by Brian N. Cox
“Was that his only business?”
“Yes, of course. That kept him very busy.”
“Is he still operating his restaurants now?
“No, unfortunately, he passed away. He was struggling with cancer and finally he gave up the will to live,” said Li Mei with a tear in her eye looking very distraught.
“I checked you out with contacts in Chongqing,” said Wei Jun. “Apparently Tan Xiaotian died in a car accident in the mountains.”
“My car went over a cliff, but the body they found, burned beyond recognition, was my cousin. It seems your contacts have access to much private information,” said Li Mei.
“Your father owned two restaurants but that was just a cover for his real business,” said Wei Jun. “Your father headed the Hui Shan Triad.”
“No, no, you are mistaken. He was an honest and gentle man.”
“You yourself are Triad,” said Fong. “Am I correct? You ran gambling shops and brothels and were known to be as violent as your father.”
“I see where this is going,” said Li Mei displaying some irritation. “You didn’t have to call me down here to tell me I didn’t get the job. You could have just phoned me.” At this point, she glared at both men and got up to leave.
“Sit down, Xiaotian,” said Fong. “I think we have a place for you in our business.”
Upon hearing this, Li Mei knew she had succeeded to get inside the Red Dragon’s business, but her face just showed curiosity.
“You know my past and you are still hiring me?” said Li Mei acting mildly surprised.
“None of us is perfect. We all have parts of our past we like to keep hidden,” said Fong Lei. “I think you have the skills we need here. We’d like to start you off as a hostess. There will be men coming in saying they heard we make the best “Tropic Surprises with Burmese Vodka”. When you hear that, you will take the men to a certain room which I will show you. Can you start tonight at six pm?”
“Yes, I’ll be here at six,” replied Li Mei.
“Good,” said Wei Jun. “Wear a mini-skirt and look sexy.”
“That’s the only way I know how to look,” said Li Mei with a coy smile. “Before I go, let’s talk about my duties and the money.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Li Mei had negotiated a very good deal for herself, to her surprise, but then again she was going to be a part-time accountant as well as a hostess.
She came to work at six pm as required and wore a form fitting white top with a revealing neckline and a black pleated mini-skirt. The other two hostesses, Irene and Stacey, both Caucasians, wore tight black mini-skirts, but Li Mei had a switchblade and case strapped to her left thigh and a small undercover gun, a SIG P238, strapped to the other thigh. Obviously a tight skirt would not accommodate this arsenal. She did not care if her employers knew she was armed because she was posing as someone who probably would be armed…a Triad from Chongqing. She was wearing black high-heeled shoes to compliment her attire, although under normal circumstances, she avoided impractical footwear bearing in mind the nature of her job.
Shortly after seven pm, Special Agents Gary Webster and Diane Swanson arrived and stayed for most of the evening. They looked like they belonged together, both being extremely attractive, and didn’t appear to be interested in anything or anybody but each other except for occasionally watching music videos on the big screen TV behind the bar.
Wei Jun, and his assistant manager, his brother Wei Shan, circulated amongst the patrons welcoming them and trading jokes. Both the Wei brothers had attended university in Oregon and spoke English fluently. They also displayed excellent social skills and were ideally suited for running a business of this type.
Several men arrived throughout the evening, met by the Caucasian waitresses, and were taken to a room labelled “Private” near the back of the lounge.
Five other men arrived individually using the code, “Tropical Surprise with Burmese Vodka” that evening, and were met by Li Mei who also took them to the private room as she had been instructed.
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On the second evening, Li Mei greeted fourteen men who gave her the code and she took them to the private room off the main lounge. Surprisingly, they never emerged from the room for the rest of the night, not even at closing time. Knowing the layout of the building, fourteen men would not fit into that room and realistically, couldn’t have stayed there all that time. The other two hostesses took as many men to the room also. Of course Li Mei, Gary and Diane Swanson never made contact with each other, but they were all wondering what happened to these men. It was obvious that there was another exit from that room, possibly into the adjacent office building.
After leaving at closing time, Gary and Diane, met with the surveillance team and asked if they had seen any of the men, whose general descriptions Gary provided, leave the lounge but they had not. A surveillance observation post had been set up in a rented room across the street from the Lounge but they had seen nothing, although there was nothing particularly noteworthy about any of the descriptions of the men who had provided the code and been taken to the private room. A CCTV camera had been set up aimed at the back door of the lounge, but it had never been opened throughout the evening.
Gary began to wonder if the brothel was right next door in the office building and a door had been constructed between the two premises. That didn’t appear to be the answer because although a few people, men and women, had left the front door of the office building during the evening, the total number of men was only eight. If they had been amongst the pedophiles using the code, what happened to the other men? Were they still in the building? Do they go back to the lounge after the midnight closing time and leave then? This couldn’t be the answer as surveillance was maintained on the lounge throughout the night, in fact for twenty-four hours each day.
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The next day, Gary met with Sean and explained the disappearance of the coded pedophiles. The FBI had not approached the construction company that had done the renovations to the lounge as it was owned by Chinese, and they couldn’t take the chance on them being connected to the Red Dragons. Had they built a tunnel from the lounge or a door between the lounge and the adjacent office building through the common wall? FBI agents had been in the office building several times and there could be no way the brothel was there. Under various pretences, they had entered almost all the offices and found legitimate businesses were in operation. A few of the offices had been closed or unoccupied for some reason, but none were large enough to house a brothel with more than three or four girls.
“Gary, replace the CCTV camera directed at the back door of the lounge with a live surveillance team. I can only assume some of them are leaving from the back or side door of the office building.”
“We will have to use a surveillance van in the next block,” said Gary. “We won’t be able to tell exactly where people are emerging into the lane, but we’ll know they either came out of the lounge or the office building. We may be able to see the side door of the office building also. If anyone comes out into the lane, it will probably be from the office building as the back door of the lounge has never been opened.”
“Have the mobile surveillance team in the area, because if they are coming out both the front, side and back of the office building, we will have to follow them to see where they go,” said Sean. “Presumably, they will be going to the brothel, but I suspect it will be a little more complicated than that.”
“Of the males who came out of the front of the office building, there was never more than two together, therefore, I assume they are coming out individually or in no more than pairs,” said Gary. “Therefore, the surveillance guys will have to choose men we definitely know entered the lounge but came out of the office building. They probably will only be able to follow one or two.”
“That’s OK, as
long as the person or persons they follow lead them to the brothel,” said Sean.
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“Sean, can you come down to the Tech office?” said Gary on the phone.
“See you there in ten minutes,” replied Sean.
Twelve minutes later, Sean entered the Technical support unit’s office and was directed to Gary in a large office at the end of the hall.
“Ed Maynard routinely surfs the net for pedophile sites, and he may have come up with something,” said Gary.
“Sir, there are a few sites that might be relevant but one in particular stands out,” said Maynard. “It costs ten-thousand to join, which eliminates the people who can’t pay the big bucks,” said Special Agent Maynard. “The site is called “Love Little People” or “LLP” and an applicant needs three sponsors. Each member has a code and when an applicant has three sponsors and has used their codes, the site manager checks individually with each sponsor to confirm he actually is a sponsor. The site is very secure so I can’t determine what happens once you become a member but they assure members will have an adventure worth much more than any money they pay out.”
“Any chance of ascertaining who owns the site?” asked Sean.
“No Sir, but generally these sites enter into joint ventures rather than run operations themselves. I’ve been read into the Red Dragons investigation and I don’t believe the Red Dragons own this site, but rather may have entered into a business arrangement with them. The reason I say this is that this site has been around for over ten years, possibly fifteen. Unconfirmed information has been received that some very wealthy and powerful people are members of this site but it is too secure to identify any members.”
“So they get the code phrase and the address of the Lounge from the site, go there, and the Red Dragons take it from there paying a fee to the website?” suggested Gary.
“Well that would be my guess,” said Maynard, “but they probably have an appointment system set up on the site as it wouldn’t be convenient to having two-hundred pedophiles showing up at the Lounge on the same night.”
“Thanks, Maynard,” said Sean. “We’ll work on getting the brothel shut down as our first priority and put our attention to that website later.”
“If I come up with anything else, Sir, I will call Gary.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Jeff Farrier carefully watched the Lounge from his O.P. diagonally across the street in a second floor room the FBI had rented as an office for a front company.
“O.P. from seven-five,” came over the radio and Jeff answered immediately.
“Go ahead seven-five.”
“There have been seven men sporadically leave the back door of the office building. They were either alone or in pairs but they all walked west, some in the alley and a few crossed the parking lot to the street. Eight-two and eight-three followed them. They’re out of our sight now.
“Ten-four, seven-five. Have them call me at the O.P. when they have something to report,” replied Jeff.
“Ten-four.”
Thirty-seven minutes later, Emily Harrison, surveillance number eight-two, called Farrier on the secure phone.
“Those guys all walked a block and a half to the bus stop, got on the bus, and got off about twenty minutes later when the bus stopped in front of the big Wal-Mart. They kept to themselves so there was no grouping, other than four of them were in pairs. They individually walked around the back of the Wal-Mart and then to the back of the parking lot where the lights were out, and got into a two dark blue vans. They looked like eight passenger vans but the windows were either blacked out or had a dark tint. We couldn’t follow them beyond that but we got the license plates.
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“We’ve got a four-car surveillance team near the Wal-Mart Sean,” said Gary Webster. “The plates are registered to a business called “Happy Holidays Pacific” which is owned by a numbered company. We’ll track it down but I’m sure it will lead into limbo.”
“That’s great, Gary,” said Sean. “I presume those vans will be going to the brothel. I know the surveillance teams know not to get burned, but give them an extra briefing on that. We can’t risk spooking these people. They’d kill those children if it would help them escape justice. Once the brothel location is identified, lay off the place. We can get the plans from state land titles and get a plane up there for aerial photos of the landscape or maybe use satellite.”
“I already briefed them on that, and I’ll have a plane standing by with a long-distance lens. I hope Li Mei can get inside because we’ve got twenty children in there and don’t want bullets flying around,” said Gary.
“First things first. Let’s locate the place, get the layout and then we can create a plan of action. I agree this is going to be a lot dicier than any other raids we’ve conducted in my memory.”
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“We need you to do something else for us, Xiaotian. We have a group of young women who need some instruction in make-up and hairstyling,” said Fong Lei more in the form of demand than a request.
Li Mei immediately realized this was her chance to not only locate the brothel, but get inside. This would provide invaluable intelligence prior to a raid by the FBI. She was determined to avoid a shoot-out during the raid as it would be likely some of the children wouldn’t survive with bullets flying around and going through walls as if they were tissue paper. She knew also, that she should not appear too eager.
“You should probably get someone else to do that, Fong Lei,” said Li Mei. “I was in that business and got out of it because I didn’t like it. I’m quite happy to be a hostess and accountant, at least for now.”
“You are a very beautiful woman. If you can make these girls look half as good as you, I will be happy,” said Fong.
“I don’t think so; you should get someone else,” said Li Mei. She knew she was pushing the envelope a bit, but she didn’t want to look anxious to visit the brothel.
Suddenly Fong Lei grabbed her by the throat with both hands and pushed her forcefully against the nearest wall. “One thing you had better learn when you work for me is that you do exactly what you are told or their will be consequences.”
“Let go of my throat Fong Lei,” gasped Li Mei, “or this knife pressed against your groin will not remain so passive.”
As Fong felt the point of the knife against his right testicle, he immediately let go and jumped back.
“I will do as you ask, Fong Lei, for one thousand dollars for each visit,” said Li Mei.
Fong Lei looked furious, but he nodded in agreement. Both he and Li Mei knew he could not hire someone to visit an obvious brothel and interact with the young girls, especially when the girls were obviously children.
“These girls are probably a bit younger than you would expect,” said Fong Lei, awaiting to see how Li Mei would react.
“I don’t care if they are six years old,” said Li Mei, “as long as the money is right. In fact, you had better bump my fee up to two-thousand a visit.”
“Done,” said Fong, looking anything but happy. He was used to being the dominant person in every transaction and confrontation. This woman from Chongqing was not easy to handle. On the other hand, she was bright, competent and completely ruthless. Exactly the type of person they needed in the business….at least until such times as she had outlived her usefulness.
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The next morning, Fong met Li Mei at the Marriott Hotel where they had breakfast together. Fong tried to question her about her activities in Chongqing, but Li Mei was appropriately vague as a Triad would be. She, in turn, tried to probe Fong for information on his background in Beijing, but he also was short on information.
At eight-thirty, Wang Xicheng, arrived and joined
them for coffee, at which time Li Mei asked for, and received, an envelope with two-thousand dollars cash. Wang Xicheng, was even bigger and more muscular than Fong Lei, although obviously overweight, also with a shaven head. Detective Chen of the Beijing Police had told her about Wang, formerly a Red Dragon enforcer, but elevated in the hierarchy because he was also very bright with a good business mind. He was introduced to Li Mei as a “property manager”.
“I think I will actually enjoy doing business with you gentlemen,” she said, tucking the envelope into her handbag.
When they had finished their coffee, they got into Wang Xicheng’s black Ford SUV with dark tinted windows and Li Mei was directed sit in the back seat, with Fong beside her.