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“Nothing to report from Varilla yet. Ares is still working on him.”
Dalton got out and walked over to me. I put my arm around his shoulders. “How’d it go in triage?”
“The worst of what we saw was dehydration. As Beau said, some signs of physical abuse. Any longer in captivity, and I’m sure their conditions would have gotten much worse.”
“What about reunification?”
“K19 is handling most of it. Their resources are unbelievable,” said Press.
He was the techno-gadget geek among us, so his words didn’t surprise me.
“Listen, I need to get some sleep, and I’m sure Press and Beau do too,” said my brother.
“Ares knows to include you in any communication,” said Press.
“Roger that.”
“How’s Seraphina?”
“Hanging in there. Seemed to take the update in stride. For now, at least. I’m sure she’s as anxious as we are for Ares to get something out of Varilla.”
Press nodded.
“Do you happen to know if anyone from K19 asked cargo operations if the shipping container bound for China had another destination scheduled?” I asked.
“I’m glad you brought it up,” said Beau. “No. In fact, Yangshan was confirmed as its ‘final destination.’”
Which meant someone intended to get the human trafficking victims out of the container while it was still at the port. From there, God knew where they’d be transported. After thanking Press and Beau, I followed Dalton inside.
“You’ve returned,” Tryst said to me. “Welcome to the ranch, Bones,” he said to my brother.
“It’s been too long since I visited.”
“Agreed. I’m sure you’re both exhausted. Bones, you can take the second bedroom on the right.” Tryst pointed to the hallway. “I expected you earlier,” he said to me once Dalton left the room.
“I went straight over to talk to Seraphina when I arrived this morning.” He didn’t ask for further details, and I didn’t offer them. At least about falling asleep with her in my arms. “Have you been thoroughly briefed on what went down last night?”
“I spoke with Press by phone earlier.”
“So you know the container was destined for China.”
Tryst nodded.
“I think I’ll return to Yavaros later and see if I can locate information about other containers going to the same destination in the last week.”
“I believe Snapper and Kick are looking into it now.”
“The container wasn’t full.”
Tryst had been looking at his phone but raised his head.
“It could easily have held twice the number of people, and there was no food or water.”
“You believe Luisa Reeve, along with other victims, may be somewhere here, in Mexico.”
“Maybe. It doesn’t make sense she wouldn’t be with Varilla, though.”
“Unless something happened to her.”
I thought the same thing but hadn’t intended to say it. “Or she was in another container, headed to a different destination.”
