Chapter 19

Three hours later the two girls, without their clothes, were ushered into a darkly lit room. In the back of the room, Sissy, also without clothes cowered in confused fear. The two-year-old ran to Sissy and cried, "Mama?" When she got close enough to see that Sissy was not her mother, she stopped, looked around, and started to cry.

The six-year-old stood with a blank look on her face. She was beginning to understand that her mother did not send the men. She did not know where her mother was, but she knew it wasn't here. While fear did not consume her yet, she was fighting a losing battle with it. "Where are we? Who are you?"

Sissy looked at the two girls and somewhere in her mind she realized they did not pose a threat to her. In fact, she might be able to use these girls for her own good. This was, after all, survival, and she was bigger than they were. Every girl for herself became her mantra. "Shut up that kid before I choke her to death."

The girl quickly stepped between Sissy and her sister. "You keep away from us."

Sissy slapped the girl and pushed her to the floor. "Don't you talk back to me. I'm in charge here. I'm the biggest and meanest. Now shut up that kid."

In the control room Summer's turned to the leader of the kidnap team. "Nasty little bitch, isn't she?"

"You don't have to like them to sell them. In fact, it makes it easier to send them away."

"I get the nigger if she's not virgin. We find out in the morning."

"God, Summers, you are sick. Don't hurt this one, the South African won't like it if you ruin another one."

"Hey that only happened once. Anyway, she was damaged before we got her. She wasn't virgin, and all those stud holes and tattoos dropped her value to next to nothing anyway."

"That saved you having a big problem with Smites. We could have still used her in a snuff video, though. That would have been worth something."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, but I paid for her out of my share of the last shipment."

"Ten cents on the dollar isn't going to make anyone happy."

"OK. OK, you win. I'll be careful."

"Make sure you are. The merchandise here is my responsibility. Man, if you keep this up, we'll have to go out and buy you some sheep to keep you satisfied and off the product. You are such a horn dog."

"We're going to have a good one for the Jap's snuff. Cindy let me fuck her in the club office. I got a great blow job and fuck."

"God Summers, you shot your wad twice before we grabbed the kids and you still had to rape a dead spic?"

"Hey, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

"She was fucken dead!"

"That's right. She was fucking while she was dead, but she was still warm and a virgin. I may have to try it again, sometime."

Bob and Kyle stood outside Gerry's apartment as she opened the lock. "Serena? Are you here?" She walked into the room and looked around. "I wander where everyone is? Serena usually spends the night. The kids go to summer school in three more hours. Something's wrong."

Kyle led Bob into the room and set him down on the sofa. His sharp eye caught the semen and bloodstains on the back of the sofa. "Gerry! Something's wrong. Stay here with Bob while I search the apartment."

"What are you talking about?"

Kyle pointed to the sofa. "Get Bob a brandy or something. We are going to need him back with us."

Kyle walked through the rooms opening doors and looking behind furniture. When he opened the living room coat closet, he let out a soft curse. "Fuck!" In spite of the obvious fact that Serena's head was turned backward, Kyle felt her pulse. There was nothing. Other than the dead body, the apartment was empty. Empty suitcases were still in the closets, and there were no spaces that looked like clothes were removed for a trip.

"I just called Gloria's cell," said Gerry. "No answer."

"God damn it." Kyle stomped to Bob's side and slapped him hard across his face. "Bob get your act together. We need your help."

Bob shook his head and spoke as coming out of a deep sleep. "They know everything. They have Sally screwing some actor in a porno film. They know Muffin is a call girl. Why did Sally do a porno? Why?"

Gerry and Kyle both stopped what they were doing and looked at each other. "Bob, Ron and I were at that shoot. Sally did not have intercourse. Ron checked out both Sally and Sissy after we got them out. They're both virgins."

"But they she had the film?"

"They had a body double for Sally. A young actress did the sex scenes. They conned her into doing some nude pictures and then edited the two together. She was very dumb, most likely drugged, but not sexually active. Your daughter is a good girl, Bob. She would never do anything to shame you."

"But I saw..."

Gerry sat next to him and pulled him to her chest. "Bob, have faith in your child. Her parents are good people. What ever she did, it was not cheap and tawdry."

Suddenly the doorbell rang. Kyle went to the door and opened it. "Jeff, I thought you were with Paul."

"TC's taking Paul to the ranch. Ron is still there, so we thought that might be a better bet since Paul seemed to be stable. Gerry called and told me to meet you guys here. What's up?

"We think something has happed to Gloria's kids. We just found the baby sitter's dead body in a closet. We were just about to call the police."

"Give me a second to look around before you do. You never know who the officer in charge is going to be."

Jeff took a Palm Pilot out of his pocket and walked through the apartment. Every once in a while, he would stop and make a notation in his PDA. He finally ended up at the girl's remains. "Poor baby, who did this to you?"

Jeff lowered his head toward the girl's womanhood as if he were going to kiss her. "She was raped. Let me call this one in. You guys get Bob the fuck out of here. I don't want him involved with this right now. Any idea where Gloria or the kids are?"

"No."

"Let's hope that Gloria came home and took the kids someplace. More likely, though, they're in trouble or dead."

"You guys clear out. Go to Bob's suite at the Casino until I get back to you. Gerry, once you get there, I want you to call everyone you and Gloria know to see if they are staying there. Then I want you to get ready to move everything to the ranch. Did you check the fridge to see if Jesse's insulin is there?"

Gerry ran to the kitchen and opened the fridge. "The insulin and test kit are all missing. Whoever took her at least knows she's diabetic."

"That's good. At least it looks like they want to keep the kids healthy. It also increases the chances that Gloria knows where the kids are. OK. You guys out of here."

Muffin was getting bored. As nice as the hotel suite was, she could only watch so much cable before her mind turned to mush. Two days of "Sex in the City" got old fast. "God," she thought. "This is how you start smoking again." Muffin jumped at the knock at the door. "It's about time," she muttered as she literally ran to the door and opened it without even looking through the peephole in the door.

"Hello Mr. Jones. What can I do for you?"

Jonesy smiled at the young woman/girl. "We just got a call from your father. He asked someone to take you to meet him. I'm your lucky driver. You need to use the can or something, it's about an hour and a half drive to where we're going, and I need to stop for one more person before we leave town."

"No," answered Muffin as she grabbed her purse. "Let's go."

Fifteen minutes later, Jonesy pulled his Jeep to a stop in front of the bus depot and well-dressed black man slid into the back seat behind Muffin. "Who is this delightful young child?"

Muffin felt panic run through her body. This was one of her Johns. He had asked her to dress as a schoolgirl. In the fantasy, Leroy was to be her teacher and she was to have done something wrong. As her punishment, she gave him a blow job and he fucked her in the ass. She got a thousand dollars for the game.

"Leroy meet Muffin. Muffin meet Leroy. He is helping your father on his project. This is Bob Brown's daughter. Mr. Brown asked the Casino to run her out to the project."

"Well, isn't this a surprise," Leroy said as he showed Muffin the gold plated Beretta automatic pistol that he held in his hand. "You got the wrong cunt. This is a whore who works for Brown's ex wife. She might be worth something, though. Let's take her anyway."

Muffin's hand reached for the door, but before she could reach it, Leroy slammed the butt of the pistol into the side of her head. Stars filled Muffin's head before she blacked out.

"But Brown said she was his kid. Everyone said she was Brown's kid. You sure you know what you're saying?"

"Listen white boy, it's my job to know these things. This little schoolgirl is a licensed prostitute. You may be the only one who was fooled by that stupid game. Let's get to the project so we can get her the first injection. The faster we get her hooked on the horse, the faster the boss will be happy. They're already mad at me for losing white bread. Let's get her in the back seat."

Jonesy quickly pulled into traffic and headed for the US 95 Highway. In the back seat, Leroy started removing Muffin's clothes. "She won't need these where we're going."

Jeff waited until everyone was out of the room before he pulled out his cell phone. "We have a situation here. I either need a team out here in Vegas or permission to bring in Security International. I can wait a short time, but I've got a dead agent here. I want who ever did this." Jeff listened. "It was Serena Romaries. She was raped and had her neck broken. Who ever did this is mine.

I also want an all points on Gloria Albertson and her kids. They are missing." Jeff waited as he listened some more. "You're going to call Jack? Good. I want him here now. We need to call in the police, but I think Jack will want to look at this before they screw up the scene."

An hour later Jack was knocking on the door. "Jeff, it's good to see you again. Fill me in as we look around. Start from the beginning."

"How much do you know about this woman who was stabbed in the Casino the other day?"

"Not much, I think she was a look alike for a woman that Callie has out at the ranch by the name of Sasha. Our theory is that someone was trying to kill Sasha because of her involvement in the death of this slime ball back in New York. We think that the killer got the two women confused and the woman was killed by mistake."

"That's what we thought too at the beginning," said Jeff. "We know better now. The woman's husband got zapped in a child-stealing sting last week and laid out the whole story. Mr. Butts lost his job about 8 weeks ago for stealing from his company. The company did not press charges, but the guy was dead as far as finding any kind of work. His wife had a bad coke habit, and needed money. She contacted this friend of a friend of a friend named Leroy. He is a pimp in Las Vegas, but we believe he also is a supplier to a world wide child abduction and slavery trade.

"The couple actually came to Las Vegas to sell their children to Leroy. The husband claims that the wife was going to kill the children for insurance to support her habit. He talked her into selling them for money instead. When they got to the Casino, they changed their minds. The wife was to meet with the dealer, and call off the deal, since she was the one who set everything up. Apparently, the dealer didn't like the change in plans and made his displeasure known with a knife."

"Holy shit, you mean that the German company didn't try to kill Sasha?"

"Not that we can tell. She took them for a ride, though. We've tracked about 100 grand worth of expenditures she's made with their money. Actually a bunch of it went for stuff your girlfriend made. All of the expenditures were made after the German CEO was killed."

"So, Sasha murdered the CEO?"

"I didn't say that. She could be guilty of self-defense. We've found two other women's bodies that were last seen with that German pervert. They were mutilated when they were found."

"Why are you guys interested in the Germans?"

"There is a group of people who want to harm our country. These are nasty people. The German company is partially owned by some of the major players in this group. It just so happens that this company is also stealing from the company that unknowingly provides my cover. They are the guys trying to beat Desert Industries in the Med. The key here is that Desert Industries has a leak at a very high level. That leak is what you are trying to find with your Muffin caper."

"OK, Jeff. When did the agency get involved with child abduction and industrial espionage? And, how are you operating inside the US?"

"When we found out the profits are used by terrorists. If this weren't terror related, we would turn the whole thing over to the FBI by law. You guys ruined about a year's worth of work when you busted that church in Akron. We understand why you did it, and don't fault you for it. Bob Brown's real daughter was to be sold to some sheik in Arabia."

"What are we doing with a domestic rape and murder?"

"This young girl was my unwilling agent. She was an illegal protecting another agent's kids to earn a green card. Gloria Albertson, a free lance agent working with Interpol, infiltrated what we suspect to be one of the control centers for the slave operation. I think you met Gloria Albertson at Bob and Shawn Brown's wedding breakfast."

"That's right. She was working with Bob's surprise 'not a girl' at the bachelor party."

"That's right. Her kids are not here, and we can't get a hold of Gloria by either her cell phone or her club back up. I'm afraid I lost two agents and a couple of innocents at the same time. This doesn't happen on my operations."

Jack suddenly turned pale. "Wait a minute! How did you know about Muffin? "That's classified. Oh shit. I'll have Kyle and Gerry grab her when they get to the casino.

"Let me make some calls." Jack pulled out a satellite phone and pushed a couple of buttons. "Rhonda, I need your help. First thing I need you to do is to get the film from Bob's bachelor party. There was a girl standing with Paul at the party." He listened for a second. "That's right, Gloria. I need some good ID shots of her, and I need all our people to have copies of this. This is a code red. We have to find that woman; also, I am sending pictures of six and two year old girls. We need to find them too. If we're lucky they'll be together. Then get up to Bob's suite, and find out what he was doing in the gentleman's club office. He's with Kyle and Gerry right now. By the way, have someone check on Muffin"

Jack redialed his phone. "Gunny, listen up. I want you to double the people we have at the ranch. I also want a roving auto patrol around the immediate half mile around the ranch complex. I want everyone at the ranch on immediate code 2. If anything looks the least bit out of line at any time, lock down everything and go to code 1. Listen! This is not a drill. NSA just lost one of their agents working on the same case we're working on and another is missing with her kids. Do it."

Jeff looked at Jack for a second. "We're not NSA, you know?"

"I know that, but I don't want anyone else to know it. NSA should work for now, and none of my people are going to check on what I tell them. The only other person who will know who you are will be my second in command, Rhonda Gray."

"Rhonda's your second?"

"Yep."

"Kind of young, isn't she?"

"Talent has no age limit. She is a natural. I've spent a year teaching her to trust her instincts. They're the best I've ever seen. I'll tell you more about her later, but she's mine. Don't try to steal her from me like you did my guys in Akron last year."

"Sorry about that. We didn't know what you were into."

"Water under the bridge, but I still had the last laugh. You had to fire the lazy butt holes."

"Don't remind me. How did you get any work out of them anyway?"

"Couldn't. You hired him just before I could fire the lot of them. Saved me a hit from the unemployment fund, so I'm not really mad about that one. You go after Rhonda, though, you and I are going to have more than words."

"Don't worry. My interest in Rhonda is purely lecherous."

"OK. Fuck her if you can, but don't try to hire her."

"Already did hire her. She sings at Cy's club, but that's part of your operation."

"From what I can tell, our operations are now joined at the hips."

"Guess you're right about that."

Jonesy was making good time on the highway. At 3 AM, there was almost no traffic. In fact, they had not seen another car for over 30 minutes. Knowing that the enforcement of the 70-MPH speed limit was loose, he kept the cruse control at 80. As they pass through the small wide spot in the road of Indian Springs, red and blue flashing lights appeared in the rear view mirror.

"Shit! I forgot about this place. What am I gonna do?"