military compound. The Major was there, and asked Lynda to dance. She danced with him while Ted fumed.
After that, Lynda had a constant line of officers asking her to dance. She danced with every one of them. They were all perfect gentlemen. Not one brought up the video. Finally she danced with Ted. He was hot. She said, “Hey, Ted, I may dance with them, but guess who I am sleeping with.”
He smiled weakly back at her. “Okay, so this was my idea, and it wasn’t such a hot idea. I learned my lesson.”
They went back to the hotel and got in their room. Lynda took the first shower, came out and went to bed. Ted took the second shower.
They were lying in bed talking to each other when the building shook, and a loud boom sounded. Their door was blown open.
Ted jumped up and looked down the hall. He turned to Lynda and yelled, “Fire! Get your clothes on.”
She jumped up and pulled her gown off and put her bra and panties on. She watched Ted sneak a peek. Ted was dressed and packing his bag. She followed suit.
They ran out the door and headed down the smoke-filled hallway. They got to the elevator and Ted yelled, “Keep going.”
They made it to the stairs. The stairwell was full of people, all trying to go down at the same time. Finally they got in and made it down the stairs. They ran out into the courtyard, and immediately Lynda could see that it was her old room. A bomb must have gone off in it. The windows were blown out. Old fire trucks arrived and began to try and contain the fire. The building was made of concrete, so just items in the building were burning.
Ted said, “That was your room. If either of us had been in it, we would be dead.”
The Major walked up beside them. He said, “Looks like you guys are out of a place to live. Come to the base, we will put you up.” He put his arm around Lynda like she was cold and he was going to keep her warm.
The four security men came out of the building. They were on the top floor and it had taken them a long time to come down the stairs.
The six people in the armored car followed the Major’s humvee back to the base. Lynda was put up in an officer’s room, and the five men were but up in barracks. As she expected, the Major came around to check on her. He did not stay long. But he did say, “I told you that you had bit off more than you can chew. You are safe here; no one can get to you.”
The next day they went back to the hotel and got the rest of their clothes. They needed to be washed; they smelled of smoke. Adziva took Lynda and Ted’s clothes and took them to a washateria. She had them washed and pressed. Ted paid her for her efforts.
That afternoon, Adziva came to Lynda’s office and said, “Another truck full of girls is coming!”
Lynda was not sure what to do. She could see the dilemma that the Major had warned her of. There were probably trucks traveling every day with young girls. What should she do? She called Tom for help.
Tom answered, “Hello, Lynda. What is it this time?” He laughed a big Texas laugh.
She told him about the truck full of young girls and asked him what to do.
Tom said, “Wow, we can only take so many, then what do we do? I tell you what, why don’t you follow the truck, see where it goes, then raid the place and have the local police arrest everyone?”
This seemed like a good plan to Lynda, but how would they know which truck it was? She would have to lean on Adziva to get more information.
Adziva was a good operative. She got a description of the truck.
Lynda called the Major and told him her predicament. He was not very sensitive about it. He did say, “I have a deal for you. I will take care of everything if you will do something for me.”
Lynda said, “Okay, what?”
The Major said, “We are having a dance at the officers’ club Friday night, and I need a date. Will you go with me?”
Against her better judgement, Lynda said, “Deal!”
Lynda, Ted and the four security guys patrolled the highway and spotted the truck. They followed it to a warehouse across town. They called the Major. He had two humvees and a truck full of soldiers there in less than an hour. Ted and Lynda actually saw the young girls being taken out of the bed of the truck. The Army raided the place and a gunfight broke out. An Army Sergeant told them to stay in their vehicle and within minutes all the shooting was over. All the bad guys had been killed. So much for gathering intelligence.
Seventeen girls were recovered. One had been shot in the calf. She was carried by humvee back to the base for treatment. Several of the soldiers could talk to the little girls and kept them calm. Candy bars showed up again, and friends were made.
These young girls wound up going to America. Two translators went with them. They were really too old to adopt, but they went to an adoption agency anyway.
Friday night Lynda dressed up and went with the Major to the dance. For the first time, she found out that his name was Mark McLemore. Lynda and Mark really hit it off at the dance. She had a wonderful time. That is until Mark took her back to her room. Who should be sitting outside her door, but “One-Shot!”
Lynda was able to keep the boys apart, but just barely. It seemed that both of them were serious about her, which was a real “turn-off” for her. Neither one of the men caught on.
The next morning a sour puss One-Shot picked her up and silently escorted her to the center. She immediately called him into her office. She told him to sit down and she stared at him for half a minute. Neither one would back down. Finally she said, “One-Shot, what is your problem?”
He said, “BB, I don’t like you seeing that guy.”
She leaned back in her chair and tried sticking her breasts up as much as she could with the vest on. She said, “Guess what, Ted: you don’t own me. I can see anyone that I want to. I am not seeing Mark; we just went to a dance together. You need to back off some. Your problem is, you were making headway, and now you have screwed it up by getting all serious. You don’t know what makes me tick.”
Ted smiled and said, “I don’t understand a thing you said, BB!”
She took a deeper breath. She spoke slowly. “You were teasing me, and I was smitten with you. You got serious and turned me off. Don’t you see, I like to have fun. I don’t want to be serious with anyone. If you want to get close to me, lighten up.” She was being as gentle as she could, and it was really going against her grain.
Ted said, “I just have one question. Did you kiss him?”
Lynda exploded, “It’s none of your damn business if I kissed him. But hell no I didn’t, you are the only guy that I have been kissing around here, and that just stopped.”
Ted’s eyes were wide. He understood now. One-Shot said, “BB, please forgive me and give me another chance?”
She took another deep breath. She said, “Go on, get out of here, One-Shot.”
He got up, and patted her hand, then walked out. Lynda looked at her hand, it tingled.
The hotel had made repairs, and they would be able to go back to their old rooms, tomorrow. All the rooms had been repaired except the room that Lynda had been in. It had been destroyed by the blast. Army technicians said that it had been an RPG, a rocket-propelled grenade that had been shot from across the street. They had several witnesses and a car model they were looking for.
Mark tried to get Lynda to stay at the Army base, but she was ready to leave.
She did not tell anyone what her room number was. She and One-Shot moved back into the same room. He seemed a lot happier.
The next morning they had moved back into the hotel. When they got to the office, Adziva caught Lynda again. Another truck was coming with more girls. What should she do about this one? She called Tom again. He said that an orphanage in Germany had agreed to take twenty of the girls and was pretty sure that they could get them adopted out.
She called Mark again, and asked him if he was up to another raid. He tried to make another “deal” wi
th her, but she told him that she was in no mood for deals. She was afraid of his answer, but he said that he would check with his boss, but thought they would be available.
He called her back an hour later and said the raid was on. He asked her out for the next Friday night, but she declined his request.
This raid was more successful than the first one. They captured four men, and they were all ready to talk. They would do anything once they were threatened with going to Guantanamo. They also spilled the name of the big man who ran the operation. Lynda passed this on to Tom. It was getting too deep for her now, really deep.
Tom told her that other agents would deal with the man and his organization. She was happy. They recovered eight little girls in this truckload.
Two days later Mark called her. He said that an Air Force strike had hit a compound outside Kabul, and the man had been taken out. She was amazed at how fast the government responded.
Lynda thought the girl trafficking was over. But it wasn’t.
The very next day, Adziva came in with another report. Another truck was coming. Lynda placed a call to Mark; they were out in the field and would not be back until late tomorrow. What should she do? One-Shot said that he and his men could stop the truck and get the girls. Lynda told him only if she could go too. Reluctantly, he agreed.
The next morning they were out on the highway and found the truck, just like Adziva said it would be. They followed it for a few minutes, and then
CIA - The Slave Traders Page 11