by Terry Toler
“I didn’t know,” he said, stuttering his words. “It’s not my fault.” “Whose fault is it then?” Jamie said angrily.
The Palace was better known as Dacha Putin or Putin’s Place. It was a large Italianate Palace built on the coast of the Black Sea for President Putin back when he was in power. Estimated to cost more than a billion dollars to build. A massive complex complete with shops, restaurants, and recreational facilities.
“The girls were supposed to be taken there so they could entertain President Yokov and his guests,” Jamie explained. “This is a disaster.”
The mention of the president struck fear in every citizen, especially those who had dealings with Yokov that went bad. The man standing in front of Jamie would be wondering if he was in real trouble. Thoughts of prison, torture, and Siberia were probably running through his mind. Especially since he had stolen one of Yokov’s girls, or so she led him to believe.
“We’ve got to get the women back,” Jamie implored. “And to the right place. Sit down. What’s your name?”
“Yuri,” he said as he dutifully sat in the chair in front of the desk.
“I need your help. Let’s go over the lists,” Jamie said.
The man was extremely helpful. Three busloads of girls were taken to the monasteries. Fortunately, they were all within thirty minutes of their location. Yuri had a man in charge of each facility. He called each one and told them that a bus would be coming to pick up the girls to transport them to a different location. They were to see that the girls were ready to go by tomorrow.
“What about these girls that went to the airport? Where did they go?”
“I don’t know. I swear. They got on a private plane.”
“What about these girls that have a star by their name? It says M.E next to it.”
“M.E. stands for Mordo Estate. Three girls went there.”
Jamie knew of the estate from her research driving over. It was a large residential complex owned by Vagit Mordo, an oligarch who was the Deputy of Fuel and Energy for Russia. One of the world’s richest men. Yuri explained that the girls were taken to his estate to be his personal servants and escort companions for ninety days. Then they were to be replaced with new women.
She didn’t want Yuri calling the estate. The oligarch was a powerful man with contacts in the government. The bogus story worked with the imbecile in front of her but wouldn’t work with a sophisticated government official who could easily verify it wasn’t true.
I’ll have to go there myself.
***
Thirty minutes later, Jamie exited the building, turned out all the lights, and locked the back door. The girl from the closet was with her.
Yuri had taken her place in the closet. His ankle was chained to the wall. The door to the closet was locked. The light out. A bowl of water sat in the dog bowl next to him.
28
Mordo Estate, Obninsk, Russia, 2:30 p.m.
Jamie received confirmation that the last bus carrying the last group of girls had just arrived in Belarus. The day before, she had contacted Jill, the Director of Save the Girls and told her she needed fifteen people not three. Jamie went to a tour bus company and ordered a fleet of twelve buses which were delivered to the warehouse where the girls were originally brought from Belarus.
Jamie spent time going through the mission with the drivers. They were to drive to a monastery, pick up approximately one hundred girls and drive them to Pinsk, Belarus. Jill had contacted Detective Fabi Orlov who would be there to meet them and gather their statements as more proof against the employees of Belles of Belarus and Omer Asaf.
Save the Girls and Detective Orlov would share the credit for rescuing the fifteen hundred girls. No one would know Jamie was involved, which was how the CIA liked it.
Yuri, the man who oversaw the operations and the warehouse in Obninsk, was extremely helpful once again. He called the guards at all of the monasteries instructing them that the girls were going to be picked up and transported to another location and to not provide any resistance or question the actions. Jamie found most people to be helpful when they had a gun to their head.
Yuri was now in Belarus. He’d traveled with them on the bus in the underneath luggage compartment, his hands and feet bound, and his mouth gagged. Probably being arrested by Fabi about that time. He was a Russian citizen, and family in Russia would probably wonder what happened to him, but they would likely never know. People had a way of disappearing in the Belarus prison system.
Relieved the girls were safe, Jamie could focus on the mission at hand. Olga, Daria’s sister, was one of the girls taken to the Mordo Estate. They had to get Olga and two other girls out of there. The compound was a fifteen-hundred acre sprawling fortress. An electric fence surrounded the entire estate. Security cameras and motion sensors ensured that no one could enter the area by way of the fences without detection.
One single road led in and out and was manned by a security guard who carried an Ak-74M assault rifle with a thirty-round magazine. Ten to twelve other soldiers were interspersed throughout the estate.
A covert operation, by herself, was not going to work. A direct assault with gunfire was out of the question. Jamie had to come up with a different plan.
If she somehow managed to get inside the compound, her biggest challenge would be finding the girls. The house was forty-thousand square feet. Two swimming pools, three tennis courts, a bath house, a fitness center, and a building that housed offices. A separate four-thousand square foot house in the back was the most likely place to keep them, Jamie decided. An armed guard stood in front of the house twenty-four hours a day. Why would a soldier be guarding a guest house?
Soldiers were stationed around the main house, which made sense. Mordo would require around-the-clock protection. But Jamie figured Mordo wouldn’t want three sex slaves living in his primary residence. The guesthouse was the next likely alternative. Jamie learned from surveillance that the guards at the gate worked three eight-hour shifts. Six in the morning to two in the afternoon; two to ten and then ten to six.
“How are we going to get inside?” Daria asked Jamie.
“We’re going to drive right up to the gate,” Jamie answered.
Jamie’s plan was to arrive at the gate just after the two o’clock shift change. She explained the plan fully to Daria.
“Do you think it’ll work?” Daria asked nervously.
“You don’t have to do this,” Jamie responded. She hated the fact Daria had to go with her. But she needed her to execute the plan.
“I want to. She’s my sister. She’d do it for me.”
“It’s dangerous. We may not make it out alive.”
“I know. What are we waiting on? Let’s do it,” Daria said.
Jamie bound Daria’s hands together and drove up to the guard gate. The guard motioned for them to stop. A large fortified gate blocked the entrance anyway. Jamie rolled down her window and greeted the guard in a friendly manner.
“I’m bringing the girl back from the doctor’s office,” Jamie said.
The soldier peered through the window. Jamie was praying he’d seen Olga before. A look of recognition flashed across his face. Daria and Olga were identical twins. Jamie couldn’t tell them apart in pictures and doubted the soldier could either, or at least that’s what she’d hoped.
“I didn’t know the girl wasn’t in the estate,” he said.
“She got sick. Had to go to the doctor. I’m the doctor’s assistant. They called me to pick her up and bring her back. I don’t remember you. There was a different guard here when I arrived.”
“We just changed shifts. Let me check the records. He should’ve written it down.”
The soldier went back to the guard station and flipped through some papers. He came back to the car scratching the side of his head, confused.
“There’s nothing written down.”
Jamie just shrugged her shoulders.
“I’ll just leave her here with you,” Jam
ie said. “I don’t have to go in. She can be your problem.”
The guard looked down the road. It was more than a mile to the house.
“I can’t leave my station,” he responded. “Just take her in and drop her off and come right back out.”
“Spa-see-ba.” She thanked the guard.
The guard raised the gate, and Jamie drove through it, down the main road, and around the back of the main house to the guest house. If the girls weren’t there, Jamie would have to improvise. At least they were in and she had a weapon. The guard hadn’t bothered to search them. Probably a breech in protocol.
She pulled up to the guest house and got out of the vehicle. She went around to the other side and opened the door to help Daria out. A guard standing at the front door of the house was looking at them in an alert but relaxed state. He seemed to have recognized Daria as well. Jamie figured he wouldn’t ask any questions since they had already made it past the main gate.
“I’m bringing the girl back,” Jamie offered even though he didn’t ask. “She went to the doctor.”
He stepped away from the front door and motioned for them to go into the house. They walked through the door and into what was a large hallway. The downstairs appeared to be the main living area with a full kitchen and dining room. The upstairs was likely where the girls stayed. No one was downstairs. They needed to move quickly before anyone got suspicious.
Jamie took the bindings off of Daria’s wrist and then bolted up the stairs, two at a time. She counted at least eight bedrooms in the upstairs section. She called out Olga’s name.
Daria ran past Jamie, frantically looking in each room. The girls were at the end of the hall in an upstairs living area, watching television.
Daria threw herself at Olga, hugging her tightly, crying. Olga rubbed her eyes as if she didn’t believe what she was seeing. The other two girls just stood there with their mouths opened in disbelief.
Jamie took control. There’d be time for celebrating later. They weren’t out of danger, yet. Far from it.
“Each of you get a blanket,” Jamie said. “Put shoes on. Leave everything else behind. Then follow me back downstairs. We’re getting out of here.”
“Don’t worry,” Daria said to Olga and the other girls. “You can trust her.”
“Hurry. Wrap the blanket around you. Especially you, Olga. I don’t want the guard to see your face.”
This was the tricky part. There were three girls in the house. How would she get four out in the car without the guard knowing it?
Jamie took the girls downstairs and staged the living room the way she wanted it. She put Olga in the first room in the hallway nearest the entrance. One girl laid down on the couch, the blanket over her. Daria and the other girl stood next to her, looking concerned.
Satisfied, Jamie walked down the hallway, opened the door and called for the guard. “Hurry. I need your help.” Jamie said. “The other girls are sick.”
The guard rushed past her. Olga emerged from hiding in the first bedroom and slipped out the front door. Jamie ran behind the guard to block his view if he should turn around. Olga was told to go straight to the car and get in the back seat on the floor out of sight.
“Help the girl,” Jamie said to the soldier.
The soldier helped the girl laying on the couch to her feet. He walked her down the hallway, out the door, and over to the car.
“Put her in the front seat,” Jamie said.
Daria opened the door for him. The other girl got in the backseat on Jamie’s side.
“These girls are going to have to be quarantined and kept at the hospital. I suggest you go wash your hands. She’s very contagious.”
The guard’s eyebrows raised, and he looked at his hands. Then went back in the house.
When all four were safely in the SUV, Jamie backed out of the driveway and began driving to the entrance. She sped up slightly. Still trying to maintain a reasonable speed so as not to alert anyone. She approached the guard gate and rolled down the passenger side window.
“She’s really sick as well. I’ve got to take her to the hospital. All the girls have to be quarantined. They have infectious typophacus.”
He hesitated.
“I wouldn’t get too close,” Jamie said. “It’s really contagious.” The guard stepped back and looked like he was holding his breath.
“Don’t forget to write it down,” Jamie said emphatically. “The girls will be in the hospital for a minimum of three days. I don’t want the same problem when I bring them back.”
“No problem,” he said as he went back to the guardhouse and raised the gate. Jamie could see him writing on a clipboard.
Once they were a good distance away, the girls started cheering wildly.
Jamie couldn’t stop grinning herself. This was her favorite part of her job.
They drove to the Hotel Na Mirnum in center city Obninsk. The hospital ruse would buy them time. Not much but a little. Word could’ve already gotten out about the monastery girls disappearing. Mordo would come investigating.
The girls were laughing and having a good time as they got out of the car and went into Jamie’s hotel room.
“Infectious typophacus,” one said. “Is that a real disease?”
“I made it up,” Jamie admitted.
“It was brilliant,” Olga said.
Jamie took the title for the SUV and signed Daria’s name on the buyer’s line.
“It’s yours,” she said, handing it to her.
“I don’t know what to say. Are you sure? Is that legal?”
“If anybody asks, just say your rich uncle left it to you.”
Jamie took out $5,000 in cash out of the satchel and gave it Olga and the other two girls.
“Nothing will compensate you for what happened,” Jamie said. “At least this will help you get a new start in life.”
The girls started crying and thanked and hugged Jamie.
“Get on the road and drive straight home. Don’t even stop for food.
Wait until you’re out of the country.”
“Were all the girls rescued?” Olga asked.
“Not all of them,” Jamie replied. “There were some girls taken to the airport.”
“Do you know their names?”
Jamie pulled up the list on her phone. She had sent the original files back with one of the bus drivers.
“Here are the names,” Jamie said, handing Olga her phone.
“Oh no! Anastasia is on this list. She’s only fourteen.”
One of the other girls was looking at it, standing next to her, “I know Sofia. She’s only fifteen. She’s from my hometown.”
Jamie now knew how they picked the girls for the airport. They chose the young ones.
“You have to find Ana,” Olga implored. “She was already scared to death. No telling what they’re doing to her.”
“I don’t know where she is,” Jamie retorted.
“Can’t you find her?”
Jamie let out a loud sigh.
“Yes. I can find her, and I will. I promise. You girls get going. The sooner you’re out of here the better I’ll feel.”
After several hugs and a few more tears, the girls were on their way.
Jamie walked back into the hotel room and fell backward on the bed.
Exhausted. Frustrated. Knowing she had to go back to work.
How am I going to find them? They could be anywhere in the world!
She had to try. It’s who she was.
She knew the girl’s name. Once she knew the name, she had no choice.
Ana.
***
Jamie allowed herself a two-hour nap. When she woke up, she felt worse. She grabbed a power bar and an energy drink from a convenience store next door then called a taxi. He met her at the door. She insisted on loading the bags herself. The satchel was still full of almost $400,000. The cache of weapons from the safehouse were heavy, but she didn’t want anyone else handling them. Her backpack was the on
ly other thing she was carrying.
He drove her to a nearby local rental-car place. Easier to load her equipment into a car there than at the airport. She left the rental car place and drove to the CIA safehouse in Moscow. After unloading her equipment, she called Brad.
“Hey, Foxworthy,” Jamie said.
“Lynda Carter, good to finally hear from you. You’ve been busy.”
Jamie let out a chuckle. Lynda Carter played Wonder Woman back in the seventies.
“It’s been a productive week I’d say.”
There’s no way Brad could give her a hard time for disobeying orders. What Jamie had accomplished looked as good for them as much as it did her. A lot of people would be really happy about this mission.
“Good work,” he said.
Jamie was shocked. Brad didn’t give out compliments often.
“When are you coming home?”
“About that… I’m not coming home, yet.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
“There are five more girls missing. They were taken to the airport. I want to find them.”
“You’ve already saved more than fifteen hundred women and girls. You can’t save all of them.”
1613 actually.
Brad didn’t know about the hundred and thirteen at Splash nightclub. He’d never know about them, but she did, and they were in her count.
“I may not be able to find them, but they were the youngest girls. Fourteen and fifteen years old. I have to try.”
“I thought sixteen was the minimum age.”
“Me too. They probably lied or something. Or were recruited because of their age. But they were specifically singled out and put on a private plane. I’m going to find them.”
“Okay. Good luck.”
Jamie hung up slowly. That went easier than she imagined. Brad didn’t put up a fight at all. The success of the mission gave her some capital. It would run out eventually, but she would keep using it as long as she could.
She dialed another number.
“Well, hello,” Alex said, with excitement in his voice.
“Hey, to you too,” Jamie replied sweetly.
“I delivered the package,” Alex said. He didn’t know she was on a secure line.
