Beau

by Dale Mayer

  He quickly gave his name and said, “We’re here as part of a military raid on the compound.”

  “I guess asking for a warrant is too much, huh?”

  “When you’re involved in the illegal trafficking of women for the sex trade,” he said, “we don’t have time to worry about the niceties, like a warrant.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “I wondered how long it would take for the world to find out. They’re fools. All of them are fools.”

  “Who are fools?”

  “Everyone here,” she said, “everyone in the damn compound. They’re glory hounds, hungry for money, stupid!”

  “And what about the children around you?” Beau asked and lifted his head a little bit more to smile at the children.

  “They’re mine,” she said. “I don’t keep them in the building. I keep them with me every night. I go in and let them out and bring them with me down here.”

  “Why down here?”

  “Because I was always afraid that our lovely cult leader,” she said with a derisive tone, “would go and light that damn children’s hall on fire.”

  Just the thought made his stomach turn. “Is that likely?” he asked slowly.

  “Hell, yes. Particularly on the nights he locks all the women in.”

  “When is that?”

  “Right now,” she snapped. “He locked them in early this morning. No arguments. Do as you’re told. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he isn’t out there, now that he knows the military is here, lighting the whole damn place on fire.”

  “How do we get to the children’s hall fast?” Asher asked.

  She stared at him for a long moment and then said, “I’ll tell you, but I want to go free.”

  “You can go as free as you’re allowed by the law,” Beau said, standing up. She lifted her handgun, but he dropped his rifle so it was aimed right at her. “If you had anything to do with the kidnapping of these women or anything else,” he said, “I don’t know what the law will do with you. But, if you help us save the children, they’ll go a lot easier on you.”

  And, with that, she made a quick decision and told the men how to get there, and fast.

  Chapter 15

  Waiting sucked. Danica sat here with her feet elevated in the back of the medical truck, waiting for somebody to say something. She could hear discussions going on around her in bits and pieces. Another engine sounded the arrival of another truck. She lifted her head and confirmed it was another military truck. There were more discussions, and the vehicle took off. She groaned. “How long do I have to wait here?”

  The doctor looked at her. “You’re the one who didn’t want to go to the hotel,” he said. Just then his phone rang. He stepped a few feet away from her and answered it. She lay here, wondering about the wisdom of having stayed behind. She looked forward to going to the hotel; she just didn’t want to go in the first group.

  When the doctor came back, his face was grim. He motioned to her. “You’re either going with the other guys, or you’re coming with me.”

  “Coming with you where?”

  “To the compound.”

  Instantly, she slid her feet a little farther back inside so he could close the door. “No problem,” she said.

  He shook his head. “I’m warning you now. It could get ugly.”

  “I get it,” she said, “but maybe I can be of help.”

  He gave her half a snort and shut her in without any warning. In seconds, he was in the driver’s seat, and the vehicle barreled toward the compound. She lay here, tossed and turned at the bottom of the rig, wishing she’d at least shifted up onto the bed. She didn’t understand what the sudden emergency was or if anybody else even knew where they were going. She had no way to contact Beau without a phone.

  She had no way to let anybody know that she was heading toward the compound.

  This might not have been her wisest decision.

  On the other hand, the doc hadn’t really given her much choice, so it’s almost as if he understood that, no matter what he said, she’d want to go. But then people probably saw her and Beau’s relationship, whatever that was. Still, this sounded so foolhardy the closer they got. She had no weapons. She had nothing. She was defenseless. Once she was surrounded by the soldiers and it was believed she was safe, she’d handed her handgun over and hadn’t seen it again. As she lay here, she wondered if the doctor really was a good guy. That took her mind into a whole other set of problems.

  In order for this compound to work the way it did, they had to have some help—some from the shipyards because these women were being transferred to the shipyards. So somebody was turning a blind eye or letting them in and out on a regular basis, but in the dark, where nobody would check the cargo. Everything had to be tagged and bagged and cross-checked and coded and scanned these days.

  Why hadn’t she thought about that earlier? Somebody was helping the kidnappers move these women. And unfortunately it made a whole lot of sense that these women were seen by a doctor too. Making sure that they were sound to make the trip. Otherwise … She thought about that—otherwise what? Otherwise take them out first? It’s not like they could return these women. Danica hated the idea but had to consider that maybe the women were then left at the compound to join the cult, or they were taken out or sold in a different way. And, once you head down that pathway, it was just ugly. All she could think about was body parts and the sex trade here in town, maybe just killing somebody because they were too much trouble.

  Like she was to them apparently.

  Hating her rising suspicions, she tried to shift so she was on the bed, and the pain in her feet kicked in, in a big way. She was a fool to have come this way. She was not only helpless in her current condition but she was a liability if Beau knew she was here. She had not helped her situation any at all, instead putting Beau in added danger. And if the doctor did happen to be on the bad guys’ side? He now had a bargaining chip to make Beau do what they wanted him to do.

  She thought about Beau and realized just how much his military background would come to the forefront. If it was one against many, then obviously she should be a sacrifice. But she also knew that something was between them, and he would really, really struggle with that.

  If he couldn’t save her, it was something that he’d carry forward for the rest of his life. Now she really braced herself. She looked around inside the cabinets for any weapons. She found one cabinet that wasn’t locked, and it held several scalpels and a pair of scissors. She quickly pocketed those items and tucked a scalpel into the sock that she had wrapped around her feet. It wouldn’t hold forever, but it would give her something. She used a bit of gauze to help keep the blade from cutting up her skin.

  She continued to look around, but there wasn’t much in the way of weapons she could use from a distance, just those for up-close-and-personal attacks. No windows were on the sides of this truck. Every inside wall was covered up with cots and cabinets. Finally the doc came to a stop. She froze, sat on one of the beds, and pretended to be resting. He opened the rear door, looked in at her, and said, “Sorry for the rough ride.”

  She shrugged. “It’s much better up here anyway.”

  “We’re almost there,” he said. “I want you to stay here. I’ll head around to the front and see what’s going on.”

  “Are you sure that’s safe?” she asked, more than a little worried because, if he wasn’t part of this scenario, he would be a sitting duck going into an unstable situation.

  “That’s what my orders are,” he said briefly. He quickly closed the door, and, to her dismay, she heard a click. She wasn’t sure if she was locked in or not. She could kneel at the door, but she wasn’t tall enough in that position to look out the rear window. Standing on her feet, using the doors for support, she peered through the window, happy to realize that, although she hurt, it wasn’t excruciating pain.

  The doc was already gone. She hated that. She tried to open the rear doors, but they weren’t opening. Swea
ring, she headed to the front where the cab was. A small door was there to stop passengers who were out of control from attacking the driver, but it was locked from the inside. She wasn’t sure how she would get out of here if this door too had been locked, but as she played with the latch, she realized she could open it.

  She sat down in the driver’s seat, suddenly feeling much more in control. Now she had wheels—she just didn’t know what she was supposed to do with them. She had no way to contact anybody, and there was no sign of anyone around. The military had come this way, which meant they were farther down the road. So why was she here? She studied the area, recognizing it as just one stretch on the long road that they had taken to the compound and back. She figured that they were about ten minutes away from the compound by vehicle, so maybe five minutes from their closest lookout corner.

  That’s where the fence had been cut, but then this doctor would know about that because he’d been there when she drew that diagram for him and the soldier. Worried, she started up the engine, backed the vehicle out of hiding and then paused, hating the indecision racking her. If the doc was a good guy, he’d parked her here on purpose, and he expected her and the vehicle to be here when he needed it. If she headed around the corner to where everybody was, she would put everybody into danger.

  Swearing, she backed the vehicle up to where it had been. Seeing a sweatshirt, she grabbed it, for a little bit more padding for her feet. After all, she wasn’t planning on driving. She was planning on walking. Using the scissors, she quickly cut more bandages to wrap around her feet and tied them on top like heavy slippers. Fortunately the sweatshirt material was tight, heavy, and plush, so even walking was fine. She wasn’t sure what else she could do. She found a bottle of water to prop open the driver’s door of the truck, in case she needed to quickly bolt.

  She headed down the road. She would go to the far corner where she knew Beau had cut the fence, but unfortunately she realized it would also be damn close to where the bodies were blown up. Surely people were working on removing those, weren’t they? But would that be the military or the cult members? Or some hungry wildlife?

  An eerie silence in the air surrounded her, and she was damn afraid that she was heading into a standoff. That wouldn’t be good for anybody, but it would be the worst thing for her. She knew she should stay with the medic truck, but she just couldn’t.

  Something was seriously wrong in this scenario, and she didn’t want Beau to get caught by the wrong side. If she was careful and stayed out of everybody’s way, then maybe—just maybe—she could help Beau get to the bottom of this without anybody else getting killed. The worst thing she could imagine was to find out that somebody on his side was working with the cult and that this was an ambush, not a rescue.

  With Asher heading toward the children’s hall, Beau studied the woman and the children around her. “Are they yours?”

  She nodded defiantly.

  “Will you be safe if you stay down here?”

  She hesitated, then shrugged. “I’m probably as safe as I have been so far.”

  “Are you held here against your will?”

  “For the last few years, yes. But I will admit to being a fool in coming here in the first place,” she said. “Free love and peace for the planet and joy for the world around us didn’t last very long.”

  He studied her, seeing the bitter awareness of all the mistakes she’d made, and he nodded. “None of us are perfect,” he said. “Just don’t allow the mistakes of your life so far to be the mistakes of your future.”

  “Too late,” she said brokenly.

  “Have you killed anyone?”

  She shook her head. “No,” she said, “I haven’t. But I’m part of the community, and you can bet that some of the people here have.”

  “Women who didn’t want to stay?”

  She hesitated a moment and then nodded. “And others.”

  “Right,” he said. “What about Nania? Do you know anything about her?”

  At that, she winced. “I don’t think she’ll survive,” the woman said slowly. “She escaped, and they used her as an example.”

  “Of course they did,” he said. “Where is she?”

  “We have a medical area,” the woman said. “She’s there.”

  He pointed to the dirt on the ground. “Draw me a map.”

  “Why are you trying to rescue her?”

  “Because I know that she was trying to escape,” he said. “I’m not sure that anybody else here is.”

  “Well, I am,” she said, “but it’s too late for that.”

  “Do you know where the men and the stockade of weapons are?”

  She nodded, and with a small rock quickly drew a map of both areas.

  He watched as she laid out where the kitchens were, where the officers of the cult and the leaders slept, and where all the women were. “Is there a reason why they would have locked up the women with the children?”

  “When they didn’t want them to get in the way or if they didn’t want them to see something.”

  “Like when the other women were brought in, the ones for the sex trade?” he asked, his voice harsh.

  She froze and then mumbled something.

  “I didn’t hear you,” he snapped.

  She looked up at him, glared, and said, “Yes, like that.”

  “How many times has this happened in the past?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Two or three maybe?”

  “Do you know where the women are going?”

  “Asia,” she said, “but I don’t know where.”

  “What do you know?”

  “It keeps the commune funded and helps us to buy new weapons,” she said. “The women are shipped to a connection on the other side, and they disappear into the system.”

  “Do you know how many women?”

  She shook her head. “No. We were also told that, if we did anything to fight or to argue or to get in the way, we would become one of them.”

  “Well, that’s a good way to keep you in line, isn’t it?” He looked at the children. “Have any of the children been put into it yet?”

  Her gaze widened. She shook her head rapidly. “No.”

  “Because you know that’s coming, right?”

  She swallowed hard. As if understanding this part of the conversation, her children huddled around her. “That would be terrible,” she said.

  “Women who are trouble, women who get too old, women who are barren, … children who are troublemakers, children who aren’t welcome in the compound …” He tilted his head to the side. “Sound familiar?”

  Numb, she just nodded.

  “I want you to stay here,” he said. “I’m not sure if this place will go down in flames. You should be more or less safe where you are. I need to keep that grate open so I know how to get you out of here when it’s time.”

  “Are you planning on rescuing us?” she asked, but her voice carried such a defeated note that he realized she really thought he would leave her.

  “I’ll do everything I can,” he said. “Keep the kids with you, and keep them very, very quiet.” He disappeared down the hallway.

  He didn’t have anything but the map in his mind to go by, but, as long as she had been honest about that, he had something. He followed the hallways to one of the branches that led to a door. He noticed that the actual ground was part of the basement in this building.

  Beau stepped through. The place was dark. He quickly switched on his night-vision goggles and saw several beds on one side, occupied by sleeping women. Two of the women were heavily pregnant, which would make sense if this were a medical clinic.

  He kept going until he found a woman not crying but breathing with great difficulty. He walked up to take a look. It looked like the escapee he had first seen, but he didn’t know what condition she was in. Her arm was at an odd angle, and, from her breathing, he figured that her ribs and lung capacity were impacted too. He quickly sent a message to Asher with a bo
dy count for those down here. Being at the bottom of a wooden building, if anything caught fire, it would be damn hard to get them out of here. They’d have to go through the tunnels.

  He moved quickly. No nurse was on duty; no guard was on duty. So either the woman was too injured to leave or she was chained to the bed. Given what he’d learned of these guys so far, chaining a woman to a bed wouldn’t be too far out of line.

  After a complete search downstairs, he’d found a medicine chest that was fully stocked, a huge larder, a large pantry, and what looked to be a big cold room. They were well-stocked for winter, even though so many people lived here.

  But the next room was the one that really made him happy—the armory. Noting that it was still stocked and full, he quickly jammed the lock and closed it, wanting to make sure nobody else had access. He knew that he would have to come back here and either set this on fire or empty it out.

  With that, he headed around to the far side where a double-wide staircase went up. Just as he was about to head up, the door above him opened. He dashed into the darkness as two heavy sets of footsteps raced down the stairs.

  “I told you that we should have just brought all the weapons upstairs,” a man snapped.

  “We don’t have time for I told you so,” another male voice said. “How the hell is so much military out there?”

  “I don’t know,” the first guy said. “Somebody tipped them off. I told you it was getting too dangerous.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Those four other guys should be back soon.”

  “You mean, with their backup? What if they were taken out?”

  “Then we should have gone with them,” the second man said, his voice harsh. “Because there’s only one way left out of here. You know that.”

  The first man froze, looked at him, and said, “Do you really think that? Are we really thinking that we have to take everybody out?”

  “I don’t give a shit who survives down here,” he said, “but I want out of this cult and its dirty side business.”

  “In that case, what are we doing?” he asked. “We should be escaping, not grabbing more weapons to go back up and fire on the military.”