Chapter 24

"Baby, what's wrong," Harry rushed to Sasha's side.

"This is my parent's home."

Harry flipped a switch, and the image appeared on the main screen in the control room, and the music from Brahms' "Ein Deusches Requiem" filled the room. The first scene was of gentle hills with well kept farm buildings in white. The scene then moved to a field of perfectly straight rows. A large draft horse pulled a plow down one of the rows. Behind the plow a man in his early to mid 50's kept he plow in the middle of the rows.

The scene changed to a young boy and girl playing around a well-kept buggy. From the back of the house a beautiful young woman in a black bonnet carried a bucket to the barnyard and poured its contents into a troth. 3 large hogs ran across the pin to devour the slop that was provided. The young woman stopped where the children were happily playing tag and spoke to them. The children quickly followed her into the house.

From the side of the house an attractive older woman who appeared to be in her late 40s carried a clothesbasket to the house. Another young woman left the house and approached the field. She yelled something to the man in the field, and he unhooked the horse from the plow and let it to the well-kept barn. He then stopped at the edge of the barn and pumped the handle of a hand pump. As the water came out, he picked up a bar of soap and washed. He then went into the house.

The next scene was filmed through the kitchen window. It showed a large table full of breakfast foods. The family was around the table with their heads bowed. The man looked up first followed by the rest of the family. The man picked up one of the plates of food and spooned some on his plate. He then passed the plate to the older woman and picked up another plate. When all the plates were passed, the older man removed his coffee cup from it's saucer and pored a small amount of coffee into the saucer. He then sipped the cool coffee from the saucer.

The DVD continued to show the family laughing and enjoying their morning meal. When the food was gone, the man rose and left the table. The others started to clean off the table, but the camera followed the man to the back door. He opened the door and stepped back into the room. Two men in black with ski masks over their heads followed the man back into his kitchen. Each man carried a shotgun.

"What's going on here," asked Harry. "Who are these people?"

Sasha was white, but whispered, "The older people are my parents. The rest of the people are my brother and sisters. I have not been allowed to see them since I ran away form home when I was 16, but a friend of mine used to sneak pictures back to me when she could."

Sally moved to Sasha's side and took her hand.

A voice over now came from the speakers. "You killed a father with a spike. The Bible says, ' ... An eye for an eye... ' Now we will take an eye for an eye." The music returned, and the camera paned to the two children. They were shaking their heads no until one of the men placed the barrel of the shotgun to the older woman's head. The farmer quickly moved to disarm the man holding the gun on his wife. The hooded man quickly brought the butt of the weapon in an arc landing sharply on the farmer's midsection. The weapon was quickly brought back and another arc landed on the man's head. He slumped to the ground, and the barrel was returned to the woman's head.

The boy and girl started to disrobe. The camera then paned to the other two girls and stayed on them until they were totally nude. They attempted to cover themselves with their hands, but the second man slapped each of them and said something. They quickly brought their hands to their sides.

Sasha watched this between sobs and pushed herself farther into Sally's embrace. She could not tear her eyes from the large screen.

After the woman also disrobed, the masked man pulled the shotgun from her head and motioned to the farmer on the floor. The older two girls moved to their father and the three worked to remove his clothes. They then lifted the farmer to the breakfast table and placed him on his back.

The camera returned to the door. The doorway was filled with a nude woman with a gold collar around her neck. Her long flowing blond hair was pulled to one side of her front and partially hid one of her breasts. She carried a canvas bag. When she entered the room, she placed the bag next to the feet of the unconscious farmer.

One of the masked men reached into the bag and pulled out 4 sets of handcuffs. He put them on the younger four members of Sasha's family. The blond woman lovingly stroked her collar and reached into the bag. She pulled out a polished steel spike.

"Oh God! No!" screamed Sasha. "She's going to kill my father."

The woman with the collar brought the spike to her lips and kissed it. She then rubbed it between her legs. When she brought it back into view, it was wet with her vaginal liquids. Slowly she turned to the youngest girl and walked to her.

The girl shrunk back against her brother who bravely stepped in front of her. The woman continued to the boy and tried to step around him. He moved to maintain his position between his sister and the crazy woman. The closest gunman called to the woman and she moved to the next youngest girl.

The young boy started to move to block the woman's way again, but the man grasp his shoulder. A look of pain came over the boy's face, but he stopped. The man then lifted his hand, said something to the boy and tousled his hair.

She then placed the spike between the older girl's legs and rubbed the spike against her hair-covered vagina. She did the same thing to the oldest girl and approached the woman. This time she inserted the spike into the woman's vagina and stroked it several times.

The woman again stroked her gold collar and moved to the unconscious man. She reached across him and pulled a large mallet from the bag. She slowly placed a kiss on the man's lips and placed the end of the spike to his left eye. She then raised the mallet and brought it down sharply on the spike. The spike drove into the man's head. The mother screamed and rushed to the now dead man's side and embraced him. The blond woman struck her with the mallet and she slumped to the floor.

One of the gunmen moved the dead man to one side of the table, and lifted his wife to his side. He then spread her legs and shoved his shotgun into her womanhood. The blond retrieved a pitcher of water from the counter, and splashed it on the woman's face.

Sputtering and spitting the water, the mother came out of her daze. A look of pure panic crossed her face as she realized she was being violated by the shotgun. The blond again pulled a framed photograph from the bag and showed it to the mother. The mother shook her head no and tried to say something, but the blond slapped her face, nodded to the gunman, and stepped back.

A grin came over the gunman's face as his hand slowly squeezed the trigger. Suddenly pieces of the woman's body and blood filled the air. The blond walked back to the mother and placed something in the gapping wound that was once the mother's midsection. The camera zoomed in on the protruding object. Smiling back at the camera was the framed picture of Sasha.

The music stopped and the movie showed the four remaining family members being led away. The voice came back. "If you had the courage to take responsibility for the sin you committed, the innocent people would still be alive, and your siblings would not be sold on the slave market. You have just killed your own family."

Sasha groaned as she shook the darkness from her head. Ron was setting in a chair next to the bed. "Welcome back, kiddo. You're going to be groggy for a while until the sedative wares off. That was a nasty shock. We're gonna keep you in bed for about a day and then put you back to work. Don't argue with me about this. I can be a real asshole when I get a syringe in my hands."

"On, my God. What did I do to my family?"

Harry said from the other side of the room, "You didn't do a damn thing. I don't know who those people are, but we will get them. We're also gonna get the rest of your family back. They'll live in Washington with us after we're married."

Sasha started to open her mouth and slipped back into sleep.

"Come on, Ron, we've got work to do. We have a monitor on her we can watch her while we work."

"Sally, did you email that video to Jim in Akron?"

"Yes. I also sent a copy to the training center. Jack may be able to get this to some of his contacts. I figured the more people who see this the better chance we have of an ID. I called Detective Travis. He will have the Pennsylvania police go to the farm and check it out."

Steve pulled his SUV behind Kyle as Ester placed the call. "Gerry, we're right behind you. We've got you and the other car. There are two cars behind us of guards. A four-car trace is hard to detect. Why don't you fall back behind the guards, and we'll take over for a while."

"Glad to see you guys. We were afraid we might get spotted. We're turning right up here, and we'll fall in behind the pack. We're gonna need help if we get out in the desert. They could spot us miles away."

"Harry has two predators up now. He's diverting one of them to us now. It'll keep track of the car while we are way back. You can't spot one of those things if you were looking right at it. It's like some clocking device out of Star Trek."

Just then Harry broke in, "Predator's picked you guys up. Which car is target?"

Gerry answered, "Three cars up from us and one lane to the right."

"Got it. You drop back, and Sally will talk you in. I'm gonna set up a response team. We still have the National Guard chopper here in addition to the two prototypes we have at the compound. We'll have state police here shortly. We aren't going to be short on help at all. Back later."

Rhonda pulled into the parking deck at the Casino and turned off the engine. As she started to open the door, a voice came out of the shadows. "Stay in the car. I need to talk to you."

Jonesy opened the passenger door to the van, and slipped in. Rhonda slipped the Glock she had to her left hand from between the driver's side door and the seat. "Well, Mr. Jones, what can I do for you?"

"You're not a lounge singer, are you?"

"Well, I guess you can't please everyone. What don't you like about my music?"

"I ran Rhonda Graves through our police interface. You're a PI."

"You're mistaken. I graduated from college, and couldn't find any work, so I came here and found a job. You must have found some other Rhonda Graves."

"Come on, Rhonda! Don't bull shit me. I've gotten into something I can't handle and I need your help. I can find Muffin, but I don't want to go to jail. What can you do?"

"I can't do anything, but let's talk. How do you know were Muffin is?"

"No immunity, no Muffin. No get out of jail free card, and no Claudia and her kids. I want help, but I'm not stupid. Get me some help, and I'll give you some help. There are a lot of people who can be helped if we can work together."

"Rhonda pulled the pistol from its hiding place. "I'll make a deal with you MR. Jones. You tell me where those women and kids are, and I won't blow your crouch off and let you bleed out."

"Go ahead and shoot. I'm dead if I don't get help anyway, and a gun shot is a lot better than what they would do to me. These people are killing their own help. Besides, Muffin doesn't deserve to die the way they have planed. She was always nice to me."

"Why didn't you go to Jeff with this?"

"I think Jeff is dirty."

"Why do you say that?"

"I overheard a phone call he was making. He was talking about a large money wire transfer from the Casino. He also said he was sure Cy was not aware of it. He said Cy would kill him if he was uncovered. That sounds dirty to me."

She picked up the phone and dialed. "Harry, I need Paul. I may have a break, but we need to talk. Now!"

Paul paced the control center as he listened to Rhonda explain her situation. "Hand the phone to Jones, but keep that gun handy."

Paul looked at the Nevada Secretary of State, raised his eyebrow, and placed his finger to his lips to indicate silence, and put the phone on speaker. "Jones. What the fuck do you want?"

"I got into this thing by accident. A dirty cop caught me gambling in an off the strip joint and told me he would report me to Casino management if I didn't start giving him information and planting bugs there. It went down hill from there. I'm in way too deep to get myself out of this without help. What I have is gold."

"Convince me this is not fool's gold, Jones, and we might have something to talk about." Paul looked at Kenny. Kenny shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head. "First off, who is the dirty cop you're talking about?"

"A guy named Summers."

"Do you know where my step daughter is?"

"Yes."

"Is she in the same place as the others?"

"Last I saw."

"Give the phone to Rhonda."

"Take Jones into the Casino. I'm going to call Cy and get a secure conference room. You are now Jones's bodyguard. Don't let anything happen to him. Some friends of mine and I will be there in 15 minutes."

Twenty minutes later, Paul, Kenny and Larry Thompson rushed into the empty conference room.

Smites looked at Summers. "Listen, no one knows you're involved in this. Jones is being taken out as we speak. If you leave with us now, you will be wanted for the rest of your life. You need to remain on the police force until you can get out gracefully. We need for you to be able to travel freely.

"OK," replied Summers sarcastically. "Your concern for my well being is so heart warming."

"Get real, Summers. This has nothing to do with your well being. You are an important part of this operation. Your independence is a part of that importance. I happen to like you, but if you weren't important, you would have not been given the plan, and you would die with the rest of the guards."

"You're right. It's just that after Leroy, I had some doubts about how stable my future is."

"If you don't play the bloody fool, you're going to die of old age being served by 72 virgins that you deflowered in some tropical resort."

"Okay. Okay. Okay. Let me review this. I turn off the beacon, beat feet, and 30 minutes later this place is obliterated by a small nuclear device. Why a nuke?"

"No, more like a dirty bomb. Most of these guards are Arabs, so terrorists are going to be blamed. In addition, it would make the investigation of the compound much more difficult.

"In fact I have an idea. We have someone we are going to blame this on. Why don't we send him to meet you in Las Vegas, and you can kill him. We'll let you uncover the evidence, and you can be a hero. You can be so famous because of what this guy was doing, that a find-the-children group will offer you a job finding lost children."

"Why would I take a job chasing my own people?"