by CC Dragon
“Does he usually rent to the same people every year? Odds are it’s already taken for next year then,” I said. “Do you know if it’s one big group, or do they break up the cabins among groups?”
“I don’t really notice. Doesn’t seem like the same group, but I try to time my work drop-ins for when people are out fishing or hunting during the day or in between people staying. You got a card, I’ll pass it on. This place keeps getting rented, and I keep getting paid to keep it up.” The handyman nodded.
“I don’t have cards. I’ll text you my name and number.” Mitch pulled out his phone.
I knew Mitch wasn’t going to hand over a card that said FBI.
Mitch gave his backup number on a generic phone that didn’t identify himself as an agent.
“Got it.” Reginold turned and walked away.
“Mind if we look around a bit more?” Mitch asked.
Reginold shrugged. “You can have a tour from the owner. Right now, other people are staying here even if they’re off doing other stuff. Private property.” He uncovered a sign near the front door of a cabin. “Need to trim back some of the bushes around here, but the winter is setting in too fast this year.”
I nodded to Mitch. We’d thrown enough suspicion around.
We headed back to the car.
“He’s suspicious of us. Nothing to go on yet,” Mitch said.
“I’ll stakeout overnight,” I said.
Mitch shot me a look but waited until we were in the car. He drove away casually before he spoke.
“Something smells rotten,” he said.
“I agree,” I said.
“You’re not staking that out alone,” he said.
I sighed at being treated like I needed a babysitter. “Don’t start. I’m not a trainee. I can handle it.”
“I know, but everyone needs backup. I’ll tuck in the kids and pick you up.”
“Not smart,” I said.
“It’ll be fine. I got a bad feeling about that place. The camper and the box truck. Where were the people if the vehicles were there?” Mitch asked.
“Exactly,” I said.
“Not enough for a warrant, but we’ll get it. Just don’t rush anything. If we saw someone being held against their will or injured, we’ve got cause to search but now—”
I nodded. “Stick to the rules. Fine, I’m on board, but you don’t need to give up an evening with your family for a stakeout.”
He didn’t say a word, which meant that his mind was set on the plan.
“Okay. Let’s get back to the regular job before Joe gets suspicious. He’s not someone we’re trying to watch.”
I could call Zelda and have her run info on the property, but Mitch might freak. I trusted her, and I trusted Mitch, but Mitch got squirrely when too many people knew about our unofficial antics. Plus, Zel could be flagged for using FBI resources without a proper case to track it to. She had a system around that, but there was a risk of being caught somehow.
Hackers got away with so much, but the good guys had to watch out for the Big Brother element in their work. How did that make sense?
“And...” Mitch prompted me.
“No research when we’re back at the office. Nothing done on the FBI system,” I filled in while rolling my eyes.
Mitch was the like the big brother I never had. I couldn’t hate him even if he got on my nerves at times. I had no family, really, so I’d take what I could get. His kids were lucky. My parents had been killed before I was seven—yet another reason I kept a low profile in magic circles. Humans, like Mitch, were the only real family I had and I wanted to keep my family safe.
Chapter Three
When we rolled up after dark, the camper and the truck were both gone.
Had Reginold tipped off the group? Did he say something to them and maybe got a payoff to keep quiet? I hated how much this job made me distrust people.
We did a walk around, and everything seemed deserted. Just like earlier.
“Maybe they’re working these girls out on Anchorage streets. This seems like an inconvenient place to house them, though. It’s the outskirts of city limits and not even near a truck stop.” I couldn’t rule out that this was just a place the hookers were being housed, but logistically, it wasn’t the smart move. A motel or dumpy rental house in the city would mean the girls could go out and return without transport, and pimps would have a base of operation nearby.
“Maybe we spooked them? Wait a day or so and come back for a twenty-four-hour stakeout,” Mitch said.
“We’re here already. Let’s give it an hour,” I said.
“Fine. You’re buying lunch tomorrow again. We have to drive by daily until we’re sure it’s done or if they are doing something more here.” Mitch headed back to the car.
I followed him and smiled. He felt it too. Something here was wrong. Our timing might be off, but he cared. If it was prostitution, if we sat around long enough, we’d see the girls come back or something. I had nowhere else to be.
Parked further away in Mitch’s personal vehicle so no one would recognize it, we watched the group of cabins through binoculars.
“You have a date with Rex next week,” Mitch said.
I scoffed. “No thanks. I’m pretty sure I was clear about that earlier. Your wife can’t bully me.” I put a little spell on my binoculars so I could see inside the place. Too bad there was no flashing sign that screamed human trafficking. Successful criminals weren’t stupid enough to leave evidence lying around.
“You need to get out. Have a life,” Mitch encouraged.
“I have a life. Work,” I replied.
“We worry about you. Only child. Parents moved down south. You’ll end up a crazy recluse living off the grid in a cabin in the woods.” Mitch sighed.
I shrugged. “You sound like that’s crazy. In Alaska, it’s quite normal. I’d go back to the Kenai and not the touristy part.” Tons of people in Alaska lived just like that. Many didn’t have indoor plumbing or were too far from the grid to be wired for electric. Solar power and outhouses were common enough.
Not in the Kenai but elsewhere, I didn’t want to live like that. Then again, I was really grateful for my magic. Some conveniences were just necessities to me.
I didn’t bother to correct him that it was my adoptive parents who’d moved south to Arizona. They’d found a Fae cactus commune or something and fell in love with the warmth. My real parents were both dead, which sort of made me always feel alone and unsure of myself. There were plenty of stories from the Fae people around, but I had no real memories. I wasn’t included fully, more like a half Fae burden.
“We’ve got movement,” he said.
Sure enough, a large RV rolled up to the cluster of cabins. I grabbed my phone and began recording. Four men got out. They were armed, but that wasn’t much of an issue considering the number of bears, wolves, and moose which called Alaska home.
“Four on this side checking the cabins,” I said.
“Two more out the driver’s door guarding the RV,” Mitch supplied.
The camper was rocking, people were in it. “I think we caught them on a transport day. Seems like they may have moved one group out and brought another up?”
“Looks like.” Mitch nodded. “Door is opening.”
A guy with a large rifle led a woman down the stairs. They weren’t blindfolded, but their hands were tied, and they were all dressed alike. Jean shorts and white tank tops. Flip flops for shoes. That gave me a creepy cult vibe.
“If they try to escape, the elements will be a problem,” I remarked.
“But they aren’t far from help. I can’t believe they’re doing this so near Anchorage.” Mitch pulled out his phone. “This is Special Agent Crawford. We’re going to need a tactical team and a warrant. We’ll be in with video. Anchorage PD and State Troopers need to be included for a SWAT. ASAP.”
I felt the tingle and knew at least one of the men was magical. No wonder they were easily concealing themselves from
most people nearby. Kim, the wife of the handyman, wasn’t under the magical influence of the dark wizard. She may have not seen what was really there, but she wasn’t exposed to it as much as the handyman himself.
Mitch ended one call. “Let’s go. We need to get Green to sign off.”
“We have proof.” They’d moved a group of a dozen girls into one cabin. The process repeated twice more. “That’s thirty-six young women packed into that camper. Three cabins filled.”
Four of the men climbed back into the camper and drove off. The remaining men checked the doors were locked and sort of patrolled the cabins.
“They’re getting another load. We need to follow them,” I said.
“No, not us.” Mitch got on his phone. “We need a team tailing a camper that left this area. Just follow and recon with video documentation. Probable cause human trafficking. Trying to establish a pattern and source.”
Mitch read off the plate number, and a trooper immediately radioed back through dispatch that he had the camper and was tailing it in an unmarked vehicle.
“We need someone to take up surveillance here, and we need to go present for the warrant,” Mitch informed dispatch.
“Green will be so thrilled,” I said.
“If we break up a sex trafficking ring, you’ll get a commendation,” Mitch remarked.
I shook my head. “This isn’t about Green’s bragging or awards. We have to stop this.”
The magic is what made my veins feel like they were frozen over. One powerful wizard didn’t fear guns or badges. If there was one, there were probably more wizards. I wanted to save people, but was I out magicked? I had to be brave.
“What were you thinking?” Green demanded.
I’d explained the situation once, but Green had been yanked out of bed on a case he knew nothing about. That pissed off anyone in authority. I’d rolled the dice, but there were no winners when a case looked like this. Human bureaucracy drove paras away from working and living among the powerless.
“We took a look at lunch. There was a vibe but no hard evidence. I didn’t want to open a case on a random tip and waste resources. What we saw tonight was too big to ignore.” I had forwarded the video footage to Green.
“You weren’t on private property? I don’t want to raid this place, and it all gets thrown out on illegal search or surveillance,” Green said.
“Saving these women doesn’t matter unless we get a conviction?” It flew out of my mouth before I could stop it. I was right, but prosecuting the bad guys had to be part of the job. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from blurting out things that wouldn’t help my case while I mentally kicked myself for slipping.
Mitch jumped in. “We were far away on a public area. We’d walked around the property at lunch, but people saw us there. No one kicked us off the property. Everything on the video would be visible to anyone from a parking lot nearby.”
I re-watched it. “The quality isn’t great when you try to zoom in, but it’s plenty for a warrant. We don’t have faces, but clearly, it’s a forced situation.”
“Clearly. You know how I hate when you two go rogue, but it’s rarely unfounded.” Green checked his phone. “Task force is formed. The camper was coming from a desolate parking lot where a few semi-trucks were staged.”
“SWAT team headed there?” Mitch asked.
“State troopers are on that. It’s outside of Anchorage city limits. We’ve got ultimate authority because the semi is from another state. How did they get a vehicle loaded with women across the freaking Canadian border and back onto American soil?” Green tossed his phone on the desk.
“Some people only see what they want to see. They don’t pick up on signs or suspect anyone. That’s an investigation once we rescue these women. Give the border guards some added training in what to look for in human trafficking. It’s so rampant,” I recommended.
A twinge of nausea washed over me for throwing the border guards under the bus. But I couldn’t tell him it might be magic used to trick the border guards. That extra training couldn’t hurt.
Green took a call and hung up without saying a word. “It’s on. Get weapons and vests. We’re going to hit the semis and the cabins at the same time. As soon as the camper leaves the semi area and is on a public road. Troopers will keep two units on the camper, so once the raid is underway, they’ll pull the camper over. You two with the team at the cabins.”
I nodded. “The semis have GPS. We can track where they came from and if they had a route planned. We need to know where they were headed from here.”
“We can’t interrogate or search them until they’re in custody. Let’s go,” Mitch said.
Being pixie-sized, as some of the guys liked to call me, I wasn’t on the front lines. But that’s what SWAT teams were good at and trained for. We had the cabins surrounded from a distance.
A guard walked around the side and saw the main team approaching the front door.
“Police with a warrant. Drop your weapon,” the trooper shouted.
The bad guy looked for an out, but the teams moved in.
“We’re blown,” the bad guy yelled.
Shots came from inside the cabin, and the swat teams moved in. The tension crawled down my back like a spider—I waited for the bite of a body count.
Rather than letting the anticipation and anxiety win, I followed my instincts instead of my team. I followed the solo player with magic oozing from him.
The one guy around the back knelt in the dirt. He had a symbol painted on the ground, and blood dripped from his arm onto it.
Evil wizard. Blood magic.
“Stop it now,” I warned him.
He chuckled. “You’re nothing. Escape while you can, little pixie.”
I had no pixie blood that I was aware of, but men calling me that annoyed me, no matter who it was. He began chanting a spell about intruders, and I knew there was some protection on his cargo. I also knew we were inside the cabins as well.
Was he using these other humans for something else? Was it just sex trafficking? One truckload of women dead to save his bigger operation, he’d do it—I had no doubt about that.
With a wave of my hand, I ruined his symbol on the ground like a kid on the beach kicking over a sand castle.
“Stop playing games. I could kill you now,” he said.
“You wouldn’t waste the energy if you wanted to kill my teams. You’re not strong enough to take me on and take down all those lives while saving yourself.” It was a bluff. He had a lot of magic, but I had to keep my nerves buried deep and stay in the moment. “What do you want?”
“Money, power, and human slaves. I have it all. I just want more. You won’t screw it up for me,” he warned.
“No magical backup?” I asked.
“I don’t need it. They’ll all die before anything happens to me.” He grinned. “You can watch. I’ll kill you last.”
“You think I won’t fight you,” I said.
I didn’t want to die, but I blanked out every icy tendril of terror that swirled inside of me. He waved his hand, and the symbols were back together and his blood hit the ground.
The Earth shook. He wasn’t bluffing on his powers.
“You’re passing for human. You’re weak or stupid, or both.” He gestured to me with his bloodied hand.
I deflected the minor attack with ease. He wasn’t trying to kill me. He was testing me—playing with me like a cat with a mouse.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“What do you want next? My coven? I belong to no one. I answer to no one. Don’t screw up the fun and freedom we have. Join me,” he said.
That had to be a bluff. I didn’t have the powers to make it worth it for him to want me. Sure, I could hold my own under fire—but pressure seemed to make my casual magic glitches vanish. It left me second-guessing myself, but this guy thought he’d gauged my powers with one exchange. He was wrong.
“You don’t have to hurt humans to enjoy your powers
,” I said.
“But we can, and you could grow your powers if you stopped hanging around with the sheep. Following their rules. Enforcing their laws.” He stood and walked toward me.
I felt him focusing on me. Something intrigued him. He wanted my powers. Why? He was clearly strong. Then again, some people just took from others because they could. He’d take everything he could get. An evil warlock working solo was just the sort of magical problem I wanted to contain.
“Protecting them from magical exploitation is worth something,” I said.
He smirked. He was tall with dark hair and eyes.
“You think they’ll give you a medal? Humans are destroying this planet. Why help them? We need to take control and save the world for us. If I don’t exploit them, someone else will.” He held out his hand. “Indigo.”
A handshake was a very human move—he wanted to try to test my powers by touching me. Magicals weren’t touchy feely unless they trusted each other.
“I’ll pass. Get out of here, Indigo. It’s not worth all the carnage. That will be noticed. They’ll be looking for you and on guard for more of this. Alaska is big on land but not on people, and the people here talk to each other. Your operation will be ruined,” I warned.
“If I leave, you’ll let me continue? As long as I don’t get caught...by you again?” he laughed.
“If I’m no threat to you, you don’t have to worry about that. But if you kill that many humans, the high level of alertness statewide will put every para doing illegal stuff in danger as well. You can hide from humans, but doing this—to humans? It’s more trouble than it’s worth once you’re on their radar. You can move your operation.” I shrugged.
“You’d follow me. You’re just that much of a goody-goody human lover. If I kill you, it’s all mine, and no one will have a clue.” He moved closer. “Plus, I can drain you of all the powers you’re hiding.”