Lucy waved dismissively. “Come on, let’s get going. I’d rather get there before nightfall.”
As Levi followed Lucy toward the exit, he asked, “Where exactly is Frost Creek?”
“It’s on the US and Canadian border. Believe me, it’s in the middle of nowhere. And it’s the perfect place for the first exploratory incursion by the smugglers. It’s going to be a long night.”
Chapter Eighteen
Levi watched the road pass as Lucy drove them north on I-5. After nearly an hour of silence, it was obvious this woman wasn’t the talkative type. But as they turned off the highway, taking exit 236, and continued north, he couldn’t take it anymore.
“How in the world did you and Mason get acquainted?” he asked.
“I win.”
He turned from the window. “What do you mean, you win?”
She motioned dismissively with her right hand. “It’s a game I used to play when I was a kid. I just wanted to see who’d break the silence. You want to know how Mason brought me into this thing of ours?”
“Is that what you call it? ‘This thing of ours’?”
La cosa nostra, or LCN—otherwise known as the Mafia—literally translated to “this thing of ours.”
Lucy gave Levi a half-smile as if she knew what he was thinking. “No, it’s not called that. It doesn’t really have a name. At least none that Mason ever shared with me. And what difference does it make what it’s called? It’s not like we’ve signed any employee contracts. The only thing that’s different about it and our regular lives is that Mason can pull strings for us, get intel from who knows where, and do some things with the feds or the military that might otherwise prove to be difficult for us to accomplish.”
“Okay, so I know Mason saw me at a former soldier’s funeral, or at least that’s the first time I noticed him. And eventually, he called me out of the blue. How about you? How did you get sucked into this?”
Lucy pressed her lips tightly together for a few seconds before responding. “It goes back to when my husband was killed. I fled Hong Kong on the same day that it happened, and Mason was there when I arrived at LAX. At the time, I knew him as one of the customers that I’d failed to deliver to.”
“What were you supposed to be delivering?”
She turned right on Bow Hill Road, a lonely stretch of road with one lane going each way through a heavily-wooded area. “This isn’t something I’ve really ever talked about.” She glanced over at him. “This goes no further?”
He nodded. “It won’t.” Levi was many things in life, and if there was a hell in his future, he probably deserved it, but if there was anything he could be counted on to do, it was to keep his promises.
“Well, before I talk about the failed delivery, I suppose you need to understand how things worked back then. My husband was into many things as he built the business. And believe me, it was a business, run by him with an iron fist, and it had a very hierarchical structure like a normal corporation. It was just that our business dealt with all things illicit. Gambling, drugs, prostitution, all of those were certainly fair game.
“And when I’d arrived in his household, I wasn’t sure if I’d been brought in as a wife or as something to be sold. But my husband quickly figured out that I had an uncanny ability to remember things. Facts, figures, names, almost anything. My mind is like a steel trap. I don’t forget anything.”
Could she really have an eidetic memory like him? What were the chances of that? He focused on the woman sitting two feet away and was intrigued. By the way she acted and her lived experiences, he’d have had trouble believing she was in her twenties, even though she could easily pass for it. She had a mature beauty, yet Lucy had an odd ageless quality about her. She might even be in her forties, it was impossible to tell.
“Anyway, I was still a teenager when my husband began involving me in the business. Giving me responsibilities, all of which I took seriously. I helped where I could, and eventually, I became his second—the most senior person, the most trusted, and I’ll be honest, the one who helped make it grow to a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. We branched out to the rest of Asia and made inroads into the US.
“And that’s when I began trying to shift the business away from what I felt were some of the dirtier things. Things that I felt were beneath my husband’s honor.”
“Like what?” Levi asked.
“Dealing with kids,” Lucy held a sour expression as she turned onto WA-9 North. “It was a small portion of our business, but it was growing quickly. We had buyers lined up all over Canada and the US, and a growing market in the Middle East. But it was wrong.”
She took in a deep, shuddering breath, and began tearing up. Levi would never have expected that from a put-together and businesslike person such as herself.
“It was my doing. I convinced my husband to pull out of those business dealings and to cancel the transport of anyone under fifteen. But because I’d managed to sway my husband to do something against our business interests, he was ambushed and killed by one of his lieutenants.”
Levi put two and two together. “So you fled to the US and Mason met you upon your arrival. Was he one of the buyers you’d canceled on?”
Lucy nodded. “I didn’t know his name at the time, but somehow, he knew what I’d done. He knew that my husband had just been killed, and he knew why.”
“How could he possibly know?”
“No idea, but he did. He’s got eyes everywhere.”
“And is this how you make your living? Through missions for Mason?”
Lucy took her foot off the gas and looked at Levi with amusement. “Why in the world would you think that? My husband and I had quite a lot of convertible assets stored all over the world. Do you seriously think I’d have left all of them to those vultures who killed him?”
Levi felt admiration for this self-reliant woman. “I suppose not. But then, I don’t understand why you’re still doing things for Mason. Why aren’t you on a beach somewhere, relaxing?”
Lucy turned right on Mount Baker Highway. “It’s pretty simple, actually. If I’d simply disappeared, after they were done picking clean whatever they could find of my husband’s wealth, they’d rightfully assume I had taken a lot of his wealth to hide out with, and I’d have to be looking over my shoulder forever. Instead, I decided to play the role most women in my society have played for centuries: the helpless widow who escaped with just enough to get by. After all, they did reclaim a huge amount of my husband’s wealth.”
Levi pictured her place in New York. It had to have cost a small fortune to retrofit an old building with such a richly appointed apartment. “But if they reclaimed your husband’s wealth, how do you get by?”
“I’m not an idiot. I’ve got enough money hidden away for several lifetimes. But I don’t show it off. I played dumb, but not so dumb as to be useless. I’m still in the business; I helped the current boss consolidate his power, and I curried favor to ensure I wasn’t mistrusted. I’m at a much lower rank than before, but that’s okay. This way, I can still keep my ear to the ground.
“And that’s how I learned that the child trafficking spigot had been turned on once again. And yes, that’s something that I shared with Mason. I’ve been helping fill in some of the gaps in the intel he’s received from his other sources. But I have plans for my husband’s business.”
“Take it over again?”
She shook her head. “Burn it to the ground.”
###
Levi stared at the deepening shadows cast by the woods that surrounded them. Even though it was only five in the afternoon, it was getting dark quickly as Lucy stopped the car at the end of the dirt road. His phone buzzed and he glanced down at the screen. It was a text from Mason.
Spy satellites confirm a large truck has arrived at the compound two miles north of the intercept point.
Expect exploratory maneuvers tonight. The real deal tomorrow tonight.
Be careful.
“Did you get the text?” Lucy asked.
“Yup.” Levi climbed out of the car, shrugged himself into his backpack, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and followed Lucy as she headed almost directly northeast, along a game trail.
After about fifty yards, she stopped and tore away some snow-covered pine branches to reveal an all-terrain vehicle. “You’ll drive, I’ll sit behind you.”
“Shouldn’t you be the one driving?” Levi asked. “I have no clue where this intercept point is. All you said is Frost Creek, which doesn’t help.”
“I’m sorry, but you need to be in front. I can’t let you touch me.” Lucy pulled out her phone and showed him a digital image of where they were and where they were going. She pointed at a line crossing what looked to be a stream. “Right up against the Canadian border is where we expect them to come. It’s only a couple miles from here as the crow flies. We should be able to get there in an hour or so.”
“If it’s only a couple miles, we’re better off just walking the path.”
“No. I’ll need the ATV tomorrow for when I go across the border.”
Levi examined the ATV and saw that it had no exhaust system. “This is electric?”
“Yes. This whole operation is going to be dependent on us not attracting attention.”
Hitching the rifle up higher on his shoulder, Levi smiled. “So, that’s why the ultra-smooth bolt action and subsonic rounds.” This was going to be what the Russian KGB would have called a wet operation. Someone was going to die. The trick was making sure it wasn’t him or his partner.
“Anyway,” Lucy continued, “There’s an easy walking path along Frost Creek that we’re expecting them to follow. Like Doug’s text said, tonight, they’ll scout the path out to make sure there’s nothing unexpected, and tomorrow, they’ll smuggle in the kids.”
Levi kicked away some of the brush in front of the ATV and mounted it. Lucy hopped up onto the seat right behind him and wrapped her arms around his stomach. He pressed the starter button, and the ATV started up without a sound. The only sound he detected was her breathing as she leaned into him. He twisted the throttle and began weaving them toward their destination.
###
Levi panned his gaze across the clearing. A slight mist rose from Frost Creek, giving the forest a somewhat eerie look. He glanced at Lucy as she pressed something into her ear and then handed him an identical object that looked almost like a blackened piece of putty.
“Just press that lightly into your ear, it’ll harden in a minute once it’s in there.”
Levi pressed the rubberized device into his ear and it immediately began crackling with static.
Lucy aimed a small wand-like device at his ear and the static immediately vanished. She handed him a throat mic, which he strapped around his neck, adjusting the mic so that it was positioned properly.
Lucy took a few steps back and covered her mouth. “Testing, one … two … three.”
“You’re coming in loud and clear.”
“Same here, you’re coming in fine.”
Lucy knelt next to Levi and, using a stick, spent the next five minutes drawing out the night’s plan.
###
Levi hadn’t planned for the cold. His dark fatigues had kept him warm enough when it was in the forties, but now it was almost midnight and the temperature was falling. It was certainly below freezing.
Lucy’s voice came over his earbud. She sounded breathless. “Levi, I’m about two klicks north of the border and I just saw an SUV heading south. It’s probably our guys. Keep your eyes peeled.”
With a throat mic strapped to his neck, he whispered, “Roger that. I see headlights.”
He was in the woods, about twenty feet from the edge of the clearing that marked the Canadian border, and backed away even further into the trees. Positioning himself behind a thick pine, he peered through the scope mounted on the rifle and zoomed in on the incoming vehicle. A full moon cast an eerie silvery light across the snow-patched landscape.
Enveloped by the forest all around him, Levi’s heightened senses strained to catch a hint of his quarry. They were about one hundred yards away, but he easily heard the opening and closing of the SUV’s doors.
There were four men. He couldn’t quite be sure, but judging by their relatively short stature, dark hair, and darker features, he’d guess they were Asian, which of course was what he’d expected.
The one in front held something that briefly lit up his face—maybe a cell phone.
Definitely Asian.
The other three had rifles slung over their shoulders, as if they were a hunting party.
The leader motioned toward the stream known as Frost Creek, and the group entered the woods, following the still-flowing creek.
Levi stood still as they crossed his field of view. They all wore sidearms, and two of the men had a set of binoculars hanging from their belts.
One of them lifted his binoculars and panned his gaze across the forest. Levi stayed hidden behind the pine tree, but it dawned on him that the man wouldn’t be using those binoculars unless they had some form of night vision or thermal detecting capability. Likely the latter.
A shot rang out, and even though he was easily one hundred yards away, he heard the sound of a body fall.
Then there was coughing.
Almost like the sound of a cat hurling up a hairball, it was something Levi had heard a few times before.
A deer had been shot, likely in the lungs.
The men walked toward the animal, and after verifying it wasn’t a threat, they followed the path of the stream.
“Levi, I’m outside the warehouse. Using the FLIR, I see a bunch of bodies huddled together inside a freight container. I’d say between fifty and a hundred kids.”
FLIR was a thermal imaging system that Levi had used in the past when looking for people in the woods. With one of those, a human body showed up like a matchstick in the dark. Evidently, Lucy had something that could see into a metal shipping container.
Levi crept toward the sound of the hacking deer, all the while, keeping his gaze focused on the four men moving south along the waterway.
“Our guys here look like they’re pretty paranoid. They’re scanning the woods for thermal signatures. One of them just shot a deer. They’re currently moving further south.”
“Be careful they don’t detect you.”
Levi drew a razor-sharp knife from a sheathe on his belt, bent down and put the deer out of its misery. “Don’t worry about me. If these guys are paranoid, then so are the ones you’re watching.”
“Not so much. They’ve got campfires going along the perimeter. Probably to keep the sentries warm. Either way, they’re blind to anyone watching them.”
Levi shook his head at the idiocy. He’d never been in the military, but the years he’d spent with lifelong trackers, hunters, and survivalists had taught him to think of nature in a different way than most. Predator versus prey. If he was worried about someone sneaking up on him, the last thing he’d want is to have campfires giving him night blindness and advertising his position.
“Okay, just watch yourself. I’ll meet you at the car in about three hours, like planned.”
###
Levi crouched at the edge of the woods, his eyes on the rental car that they’d arrived in. He heard the crunch of snow somewhere to his left and he whispered, “Is that you approaching.”
“You’ve got good ears.”
Less than a minute later Lucy emerged from the woods, looking like a shadow in the mottled backdrop of the snow-covered woods. Levi dropped from the observation point he’d built between two intertwined trees.
Lucy gasped, and he heard her voice in his ear as well as across the clearing. “Holy shit, where the hell did you come from?”
Levi motioned toward the car. “Let’s talk in the car, I’m freezing my dangly bits off.”
###
&nb
sp; After about thirty minutes, they were finally driving on pavement again and heading back to Seattle.
“Do you have everything you need for tonight?” Levi asked.
“I’ll need to call Doug in a bit. I think I might need a few special things delivered to the office.”
“What do you know about these kids? Their situation…” Levi hesitated. “I really don’t know much about this trafficking thing other than what I heard from the girls I’d found.”
Lucy’s expression turned dour as she stared ahead at the highway. It was a full thirty seconds before she replied. “I’m sure you know the basics. These kids may have been abandoned, orphaned, kidnapped, or sold. It really doesn’t matter so much how they got into this situation, it’s the nightmare that they have to look forward to if someone doesn’t intervene.”
Images of Mei lingered in Levi’s mind. So young, and dressed so provocatively. He couldn’t bring himself to imagine in detail what she may have already been through, but Lucy drew the mental picture with a stark sense of reality.
“These kids, if they’re lucky, are brought to illegal work camps,” Lucy said. “Taught to sew, farm, whatever is needed. It’s the unlucky ones that I worry the most about. The ones who have pretty features, especially the girls, they’re the ones that die quickly or live through a hell few can believe.
“Imagine being thirteen and you’re raped thirty times a day for five years straight. A body isn’t made to undergo that level of abuse. Most don’t make it to eighteen. Some escape and try to reclaim their lost lives, but they almost never do. Others are so scarred by their ordeal, they go crazy. They’re broken for the rest of their lives. Still others, after countless abortions, are left sterile, or they catch a disease that can’t be cured, and they disappear.”
Levi balled up his fists in anger as he listened to Lucy clinically describe what really happens to the victims of human trafficking. “When you say ‘disappear,’ I assume you mean they’re killed and buried somewhere?”
The Inside Man Page 21