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I help one woman to her feet. She’s weak, barely able to stand without the full weight of my assistance. I let my anger fuel my drive to get several of them to their feet. They join hands, helping each other as we head toward the door with my infrared vision to guide us through the pitch-black darkness of the warehouse.
Trent meets me at the door and organizes a single file line up, giving them instructions as I head back for the rest of the women. Liam passes me with a group following behind him. It takes many more trips before all the ladies have reached the door that holds the key to their freedom. When every last woman is out of the warehouse, I breathe in deep, inhaling the fresh air outside, and letting it permeate my lungs.
One van fills up and the doors close, heading back toward the highway. Then another nondescript van takes its place in front of us so that we can fill it up with as many frightened ladies as we can.
The crackling of the headset screeches in my ear. “We have a semi-trailer heading your way and infrared picked up a whole lot of bodies in the trailer. Get those women loaded up as quickly as you can.”
“Let that truck get off the highway and onto the back road, and stay out of sight. If those fuckers get a sense of you hovering overhead, they’ll jump and blow the goddamn truck to pieces.”
A shiver of fear races down the length of my spine at the thought of such evil.
“Roger that.”
“I’m on my way to the road. Liam, you take point for Allie and the women left,” Nick commands, while I help a woman who stumbled get into the van as quickly as she can.
“The truck will be making a turn off the highway in ten minutes. Your window of time to get out of there is closing.”
“Ladies, we need you to hurry. Get into the van as quickly as you can,” Liam prods, as Nick, Cole, and Trent take off running toward the main road.
The panic-stricken looks on the faces waiting to get into the van crush my heart. Liam looks to the woods. “No choice, we’re only going to be able to get thirty more ladies in. He points between two ladies. “Take everyone past her and get them behind that tree line.” He points to where the trees become overgrown with bushes and undergrowth. Get them to spread out and lay down on their bellies. I’ll get to you shortly. Go now, Allie!”
My heart is racing a million miles a minute. The same adrenaline as in the ED, but so many more lives are at stake, and they’re depending completely on me to get them to safety. I gently take the hand of the one who starts the line that won’t make it into the van. Her eyes say what words cannot. “I’m going to hide with you. When this is over, we’ll all be safe. The vans will be back. Trust me,” I tell the ladies, leading them away from the still long line of women who will make it into the van and to safety as long as time does not run out.
The women’s sad eyes and looks of disbelief to have come this far to safety only to have it snatched away at the very last moment, will be embedded in my memory for life. But they follow me past the tree line, deep into the undergrowth, and push through the rough branches and thorns that scratch and tear at our skin. “Everyone, down, pass it back,” I tell the lady beside me as the headset crackles. “Get that van out of here now,” Trent yells.
“Heads down. Stay low,” I whisper yell, and watch as the women who can hear me relay it down the line for those who can’t. Nick’s voice rings out in my ear. “The truck is in sight, and we’re in place. Get the rest of the ladies to the woods; double time it! Allie, keep those women down and out of sight. Liam’s bringing others who didn’t make it to join them.”
My heart beats hard knowing he’s in the middle of this nightmare, out there risking his life. “Roger that.” The woman next to me tilts her face from the damp, mossy ground just enough to smile at me. My chest tightens knowing that all these lives are relying on us to do a good job and get them back to their loved ones. I squeeze her hand and give her a smile. “It’s all going to be over soon,” I tell her and hope with everything in my heart that I haven’t just told her a lie.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nick
We’ve just madeit to the edge of the main road, still covered in the foliage of the woods when Murphy’s voice comes over the set. “Get onto that main road, take a right, and floor it,” he instructs the van driver. “The truck’s gonna be coming in hot in less than four minutes.”
“We’re in place behind the trees. As soon as they slow enough to get off the highway, Trent and I will engage with Cole on backup in case things head south.”
“The truck’s slowing and getting ready to take the corner off the highway and onto the main road,” the helicopter pilot radios.
“Get those goggles on tight and claw hammers ready. They’ll be packing, so timing is everything. If one of those fuckers gets out of that truck, take him down instantly and hard, or we’ll be looking at a pile of ashes.”
“They’re almost in position, heading straight toward you. They’re almost on top of you, and it’s a go!”
My feet leave the ground, legs propelling me forward, racing full out and leaping onto the running boards of the semi as it slows to make the corner they’re not going to reach. I hit the center of that tempered glass straight on, and it shatters just as neatly as it should while Trent does the same. These fuckers aren’t getting out of this truck, not alive or without cuffs. The fucker on my side goes for his gun, both hands searching frantically, but surprise puts you off your game every single time, especially with a loaded Glock aimed at your head. “Hands down. That’s the only warning you’ll get.”
He glares at me, gauging his chances of missing a bullet through the cracks in the glass, but he doesn’t say a word as his partner pulls the truck slowly off the road. The heavy trailer grinds and crunches through the gravel before coming to a slow and reluctant stop. We pull the men from the truck, drag them to the back, and push them face down into the dirt and get them restrained. Cole climbs up the trailer and pulls open the door. “Nick, we’re going to need your help,” Cole states quietly.
The stench of urine, feces, sweat and blood assault my senses as I reach the back of the truck, but it’s the look of devastating despair in the hundreds of eyes staring back at me that makes my chest tighten and heart pump with unprecedented rage. “Get bomb squad on the line asap. I’m going to need help getting these lines disconnected. Get my spare bag from the back of the SUV. Marenah will be here soon with water and provisions.”
Her voice comes on the line. “We’re right around the corner. Pat over at Special Forces and Tom at the bomb squad have both been alerted. They know the drill, and will wait for our word, but they’ll be close by.”
I turn to walk away and get the rest of the stuff I’ll need, but Cole grasps my shoulder. His eyes are dark and swirling with emotion. “We need to get 9-1-1, some of those women need medical attention stat.” This is the hardest part of the job for all of us. “We’re going to make sure they’re taken care of. We’ll stitch what we can, but you know as well as I do that if we don’t get the drivers out of here, we won’t ever get the answers we need to get these people off the streets. They’ll just keep doing this to more and more women. We need the name of the man at the top.”
His jaw locks tight, but he knows the protocol just the same as I do. “You keep Special Forces and the bomb squad at a distance until we get these two fuckers out of here. They may give us a wide berth usually, but we’re walking a fine fucking line here. We don’t want to put them in a situation that they can’t explain to their bosses, or we’re liable to lose their help in the future.”
Marenah and Matt pull up, and she jumps out of the vehicle with Matt hot on her heels. She swooshes past us in a flurry, heading to the back of the truck. She starts swearing in Russian, long ranting sentences that even with a fair amount of the language under my belt I can’t quite make out.
I glance to Matt, and his jaw tightens. “Damn.”
