by Mike Ryan
“Sounds like you know them or something.”
“I do.”
Bridge and Nicole walked out the door and went back to their car, getting in. “All right, we’re on our way there now. I’ll call you back if we get anything.”
“You guys be careful. Even if Meyer and the girls are gone, he might still have people guarding the building around the clock.”
Bridge took out a magazine and put it into his Glock 19. “I’ll let you know how it goes.” Bridge put his phone down on the dashboard.
“How what goes? And why are we leaving?” Nicole asked.
Bridge looked out the window. “We’re going to a warehouse.”
“Where? And why?”
“You want the short story or the long version?”
“Just as much as I need,” Nicole said.
“They got satellite photos of a dark-colored van outside a warehouse just beyond the airport’s border.”
“I take it it links to Meyer and the girls somehow?”
“There’s about five or six links to go through first, but it eventually leads back to a company that’s co-owned by one of Meyer’s aliases.”
“So what are we walking into?”
Bridge smiled. “Good question. Guess we’ll know when we get there.”
“I’m sure the girls aren’t still there.”
“I’d be surprised if they were. Odds are it’s just a way station for them until they figure out where the girls are going from there. You got the trunk loaded?”
Nicole glared at him, wondering if he even knew her at all. “Seriously? Have you ever known me to travel light?”
“Point taken.”
“Think they might still have guards there?”
“I dunno.” Bridge continued smiling, not sounding a bit anxious or nervous about what they might be walking into. It almost sounded like he was looking forward to it. “Like I said… guess we’ll find out when we get there.”
9
Bridge and Nicole drove over to the new location, stopping a little up the road so as not to announce their presence if someone else happened to still be there. They got out of the car, Bridge making sure his gun and backup weapon were ready to go. Nicole went into the trunk and pulled out an assault rifle, handgun, and a few other items she put in the pouches of her cargo pants.
“We’re not starting a war here, you know,” Bridge said.
“No, but we might be finishing one. Gotta be prepared.”
Nicole put her finger on his chin and smiled seductively as she walked past him. Bridge stared at nothing in particular and shook his head.
“She’s one of a kind.”
Nicole looked back, seeing her boyfriend in the same spot. “You coming?”
Bridge jogged over to her to catch up. They approached the entrance of the warehouse. There were a bunch of trees and bushes surrounding the edge of the property.
“That should make it easier to get in there,” Bridge said.
They moved to their right, immersing themselves in the shrubbery to conceal themselves. They watched and waited for a few minutes, wanting to see if they got any movement coming from the warehouse before they did anything. From where they were, they had a front door view to a loading dock and two other doors.
After being there for twenty minutes, Nicole was starting to grow impatient. “How long are we gonna sit here for?”
“Until we’re sure what we’re dealing with.”
“That could take forever. We don’t have that kind of time, Luke.”
“Listen, we can’t find or help anyone if we’re dead. Right?”
“I guess not.”
“So we’ll take the time we need to properly assess the situation instead of going in like gangbusters with our pants on fire.”
Nicole sighed, but knew not to press the issue further. He was probably right, she thought. Not that she liked to admit it. Especially out loud. They kept their eyes glued to the building for another ten minutes.
“Now?” Nicole asked.
Bridge rolled his eyes. “Now I see why you never got out into the field at the agency.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you’re impatient.”
“If by impatient you mean just wanting to hurry up and get things done, then yeah.”
“Sometimes in the field you have to wait hours, or even days, until the right time to strike.”
“Well, no wonder things never get done.”
Bridge shook his head. There was no talking to her.
“Luke, there’s nobody here, let’s go. I mean, what are we gonna do, wait all day?”
Bridge sighed, knowing he couldn’t hold her off much longer. He was just about to relent and give the go-ahead to move in, when a pair of lights shone not too far in front of them. Bridge and Nicole ducked down further between some branches and leaves. As they nestled down, they discovered that the lights belonged to a car, which pulled up in front of the warehouse. The driver and a man in the passenger seat got out. The passenger then opened the back door, pulling out a woman by her feet. Her mouth was duct-taped, along with her arms pulled together in front of her, bound at her wrists. Her legs were also strapped together by the ankles. She was doing her best to fight her abductors, trying to kick at them, though there wasn’t much she could do tied up like she was.
The driver opened the front door to the building as the other man dealt with the woman. After the door was opened, he came back to the car to get the woman inside as quickly as possible. They each grabbed one end of her and picked her up, carrying her inside.
“That’s it,” Nicole said, jumping out of the bushes.
“Nic…”
Bridge put his hand up to try to stop her, but she was already gone. He took a deep breath, then followed her out. Nicole, and Bridge right behind her, ran up to the car and crouched down behind it, taking a look at the door through the windows.
“We gotta get to that door before they close it,” Bridge said.
Nicole smiled. “And here I thought you were too passive.”
Bridge faked a smile at her as the two stood and ran past the hood of the car and over to the door. Just as they got to the door, one of the men appeared, looking just as concerned about the two of them popping up as they were of him finding them first. It was the passenger, and he didn’t ask any questions. He immediately reached for the gun attached to his shoulder holster. He never got to pull it out, though. In unison, Bridge and Nicole both shot him point blank. Bridge drilled a hole in his forehead, while Nicole put one in his chest.
They then heard what sounded like the muffled screams of the woman, as much as she could muster with her mouth taped shut, anyway. It came from another room to their left. Bridge and Nicole rushed in, heading for the direction the sounds came from. Without having time to properly case the building and see if anyone else was in there, Bridge motioned to his partner to watch his back and keep an eye out for anyone coming from behind. Bridge would worry about what was in front of them.
The door to the next room was closed, though it was just a plain slab wooden door. It didn’t look like breaking through it would be much of an issue. Bridge looked at Nicole and nodded, letting her know he was about to go in. Bridge took a step back, then raised his leg, forcefully kicking at the door just under the knob. He kicked it so hard he almost put his foot right through it.
Almost immediately, he saw a man standing over the woman, looking like he either was about to strike her in the face, or already had. The man spun around upon hearing the door crash open, and seeing the strange face, he also immediately went for his weapon. Just as he put his fingers on the handle of the gun attached to his waist, Bridge put three rounds into his chest. As the victim fell to the floor, Bridge spun around, his gun held out in front of him, scanning the room for any other suspects. The rest of the room was empty.
Nicole stood by the door, waiting for anyone else to come running in. As she provided cover, Br
idge went over to the tied-up woman to make sure she was OK. She had a couple bruises on her face, but other than that, appeared to be in as good a condition as was possible under the circumstances. Bridge slowly took the tape off her mouth.
“You OK?” Bridge asked.
The woman took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then nodded. “Yeah. I think so. Thank you so much.”
“You American?”
“Canadian.” Bridge took out a small knife and cut through the tape that held her wrists and ankles together. “You won’t believe everything that’s happened to me.”
“Trust me, I’d believe it. What’s your name?”
“Cammi.”
“My name’s Luke. I’m gonna get you out of here, OK? So what happened?” Bridge asked, cutting her arms and legs free from their restraints.
Cammi rubbed her wrists. “I was doing some modeling and I, uh, heard about this possible audition down in New Jersey. Some hotel or something. They were looking for some girls for some indie movie or something. I don’t even remember all the details now. But I went there… and it was nothing like I expected. It was just this guy there in the room with two or three other guys… then they gave me a drink and the next thing I know, I’m all tied up in some strange warehouse place.”
“Here?”
Cammi shook her head, touching her ankles. “No, not at first. This was… back in New Jersey, I guess. Anyway, after that, they put a bunch of us on a plane, and we came here.”
“Bunch of who?”
“A bunch of girls. All pretty.”
“Where’d you all go once you got here?”
“They split most of us up in different directions. They’d send two or three out at a time to different places.”
“Where?”
“I… I don’t even know. I’m not sure. I’m sorry.”
“It’s OK. It’s not a problem. Just take a few deep breaths. You’re safe now.”
Cammi cleared her throat. “I remember hearing a few of them talking about different places.”
“What places?”
“I remember hearing Germany, um, Russia, uh, I think Africa, and… and I’m not really sure about anywhere else. I’m not even positive where we are right now.”
Bridge tried to give her a warm smile, hoping to help calm her down. She was obviously still rattled from her ordeal. “Right now, we’re in Spain.”
“Oh.”
“What about the other girls?” Bridge asked. “You remember any names, who they were, where they went, anything?”
“No, they didn’t like us talking to each other or anything. If they caught any of us talking, they’d come over and hit us.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that. Do you remember how long ago you were taken?”
“I’m not sure. Four, five months maybe.”
Nicole then walked in. “I just went through the rest of the place. It’s empty.”
Bridge looked back at her and nodded. He then turned his attention back to Cammi. “What were they doing with all the girls?”
Cammi looked down at the floor, and her jaw clenched tight. It was obviously troubling. As Bridge looked at her, he could see that she was having trouble getting the words out.
Bridge tapped her on the knee a few times. “It’s all right. It’s all right. I’m not gonna make you relive it. I already know. I’m sorry.”
“It was just so…”
Bridge reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture of Meyer. “You recognize him?”
Cammi quickly nodded, not needing any extra time. It was a face she would never forget. “Yeah. He was the guy I saw at the hotel. He seemed like he was in charge the couple times I saw him afterwards. Everyone seemed to take orders from him.”
“You know where he went?” Nicole asked.
Cammi shook her head. “No, sorry.”
As Bridge looked at her, his face indicated a look that something crossed his mind. He looked back at the opened door, then a quick glance at Nicole, before turning his attention back to Cammi.
“What were you doing here?”
“What do you mean?” Cammi asked.
“Why did they bring you here? Do you know?”
Cammi cleared her throat. “Besides having us… do things… rumor was that they were also selling some girls to different people. I think I was one of those.”
“Why?” Bridge said. “Why are you different from the others?”
“I don’t know.”
“Could just be a certain look someone was after,” Nicole said.
“Yeah, probably,” Bridge replied. He then took out a picture of Fester and showed it to Cammi. “Have you ever seen this woman?”
Cammi took the picture and brought it closer to her face, studying it closely. “Yeah. Yeah, she looks familiar. I can’t say definitely, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her around.”
Bridge looked at Nicole, knowing they were on the right path, even though he already knew it, anyway. It wasn’t confirmation she was still alive, though.
“What kind of setup did these guys have?” Nicole asked. “What kind of places did you go, guards, things like that?”
“Um, we were kept in basically one or two rooms in some dirty type of place. There were concrete floors, and it was a very industrial style type of place. I couldn’t lead you back to it or anything. We had guards on us all the time while we were in there.”
“And when they took you out?” Bridge asked.
“It was out a back door into a dark van with tinted windows with more guards, blindfolds on… never knew where we were going.”
“And when you got to the place they were taking you?”
“They were always places with a lot of rooms, like, long hallways with a bunch of doors on each side, almost reminded me of like a hotel or something.”
“Guards?” Nicole asked.
Cammi looked up at her and nodded. “Yeah. Two of them. One at each end of the hall. Both armed.”
“How long did they keep you in these places?”
“Hours at a time. They’d shuffle us from one room to another for five, six hours. Then when we were done, we’d be taken right back to that warehouse or whatever it was.”
Bridge patted her on the shoulder a couple of times. “It’s over now.” He then tilted his head, something continuing to tug at him, though he wasn’t sure what it was. Something was nagging at him, a feeling, but he just couldn’t put his finger on what it was. Something that was making him uneasy. After a few more minutes of talking, it finally struck him. Nicole noticed the serious look on his face.
“What? What is it?”
“They brought her here to sell her to someone,” Bridge answered.
“Yeah? So?”
Bridge looked to the door again. “So that means someone else should be coming. Unless they were gonna fly her out on a magic carpet.”
Nicole looked at Cammi. “Do you know if someone’s coming?”
Cammi shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just…”
“It’s OK,” Bridge said. “We’ll figure it out.”
Bridge stood up, him and Nicole starting to walk toward the door.
“What do you think?” Nicole asked.
“I’m thinking someone else is coming.”
“Obviously. I mean, about what we’re doing next.”
Bridge looked back at Cammi. “First thing we need to do is get her out of here.”
“If we do that, we might lose an advantage. If we find out who’s coming, we can try to patch things together from there. Where they’re from, who they do business with, where they like to go.”
“I agree. That’s why you’re gonna take her back to the hotel and call Happy while I stay here and check things out,” Bridge said.
“No, no, no, no. We’re not doing that.”
“What?”
“You’re not gonna do the get me to safety part while you do all the heavy lifting.”
“It’s not about that. It’s just�
�� trying to do two things at one time. One of us has to get her to safety. She’s been through enough. The other one of us has to stay here in case their friends come knocking. Someone has to see what’s up.”
“So why do you get to stay?”
“You do remember that I’m technically in charge here?”
“Only technically,” Nicole said.
“This was my operation first, remember? I mean, I did start this without you. You came on board after I hired you. You do remember that, right?”
“Like I said, if you wanna get technical.”
Bridge rolled his eyes. “Nic, now’s not the time to argue about this. Who knows how much time we got left here?”
Nicole sighed, not wanting to admit he was right. “Fine. I’ll take her. But you better not do any of the fun stuff without me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Where are you gonna be?”
“I’ll go back to those bushes again,” Bridge answered. “Seemed like a good spot.”
Nicole went over to Cammi and helped her to her feet. “C’mon. I’m gonna get you out of here.”
“Where are we going?” Cammi asked.
“First place we’re going is our hotel. Then we’ll call our contact in the FBI and see what we can do about getting you home.”
“Thank you. Who are you guys, anyway?”
“They call us The Extractors.”
Bridge shot his girlfriend a look. “Really, Nic, really? We’re The Extractors?”
Nicole smiled at him. “I thought it was time to expand the business.”
“No, I’m The Extractor. You’re… you’re just you.”
As Nicole and Cammi walked to the door, they suddenly heard a noise outside. Sounded like a car engine running. Without a window in the room to look out, Bridge scurried to the door, peeking out. There was a car pulling up alongside the other one. He looked back at Nicole.
“Looks like we’re scrapping those plans.”
“Why?” Nicole asked.
“We got company.”
10
Nicole told Cammi to get in the corner of the room and get down, then she ran over to her boyfriend.
“How many?”