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I rested my head against hers. “For now, let’s focus on Luisa.”
When she pulled away, I let her.
I had been givena comms set similar to the one I’d worn in Yavaros, so I could follow along with what was happening on the ship. Along with that, I’d been given the same over-ear hearing protection everyone else wore.
As Gunner said, the entire terminal had gone completely dark and ear-piercing sirens began blaring through the loudspeakers while the teams moved through the containers, each with a Doppler device for thermal imaging.
“Team three in place,” I heard Ares say.
“Four in place,” said Cayman.
“One in place,” said Doc.
This continued until the first eight units were in position and ready to open the container doors. Since the other two were mid-stack, they took longer to find. It also took longer to move the elevated platforms where they needed to be. Once those team leaders announced they were ready, Gunner issued the command to start opening doors.
While I’d anticipated shouting and some gunfire, I picked up on neither. Instead, one by one, I heard the leaders shouting to stand down.
“Jesus Fucking Christ,”I heard Gunner say. “All clear. Get your asses over here.”
The victim-assistance teams moved out one by one. Shortly after Gunner’s signal, I heard several of the other team calling out Luisa’s name.
“We got her. She’s in container three,” said Ares right about the same time the sirens went silent and the terminal’s lights came on.
“Condition?” I asked through the comms.
“Stable.”
“They found her,” I said, grabbing Seraphina’s hand. We raced to where I remembered the third container’s placement to be from the schematic.
“Luisa!” Sera shouted, running over to the woman I recognized from the photos, standing with Beau, who had put a blanket around her and was leading her in Sera’s direction.
I stood back, watching the sisters embrace.
“You take them in,” I said when Beau motioned me closer. Instead of following, I walked over to the fourth container and peered inside as others were assisting the victims out.
“Good God,” said Press, covering his nose and mouth with his hand like I had.
While I could see blankets and piles of garbage, it was the stench from waste that overpowered my senses enough to make me step forward to help a woman who looked as though she might pass out at any moment. With Press on one side and me on the other, we got her off the ship and into the triage center.
Once inside, I saw Dalton kneeling by a cot where Luisa lay. Sera was kneeling too, holding her sister’s hand while my brother started an IV. As much as I wanted to go over to them, my job of finding Luisa was finished. There were more victims who needed my help.
It took two hours for us to move those rescued from the containers, into the triage center, and for them to be examined by the intake staff.
There was no mention of the traffickers who had been in the containers with them. It appeared they’d been taken off the ship some other way.
Once things settled down and I couldn’t find anyone who needed my help, I walked over to where Doc sat with Ares and Kodiak.
“Is there an arrest count?” I asked.
“Zero,” said Gunner, walking up behind me. “The fuckers locked them in. The only trap doors were epoxied shut and painted over on the inside, so there was no way for them to escape.”
“How did they breathe?” I asked.
“Fans hooked to car batteries circulated air from somewhere,” said Ares. “Teams are processing each of the containers now.”
“Others are searching the rest of the ship since the two mid-stack were full of cargo,” Gunner added.
I was incredulous. “You’re saying the containers were put on the ship with no one guarding them? What if something went wrong?”
