to allow a view of his profile. "I understand Miss Gloria will be creating her presence as a potential buyer during her stay."
"Buyer of what?" Byrd asked.
Duncan slowly turned his head to the seat behind him. "Of children."
"Oh yes, of course," Byrd sang.
A mother walked alone in flip-flops along the side of the road, cradling a crying infant.
"Which brings me to the question of what your needs will be, Dr. Byrd," Jess asked.
"I will be collecting materials for an EMP." He spoke of the highly illegal bomb as if he were discussing planting flowers on Mother's Day.
Andy choked on air. Duncan found himself checking around the van as if someone may have heard them as they passed.
The doctor was oblivious to the inappropriateness of his words.
"EMP?" Jess asked.
Byrd nearly bounced in his seat as they made the turn onto the street that led to the safe house.
"Doc," Nickie raised her voice and interrupted. "That is not something we are going to bother Jess with. I am sorry, Jess."
The safe house was easy to spot. It was the only two-story structure for a quarter mile in each direction as well as the only brick structure. With the uncomfortable silence that encompassed the inside of the van, the only sound was that of the tires as they pulled alongside the building.
Oblivious to the reaction around him, Byrd finished by saying, "It will take me some time to gather the materials and create the device. In between times, I want to help the peasants."
Duncan closed a single eyelid. His face physically winced.
"Lesson one," Jess said, smiling, as if Dr. Byrd hadn't just mentioned a highly illegal bomb.
Samuel opened his door and exited the vehicle, but Dr. Byrd's eyes and body remained cued to Jess's every word. "These people are not peasants. They are intelligent, motivated people, working to survive in less than ideal conditions. They have a fierce loyalty to their country and their people and, although they will accept handouts, they prefer to work for their money."
Dr. Byrd blinked several times. "Oh."
Duncan grinned. Jess carried exceptional character.
Chapter 21
It was Nickie's first time in a foreign country. She didn't count the short trips she and Duncan took to the Bahamas or Cancun. Those didn't take her to the heart of the people who lived there.
She carried her single carry-on piece of luggage. Unfortunately, she didn't need more for the short time she would be here.
Everything was foreign. The air, the smells. They were pleasant, albeit different. The safe house resembled more of a dorm. Packed dirt surrounded the perimeter. Other than a large greenhouse that stood to the side, the place had little yard space and a tall fence surrounding the entire area. She stood outside the entrance, taking it all in.
Jess stepped next to her. "It's not to keep people out, but to keep the ones inside safe."
She hadn't questioned the motive; it was interesting nonetheless. Duncan followed as she stepped inside. Three small children were awake and up. Jess spoke to them in a dialect that wasn't as familiar as the Spanish spoken by her foster family. All three of them were girls. They looked to be around seven years old. Two of them ran to Duncan. "Mister Duncan," they said in a thick, harmonic accent.
He hadn't shared this part of his trip here. She had no idea he'd spent time in the safe house with the children. A strange sensation of estrangement ran through her.
He squatted low on his heels and wrapped an arm around each of them. They lifted their wrists and showed him the bracelets they wore. If he didn't understand what they were saying, he faked it well.
The third child tugged on Nickie's shirt. Copying Duncan's movements, she squatted. The girl didn't hug her but said something in her special dialect, then looked at her like she waited for an answer. Nickie looked around for anyone who could help translate.
Gloria stood next to them, her eyes glossing over. "She asks if you are here to save more children."
Nickie looked to the child. She had the prettiest brown eyes. Brushing a strand of hair from her face, she tucked it behind her ear. Nodding, Nickie smiled and answered, "Soon."
"Shall I show you to your rooms?" Jess asked.
To the right was a large living room area. Block brick walls surrounded a concrete floor. In the middle was a large straw carpet with mismatched couches that circled it. Duncan set their luggage out of the way in the room and turned.
Nickie shook her head. "I'll wait here, Jess. Thank you." Duncan and Andy took a step closer to her, one on each side.
Dr. Byrd tossed his jacket over the arm of one of the couches. "I'm not missing a moment," he sang.
One at a time, Jess looked to each of them. "All of you?" He scratched his head.
Gloria lifted her nose. "I want to see this compound."
"Oh my gosh, there's a cockroach," Dr. Byrd squealed.
Andy whispered in her ear, "We could always tell him we saw cockroaches in the van."
"Maybe poisonous snakes," she said as they went out the door in a line.
They piled back in the vehicle, and Samuel craned his head around the driver's seat. "I am taking five gringos on a tour through The Hill in the middle of the night?" he asked.
"Only if you're willing," Jess answered.
"Only if they're willing," Samuel said and started the engine.
Duncan was a much better seat partner. She pressed her thigh against him. The small, platonic connection was just what she needed. "What is The Hill?" she asked as they pulled away from the compound.
"It is a local name for a mountain. Many people of Peru come from rural areas to Lima in search of work. They live on the mountains. There is no running water and the electricity is little. Some have learned to use old car batteries to charge cell phones and box fans. The place next to the compound you call Fu Haizi is The Hill."
The road became increasingly sparse of homes or signs of life. Dr. Byrd spoke a mile a minute, but by this time, no one was listening. The sights, sounds and feel of the country were too much to ignore. A single coyote ran in front of the headlights. With a backdrop of climbing mountains, millions of stars filled the sky. She fully expected to see this on a canvas in her living room someday.
The sound of the engine lowered as they climbed. Duncan leaned closer to her. "We did not raise elevation like this the last time I visited the area."
"Let's hope Samuel and Jess aren't using us as collateral, then," she whispered and smiled.
The road thinned. Samuel turned off his headlights, leaving only the parking lights to brighten the path. Duncan said, "I can't imagine a vehicle making it up here in the daytime hours when populated."
Samuel spoke up. "The best view you will have is near the top." Except, he let his foot off the gas.
The outline of four men in dirty white T-shirts stepped into the middle of the street. Large men. Muscular large. As soon as the van reached them, the two on the ends broke off and sauntered around to the sides of the van before stopping. Keeping guard.
Samuel glanced to Jess. They seemed to communicate without words. "Don't get out," Samuel said as he did exactly that.
Not that anyone was planning on it.
"Don't get out? What does that mean? Who are those men?" Dr. Byrd's voice cracked as he said the last word.
As Samuel approached to the men, she noted how each of them was a full head taller than he was. When Samuel stepped out of the beam of light, the men dropped their folded arms to their sides. One held up an arm.
Duncan placed his hand on the door handle. What was he going to do about it?
"Is this okay, Mr. Larsen?" the doc asked from the back. "What is going on? Is this going to be okay?"
Samuel smacked the extended arm, then executed a complicated handshake. Nickie sighed with relief. They gave one another a one-armed hug and patted each other on the back. This male greeting of
testosterone must be international.
Using the crank, she rolled down the window and lifted a single hand in greeting to the one guarding her side. The look he gave Duncan confused her. It was a mixture of surprise and anger. She really just wanted to hear what was being said and leaned her head out into the nighttime air.
She didn't catch much other than the words school, church and donations. The one Samuel hugged handed him a folded piece of paper. Samuel opened it. He looked at it for a long time before nodding and sticking it in the back pocket of his jeans.
Jess explained, "Samuel is a central part of this community. He's building a two-story concrete brick school in the center of the slums. He's provided many of these people with jobs and rice for their families."
The guard from her side of the van walked away from his post as Samuel made his way back to the driver's side. "The road ends here," Samuel said through the open window. "We park and walk now."
Dr. Byrd asked, "You want me... I mean us to get out?"
Everyone ignored him and followed Samuel's directions.
"Stay close to me," Samuel said and led the way.
She'd already had the urge to hold onto his belt loops before he said that. As the pathway became small enough to warrant a single file line, Duncan maneuvered her and Gloria into the middle of the group.
Not much was said as they walked and walked. Random clucks from chickens became more frequent with the rising of dawn. Nothing was in a straight line in this place. The group wound through the rusted metal. Women emerged and stared at the gringos. Getting their fill, they squatted near fire circles and placed whole fish set on stones to heat around the smoke. A break in the metal caused Nickie to pause. They'd come high on The Hill. So high that the homes ended.
"Look," Jess said.
She turned and there it was. The compound they came to infiltrate. To dismantle. To destroy. Her breathing quickened. This could be it. Her end. Her happily ever after.
The place seemed alive. People, cars. All moving amid bright lights. "Look there," Duncan said. He wasn't speaking to her, but to Andy.
"Yes," Andy agreed. "That's quite an increase in foot patrols and vehicles, and there wasn't this kind of activity in the morning hours when you were hanging by your wrists."
Wait. What? "Hanging by his what?" she asked too loudly and made a dozen chickens squawk and dogs bark.
Duncan removed the set of binoculars hanging from his belt. He scanned the area. She let him take all the time he needed since he was recording the entire compound in his memory. "I see the electrical box," he said.
Andy responded, "Nice!" at the same time the doc said, "Where?"
"In time," Duncan said. "All in due time."
* * *
Duncan yearned for some place quiet where he didn't have to unwillingly memorize everything he heard, smelled, tasted, felt and touched. A pool. "Do you think Peru has a YMCA?" he asked Nickie sarcastically as they rode to the safe house.
Her expression softened. "A pool would be good."
"If we have nothing else in our new home," he said. "We must have a pool."
"There," she said and joined hands with him. "You said something about a new house."
With his thumb, he rubbed the ring on her third finger in circles. "That I did." By this time, the sun had risen over the tops of the mountains. Gloria and Dr. Byrd were asleep in the backseat, Byrd with his head resting on Andy's shoulder. Andy ignored him, watching out the window.
Her head turned to him. This look was not soft but filled with lines that formed between her eyes. "You said pool." She would recognize his reason for speaking it. A place where he could muffle the intake around him. A place where he could work his muscles hard enough that it distracted the pace of his eidetic memory.
The safe house appeared quite different from when they'd left it a few short hours beforehand. Children of all ages ran in and out of the front door. They played as if nothing amiss had ever occurred in their lives.
A safe house. A place for orphans and runaways who had been abducted into human trafficking. Mostly girls, but some boys. A place where children traumatized from their experiences could heal before transitioning fully back into the places they called home.
His Nickie was never afforded such a luxury. She had become a risk the day she discovered her parents' holding room for trafficked children in the basement of their home.
"Duncan."
Ivanna Monticello allowed Jun Zheng to abduct her only child from her bedroom at gunpoint in order to silence her. Why not make a dollar while ridding herself of potential scrutiny?
"Duncan."
Now, her organization reached as far as Canada and South America.
"Duncan. Open the door, man," his brother said from the backseat. Samuel and Jess were already out of the van. He looked to Nickie.
"They are inside," she said. "It's okay. You're tired. We all are. Just open the side door, and we'll go inside and eat breakfast."
He did so and stepped out. The sun warmed his face and arms. There was much to do in little time.
"Other than an orphanage for trafficking victims, the building serves as a daycare center for the children of victims as they get back on their feet," Jess said as he led the group inside. "We also carry a work study program. You might think of it as a junior college or a trade school. Everyone who comes here works here."
Children of all ages ran to Jess and hugged him. His legs, his arms, his waist. They all but ignored the group of gringos who stood in the foyer.
Samuel stepped to Jess and whispered in his ear. Jess listened, then pulled his ear away and looked to Samuel. He rubbed his hands across the back of his neck and nodded.
"Who is hungry?" he asked.
Chapter 22
Eggs and scallops. Nickie understood this was an ocean front city, but she would have never thought to put the two together. Since many in this country went without, she ate every bite and thanked the cook.
Most of the group was dead on their feet. Gloria had been able to sleep on the plane, but she and Dr. Byrd slept in separate back rooms anyway. Nickie needed some level of planning and communication before she could think about sleep.
In the living room area, she played backgammon with one of the girls. Everything smelled musty, but it was better than the scent of blood and urine she'd become accustomed to while in captivity. That was what the children in the Fu Haizi compound endured at this moment.
The straw carpet that covered most of the floor was really quite comfortable. Soft but durable and wouldn't attract mold in the humid temperatures. The couches were another story. They were fabric and smelled like they had been in a home in a warm, humid climate with no glass on the windows.
Not all communication was done through speech. It had been too long since she'd played backgammon. The kid was kicking her butt. Duncan and Andy spoke about hacking and explosives. They would have to give her the Cliff Notes version at the planning meeting. That is, whenever, the doc and Gloria woke up.
Nickie was somehow able to exchange names with the little girl. Ariel. She called herself Ariel. Or else, she really liked Disney. "Doubles again," Nickie said, hoping her expression trumped her lack of Spanish. "You're killing me."
Ariel giggled. She had a tiny laugh although she was probably high school aged. As Ariel reached to move her chips, Nickie spotted something at the top of her back. Two raised lines peeked from beneath the collar of her T-shirt.
The girl must have noticed that Nickie stared, because she sat back and fast. Her expression was like she'd done something wrong. Of course it was.
Nickie set her fingertips on the back of Ariel's hand. The child pulled it away but looked up at Nickie. That's all Nickie had wanted. She smiled warmly and turned her back to the girl. Sliding the bottom of her shirt up, she exposed her scars that matched the child's.
When she turned back to Ariel, the child's eyes were as round as saucers. They darted from one side of Nickie to the other, searching
her mind for answers to her questions. Nickie recognized the moment that the child realized there was only one answer. She pushed the game to the side of the ottoman and curled up next to Nickie. It was that moment in time, the small event that would mean nothing to anyone else, that made Nickie hate Fu Haizi more than she ever had.
Nickie's aversion to touching anything that wasn't her husband washed away. Lifting an arm, Ariel snuggled in and sat in the arms of someone who knew, someone who had moved on with her life, coming out on the other end working as a cop, married even.
There would never be a got-over-it. That was something Duncan helped her understand. Never a got-over-it but a move-on. She and Ariel would move on with their lives as best as they could, batting away the self-doubt and crazy each and every day of their lives.
Jess stepped into the area. "We're ready," he said, then led the way.
The room looked like a classroom. Nickie supposed it was. A dozen chairs sat around two durable folding tables. She sat down in one of them. Andy and Duncan were there as well as the driver, Samuel. No sign of Gloria or Dr. Byrd.
Jess arranged some maps over the top of the tables as a young boy ran in. He ran around the table, grabbed a soccer ball from the corner of the room and ran out.
Gloria and the doc weren't far behind. They sat in their circle of seven. Nickie stood. This wasn't much more comfortable than leading the meetings for the FBI sting or the plans with Special Agent Hurst, but the end was in sight, so she stood tall.
"Gloria has one mission over the next several days," she said as she stood at the front of the room. "Duncan will assist her as she makes her presence known in the community as a Spanish American woman looking to purchase trafficked children." Bile gathered in Nickie's throat. Gloria didn't even flinch.
"Dr. Byrd first will spend time in purchasing materials for his part in this."
"Nickie," Jess interrupted.
Yes. Nickie understood. She'd been intentionally vague about the doc's role in all of this. Child Rescue was a respectable, safe organization. Nickie would not include him in anything that could hurt his mission or the relationships he had built here. "I'm gonna get to that in a minute," she explained. "The doc and Duncan will shop for the materials. In three days, I leave to finish arrangements for the U.S. portion of Operation Fu Haizi." She lifted her chin and stood tall. "They will be creating a device while I'm gone. Andy's going to be staking out the compound to find the best time and location for infiltration."
