by Dale Mayer
“What about the women and children?” The second man asked, “What about all the injured down here? We have two in labor.”
“We always have somebody in labor,” the first man said. “What we need is help from the outside.”
“Well, we did send out a call, but I highly doubt that Mackey will be of any help. He can’t go up against all his own military out there. He’s one of them.”
At that, Beau winced. Mackey was the doctor, the one who had helped with all the escaped women. Was he a traitor? Was he working with the cult? Or was it a different Mackey? Beau could not bear thinking about it, yet it made sense that a doctor would check the women who the cult had kidnapped. They had to make sure that the women would survive the trip overseas. Some of them would have been injured, trying to fight and to escape. He had assumed that somebody on the compound was a doctor, but that was foolish. The cult members could be all kinds of things, and maybe even very well-versed in some subjects, but they’d need outside help somewhere along the line. If not from anyone else, at least from the men who kidnapped these women.
“We’re using too many guys. We should have kept the operation small.”
“I know that, but we were growing, and we needed more money,” the second man said.
“Well, we also wanted more toys, more tools, more weapons,” the first man said, “and that’s the problem. Look at us now,” he said. “Our four business guys left, and, for all we know, they don’t plan to come back. They’ve got access to the bank accounts. They have all kinds of stuff.”
“But they’re also the leaders,” the second one said. “Well, the second tier at least, what with Joshua being the leader of the religious side of this cult. But, boy, is he out there—hence the business guys taking advantage. I doubt that took long.”
“No, a couple joined his cult, then took over the money-making side. It was downhill for Joshua then. Although I doubt he’s very aware of how much power they have. They tow the line and keep him in whatever he wants. So it works.”
There was a moment of silence, then the same guy added, “Right now we’re stuck behind what? A dozen men here, counting the two of us, and another thirty-plus women and children? That’s why we need the money, to keep everything going. We should have stayed small. Do you realize if we kick this compound, and we get out, all we need is a holding cell? We can pay the same guys to pick up the women, to bring them in, and to send them out just before the ship arrives,” he said. “We’d be banking the profit instead of spending everything on the expenses here.”
“I was wondering about that not too long ago,” the second man confessed. “But we’re part of a religious group,” he said, “and you know what happens to anybody who betrays our leader.”
“Yeah, they get killed. That’s why there’s a grave at the far corner of the property. But how long can we keep going? We knew this would happen. The bigger we got, the more people we brought in, the chances of somebody betraying us increased. Not only that but one of the women to sell escaped. I’m pretty sure she’s the one we can blame for this nasty scenario.”
“Maybe, along with Nania. She’ll never talk again though. We fixed her good.”
“And we shouldn’t have done what we did to her either,” the first man said. “I really liked her. I’m not even sure that her child isn’t mine.”
“I know,” the second guy said. “That’s half the problem. We’re all so busy sharing the women that we don’t have any personal identity anymore.”
“Because that goes against God’s laws,” the first one said with a sarcastic tone. “Free sex was great. I’ve really enjoyed all that, but it very quickly turned into something that I wasn’t too happy to be a part of.”
“So now we’re at the point where we have to make a decision. Ten men are up there. We both know they won’t hold off the military for long. We’ve got thirty-plus women and children around here. Everybody else is gone or dead.”
“I know. So, what do you want to do?”
“I want to leave,” the second man said.
“I’m just worried,” the first man. “If anybody’s left alive, you know they’ll come after us.”
“Why?”
“Because not only did our four businessmen escape, they’re supposed to return with our backup,” he said. “Which we haven’t heard a word from since. But I also know the bank account numbers.”
At that, the second man sucked in his breath. “Do you?”
There wasn’t much of an answer, but Beau could almost imagine the guy nodding his head.
“Well, let’s get the hell out of here.”
“But we have to make sure nobody comes after us.”
“I know,” he said. “So grab the weapons we need from the armory, set it on fire, and we’ll torch the rest of the compound. The military won’t have anything left to sort through. The doc can’t do anything to help us. He’ll be trying to cover his own ass, and, once every one hears about it, anybody else along the line won’t say a word. We can contact those who we want to later.”
“I know,” the first guy said.
“Let’s go.” They headed toward the armory door.
“Shit, looks like somebody’s been at this.”
They kicked at the door.
Beau contemplated his options, realizing there weren’t too many of them. He headed around the corner as the men broke into the armory and snatched up weapons. Just as Beau was about to fire on the second man, the first man turned and shot the second man.
As he dropped to his knees, he cried out, “Why?”
“I know the bank account numbers,” the first man said, “so why the hell would I share? Besides, it’s much easier to get out of here alone.” And, with that, he fired off several rounds into the cabinet beside him, eager to start a fire.
Beau lifted his weapon and yelled, “Stop.”
Instead, bullets hailed in his direction. Beau hit the ground and fired. As he looked up, he saw the first man fall onto his buddy. Beau raced into the armory, making sure that nothing was burning. It wasn’t, at least not at the moment, but the door wouldn’t ever close again either. He picked up one of the weapons, pocketed both of their phones, then tapped out a message to Asher, and gave him the numbers to trace.
Asher sent back his response. We’re on it.
Make sure the doc is picked up too. It’s important.
Asher came back a moment later. The doc is at the gas station with Danica and a few others.
We need to make sure he’s picked up before he does something to her.
Seriously?
Seriously. He’s on their side.
Beau could just imagine Asher’s response to that. He bolted up the stairs and took down the ten men trying to hold off the military. With Asher coming in on the other side, they had all ten men corralled in no time. With hands up, they marched them out the front door and handed them to the military.
One of the team leads came over. “Is that all of them?”
“It’s the ten I found,” Beau said. He quickly related what he had discovered downstairs. “The problem is the women and children. We need to do a full search here to recover as many of them as we can. That big hall back there is locked up. It’s full of children. There’s a massive armory down below as well, plus a medical center with two pregnant women and another who’s badly injured.”
At that, a stream of military men moved in. He grabbed the sergeant’s hand, pulled him back, and said, “Dr. Mackey …”
“Yeah, he’ll be here any minute. We’ll send him to the women.”
“No,” Beau said, “according to the two guys I took out in the armory, Mackey is involved with the cult.”
“Oh, no,” the sergeant said. “I’ve known that man for years.”
“All I can tell you is they said that they used his services to check the women over before they were shipped out.”
The sergeant’s face twisted in fury. “Let me check to make sure he’s still there.” H
e pulled out his phone and made a couple calls. He came back to Beau’s side as he waited impatiently. “Mackey left and came in this direction. But he’s not here.”
“What about Danica?”
“Danica?”
“The woman whose feet were raw,” Beau asked. “She was sitting in his medic truck when I left.”
“All the women were taken to a hotel in Anchorage,” he said.
Beau looked at him, relief settling into his gut. Then he thought about it and shook his head. “Can you double-check, please? If there’s one woman who didn’t go, it’ll be her.”
The sergeant frowned, quickly called again, listened for a moment as he looked up at Beau, and said, “I don’t know how you knew that, but apparently the woman was in the truck when Mackey came up here.”
“But we’ve had no sign of Mackey here, right?”
The sergeant studied the rest of the men. “Neither he nor his truck has been sighted.”
“So he’s somewhere between here and the gas station?”
The sergeant nodded. “Yes.”
“Then that means she’s in trouble.” He swore loud and long before finally winding down and saying, “Okay, I’m going after her.”
“Wait. What about Mackey?”
“Well, he’d better have a hell of a good explanation,” Beau said. “Otherwise, by the time our conversation is over, he’ll be dead.” He took off. He could only hope he found Danica before Mackey did.
Just as he headed cross-country, leaving the military to search the compound, rapid gunfire shot out. Immediate chaos followed as everybody regrouped and returned fire, and a stalemate ensued.
Beau disappeared into the trees and headed around behind where the gunfire had come from. As far as he was concerned, that was likely Mackey taking a last stand. Unless …
What he didn’t know was if Danica was here too.
Knowing her, of course she was.
Chapter 16
As soon as she made it deep into the woods, Danica realized she’d made a mistake. She could hear gunfire and all kinds of noises but couldn’t see anything. A smell was getting to her too. She tried to avoid the area where she knew the bodies of the dead men were. Nobody had come to clean up; nobody had done anything yet. They were much more focused on taking over control of the compound first, and that’s as it should be, but leaving this would be just an even bigger mess.
Skirting around that, she slipped through the opening in the barbed wire and stood here for a long moment, wishing she had a way to contact Beau and Asher. They had communication devices, but she didn’t. Then again she wasn’t part of the team, something she would do well to remember. She was one of the victims. One of the women they were trying to rescue. She had to wonder about that too because, still in the back of her mind, she thought maybe some of these cult women were as guilty as the men here. Some of those women would have been higher up in the echelon of the cult hierarchy, and those women would know a lot more about it than the others.
She couldn’t bear thinking that so many women—both in the cult itself and those kidnapped—were suffering at these people’s hands. And for what? She could only think that it involved money. But how did they make those connections to traffic the women? How would they create this supply line, get customers, and complete the transactions in the fulfillment of orders? Her stomach heaved as she heard more gunfire up ahead.
She sank against the lookout tower, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do now. She knew for sure that she’d already committed herself, so she needed to keep going. She glanced around, studying the area, and then wished she could get up the tower for a better look. She shook her head. She couldn’t even climb the damn trees without Beau.
Hesitating, she realized that, instead of going forward, she was really better off returning to the medic truck. She turned around, slipped down into the brush, and headed toward the road.
She didn’t even see her attacker until an arm went around her neck, and she was lifted completely off her feet. She wanted to scream, but a hand clamped down tight over her mouth. She struggled until she heard words against her ear.
“It’s me.”
She sagged, twisted in Beau’s arms, and threw her arms around his neck. She clutched him tightly as he held her close and then pushed her back slightly so he could glare down at her. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he snapped.
“The doctor is in on it,” she gasped out. “I had to warn you.”
“Are you sure?”
“It makes sense. The kidnappers would need a doctor, and he said something about having orders to come here. But he parked farther down the road, and then he went out on foot. That part made no sense.” She could see Beau contemplating what she told him and then said, “You already suspected as much, didn’t you?”
“The cult had to be working with the kidnappers. But even the kidnappers had to be working with somebody,” he said slowly. “It just worried me that it might be somebody within the military because a base is out of Anchorage. Or it could have been locals. I highly suspect it’s more than one anyway. Then I heard the doc’s name mentioned.”
“I was trying to figure out how they were connected to the people who kidnapped us, who had a ship that was taking women overseas. I mean, that’s not something that just any Joe Blow knows how to do.”
“No, it likely has something to do with the four men who took off.”
She just stared up at him. “What four men?”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Did you capture those four men? That’s what I want to know.”
“I’m waiting for word on that,” he said, “because we do need to know.”
“Those men could be the kidnapping team and connected to all kinds of different illicit trades in this world,” she said. “The drug trade is well-known for being heavily involved in the sex-worker market too.”
He nodded. “And, if one of these criminal types infiltrated the cult, it would be pretty easy to get the cult sucked into believing they would make money by helping them out.”
“And how many people would know?”
“Probably just the leader and his top guys,” Beau said. “The less who know, the better.”
“Right.” She glanced behind him and said, “Is it all taken care of down there?”
He shook his head. “No, I was just heading out to find you when I heard additional gunfire.”
“Well, that’s why I was heading up here,” she said, “to find you. And then I heard that gunfire too.”
“Well, in that case,” he said, “I’ve already sent Asher a message, saying I’ve got you, but we need to get you back to the medic vehicle and get you into town.”
“I can drive,” she said. “I can get myself into town.”
“No longer an option,” he said. “You keep jumping in where angels fear to tread, and you keep getting caught up in scenarios you shouldn’t.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” she said. “As long as you guys know that Mackey is probably involved. The question then becomes, how many others are too?”
“Well, it can’t be too many,” Beau said. “We won’t suspect the entire military regiment.”
“No,” she said, “but maybe the gas station?”
He looked at her in surprise and then nodded thoughtfully. “Well, that makes sense too.”
“I don’t know if more people are coming to help defend the compound or if they’ll just bail and look after themselves.”
“They’ll bail,” he said instantly. “I already took out one cult guy who shot his partner—both of them were trying to escape. They had bank account info where all the money is stored, but they also said that the four men who disappeared by bush plane had the cult’s bank account info too.”
“Which says right there how a bigger connection is here that we don’t know about.”
“Well, it’s hardly just the cult involved in the kidnapping here,” he said.
&nbs
p; “No,” she said, looking back at the compound. “I do worry about the women and children of the cult though. And what about Nania?”
“She’s been badly beaten,” he said slowly. “I was counting on Mackey to help her.”
“Damn,” Danica said. “We need to get medical personnel in here, somebody we can trust.”
“But nobody else can come in,” he said, “until we have this place secured.”
“And I slowed that down for you. I’m sorry.” He stood, sorting out what to do with her, and she shrugged. “Why don’t I just wait here? You go deal with this mess and make sure it’s secure. Release the women and children, and at least get them out of that place so we don’t have to worry about it being torched. And get the other women out from the cult’s medical center.”
He looked at her. “Do you always give orders?”
“I’m better at giving orders than taking them,” she said with a smile.
“I’ve noticed,” he said briskly. He popped her up onto a branch that she hadn’t even noticed and said, “Climb up as high as you can. I’ll be back in a little bit.” And he disappeared into the trees.
She didn’t get a chance to say anything because she had to stay quiet. Fuming, she watched as he blended into the greenery. Most of the gunfire had slowed. She could only hope that Beau was coming up behind Mackey and would take him out. She should have asked for a way to contact him too, like with her own comm. At least from where she was, she could see the road farther down, but that info wasn’t much help if she had no way to warn them if anything else was coming.
As she thought about it, she realized the current compound structure was falling apart, and everybody else involved would completely cut ties and ditch the place. This compound would be left to just a few hippie women and their children to form their own cult and a live-free colony that nobody in the world would care about. The people who had stored and supplied the kidnapped women would move on. They’d find some other way to ship their poor victims to Asia. As far as their kidnapping system went, this one was quite efficient. They had a place to hold the women, a place where they could get medical attention, and they were held not very far away from the shipyards, where they could pay somebody to turn a blind eye to get the kidnapped women out of the country.