"All right, then," Axe said, grinning. "Let's go fuck some assholes up. Oh- and the other thing you asked about, the horse? Consider it done- I'll bring her out to Vegas myself. Happy to do it for MacKenzie."
One of Benicio's men, Eddie, unrolled a printout of blueprints out on a table in Benicio's private plane.
"Are these actual blueprints to the finishing school?" I asked. "How the hell did you get these? I couldn't get ahold of this, and I dug through everything online."
One of the other men, Diego, gave me a sharp look. "It's a rendering based on our intel. Benicio has his ways."
Benicio has his ways. This guy was the most well-fucking-connected guy ever. I knew his North and South American connections were extensive, but I didn't know he had ways of getting information in Asia. I guessed that was what happened when you had decades of military connections.
"You have a hook-up for weapons when we arrive?" Axe asked.
Eddie nodded, "Benicio says you were a sniper. Any good?"
"Fifty-six confirmed," Axe said.
Eddie nodded his head in understanding. Fifty-six confirmed dead. I didn't know Axe was that fucking good.
"Good," Eddie said. "We won't have much time to sight in weapons according to your specs, but I'm sure he'll find a rifle suitable to your liking."
Squid spoke up. "I know we sent him a laundry list of items, but silencers can be tricky to get a hold of, and even trickier to verify if they're effective."
"Gentlemen," Eddie said. "Rest assured. There's a Royal Thai Admiral in Sattihip who's a close personal friend of the Jefe -" Eddie looked at me. "Benicio, I mean. He'll make sure this guy's got what we need. Right now, while we have the time we need to discuss timeline and logistics."
"Do we know how many victims he's got there?" I asked. "How many kids and shit?"
"Thirty, forty girls maybe," Diego said. "The school is small, buyers are international. These girls are being sold as brides, so there's more financial investment in them. Higher prices, lower inventory, slower turnover."
"What's going to happen to them?" I asked, a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach at the thought of how many kids this man had sold into a life like Meia's.
Diego shrugged. "We're only there to extract your woman and her kid, bring Aston back to the Jefe."
I shook my head. "No fucking way," I said. After Meia had talked to me about this trafficking shit, I started doing my own research. There was no way short of hell freezing over that I was about to just blow through there and leave all those kids there. "What happens to those kids? You're going to, what, open the doors and turn them out on the streets?"
"We're not fucking social workers, Hammer," Squid said. "You want us to, what, turn these assholes in to the police? You want to wind up having to explain a bunch of dead bodies to the Thai police, the same ones who are taking bribes and looking the other way for Aston? This isn't the only place Aston's running. Takedowns like that take years of coordinated effort, time we don't have if you want to get your woman back."
"I get that," I said. "And I'm appreciative of everything Benicio's doing here. But for these kids, we can't just turn them out onto the streets."
"What are you suggesting, Crunch?" Axe asked, aware of the fact that I was just getting pissed off. He had always been good at diffusing tension when his head was screwed on straight.
"There are trafficking organizations in Bangkok, people who provide emergency assistance for women and kids in these situations," I said. "We get the kids turned over to them. They're not going to ask questions about dead traffickers."
Eddie looked at one of the other men, then back at me. He nodded. "It’s doable.”
One of the other guys spoke. "We're at almost forty-eight hours since your woman was taken. She might be gone by now."
"Fuck, we're aware of that," Blaze said, his voice sharp.
"I know," I said, the words coming out in this disembodied voice, like I was detached from myself. Did they think I was that fucking naive? "She could be moved somewhere else, sold already - lost somewhere in the underground - or dead. But I don’t think so. Aston's obsessed with her though, has been since she was a kid. He's not going to dump her yet."
I needed to believe that.
I could save her. I had to save her.
I had been absent when my wife was murdered. I couldn't save April. I would save Meia.
The drip, drip, drip of the water in the room - the cell, or whatever the hell this was- was relentless. I wondered if people could go crazy after a while, just listening to these unrelenting kinds of sounds.
The man was gone. He had left me here, broken, pain searing through every part of me.
He hadn't raped me, only beaten me and left me here, restrained and bleeding. I assumed the honor of everything else would be left for Aston.
We traveled together, dressed in shorts and t-shirts, wearing sandals and carrying backpacks, the nine of us - Blaze, Axe, Squid, myself and five of Benicio's men. At a casual glance, we'd look like any other tourists in Bangkok, which is exactly how we were trying to look. Except that anyone who looked closer, who gave us more than a cursory glance, would realize immediately that we were no tourists. Backpackers didn't look like we did. Benicio's men screamed ex-military, their hair closely buzzed, emanating an air of authority. And the four of us, well, we didn't exactly look like hippies either.
A small, dark colored van waited for us, and I got inside, grateful for the air conditioning in the oppressive heat. I watched as Eddie spoke to the driver outside, his voice low, and I saw the driver nod. Eddie walked around the van, sliding into the seat next to me, responding to my questioning look. "Someone I trust, our contact here," he said. "He's going to take us to get supplies."
"You trust the supplier," I said.
He nodded. "Benicio says we're good, then it means we're good."
I stared out the window as we meandered through the streets, at the tuk-tuk drivers whipping by carrying passengers, and the vendors selling food from carts on the side of the road. We drove down one small road, then another and another, meandering through the crowds of people shopping, the people unaware of who we were or what we were about to do.
In a back alley, we pulled underneath an overhang, and the driver ushered us out, not speaking. The air smelled of piss and fried food. We walked behind him as he led us up the stairs over one of the shops and texted someone on his phone. The door opened and we were beckoned inside by a fat Thai man.
"Sawadee," he said, his tone anything but welcoming, and brought us down the hallway to a locked room, one filled with weapons.
From behind me, Axe spoke. "Jackpot, motherfuckers."
I was brought back to the room, left unrestrained, and tucked into the bed, where one of the young girls cleaned my wounds.
"How old are you?" I asked in English.
She shook her head, and I wondered if she understood me. I searched my brain for the Thai I had learned when I was here, but failed. I had pushed it away in my head so many times the words were just beyond my grasp. I repeated myself again. "How old are you?"
She shook her head, wiping at my face with a cool cloth. "Sssh," she spoke in English. "You must rest now."
Her eyes were filled with fear, even as her voice was soothing. I laid my head back on the pillow, let her clean me up. She was brainwashed into compliance, and I knew it was futile to try to get information from her. Aston probably had the room wired anyway.
I remembered those days, here in this place, as if it was yesterday, not years ago. My skin crawled with the memory of Aston's touch, back then when I was a child, and I forced the memory away. I would stay together, whatever torture followed.
I would not break. Aston would not break me.
When she was finished, she poured tea in a cup beside the table. "Drink this," she said. "You must rest now."
I reached for the warm cup, watching the door shut gently behind her as she exited. Steam rose from the surface of the liquid
, sending the smell of jasmine into my nostrils. The scent triggered a visceral reaction, acid in my throat. Memories of being here as a child.
I looked around the room, wondering where the camera was. Aston wouldn't leave me in here without one. He would want to watch me. I belonged to him now. That was clear. He liked having playthings, and would be interested to see how I reacted to my capture.
I held the cup up, in a mock "cheers" and turned as I sat on the bed, modeling for the camera, wherever it was. Being a good girl and being obedient, I drank the tea. It was drugged, of that I was certain. But it hurt where the man had hit me, hurt where Aston had hit me, and I just felt like not caring. I didn't want to fight it. I didn't want to fight anything. I was just exhausted. I laid my head back on the pillow and drifted to sleep.
I didn't know how long after that I woke. Hours? It could have been minutes, or days. My sense of time was already distorted here, a product of jet lag, drugs, and the crash after an adrenaline spike.
I woke to Aston’s touch.
"Meia, Meia, Meia," he said. "You look a fright."
A fright. Like I was wearing a Halloween costume or something, I thought, detached, almost. Like this was all one big joke. Maybe I was starting to lose my mind.
"Where's Ben?" I asked.
Aston tsk-tsked me. "You haven't been a good girl, Meia," he said. "No Ben."
"I'll be a good girl," I said.
I felt him touch my face, his thumb on my bruised and battered lip, pulling my jaw open. A shock of pain sliced through me. "Yes, you will be," he said. "Because if you're not very, very good, I'll bring Ben in here and let you watch while one of the teachers trains him."
Coldness descended on my body, like ice water filling my veins. I could be good, I thought. I could do what he wanted, submit my broken and destroyed body to whatever he wanted me to do. But I felt my resolve stiffen, my mental clarity begin to return. I had not forgotten my goal.
It was him or me. One of us was going to die.
Manny and Squid walked through the hotel room door. Eddie looked up from the table, where he sat with Axe, looking at the blueprints for the finishing school. "How's it look?" he asked.
Squid sat down, out of place with Manny in their tourist ensembles, compared to the rest of us, clad in all black. He and Manny had just returned from casing the finishing school for the past couple hours, trying to get a handle on security.
Blaze and I hung back on the sidelines during this part of things, watched while the others strategized a plan of attack. Axe had experience with this kind of thing, as an ex-Marine scout sniper and reconnaissance platoon member. He understood the planning involved in a raid, and I could tell he thought Benicio's men, all former special forces from a few different countries, were capable.
Squid was one of the guys from the MC. I didn't know him all that well, but Blaze vouched for him, said he was with one of the Navy's Special Boat Units or some shit. Whatever that meant. I hoped to hell it meant he knew what the fuck he was doing.
Squid cleared his throat. "The place is surrounded by basic concrete walls, nothing special, eight foot it looks like. Easy to scale, but be advised there is the standard glass painted into the top. You guys going directly over the walls will want reinforced gloves.”
Benicio's man, Javi, pointed toward the corner of the room, and Squid nodded, then continued. “Only looks like four guards, and they like to take long breaks. They don’t look to be highly motivated or very well trained. Probably paid in peanuts, but it's still a bad idea to take them lightly. The North and Western walls are lined with trees that overhang the walls, easy ways to drop in for those hitting the rear. They also provide good coverage from the adjacent buildings if anyone should happen to snoop. There’s only basic video surveillance- CCTV cameras that are stationary and focused on points of entry into the compound" He leaned over the table, pointing to several places on the blueprints. "Security cameras I could see here, here, here, and here."
Eddie looked up at Manny. "We need to take those out first."
"Go in after nightfall, disable the power."
"They'll have a generator," Squid said. "It's Thailand."
"Yes," Eddie said. "In the back somewhere. Whoever goes through the back takes it out, one of the first things."
He paused, and I waited. Then he finally spoke. "Okay, just like we've discussed before. Let's make sure we're straight. Axe, you're going to be the one most exposed. Your position on the roof of the adjacent building will potentially leave you exposed to the windows of the high rise hotel here." He pointed to the map.
"No problem, man," Axe said. "I'll be under a tarp that looks like just another roll of asphalt. I won't be visible unless someone steps on me."
"Good," Eddie said. "Send a confirmation key on the radio when you're in position and have a clear view of the layout. We want to hit the power at exactly 0300 hours while everyone is asleep. Manny, you and Diego will kill the generator first, then the power. Squid, you get the grapple on the second floor balcony and wait for Manny and Diego to catch up with you. You guys have the second floor to clear. Photo-lume the door as soon as it's cleared. Wait for us to sweep the first floor and meet up with you before we head up to the third floor. Axe, you've got the best view of what we assume are Aston's quarters. Once we kill background lighting, see if you spot any signatures on the infra-red scope."
"Roger," Axe said. Manny, Diego, and Squid nodded their agreement.
"Javi, I hope your blades are sharp," Eddie said. "Yours is the diciest. You're heading down the road from here, where the street lights are nonexistent. Once you turn the corner, you stick the guard and hit the latch to open the front gate."
"Si," Javi said.
"Hammer and Blaze, you're with me. Once Javi turns the corner, we're moving across the street from the alley here." He pointed to a spot on the map. "We go through the front door and clear it, then meet up with the second team to hit the third floor."
Eddie paused and looked up at everyone. "Questions or concerns, gentlemen," he said. "Speak now or forever hold your peace. We hit it at 0300. We need to be out by 0320, considering potential police response."
"There's a lot of kids inside," Diego said. "This Aston guy might use someone as a hostage."
"Need to make sure it's not Meia or her kid," Axe said.
"She's talked about Aston," Manny said. "You got any idea whether he'd be keeping her close to him?"
I shook my head. "He didn't exactly keep her on a leash back in Vegas," I said. "Not at his house, and from what I saw when I followed her, his guys tailed her pretty randomly."
Blaze shot me a look. I knew what he was thinking when he heard me say I'd followed her- that I was a fucking psycho or something. "On the other hand,” I said. “He's fucking obsessed with her, and probably pissed as shit she got one over on him and got together with me. He's probably keeping her close."
"Preference is, we bring Aston back alive," Eddie said.
"So we just need to take out the guards; extract Meia and her kid from a psychopathic human trafficker; avoid the attention of the Thai police; rescue thirty or so kids from their lives of slavery; and make sure a trafficking rescue organization gets to the kids before anyone else does. That about sums it up, right?" Axe grinned broadly.
"You got anything better to do on a Friday night?" Blaze asked.
"Fuck, no," Axe answered. "Let's do this shit."
I didn't know what time it was, but it was dark. The tiny slivers of light that had pushed their way through the metal shutters that covered the windows were gone now. Aston was gone as well, after he had groped me, violated me with his fingers, and threatened more, until a phone call interrupted him and he left.
He promised he would return.
This time, I would be ready.
He probably had someone watching a camera feed in my room, I knew that. So I needed to perform.
I gave a convincing performance of being ill, I thought, wiping sweat from my forehea
d, and moaning while clutching my stomach. The ceramic bowl was still on the end table, and I bent over it while I pretended to dry heave. I laid back on the bed for a while, before getting up to walk across the floor with the bowl, where I sat, my back against the wall, close to the door, my head in my hands.
The ceramic bowl was the only weapon I had in this room. I would wait and swing at him when he opened the door. It was the only thing I could think to do.
A suicide mission is what it is, I thought. But I forced the concern out of my head. I needed to fight. I would fight. If I didn't, I would be dead anyway. And so would Ben. At least this way I had a chance. Even if it was remote.
I moved along behind Eddie and Blaze. The alley across the front of the compound was only about forty feet away, and from our positions in the shadows we could see the outlines of the guards, their lit cigarettes clear as day in the darkness.
"Go," Eddie whispered, the command communicated through our earpieces.
On cue, Javi appeared around the corner. Before the guard was even aware of Javi's presence, Javi had inserted one of his knives into the guard's eye socket and was drawing the other across his throat. Then he disappeared from sight.
Eddie whispered to us. "On me, let's move."
A few seconds later, we were at the gate. Javi reappeared, the gate to the compound now retracted just enough to walk through. He wordlessly closed it, stepping behind me. We paused when Axe's voice came through our ear buds.
"Eddie," Axe said. "Guard walking toward the front door."
Eddie clicked the radio, and Javi once again moved on Eddie's signal. As the guard stepped out onto the landing, Javi dispatched him with brutal efficiency.
"Front clear," Eddie whispered. "Heading in."
"Last man on hook," Squid said over the radio. I remembered what Eddie had said earlier; that would mean they were all on the second floor now. I looked down at my watch - 0304. We were moving fast.
Breaking Hammer (Motorcycle Club Romance) (Inferno Motorcycle Club Book 3) Page 18
