A Captive of Fear and Desire

by Sophie Kisker

  “You’re not going to leave them here, are you?” Laura exclaimed.

  “We won’t, I promise. We can’t take them over the border, though. Explaining what we were doing would land us all in jail. Laura, can you walk? I want you to stay with me now.”

  He gave her another mouthful of water and helped her stand up. Her legs wobbled but held and they made their way slowly back up the lawn to the house. Along the way they passed three or four bodies lying bloody and dead in the grass. The halls of the large home were surprisingly cool and quiet until they reached the front hall. Laura pulled up short at the sight of DeLeo and two of his guards cornered by the curved marble staircase that ran up the right side of the hall. One of the guards cradled a bloody arm; DeLeo himself seemed fine. Two guards lay dead, stacked against a wall. Jin and two other women who clutched each other tight stood near the dead men. Jin caught sight of Laura but made no expression. Laura wondered what was wrong until she realized that if Jin didn’t speak English, she had no way of knowing who these invaders were. Were they rescuers, or more men like DeLeo who would simply use her the same way?

  Laura’s legs had reached their limit and she sagged in Dan’s arms. He helped her over to the wall on the opposite side of the hall and she slid down to the floor with relief. He gave her another drink. She reached out to Jin, and after a moment, the woman pushed herself away from the other wall and slipped to Laura’s side, kneeling down while keeping an eye on Dan. Laura closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the wall behind her.

  A noise made her open her eyes again. Two more men emerged from a hallway with two laptops and handed them to Dan.

  “We didn’t find any more women. But it’s a big place with a lot of heavy doors.”

  Laura knew they were looking for slaves. She turned to Jin and pointed to herself, to Jin, and to the two other women seated on the floor. She held up four fingers. Then she held up five fingers and made a questioning face to Jin. Jin looked once more at Dan, at the other men, and at Laura, then shook her head. She pointed at the other women, herself, and Laura, held up four fingers, and made a gesture of finality. Laura took her hand in relief. “There’s no others, Dan,” she reassured him.

  He nodded and gestured to the two men to take up a post outside.

  “So,” he said, turning back to DeLeo and the two other men flanking him. “What do I do with the three of you?”

  “I should have listened to Marco.” DeLeo spat onto the marble floor. “He knew you were no good.”

  “Marco was an incompetent idiot. He’d have ruined all those women for life, even for slaves. He had no idea how to run a business or any idea how to increase the value of the merchandise to get more money.”

  Laura listened to this conversation with a sense of unreality. Dan seemed to realize how strange it was, too, because he shook his head and took a step back. “God, I’ve been living in your world for too long.”

  DeLeo raised his eyebrows. “Perhaps it does intrigue you, then? There’s a lot of money in this business. You might consider giving it a try for real. You’re good, that’s for sure.” His voice oozed honey.

  Laura barely registered the flash of movement off to her side before the sound of a gun firing once, twice, three times, was over. When she unclenched her eyes and looked up, Jin was standing with a revolver taken from one of the dead guards and now pointed at the bodies of DeLeo and his two men, who lay on the ground with large holes in their chests. DeLeo made a strange gurgling sound and went silent.

  “Jin,” Dan whispered. She swung around and pointed the weapon at him. The other men in the room turned as one and aimed their rifles at her.

  “Jin, why?” Laura asked calmly. It dawned on her that Jin must have understood enough of what DeLeo had offered to Dan to cause her to act.

  “Evil.” She nodded in the direction of the corpses. She turned back to Dan. “You evil too?”

  Laura thrust herself up from the wall and placed herself between them. “Jin, no. Not evil. I promise.” She kept her voice low as she moved towards the now-shaking woman. She reached out and turned the weapon away, then pried loose Jin’s trembling fingers until she had the gun in her hands. She held it behind her and felt Dan grab it. Laura enfolded the woman in her arms. Jin didn’t resist, but she stood rigid until Laura finally felt her relax. Laura took her hand and led her over to the wall with the other two slaves and they all sat down together silently.

  “Well,” Dan cleared his throat, “that, um, solves some problems.” He gestured out the door. “Gentlemen, I think it’s time we clean up and head home.” He put an arm under Laura and helped her off the floor. Jin refused help, standing up tall and proud by herself. The two Polish women allowed the men to escort them out the front door.

  Three old battered trucks and a car waited in the driveway. A woman older than all four of the vehicles combined stood next to the car. Dan steered Laura towards one of the trucks; the men steered the other women toward the car. As the three former slaves drew near, the old woman pulled out loose and brightly colored dresses, and helped them slip the fabric over their own tiny dresses. She smiled approvingly and gestured them into the car.

  “Her husband is going to drive them into St. Petersburg, about three hours away. He’ll drop Jin off outside the Philippine Embassy, and the Polish women outside their embassy. I wish I could do more for them but if we’re found here…” he trailed off and Laura nodded. He handed Laura a dress like the other women wore and she donned the covering garment gratefully. Her knees suddenly buckled. Dan caught her and with one motion, he swept her into his arms.

  “Whoa there. Need to get you into the truck. Hang on.” To her surprise, he didn’t carry her to the cab; he carried her to the back. One of the other men lowered the gate and Laura beheld a mattress and pillows.

  “We thought you might need this. We hoped not, but we wanted to be prepared.” He climbed into the truck and settled her on the soft surface.

  The other man jumped in. “Okay, Dan, you’ve seen her, now let me get in here and see what she really needs.” Dan backed off to let the other man through.

  “Hi there. I’m Anders, and I’m going to take a look at you while we get out of here, okay?”

  She nodded.

  “Dan filled me in on a few things. The first thing I’m going to do is get some IV fluids going. Can you tell me a little about what went on while you were here so I know what you need?”

  ~ ~ ~

  Dan held her hand tight while she closed her eyes and haltingly tried to relive the last week for them. She faltered a moment at the prick of the IV needle, and paused for a drink of something strangely orange flavored that he said she needed to sip every few minutes for the next day. It was wet and cool; she was happy to oblige no matter how horrible it tasted. She felt the truck start up and they began to move away from the place that, no matter if she had lived or died, would have been her grave.

  She was still having a hard time focusing her mind to tell her story so she drifted off. The crackling of the radio startled her awake.

  “Team leader, goal is accomplished. Rendezvous in fifteen minutes.”

  “Roger. Fifteen minutes.” Dan replaced the radio and smiled down at her. “We’re going to wait here for the rest of the team.”

  “What are they doing?”

  “They’re breaking into DeLeo’s safe and disassembling his files to look for the locations of any other women he’s sold. We also got two laptops that we’ll turn over to our tech experts to comb through. Watch out the back of the truck and in a few minutes you’ll see what they’re doing after that.”

  Laura drifted in and out of consciousness but woke when Dan squeezed her hand and pointed. A large plume of thick black smoke rose in the distance.

  “All the bodies were dragged inside the house,” he explained, “and small charges were set at structurally significant points. The house should collapse on top of them. There’s not a lot of heavy moving equipment near here so by
the time anyone realizes they were killed we’ll be long gone.”

  They waited in silence, listening to bird chirps and the buzzing of a tractor in a nearby field. At last, an old beaten pickup truck came around the bend. A man leaned out the passenger window and gave a thumbs up and the convoy of trucks resumed its journey.

  ~ ~ ~

  She struggled to get her thoughts together to ask something that had been tugging at her since she’d been dragged out of the house by the guards.

  “Dan, why was DeLeo so mad when he saw…the mark…on my hip?” She couldn’t stand to say ‘the brand’.

  Dan’s face sobered. “That was a stupid idea on my part, and it almost got you killed. I’m sorry. I never thought he’d actually get his hands on you.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I knew that he wanted to brand you with his initials. But I wasn’t going to let him do that. So I bought a different brand, just in case I couldn’t stop it, figuring at least it wouldn’t be his initials. I thought he’d never know ‘cause it would be covered by the bandage. You were supposed to be free long before anyone actually saw it. I never imagined he’d get away with you, and I’m so sorry.” His voice broke for a moment. “It’s just a stupid small design but I knew I had to find you before DeLeo took the dressing off. Josh told me the guy who branded you said it would be on for seven days, so I knew I had to get to you before then. I’m sorry I put your life at risk for that.” He looked out the back of the truck into the distance.

  Something larger was going on but she couldn’t form the right words in her head to pursue it yet, so she changed the subject.

  “How are Josh and Claire?”

  Dan was silent for a few minutes. “Josh didn’t make it, Laura. He held on for a day but there was too much damage from the bullet. Too much blood loss.”

  She closed her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Dan. Does he have any family?”

  “Yeah. His mom arrived the next day, and he’s got three brothers and four sisters, back in Puerto Rico. They’re going to send his body back there for the funeral.” He rubbed his forehead with the heels of his hands. “Probably already have.” His voice was flat and controlled.

  She reached for one of his hands and squeezed tight. He didn’t squeeze back.

  “How’s Claire?”

  “As good as can be expected. The bullet hit her in the leg. They released her from the Emergency Department pretty quick and she walked on her crutches right back up to the floor where the rest of the women were. Are. She spent a little while there, and then bullied her way into the ICU to be with Josh. She was with him when he…” His voice choked and cut off.

  More miles went by without words, because there were no words that could express the loss and sorrow they both felt.

  Laura broke the silence. “Did you know Claire was a psychologist before… before all this happened?”

  “Yeah. I’m glad she wanted to stay with the other women. No one will understand what they went through like she will.” There was more than a tinge of regret in his voice.

  “Hey—there was no choice. You’ve got to remember that. You made sure we all came out of it alive. If you hadn’t done what you did—all the parts, even the stuff that was bad at the time—we wouldn’t be headed home.”

  He didn’t respond. A moment later, he pulled his hand from hers and moved away. The truck bumped over the broken road as the IV dripped into her arm and Anders made her drink more of the awful orange stuff.

  Chapter 34

  The sun was warm enough that sweat dripped down the foreheads of the two men in the back of the truck. To Laura, who had been shivering for days, it felt glorious to lie there in the warm bright light without any worries. She dozed in and out. One IV bag was done and Anders put another one up.

  Eventually they came to a small town. Laura heard Dan exclaim over the number of people along the road, explained a moment later by the festive streamers attached to light poles and lively music drifting through the air. As they passed through the crowded streets at a slow crawl, curious pedestrians peered into the back of the truck. Laura pretended to sleep.

  A harsh voice called out and the three trucks stopped.

  “Shit,” she heard Dan mutter.

  A man in green camouflage armed with a long rifle walked along their truck. “Mogu li ya uvidet’ vashi dokumenty, pozhaluysta?”

  Anders and Dan exchanged glances before Anders stood up. He pulled a passport from his pocket and handed it to the soldier. “Ya Michail Bogdorov. Eto moya zhena. Ona bol’na, i my prinimayem yeye v bol’nitsu v Pskov.”

  The soldier barked out another command and Dan fished the same small booklet out of his pocket. Anders handed over a third one and gestured to Laura.

  He continued to speak with the soldier, gesturing towards Laura and the IV several times. The uniformed man oozed skepticism. He walked around the truck, observing it all in silence. He made eye contact with Laura, who steeled herself to look back briefly before looking away, scared that he might want to talk to her. He reached over the side of the truck and tugged on the tube running into her arm. She obediently lifted her hand and he peered at it as though to make sure the catheter was really in her hand and not just taped to the top.

  She didn’t have to fake being ill; the glimpse she’d caught of herself in a mirror as Dan walked her back into the house had shocked her—sunken cheeks, dull eyes, lifeless expression—but she didn’t want the soldier to speak to her so after he raked her over with his eyes, she simply closed them again. She could hear him continue to walk around the truck and speak with Anders, and then his voice faded as he walked back to the other trucks.

  She was too tired to be as scared as she should have been. She had no idea if Americans were liked here, but she doubted it. She still wasn’t sure where she was, but men like DeLeo didn’t hide out in places that were known to be open and friendly to foreigners. This soldier could arrest them and they would just disappear.

  She heard the crowd give an ‘oh!’ of sympathy at one comment, along with a few chuckles. Several tense minutes later, there was some outright laughter, and the trucks started up again. There were no more stops before they were out on the dusty and bumpy road in the countryside once more.

  Dan had seated himself on the other side of the truck bed facing backwards. She had felt him pulling away from her after their last conversation and now, though he was just a few feet away from her, he might as well have been in another country. She wanted to talk, to hold his hand, to feel his comfort and offer hers, but he wanted none of that.

  Anders slid down between them. He handed her the container of orange stuff and helped her sit up to drink.

  “Where are we?” she asked between sips. Her mind was starting to clear.

  “Russia. Near the Latvian border. We should be back on friendly soil by tonight.”

  “That soldier—do you think he suspected anything?”

  “I think he’s suspicious by nature, but I doubt he would have let us go if he had any real concerns.”

  “And if he hadn’t let us go?” She was almost afraid to know.

  “Let’s not dwell on that. You’ve had enough real nightmares; you don’t need to imagine any more.”

  “Okay. So where did you learn to speak Russian?”

  “I learned it from my grandmother, who emigrated from Finland as a young bride. She learned it from her mother in Finland while it was part of Russia. My great grandmother always said it was a wise idea to speak the language of your oppressors. Speaking Russian was part of the reason Dan asked me along on this jaunt.”

  “What did you say to that soldier?”

  Anders grinned. “Well, it seems that your mother is not a very good cook, and she made a soup that gave you food poisoning. You’ve been throwing up for days so a local doctor hooked you up to the IV and sent us off to the hospital in Pskov.”

  Laura smiled. “What else were they laughing at?”

  �
�He asked why all these men were with us. I told him they were the employees of my business, and I hadn’t paid them for their work today and they weren’t going to leave my side until I did. I also told him I suspected they just wanted an excuse to go into the city to pick up some women.”

  Laura laughed out loud, something she hadn’t done in a long time, and it felt good. Dan looked over at her and gave a brief smile, then resumed his thousand-yard stare at the receding road.

  ~ ~ ~

  The dirt road changed to pavement and they began to pass cars and large trucks. Anders let the remaining fluid go into her hand then removed the whole thing. As they rounded a curve and saw no one else on the road, Anders threw the bags and tubing into the woods.

  But that was not an excuse to stop drinking the electrolyte drink, Anders scolded her.

  “Yes, sir.” She smiled. Dan shot her a look she couldn’t interpret.

  Pskov was a decent-sized city whose architecture was a curious blend of old and ornate, and new and stark. Twenty-story apartment buildings, in groups of ten or more and with absolutely no features, stood next to perfectly preserved Orthodox Churches with their onion domes. Laura peeked over the side of the truck as much as she dared, earning a glare from Anders but no orders to lie back down. Dan said nothing.

  They stopped for gas once, and after an animated conversation between their Latvian guides and Dan’s men, the three trucks split up to go in different directions. Only a driver and two Agency men, plus Dan and Anders, remained in their truck.

  Laura dozed in the afternoon sun as they resumed their journey. Her mind was beginning to clear a little but she was so tired that there were moments where it seemed almost too difficult to even take a breath.

  Sometime in the late afternoon they turned off the main road onto some faint tracks through the woods. The truck’s springs got a good workout. Laura was grateful for the mattress under her, though drinking the orange stuff was out of the question if she wanted the drink to go in her and not on her. They bounced around for most of a wearying hour, the trees growing ever denser and the path more faint. Twice the men all hopped out of the truck to remove trees that had fallen over the path. Once the truck had moved forward, they replaced the trees. Then suddenly they stopped and cut off the engines. The woods were dark and still, with only the occasional birdcall breaking the blanket of silence that lay across it.