AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not ‘or something’,” I shout at him, getting pissed at his cavalier attitude. “That’s literally what they’re going to do. They’re going to harvest her organs. Or use her to make a baby whose organs they’ll harvest.”
“You really believe that, Cam?”
Oh, to have lived a life so privileged that you can be skeptical.
“Of course I do! It's the whole reason we were hired for this operation. Human organ trafficking, but using cults instead of kidnapping to get the goods. Even better than kidnapping – sweet talk naive parents into bringing their kids into cults, test their DNA, then sort the selected girls out and tell them they’re magical Viking goddesses. Then use them for organs and babies.”
“I don’t know, man. Sounds like the old urban legend that’s been around forever. Same concept, different spin. You know, the whole ‘I woke up in a bathtub full of blood and my kidney was gone’ tale?” He washes his face with his hand, finding a piece of chocolate in his beard. Newman looks at it and pops it in his mouth.
I turn away. Note to self: Never, ever eat anything offered by Newman to me again.
“Why would they lie to us?”
“Because it’s the government.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think so, Newman. I really believe this is going on. You read the news. You saw the articles we got. The research. The top-secret briefings. This cult has been around for almost twenty years. They convinced these mothers and fathers that their daughters are genetic ancestors of some ancient ritual designed to protect the world from evil.”
“You really believe that?”
Newman’s skepticism angers me, my voice going bitter as I reply.
“Yeah, I do. Not the Viking Virgin myth crap, but I believe good people have been manipulated by bad ones. That’s why I’m working this job. What about you?”
“That’s not why you’re working this job, Cam. You’re here because you got out of prison, and Debbie found you and brought you into this project. Don’t act like you’re trying to save the world here. You’re doing it for a paycheck like the rest of us. It’s all the same ones and zeros that the rest of us are mining and shoving into different patterns to find information.”
I clench my fist and let him spew his bullshit. He has no idea why I’m really here.
And I want to keep him ignorant.
As if on cue, Debbie walks in. Her text had warned us that she was a couple of minutes away and expected a report.
Our boss, Debbie Messier, is part of a trafficking division for a government agency so very deep in bureaucracy that we’re not allowed to know anything about it.
And even if I did know, I couldn’t tell anyone, so it doesn’t matter.
When I asked Debbie back then, she said, “We’re working for TINSA.”
“TINSA? What’s that stand for?”
“There Is No Such Agency.”
“Jesus. Come on.”
“You ask again, I’ll haul you back to prison.”
“Ask what?”
And that was that.
She works the worst of the worst crimes: child trafficking, modern-day slave trades. Cases that would give most people PTSD are the ones Debbie solves. She even helped with a case involving an international drug lord with a fetish for armless and legless women.
Who sees that kind of evidence and isn’t fucked in the head?
Tough as nails and competitive as hell, she’s also a softy when it comes to the human reality of what these victims are experiencing. The single-minded drive that she exhibits in this project is what makes me put up with jerks like Newman. If he weren’t so good with code and server penetration exploits, he’d be out of here in a heartbeat.
Even Debbie tolerates him, which means he’s that good.
“All right. Whatcha got?” Debbie demands before she even pours herself a cup of coffee.
