by Beth Abbott
“What sort of foot in which door, and what’s the plan?” Logan asked.
“Ok, well it won’t come as any surprise to anyone that there’s a lot of money in trafficking.” Hannah confirmed. “And where the Guardians come into play, is that we’ve managed to use one of David’s informants to get us into the right circles.”
“Trafficking circles?” Kellen clarified.
“Yes. But not just any circle. The one we’re dealing with is based in London, and we’ve managed to get an introduction to the traffickers who believe we are facilitators. Go-betweens, if you will.” Hannah explained.
“So, what are we going to facilitate?” Hollywood asked, staring at Hannah over the top of the folder.
“An auction.” Hannah answered simply. “We’ve promised them that we can supply some very rich clients who are looking for a particular type of product. Middle Eastern, European, and American clients, as well as others. We’ve promised them that we can have an auction set up by the time they get to Holland.”
“So, how does that get us close enough to the cargo in transit to be able to rescue them?” Logan asked, his Scottish accent thankfully not so thick as to make it hard to understand.
“Part of the deal we’ve agreed with the official contact, is that if we’re going to all the trouble of putting on the auction and bringing in buyers from overseas, then we get to insert some of our own security people from the beginning, to make sure the cargo reaches Holland intact, and undamaged.” Hannah explained.
“So, we’re going to be acting as bodyguards to the women being trafficked?” Evan snorted. “Somehow, I don’t see that being a believable scenario.”
“Not bodyguards to the women, no, although you will have to make sure the other men in the trucks don’t get out of line with them.” Hannah scowled. “Officially, you’re there as protection to defend the trucks if they’re attacked by a rival criminal gang or get caught up in a police swoop.”
“So, how reliable is our contact on the inside?” Evan asked. “Do we know who they are?”
“By all accounts they’re right at the top table, with direct links to the boss of the organisation.” Hannah confirmed. “But they’re keeping a very low profile. All of our contacts with them are through text messages or e-mails. Nothing audio or visual.”
“How do you know you’re talking to the right person then?” Logan asked.
“We’ve given them a code-name.” Hannah smiled. “I call them my Angel.”
Hollywood chuckled.
“I like it. The guy who’s helping us on the inside is the ‘Guardians’ Angel’!” He shook his head at Hannah. “Let me guess, was it you who thought that up?”
Hannah shrugged, but she could feel her cheeks heating up.
“It seemed most appropriate, don’t you think?”
She glanced around at the heads nodding, and felt relieved, not least that nobody seemed to think the name was stupid.
“Look, there are plenty of reports you need to read through in the folders in front of you.” She pointed out. “Spend a couple of hours learning everything you can about the type of organisation you’re going to be dealing with. Make sure you familiarise yourselves with the routes and locations of the properties. And think about the people you’re going to come into contact with. They’re literally the scum of the earth, capable of extreme brutality, even against women and children. You have to be prepared to see things no decent human would want to see. David wasn’t exaggerating. You need to brace yourselves to see those things and not respond in any way. That’s going to be the toughest part of your job.”
She watched the men glance at the folders.
“We’ll meet back here at two o’clock this afternoon, when Danny and Abbey will have stuff to talk through with you, to prepare you for the emotional side of what you’ll be seeing.” Hannah explained. “They can give you first-hand accounts of what it will be like.”
None of the men looked up from the folders, so Hannah quietly left the room.
As tough and as physically capable as the six men were, she had the feeling that none of them really had any idea of what to expect.
Hopefully, Danny and Abbey would be able to rectify that this afternoon.
Chapter 4 – Danny
Danny sat in the conference room waiting for the new team to arrive.
David Roan had voiced his concern that the new team members wouldn’t really be prepared for what they would find when they were deployed, and it had been his suggestion that Danny and Abbey talk to them about their own past experiences.
Danny had struggled with the idea of sharing what he’d seen the day he’d rescued Hannah, but had finally agreed, on the condition that Hannah was not to be anywhere near the conference room when he did.
Abbey had almost been braver than him in immediately agreeing to share her experiences, but like Danny, she’d asked Jordan not to come to the meeting, finding it easier to talk about it without him there.
As the Guardians arrived in a single group, Danny almost smiled at the thought that they were already bonding as a team.
It was bizarre that you could put half a dozen strangers together, tell them they were a team, and in less than forty-eight hours they were already beginning to act like one.
Of course, that was largely to do with the military background each of them brought with them. And, of course, it helped that rather than being six individuals, they were actually three pairs, meaning that each of them already trusted one of their team-mates implicitly, so it was only a short hop and a step for them to start trusting the rest.
Abbey was the last one into the conference room, and she closed the door quietly behind her. When she’d taken the seat beside him, Danny reached out and gave her hand a gentle squeeze before turning to speak to the men.
“What Abbey and I will tell you today involves our own personal experiences. They’re not anecdotes, and they’re not for discussion outside of this room.” He explained. “They’re experiences which have taken Abbey and I many years to overcome to the degree that we have, and we’ve only been able to do so with the love and support of the Alpha-Stalwart family. Or, maybe I should start calling it the ‘Alpha-Stalwart-Guardians’ family now.”
The six Guardians men gave a faint acknowledgement that they were now part of something bigger. Most of them knew the significance of being an Alpha-Stalwart family member, so what Danny was suggesting was nothing short of a very big ‘welcome to the family’.
“I’ll start this off by telling you how I met Hannah.” Danny picked a spot on the wall above the heads of the men and stared at it. He wasn’t sure he could maintain eye contact with them and still keep his composure.
“Hannah was attending university in London when she was kidnapped. She was twenty-two, long blonde hair, beautiful blue eyes, and a gorgeous smile. She could light up any room she walked into.” Danny had seen the videos of Hannah from before her kidnapping, and from the start of their relationship he’d vowed that he would make her happier than she’d ever been, once he’d helped her get over the trauma of what happened to her. “She was kidnapped by a gang of men I can only describe as sexual deviants. They’d already kidnapped, raped, and murdered five other victims, some of whose bodies were never recovered. We found video evidence of the victims on one of their laptops.”
Danny took a deep breath.
“Because Hannah’s mother already had a connection with Alpha Company, we were asked to get involved in her rescue. Hannah was microchipped, so we should have been able to get an immediate fix on her location, but unfortunately, where she was held initially was below ground, and we couldn’t get a signal.” Danny continued. “When they finally moved her, the tracker started transmitting, and we were able to locate her in a disused and crumbling warehouse. I went in first, and thankfully, the doorway collapsed behind me, so nobody else could follow me in. I found Hannah hanging by her wrists, completely naked, toes barely touching the ground. She’d been beaten to wi
thin an inch of her life and was black and blue, with bruises everywhere, covered in dirt and filth. You’ve all seen the size of my wife… she’s tiny. The beating they’d given her would have put a guy my size on his knees. On top of the beating, she’d been raped repeatedly during the days she’d been missing, most of the time while she was unconscious.”
Danny looked down for a second, pausing to take a few deep breaths. Ten years hadn’t made the memories easier to recall, and the pain still cut him like a knife.
“When I first saw her, I thought she was dead, until she groaned as I tried to cut her down. I wrapped her in my jacket and held her while we waited for the others to dig their way in. I kept telling her she was safe, and that I was there to protect her.” Danny glanced up to see every man in the room watching him intently. “Hannah only opened her eyes once before the paramedics arrived, and when she looked at me, she asked if I was her guardian angel. Ironic, huh?”
“Obviously, Hannah has recovered from what happened to her.” Evan observed quietly, in his lilting Welsh accent. “Have you?”
Danny smiled at the younger man.
“It took a long time, if I’m honest.” He confirmed. “It helped that several of the men were captured and given life sentences, and more so that we managed to kill a few others when they kidnapped Hannah again, after she returned to London the following year. But the thing that has probably helped me get over it more than anything else, is that Hannah has very little memory of what happened. She was devastated to find out that she was deliberately singled out by the men because one of them was her college professor. That hurt her deeply for a long time, because after her rescue, he was someone she’d turned to for support. But beyond that, she has very little recollection of what went on.”
Danny let the men sit in silence for a minute, trying to absorb what he’d told them.
“You’re all likely to see women who may have been beaten, raped, and even tortured.” He pointed out. “You need to be ready for that, before you get on the plane, because you’re all supposed to be heartless bastards, uncaring about the fact that you’re involved in trafficking. You’ll need to be able to display the ultimate poker faces if you’re going to be useful to this operation. If you can’t mask your feelings, you’re not going to be any good to the team, or the women.”
He watched the men nod in understanding, not sure whether or not they really knew what they’d be letting themselves in for.
“Abbey has also been in a similar situation to Hannah.” Danny glanced at Abbey with a reassuring smile. "She’s prepared to tell you something of her story, to help you prepare yourselves for what you’re going to come into contact with.”
He watched Abbey shift in her seat, before taking a deep breath.
“I was returning from a package holiday with friends.” She began. “I was waiting for my ride outside the airport terminal building, chatting casually to some guy I’d met on the plane, and then the next thing I knew, I’d been kidnapped. I woke briefly in the back of a van with a bunch of other women. They kept us drugged for the first week or two, but only while we were in transit, and until they knew nobody was kicking up a fuss trying to find us. They moved us around quite a bit, until eventually we were taken to one of the ‘brothels’ run by the traffickers.”
Abbey paused to take a moment, and Danny could see all the men staring at her, completely caught up in her story.
“There were several of these brothels in London and a few more in other locations, all owned by the same gang. Baron Jackson dealt in women, but he also dealt in weapons and drugs, and his empire was growing by the day.” Abbey continued. “He had private parties where the women would be used by his friends and acquaintances, and basically anyone he wanted to impress. Women were treated like slaves, made to act like animals or furniture at Baron’s parties, raped, beaten, burned with cigarettes, cut with knives… you name it. There was a constant supply of fresh women, so they were a replaceable commodity, of little value.”
“How long were you held?” Hollywood asked quietly.
“In total, I was held captive for three years. After the first few weeks, I was given to Baron’s brother DeAngelo, to do with as he wished. That meant that I lived in DeAngelo’s house, and for most of the time I was off-limits at the parties, unless for some reason I was to be punished for something. I was available to be raped by his second in command, Leroy, but that was just for show when there was a large gathering.” Abbey explained. “Once I was pregnant with Baxter, I started self-harming, cutting myself with a screw I’d found. DeAngelo was horrified by that, and from that point on, they all but left me alone. Once my son Baxter was born, I had to keep him quiet, or I would earn a beating if I let him disturb DeAngelo. This went on, day after day, for almost two years, until DeAngelo was killed in a stupid argument outside the house. While everyone was caught up in the confusion, I managed to get Baxter and we escaped. They came after me and ran my car off the road, but we survived.”
“What about the other women?” Logan asked. “You said you were lucky. What happened to the others?”
“Most of them were held in the brothels, and either kept there to service Baron’s associates, or sold at auctions to rich perverts who liked to keep slaves.” Abbey explained. “Occasionally, one would be returned for not living up to the purchaser’s expectations. They were either put back to work in the brothel, or if they were considered to have shamed Baron, he would have them raped, beaten, or even killed in the middle of the brothel. It made the other women too scared to disobey him. Of course, once I escaped I managed to get in touch with David Roan, and between Alpha Company and the police, they managed to rescue the other women and shut the brothels down. Baron is safely six feet below the ground now, which is most definitely the best place for him.”
Danny looked at the men of the Guardians, and every one of them looked angry and ready to fight someone.
“Ok, so right now, every single one of you has failed the test.” He growled. “If you can’t even listen to Abbey explaining what she went through without getting all enraged, how the hell do you think you’re going to cope with seeing it first-hand?”
The six men sat back a little, obviously trying to calm themselves and relax their muscles to release some of the tension.
“Danny’s absolutely right.” Abbey nodded. “Not only do you have to seem unaffected in front of the other men, you also have to maintain a distance from the women as well. You can’t form any attachments with the kidnapped women, mainly because there’s every chance you could see one of them killed in front of you. You need to remain completely detached if that happens, or you could be the next person to die.”
Danny watched the men hang on Abbey’s every word.
“But also, because in every group of women, there could be one or more who is actually working for the traffickers, or maybe snitching on the other women to earn favours.” Abbey explained. “If they see you getting close to one of the women, they’ll pass that information on for money, and you could both be killed.”
Danny waited for this new reality to settle into the men’s minds. It was a harsh world they were walking into, and it was vital they understood every aspect of their role, from how to act while they were with the traffickers, to how to leave that role behind once they returned to the real world.
“Ok, I think that is just about enough for now.” He stood up. “Talk about what we’ve discussed between yourselves and think about what you’re letting yourselves in for. Reflect on whether you still think you’re up to the task, as it’s by no means an easy job. We’ll reconvene here at ten tomorrow morning for a further discussion.”
Danny escorted Abbey from the room and headed for the kitchen to grab them both a coffee.
“How’re you doing, sweetheart?” He asked, understanding how badly talking about these experiences could drain you.
“I think I’m doing better than they are.” Abbey admitted. “I don’t think they quite realised how bad
it could be.”
“Agreed.” Danny nodded. “Do you think they’re up to the job?”
Abbey shrugged.
“My opinion doesn’t really matter.” She acknowledged. “The important point is whether they think they’re up to the job. And for that to be known, I guess only time will tell.”
Chapter 5 – Hollywood
Hollywood tipped the bottle and chugged down the last few gulps of his beer.
Correction, scratch that. Not beer.
His ‘lager’.
He’d been to the UK a handful of times before, usually in transit, travelling between the US and some godawful posting. On the one occasion he’d been based here for a few months, he’d learned that the beer they served in pubs and bars was nothing like they served back home.
If he wanted a cool refreshing drink, he had to remember to order a bottle or pint of draught lager, and not a beer or ale. In Hollywood’s humble opinion, the only drink that should be served at room temperature was a red wine, and even then, he wasn’t a fan.
Hollywood smiled as he watched his new team-mates drinking and kicking back. Logan and one of the Russian brothers, Kris, had taken over the pool table and were kicking the ass of the locals, thankfully in a very light-hearted way that was winning them friends rather than pissing everyone off.
Even the few women that had approached them under the pretext of looking for a game of pool, had just been looking for a bit of fun. Well, as soon as they realised the guys weren’t interested, anyway.
This was a bit of male-bonding time, and Hollywood had to admit that it had been a fun evening, which was surprising after the seriousness of the meeting today with Danny and Abbey.
Both of them had been through hell in their different ways, and they’d shown remarkable courage in talking about it.
“Penny for them?” Evan leaned over. “You’re sitting there looking like you’re contemplating and shit. What gives?”