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“Honestly, I’ve no idea.”
“My guess is Tryst would respond in a similar way.”
Before I could say anything further, the two men joined us.
“While Esencia has received regular briefings, I thought we’d bring Tryst up to speed on the investigations K19 Allied Intelligence will be supporting,” Merrigan began, handing a file to the three of us before opening her own.
I flipped to the first page, which was an overview of the two ops Tryst was already aware of. However, his security clearance had been increased from secret to top secret, which meant there was information contained in the brief he hadn’t previously been privy to.
Doc cleared his throat. “To review, on 18 October, a woman with a personal connection to someone with K19 Security Solutions, Luisa Reeve, was abducted in San Luis Obispo, California. A week later, on 25 October, acting on an informant’s tip, a K19 team raided a container at the Port of Yavaros destined for Yangshan Port in Shanghai, China. During that op, one victim was killed along with four suspected human traffickers. Three others were apprehended. After being interrogated, they were taken into federal custody. The ringleader and man who had originally abducted Ms. Reeve, Manual Varilla, had several outstanding warrants for trafficking, resulting in him turning state’s evidence.
“Varilla claimed Reeve was not in Yavaros, as we believed. Rather, she had been transported to the Port of Altamira on the Gulf of Mexico, where she was one of an indeterminate number of victims held captive in shipping containers loaded onto a vessel bound for the Port of Felixstowe.”
Doc turned to the next page. “There, a joint coalition made up of K19, MI6, and the US and UK immigration services raided the vessel and liberated one hundred and eighty-five victims out of ten different containers.”
He looked up from the document. “An important side note. On the floor of one of the containers, the word ‘Mithras’ was scrawled in the dirt.” Doc turned and looked from me to Tryst. “Any questions thus far?”
“Negative,” I responded. Tryst shook his head.
“Unfortunately, there were no suspects traveling in the containers. Thus, other than the dockmaster, who had altered the manifest to indicate the ship was arriving ten hours later than it had, no other arrests were made.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Tryst nod in understanding. That was one of the points of information he hadn’t known previously.
“Teams were dispatched to the locations listed on the authentic manifest for delivery of the containers; however, in every case, the destination was an abandoned warehouse.”
“Pardon my interruption,” said Merrigan, “but it should also be noted that Operation Felixstowe was the second official mission conducted by the five task forces making up the UN Coalition Against Human Trafficking.”
Doc continued. “The first, Operation Purfleet, was led by former members of MI5. A team of agents tracked two other containers that had arrived at the port the op was named for. Tragically, one hundred and twenty-four victims were found deceased when the rigs hauling the containers stopped at an industrial complex not far from the port, and the agents initiated the raid.”
Doc ran his hand over his bald head. I’d realized, some time ago, it was something he did when he was forced to brief a team on something he wished he wasn’t. He cleared his throat and continued.
“Through the combined efforts of the five task forces, that particular op led to the deployment of separate raids, taking place in the same twenty-four-hour period, during which two major trafficking crime rings, one in Lesovo, Bulgaria, and the other in Edirne, Turkey, were taken down. Upwards of sixteen hundred people were rescued that day, and countless arrests were made.”
Doc turned to Merrigan, and she nodded. “It was during Operation Purfleet that Margeaux ‘Nemesis’ Jordan, then the UK task force commander, made contact with another former MI6 agent, Jennifer “Oleander” Smith.” She looked over at me. “Were you and O slated to move into Unit 23 at the same time?”
“We were.”
She put her hand on mine. “I’m so very glad you chose us instead.”
“What is Unit 23?” Tryst asked.
“It’s the most covert of SIS’ ultra-secretive entities,” Merrigan explained. “It’s made up of former SAS—Special Air Service—like Jaicon was. The unit is quite…formidable.”
I didn’t turn to look at Tryst, but I could feel his eyes on me. Was he aware one of the primary mandates of the unit was the assassination of known terrorists and other enemies of the Crown?
Kade returned to the brief. “Through Oleander, we learned of Mithras, the first suspect in what we believe is one of the largest trafficking rings in the world. They allegedly operate out of Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, running both a high-end sex trade as well as mid-level slave labor and trafficking for prostitution.”
He flipped to the next page. “Fast forward to 12 November of this year. Mithras was identified as Lorenzo Moretti, who was believed to be behind an auction site on the dark web where someone known to a member of the UK team was offered for bid. Investigations led to the discovery of the IP address’ origin. On 15 November, a raid was deployed at that location on the Maltese island of Gozo. Nineteen women were rescued prior to the start of the auction. In a separate incident, on 20 November, Mithras, who was about to be arrested, was shot and killed by a civilian.”
I glanced over and saw Tryst had been taking notes while Doc spoke.
“That brings us to today. Concurrent to that op, a team comprised of Oleander, Wren Alexander-Whittaker, Hanadarko Hunter, and a new MI5 hire, Bexli Everdeen, came up with a lead into the possible identity of a second suspect believed to be working with Mithras.”
“Did you say Bexli Everdeen?” Tryst asked, flipping to a previous page.
“Yes,” Merrigan responded. “Mithras abducted her and took her to Malta. Unbeknownst to him, she snapped a mobile photo of him with a woman. That woman was working at the US Embassy in Malta and was believed to be a mole.”
“It was Bexli who determined ‘Pharaoh’ was a woman, not a man as we’d previously believed,” Doc added.
