As expected, the Linz police with a reinforced platoon of Austrian Army motorized infantry and more armored vehicles than anyone knew they had, showed up shortly after the freed women left on a different back road than they arrived on. The approach of the cops and army was not subtle and when the awakened and confused B&B guards made the mistake of opening fire on the advancing police, a flamethrower tank was brought up and hosed the B&B structure to the ground in short order. There was no further resistance.
Forty-six women were freed from the various chambers and cells in the complex and the search for even more at other sites continued for weeks. Among them were Bridget, Lisle, Marianne, Sydney, Emily, the pony girl from the horse auction and Hillie, the woman who thought that she had bought the pony girl but in fact had been sold to Salmon in an exchange transaction.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Last Gasp
“This was much easier for young women than it would have been for men.”
The Brillcart Empire stumbled on, seriously wounded and bleeding as one EU law enforcement unit after another raided and eventually destroyed The System’s hideouts and operations centers. The hundreds of young women who were the core of the courier robbing organization were slowly repatriated and short hearings before magistrates in their home countries resulted in a slap on the wrist and no real punishment, given the overwhelming evidence that most, if not all of the women had acted in a combination of fear for their lives and their families and Stockholm Syndrome-like obedience. Because most of the loot was eventually found in Brillcart’s coffers and no violence had been carried out against the couriers, criminal charges were dropped in most cases.
Graf Salmon took his losses in stride and moved into other business ventures, waiting for an appropriate period before resurrecting the slave and robbery gang.
The most puzzling mystery was finally solved when several of the courier robbers, now freed, revealed the biggest secret of their trade: why was there never any evidence of the robbers at the scene? How did they escape so easily, so quickly? Where did they hide?
Bibi explained to the banker’s council how this happened:
“The answer to this riddle,” Bibi began, “came from the old magician’s trick of distraction while hiding the thieves’ right under the investigators’ noses. For example, in most incidents, the two attractive thieves, always dressed in exactly the same black body suit, hoods, and flat-heeled boots, simply evaporated into the surrounding crowds as they changed easily into street clothes, or, in some locales, simply covered up completely with Islamic garb. They didn’t flee. Their stash was distributed into their backpacks, shopping bags, shoulder bags or purses and remained in plain sight as they slipped on an overcoat, added a bright scarf, removed the hoods and added dark glasses. They were not gone, they just blended in,” Bibi added.
“This was much easier for young women than it would have been for men. A cute young shopper with a black body suit under her coat, a bright Hermes silk scarf and a pair of fashionable Jimmy Choo heels is not going to catch the cops’ eye in the same way that two men would. It’s just human nature. Often they stood nearby and shopped in stores and shops right at the same location as the robbery. The ones in Arab outfits were seen pan-handling with their paper Starbucks coffee cups and usually ignored. If questioned, they said nothing or babbled gibberish. Although the cops and even we covered the area carefully, we looked right at them and saw shoppers or lunch time diners, not thieves.”
“What about the heavy items they took?” Council Chairwoman Lisa Strom asked.
“They used a variety of creative schemes. Hiding the goods under their robes was the easiest, but more often they again used the magicians’ tricks of hiding the stolen items in plain view. In some cases, prearranged hideaways, such as post boxes, parking meter card dispensers, fire plugs and even street side dog watering stations were used successfully. The thieves casually dropped their booty into a false mailbox or trash can as they shopped. In Bremen, for example, they dropped a cache of jewelry into a sidewalk bin for recycling bottle and cans. In another instance, they used a bin reserved for dog excrement. Many prearranged stashes for their stolen goods were used and recovered later, but the utter simplicity of the plans was what made it work,” Bibi added.
“One key we consistently missed was the typical backpacks that shoppers and business people now carry. When we finally got a look inside the packs, we found quick change gear and innocent-looking, common items that could quickly change the women’s appearance. Make-up, wigs, keys, coin purse, wallet, tissues, brush and comb and such. The twin thieves would split up, dive around a corner, their packs already open, pull off their hoods and wigs if they wore any, fluff their hair, often standing on the sidewalk using a store window as their mirror. The front zipper of the body suit was pulled enticingly down, a nice colorful and expensive scarf tied around the neck, the light weight raincoat or overcoat shaken out and donned and the boots slipped off, stashed in the pack and the four-inch Jimmy Choo heels added. We noted that they made an effort to look very well-to-do and dressed accordingly.”
“Did any of this ever turn up on video surveillance?” Strom asked.
“Yes,” Bibi said. “Many times, but when you cracked it down, it usually turned out that the suspects were just students or local shoppers. Occasionally, we and the cops stopped them and questioned them. Needless to say that the store owners in the area were not pleased that we were harassing their customers. But in one case, the local investigators actually entered a store when they spotted suspicious women inside. They were well-dressed, but the black tights were, the cops said, a possible identifier. They were fully cooperative, showed us their packages and proper ID. Afterwards, we went over the tapes and noted that about seventy-five percent of the women on tape were wearing black tights, so it was a waste of time and embarrassing for the cops.”
Several women on the council nodded in agreement.
“Amazing. The perfect disguise,” said one. “But over time, weren’t there enough repetitions to draw attention?”
“Remember that these incidents were never in the same place, usually in broad daylight, in public areas and pedestrian zones,” Jean Groff added. “It’s a given that even the most efficient law enforcement teams often sweep into a crime scene and miss or accidently destroy or obscure evidence in the first few minutes or hours. This is why today we have specialized CSI teams and try to keep the beat and patrol cops at bay, securing the perimeter. Sometimes the best intentions get screwed up. Madly searching for two black-suited women escaping from the robbery area, the cops, when they arrived, never really were able to completely check the hundreds of shoppers and walkers who had been there all the time. Even when there was close video surveillance, the real culprits were taught to blend in and they did. They used every possible means of escape: trams, trains, metro, bicycles, taxis, private cars and delivery trucks. And,” Bibi added, “there has yet to be one incident where the local cops said that they had seen strangers. Our courier robbers looked just like everyone else.”
“What about the dozens of kidnapped girls?” another council member asked.
“Brillcart is vicious and cunning,” Bibi said. “He uses sex as an effective and impressive weapon. I can personally testify to that. But as far as we can tell, aside from some bruises and superficial scars, the women perps are in pretty good shape. Sure, being stuffed into a coffin, hung by your wrists, whipped and sexually abused will have long term effects, but they are all young and happy to be free...except for the few who actually sought the BDSM environment and even paid for it. That group has already more or less disappeared, perhaps going back to where they began the adventure, seeking new masters.”
“You mean that some of these were volunteers?” an older bank president on the council asked.
“Yes,” said Bibi. “If you can pull down the blinders and subterfuge most people erect when it comes to such erotica, you will find a substantial percentage of men and women wh
o actively seek to participate as either subjects or masters. Research indicates that as much as thirty-five or forty percent of the population has some level of interest in kink and its related activities. But note, Sir, that in your own country, the incidents of sex and erotic crimes has spiked since the crazy extreme Muslim groups got hold of the government and banned the formerly legal and carefully controlled shops, parties, events and clubs where such behavior was acceptable and legal.”
“True. I understand. Legal, voluntary, consensual participation was always a better alternative to what we have to deal with now,” said another permanent council member. “Is there any evidence that any of the women ever escaped?”
Bibi continued. “Yes and no. We got some indication that a few escaped when sent on a job and vanished. Others, the guards told us, were released for health reasons and blackmailed into silence. Putting their lives back together won’t be easy and there’s plenty of stuff to keep the shrinks of Western Europe busy for a decade or two. Protecting their identity hasn’t been simple and the press, as usual, could care less about their privacy. It will take time.”
“Any other interesting information for us, Ms. Lynx?” Strom asked politely, nervously shifting in her seat, apparently ready to wrap up the meeting.
“Yes,” said Bibi.
Groff nodded as well.
“The psychological impact of the training techniques used on the women will make complicated and confusing reading when and if the crime reports are released. What the law would interpret as kidnapping and abuse might well be also called ‘education and training.’ Consider that until recently, it was quite acceptable for school students to be physically and mentally punished at all education levels. The paddle and meter stick on the backside, the ruler on the knuckles and the caning of bare bottoms is now considered unacceptable, but still practiced in many private schools and parents still look the other way. Furthermore, what Graf Salmon, Carlton and their gang used to train their charges was, in most cases, corporal punishment at a far lesser level than what goes on in our jails and prisons right now. I strongly suggest that rather than expose the victims, (some of whom have no desire to even talk about what was done to them), we redact any mention of this from the final reports.”
“I concur,” Groff added. “I don’t see any benefit in describing the captivity, bondage, whipping and other abuses the women were subjected to. It will only fuel prurient interests of the press and accomplish nothing.”
“What about the volunteers who went to Brillcart’s operations seeking fulfillment of their erotic desires. I saw one or two in the records who fit that description. Since they were not involved in the robberies and actually paid to be abducted and mistreated, are they a threat to our keeping this more or less under wraps?”
“I don’t think so,” Groff commented. “Besides, some of them did in fact carry out robberies. It was a very subtle transition from being abducted, punished, held prisoner and then being forced to carry out a robbery. In the reality of this environment, there really is a very thin line between being kept as a submissive and sent out to do the dominant’s bidding, even if it’s a crime. I talked to a couple of young women who convinced me that robbery was the furthest thing from their minds when they responded to advertisements offering B&D activities, which are, for the most part, still quite legal among consenting adults. One girl, Marianne, spent thousands of Euros of her own money to be abducted and “trained” in various esoteric games and activities. She was annoyed that we broke up her experience, but also confessed that some of the things they did to her were outside what she initially thought she would find,” Groff added.
“How about your experience and that of your associates?” Strom asked Bibi.
“It goes with the job. My friend Dede is fine. She’s a true masochist and a kink, so much of the ‘punishment’ was neither foreign nor unpleasant for her, as strange as that may sound. I think she is still wearing the collar they put on her.”
The council audience members either chuckled or blushed at this information.
“Personally,” Bibi added, “I can think of things I’d rather do than spend a few days locked in a stone sarcophagus with another woman, with, ahem, plugs up my butt and elsewhere, but, as I said, it goes with the territory.”
“So noted. Perhaps we should adjourn,” Strom said...wondering why there seemed to be a certain dampness in her own crotch as these topics were discussed.
So ended the investigation, but once again, Brillcart had escaped.
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The Couriers Page 24
