by George Nagle
James was fairly certain Tim would have wet his pants if he hadn’t gone to the bathroom when they’d made a brief stop to refuel and have a small snack. He leaned over and asked if he was all right. Tim merely nodded and went back to his music.
Two hours later, they stopped in the middle of a road in the middle of what appeared to be nothing but a wasteland.
“We are just waiting for the next vehicle, sirs. It should be here any moment as we are right on schedule,” Noi said, and the driver nodded.
“Sirs, if you might wait in the vehicle here until I ask you to step out once the other arrives, I would be most happy. Look, here it is now.” Noi pointed.
An old green Suburban, probably from the 1960s, was coming towards them. It stopped alongside the black SUV and Noi got out. The driver of the black SUV stayed put, but locked the doors with Tim and James inside.
Noi approached the new driver and gave him the carrier he’d placed the documents in the day before. They spoke for a moment, and then Noi walked toward the SUV. The driver unlocked the doors and got out, and James and Tim followed.
“Please, sirs, right this way. This is Joe. He speaks some English, but we ask you don’t speak too much as he is not supposed to. If you do need to stop to make toilet, he understands. From here you have about one hour drive. We will see you here when you return, sirs.” Noi was giving that yellow smile he had. The driver was carrying two very large gas tanks from the back of the luxury SUV to the Suburban.
Joe was a short man, but very muscular. He had a Chinese look to him mixed with something else, perhaps Italian. The hair and eye color certainly spoke to this, as did the skin tone. He looked very young, possibly in his late teens.
After a quick glance at James, Tim made his way to the green vehicle with his headphone on over his hat.
“Oh, sirs, I forgot. Very sorry. The electronics. If you have them, you may wish to leave them with us here. You can take them if you want, but only if they truly can be shut off and maybe the batteries come out. Same for electric watch,” Noi called.
“But my music,” Tim said, looking like a child.
“I agree, but it sounds like it might get broken, and I didn’t see a store in the airport that could fix it, did you? I mean, this place, ugh,” James said, conveying their rich snob outlook.
“Seriously,” Tim said, winking at James in a rather obvious way that the others fortunately didn’t notice.
They removed the electronics and left them inside the SUV. As they did this, Joe came up behind them and said, “Must search.”
“Oh, yes, sirs. If he can quickly search ... Just for safety on weapons,” Noi said from the front seat.
“Whatever,” Tim said, throwing his head back.
After a quick pat down, Noi and the driver of the SUV waved goodbye and the Suburban was off. They drove for about sixty minutes, but it seemed much longer. The wasteland seemed endless, with little change in the scenery. Suddenly, Joe came to a stop.
Tim leaned over to James and whispered, “Why are we stopping?”
James shrugged and whispered back, “Maybe he has to pee.”
Tim giggled.
Joe removed the battery from his satellite phone. When he finished, they set off again.
Suddenly, Joe hit the gas hard. His foot was down as far as it could go and there was a slight incline to the land. Just before they passed a large rock on either side of the Suburban, Joe took his foot off the gas, shifted to neutral, and turned off the ignition.
Tim started to violently shake.
“What the hell are you doing?” James demanded, taking off his seat belt and reaching over the seat.
Joe pushed him back easily. “It okay. Sit. We start in minute. We pass shut off place,” he said in his broken English.
Joe made no motion to jump out of the vehicle and seemed rather calm. There was no visible sign of danger, so James went with it.
Tim, on the other hand, did not handle the extreme disruption well. He was shaking very badly and didn’t seem to know what to do. James placed his left hand on Tim’s right knee to see if the contact would help. It didn’t.
A few moments later, as the Suburban was starting to lose speed, they passed another set of rocks. Joe applied the breaks until they stopped, popped the battery back into his satellite phone, started the engine, and they continued driving for a few moments before cresting a ridge that opened up to show a magnificent stone building built into the side of a cliff.
Based on the land layout, James did not expect to see a cliff, much less this building. It looked like a fortress with an exterior wall and battlements. A tower seemed to come from about the center and reach upward, almost touching the underside of the overhanging cliff slope.
The sharpness of the angle of the slope seemed unrealistic, but that wasn’t the only remarkable thing about it. It seemed to hug the fortress and hang over the top. James suspected that if you were on top of the ridge, you could peer down and the fortress would be invisible.
As they approached, the stratification of layers became more and more pronounced. James’s eyes scanned them as Tim commented, “That is very pretty how the layers look!”
James tapped him on his leg and he quieted down.
A metallic line made a large, upside down “U” shape. The top of the tower seemed to be designed to be at the peak of the crown of the upside down “U.” James wondered if it was made of lead, but that didn’t seem likely.
They pulled up to a gate. Someone on top of the wall could be heard calling out, and the gateway lifted with a rattling sound of a chain being drawn. They proceeded through to find another layer of wall, but this seemed wider, as if hollow inside, given the size of the stones. The stones were more like bricks, and the wall was only about three meters high. Several doorways were visible.
They drove right as they entered, and James could see an Indian man, or perhaps a tall boy, on top of the exterior wall. Two other teens, a boy and a girl, both with dark skin, seemed to be controlling the gate. All wore ragged clothing that didn’t quite fit.
Looking up, James saw two other vehicles parked in various stages of disrepair. One was a military truck and the other another Suburban. They showed rather extensive signs of rust and seemed to sink a good two inches into the ground.
Joe stopped the truck, got out, and opened the door for Tim. The dark-skinned girl rushed to open the door for James. As James exited, he looked at her and said, “Thank you.”
She dropped her eyes, and James saw what looked like scaring on her neck and parts of her visible back. Strangely enough, now that he could see her properly, she appeared to be more indigenous to the Amazon region than Asian.
“Come,” came Joe’s voice, and James and Tim followed him to a door in the inner wall.
James had been right that it was hollow inside. It seemed to be about fifteen feet wide and used for storage. The light inside was poor, and the open doors cast odd shadows down the length on both sides as far as they could see into the curves.
Exiting the other side, they found a large area with several small, shack-like buildings in front of the main building. They touched the inner wall at the end of the circle-like curvature.
Standing at the main door was a man wearing a suit and white shirt. He smiled as he walked down the three long steps that led to the door to greet them.
If there was any doubt that this man was Chinese, it was dismissed the moment he spoke.
“Oh, wercome wercome. I am Tan Lien. Very prease to meet such fine men. Prease, come, come.” He was motioning them inside.
James knew he wouldn’t have to explain to Tim that the man’s first name was actually Lien since introductions began with the family name in Asian cultures.
Tim and James passed through the doorway and heard an exchange of words between Joe and Lien. Lien seemed to be yelling at Joe, who was trying to explain something until Lien struck him in the head. Joe just stood there, eyes down, and listened as Lien yelled some mo
re.
James grabbed Tim, who was starting to shake. Tim became very upset at shouting and physical violence.
“Jim, we can’t get involved. We don’t know what it’s about, and it isn’t our concern today,” he said quickly and quietly.
“I know what they are saying. He said Joe should have used the proper manners and taken a bonus with him. Joe was saying it was for a different thing and then he got hit, Tim said, still shaking.
“Jim, you are able to deal with violence, remember? It is a rule, and Joe is okay right now. It’s a rule,” James said. He then asked, “What do you mean ‘bonus’?”
Tim stopped shaking. He looked sad. “I don’t know, but it is what he said. Grant, I would like to go home soon. I do not like this place.”
“Soon,” James replied.
Lien finished yelling and Joe set off. Upon joining them, Lien began to speak as if nothing had happened while showing them down the corridor, which was complete with a vaulted ceiling.
“Here we are in the main front area. Different areas of our home can be reached from here,” said Lien, spreading his arms wide.
As they reached the end of the corridor, they found a rather magnificent opening. It looked like an indoor courtyard and living room with grand mirrors, tapestries on the walls, large carpets, and soft leather couches. A bar area in the corner had a suited Caucasian boy with large ears and red hair manning it. He looked extremely out of place.
Looking up, James saw that they were under the tower, but the inner chamber of the tower also had a variety of angled mirrors intermixed with steps leading to the peak. James quickly realized these were used to harvest natural light, though electrical lights were present, too. He also recognized that cameras were everywhere, and not just the obvious ones in the corners.
Lien spoke again, as if giving them a tour. “If you come with me to the right, you find most eregant rooms prepared for guests to try out before taking home.” They followed him down the right-hand corridor.
James was confused, but Tim seemed happy to be on the little tour and didn’t appear to think anything was wrong. James was not about to upset that peace, so he kept quiet and smiled as Lien showed them a well-furnished bedroom inside the second door on the left as they entered the hall.
The king bed was set on a hand carved frame with posts that ran to the ceiling. The royal purple curtains on the bed were pulled back, and the walls were painted a soft lavender. On the ceiling directly over the mattress was yet another mirror.
James’s eyes denoted a small line running from the edge of the mirror at the headboard toward the wall. It was perfectly straight and could easily be a line for a hidden camera that had been patched over.
A door on the far left of the room led to a very nice bathroom with a shower and tub. Aside from the plumbing, that seemed to be an added feature well after the fortress was built, everything was tiled and looked modern.
Stepping back into the hallway, they met a woman who looked very much like Lien. It turned out to be his sister, Bik. She was very gracious and said, “If you hurry, you seeing them in bathing room.”
Tim spoke up. “We just saw the bathroom. I liked the shiny green tiles.”
Lien interjected. “I am giving them the tour, Bik. Go!”
She gave him a look and walked away.
“She is as bad as her bastard, Joe,” Lien spat. “Qiang was right to treat her as cousin and not sister anymore. Prease, this way. Show you more.”
James gave a small nod to show his lack of concern. He understood that many cultures of the world had different views and this was one of them. He didn’t agree with it, but at the same time he felt that Grant wouldn’t care too much and acted accordingly.
They saw another room similar to the prior one and then a third room set up like a classroom. “This teaching room. For those who like pray teacher with bad student,” he winked.
And it suddenly clicked in James’s mind. This was a brothel. The teens working out front were probably all bastards of the prostitutes. Lien thought he and Tim were here as regular clients, and Joe had tried to tell them they were not. The bonus he mentioned must have been a woman to keep them company on their journey to the fortress.
James stepped forward to speak with Lien. “Sorry, I think we should …” but Lien cut him off.
“Okay, okay. I take you now. I show you. Normar the rast room is exciting, but we go see now,” Lien said, slightly flustered. “Bik ruin surprise.”
James tried to engage him again, but Lien waved him off and said, “Come, come.”
Tim followed Lien, clearly eager to see more of the place, and James tracked them, trying to think of how to tell him they were not here to visit prostitutes. All the while, he kept processing what he saw. This is a rather out-of-the-way place to set up a brothel.
Lien took them through a few more passages and turns, then stopped outside a room and opened the door for them. They could hear voices and splashing. Tim walked in, and James paused to try to explain.
“Mr. Tan, I think we need to speak. Jim, my cousin, and I are here to gain some information,” James started.
“Yes, yes. To see what we do and training. Make some picks, yes?” He gave a prolonged wink and a smile. He was missing several teeth and had really bad breath.
“No, Mr. Tan. We have come for other information. We called and spoke with Mr. Rasa about the Spirit information,” James said.
“What is that? Oh you mean stuff? Or Sirff, or how you say?” He paused. “Sruff. No, snuff!” Lien exclaimed, clearly thinking he had found the right word. “We train, but you do as you will. You pay and is yours.”
“Snuff? No, we do not wish to kill anyone or have sex. We are here for information …” James began again.
“Oh, but your cousin, he is showing other intention,” Lien said, laughing and pointing.
James turned to see Tim stepping out of his pants.
“Tim!” James cried out, and there was an echo. He called, “Jim, stop!” getting the name right this time.
Tim looked up as James raced toward him into the large, Olympic sized poolroom. Steam issued from the huge bath, but that wasn’t the only thing in the two to three foot deep pool. It was filled with what looked like at least forty children.
James paused. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He had expected to see a variety of women and perhaps some men, but not kids. Now he understood the warning about coming here.
“They asked me to play. I like to swim, and they said I don’t need swim trunks. They don’t have any, and they said that adults swim with them all the time,” Tim said, looking innocently at James.
James focused, speeding up his thought process. He could not tell Tim these kids were slaves and being abused. He would freak out. Tim’s very nature was childlike and innocent. He was great with kids and enjoyed playing with them, but he couldn’t join them, could he?
Perhaps a second went by. James could hear Lien approaching. “What if one of the kids peed in the water?” he said quickly.
“Oh, that is not good. Sometimes that happens. Yes, good point,” Tim said.
James turned back to the pool. In the blink of an eye, he counted twenty boys and fifteen girls. They seemed to be every size, age, and skin tone imaginable. They certainly weren’t all from this part of the world. As they splashed around, James noticed they all seemed to have a similar scar somewhere just below their waistlines. Each scar was about the size of a nickel and looked like a burn mark.
“You see, we have the finest in the world here,” Lien said into James’s left ear. He turned to Tim and said, “Please feel free to do as you like. They are very friendly.” He clapped twice.
A white boy stood up from the center of the pool from a crouched position and faced Lien. He was about eleven years old but had not entered puberty. He was one of the older kids, if not the oldest, but that was not the remarkable thing about him. It was the blue eyes and straw hair. They struck James, as did the boy’s scars. Three
were very distinct. One was on his inner right thigh near his groin, one at his pubic symphysis, and the other was on his center left upper thigh.
The boy started scurrying around and ushering kids toward James and Tim.
Just then, a young man about James’s age walked quickly into the room and pulled Lien to the side. He had a determined look on his face and spoke rapidly.
James and Tim were swarmed with kids chattering away and pawing at their clothes. Only the blue eyed boy remained in the water, but he was right at the edge, watching the others.
The stranger finished speaking and left. Lien came over and clapped his hands twice again. The blue-eyed boy called the others back to the pool.
“Why are they going back? I thought we were going to play a game. She said we could play hide and seek.” Tim pointed at a little girl about nine years old with long black hair who was waving at him. He waved back.
“So sorry. My nephew instructs me you not suppose to see. You here for other thing. So sorry,” Lien said. “Prease come now, this way.”
“Wait, just one moment.” James held out his hand to stop him. He quickly decided to exploit this mistake and Tim’s innocent desire to play with the children to their advantage.
“Why can’t we discuss both?” James asked. “As you said, my cousin is interested, and so am I.” In his head, he finished with the thought, Interested in freeing these kids and burning this hellhole to the ground, hopefully with you and your partners in it.
James knew he needed to secure his host’s trust a bit more in order to see the best way to help these kids. That meant seeing more of the layout.
“Please, finish showing us around before we conduct our other business.” James looked into Lien’s face, trying to conceal the rage burning through him. Thankfully, the room was hot and covered up how red he had to be turning.
Lien laughed and wiggled a finger at James before bowing slightly. “Oh, oh oh, I knew. I knew. Good, yes.” He turned and called “Seim!”
A young man who looked about twenty years old appeared out of a dark corner of the corridor.
