by Brian N. Cox
“You will have to wear this blindfold on this trip, Xiaotian,” said Fong, “at least until we know you a little better. Also, give me your cellphone; I’ll give it back to you when we return.”
“No problem,” replied Li Mei, as Fong tied the blindfold around her head. “I am armed and I won’t give up my gun. If I am entering a den of thieves, I am not going unarmed.”
There was no reply from Fong or Wang Xicheng, so that didn’t appear to be a problem.
It took about forty-five minutes to drive from the Marriot to their destination. Li Mei could sense they had left the city after about thirty minutes and the last five minutes had been on a gravel road. When the SUV stopped, she heard a feint voice over an intercom, then the creaking of an iron gate, and the SUV proceed up a paved lane that seemed to go in a semi-circle.
When she got out of the vehicle, Fong removed her blindfold, and it took Li Mei about ten seconds to adjust her eyes to the light. The exterior, of what she assumed was the brothel, was a beautiful two-story mansion, plenty large enough, she supposed, to house thirty or forty girls depending upon the interior design.
Fong, Wang and Li Mei entered the front door which was opened by a sinister looking Triad who was holding an AK47 automatic rifle. She heard the sound of a large sliding deadbolt before the door opened. The man at the door had the same unpleasant and suspicious looking face as Fong and stared at Li Mei with both lust and distain.
The interior of the brothel was luxurious; sophisticated, not tacky. The walls were a rich maroon colour with white trim and crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. After leaving the large entrance room, they entered a wide hallway, equally exquisite, with doors on either side, each with a stylized number on the door. Li Mei assumed each girl was assigned her own individual room.
They proceeded to the back of the building where Li Mei was shown a large tastefully decorated room with several long tables, each with four chairs on one side.
“This is where you will conduct your classes with the girls. There are nineteen girls and they will come out in two groups. There will be ten in the first group, and when you are finished with them, the remaining nine will come out. How long will this take you? The clients come here starting at six, it’s ten-thirty now so you have most of the day.”
“I am hoping to finish in two days but more probably three. Ideally, one day for make-up and grooming and another day for hair,” said Li Mei. The investigating officers in Beijing had always assumed they were looking for twenty girls, but Fong Lei said there were nineteen. Was one of the missing girls abducted by a lone pedophile or had some happened to one of the girls taken by the Red Dragsons?
“No problem,” said Fong Lei. “Just a few rules; we do not allow the girls to talk to each other…ever. They are watched when they eat. Otherwise, they are confined to their rooms, each of which has a bathroom, sink, toilet and shower adjoining the bedroom. Twice weekly they are brought to this big room to exercise under staff supervision. We want them to remain healthy.”
“That is fine,” said Li Mei. “They will learn faster if they listen and don’t talk. Before we call the first group out, let’s go to your office for a brief talk.”
Fong and Wang looked at each other with curiosity and then Fong nodded. “Follow me. Our office is the first door on the right.”
Li Mei and the two Red Dragons entered the office, closed the door and each sat in a chair around a coffee table.
“If I am going to work here, I want to know your escape route,” said Li Mei.
“We don’t have one,” said Fong, “other than the back door. The police will never locate these premises, we have taken adequate precautions.”
“Do you think I am a fool or a naïve school girl?” said Li Mei. “I ran three brothels and a casino in Chongqing and was never arrested on the premises, and never convicted of anything. You aren’t idiots; where is your escape route?”
“OK. OK,” said Fong somewhat reluctantly. “Through that closet door, there is a false door behind the clothes rack. It leads down to what formally was a wine cellar. We had that extended with a tunnel that comes out in the forest behind the building.”
“Good. Show me.”
Fong open the closet door and showed Li Mei the false door and the steps leading down to the wine cellar.
“One other thing,” said Li Mei. “Although I am sure you are charging big bucks for these pedophiles to spend time with the girls, I can see the really big money is in blackmailing these lechers for the rest of their lives. Therefore, I am assuming you have hidden closed circuit TVs in this place. I don’t want myself on camera.”
“You are a very bright young woman,” said Fong. “Don’t worry. The cameras are confined to the girls’ rooms plus aimed at the chairs in the front waiting room. We don’t want ourselves on camera either.”
“On the unlikely event that the police raid us,” continued Fong Lei, “there is almost no chance of being convicted of anything, and I will tell you why. Firstly, we have registered an organization called “Child Care for Lost and Abandoned Children”. We are a group of caring adults looking after children that no one else wants. Secondly, we can afford the best lawyers on the West Coast. With top lawyers, there is very little risk of being convicted in America. Last, but not least, none of these girls will testify against us….not a chance.”
“These girls all have Stockholm Syndrome, I assume,” said Li Mei.
“Stockholm Syndrome magnified by ten,” said Wang. “Even if they saw us all dead, they would not talk, as they know there are many more Black Society members.”
“What if the police raid when the pedophiles are here?” asked Li Mei.
“I am never here when the customers are here,” replied Fong. “Wang can easily escape and the other staff members will claim to be customers. Not only customers, but irate customers complaining that they wanted to go to an adult brothel and this place is full of kids.”
“It sounds like you have a good plan, gentlemen,” said Li Mei. “I will be one of the staff members here to care for the children,” she added with a laugh.
Li Mei realized that what Fong told her made perfect sense. It was unlikely that he couldn’t beat the American criminal justice system. This should be a concern to the FBI but it was not a concern for her. She had a plan that she had not shared with Sean.
“OK,” said Li Mei. “Let’s get the first group out into the room. I have my bag of beauty products.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Li Mei stood at the front of the room, as a staff member acting as a security guard who had only been introduced as “Li”, brought the girls out and directed them to sit at the tables, while he remained at the edge of the room glaring menacingly at the girls. Li looked to be about thirty-five years of age, had a thick neck and muscular body although with a large pot belly, and his head was shaved, which seemed to be a custom with many of the Red Dragons.
The girls looked at Li Mei and looked both curious and terrified. Whenever she looked at any particular girl, the girl averted her eyes and looked down. She recognized most of them by the police photos that had been assembled and each girl had a number pinned to her shirt. They looked so young and frightened. They ranged in age from eleven to thirteen but the terrified look on their face made them look much younger.
Li Mei recognized State Security Director Duan’s granddaughter, Xiaowei, who wore number seven. Li Mei could see that the Red Dragons had overlooked the personal grooming factor with these children. The women in their adult brothels in America would know how to apply makeup and fix their hair, but the children did not.
Li Mei knew her role here, posing as a Red Dragon, so she started off by saying, “You do not have to know my name. Just raise your hand if you have a question. Do not talk to me or to each other without permission. Today, I am going to teach you personal grooming techniques and the application of makeup. You won’t be using much makeup so it will be easy to learn. If we complete the lessons today, we will teach you
how to make your hair attractive tomorrow.”
The girls listened intently and learned fast. Not one of them raised her hand to ask a question. The frightened look on their faces never left during the entire session.
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That evening, after working a few hours at the Lounge, Li Mei met with Sean and Gary at a FBI safe house, and Li Mei told them of her experience at the brothel including the layout. She did not tell them of the escape route however.
“It is going to take some time to locate the brothel,” said Gary. “The vans with the clients split up and they each go to an underground garage where the vans are left and they emerge in several cars. A plane and satellite will have great difficulty as will ground surveillance teams. We were able to stay with one of the cars that emerged with a three clients in it, but lost it again when the car was driven into another underground garage. We didn’t see another car emerge with them in it, so we can only speculate what happened. The garage didn’t lead to any building that could be used as a brothel. They have obviously devised an elaborate scheme to get the clients to the brothel undetected.”
“I understand the problem, but we have to locate the brothel fast. You can’t believe the agony those children are being put through. I have an idea,” said Li Mei.
“We’re always open to ideas,” said Sean.
“Sew a miniaturized GPS tracker into my jacket or pants. They took my phone and presumably removed the batteries, but they didn’t seem to scan me for devices. I think because I was so reluctant to go to the brothel that they trust me more than they should.”
“That will do the trick, Li Mei. What are you going to wear tomorrow?” said Sean.
“I foresaw that you would accept this idea so I brought the jacket and pants in this bag,” she said handing it to Gary.
“I know you would like to arrest some big name pedophiles on this raid, but I think it is more important to rescue the girls as soon as possible,” Li Mei continued. “If you raid the place at night when the clients are there, there could be shooting and some of the children could die. They only have one security person during the day, but I imagine they will have several more when the customers are there.”
“I concur,” said Sean as Gary nodded his head. “Once we’ve located the place, we will need one day to plan the raid. We have to get overwhelming force in place in broad daylight without being seen. Also, we can’t set up too early in case someone arriving at the brothel spots us. What problems are we going to run into to gain entrance without blowing the door and starting a shooting war?”
“I will take care of the psycho at the front door with the AK47, or at least I will do my best. If I can take him out, I will release the big dead bolt on the front door. I am going to shoot the doorman so when you hear a shot, come in immediately.”
“OK. We hear a shot or shots and we’ll be through that door in no time flat. It will take more than a few seconds to get to the door because we have to remain out of sight of the front door and beyond the gate. The door guy will be watching a CCTV for sure,” said Gary.
“You will have to blow the front gate also,” said Li Mei. “I think it has an electronic switch to open it.”
“Right; that is another problem,” said Sean.
“If you hear one or two single shots, that means I shot the doorman. If you hear automatic gunfire, that probably means he got me. It doesn’t matter; just get through the door as fast as you can and be careful.”
“Geez. Don’t say that Li Mei. I’m going on this raid myself and I intend to be first through the door,” said Sean. “I’ll even beat the SWAT guys.”
“I’ll be careful but we must be realistic. The Red Dragons are pros and things could go wrong.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The next day, Li Mei instructed the girls on how to care for their hair, suggesting long straight hair as it was the easiest to maintain and arguably the most attractive hair style for them. The girls were very attentive, undoubtedly through fear, but Li Mei knew they must wait for tomorrow to try and free the girls. Since she was not scanned for the GPS sewn into her clothes, the FBI now knew the location of the brothel and were undoubtedly formulating a plan to raid the establishment with minimum risk of injury to the girls and probably, she thought, maximum risk of injury to the Red Dragons on staff.
One thing that pleased Li Mei was that Fong Lei stayed at the brothel all day while she was there, driving her there in the morning, still with a blindfold and relieved of her cell phone, and driving her back to the hotel were they had dinner at 5pm. For most of the time, he was in Wang’s office with the door closed. She was never on the premises when the pedophiles arrived to abuse and rape the children.
She did learn, however, during discussions with Fong and Wang Xicheng that their pedophile clientele included wealthy businessmen, high-level federal and state politicians, important government bureaucrats, as well as a few judges. The Red Dragons bosses were literally rubbing their hands together thinking of the riches that would be gained from blackmailing these perverts.
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Late that evening, Sean, Gary and Li Mei met at the safe house to plan and prepare for the raid the next day. Closed circuit TV cameras covered the entire exterior of the brothel and the front gate was locked electronically. They had three choices to break through the gate….one was to blow it open with an explosive charge; the second was to use a man-portable anti-tank gun, and third was to ram the gate with a vehicle. The last option was dismissed as according to aerial photos, a vehicle couldn’t get a run at the gate to ensure the required direction of force as a sharp turn would be required to hit the gate. If an agent planted a charge at the base of the gate, he would be seen by the door security man in the brothel. The anti-tank gun was the best option and they would contact the SWAT Commander for his advice. Neither Sean nor Gary knew enough about this type of weapon, although the Delta commandos had used one in New York when they raided the terrorist headquarters.
“We can’t be seen in the area of the brothel for even a few minutes before we enter. If any Red Dragon drives up and sees us, a quick call on his cellphone destroys our plan,” said Gary.
“We’ll use an older model large truck with an appropriate sign on the side to house the raiding party,” said Sean. “We can get fairly close to the gate. Then, when we hear the gunshot, a SWAT agent will get out on the opposite side of the truck and take out the gate with an anti-tank gun. Then we’ll rush the front door.”
“Good! My gun shot can be the signal,” said Li Mei. “Also, better be prepared to blow the front door in case I have been unsuccessful in neutralizing the doorman and unbolting the door.”
“I hate to hear you say that, Li Mei….but you are right,” said Sean.
“Let’s set it up for eleven fifteen am. I should be conducting my class at that time and be free to run to the front door,” she added.
“There are a few houses on the opposite side of the street, spaced far apart. In that area, I assume they will all use septic tanks, so a septic tank service sign on the truck shouldn’t raise suspicion,” said Gary.
“I agree. Then it’s all set,” said Sean. “I’ll meet with the SWAT Commander right now and also arrange for a truck. There will be you, me, and ten SWAT agents. That’s twelve. Gary, pick two female agents to accompany us on the raid. The children may feel less frightened with females present.”
“Let’s make it four females on the raiding party,” said Gary. “Lisa Zhang speaks Mandarin fluently and June Wong’s Mandarin is passable, so I will include them.
“Agreed. Those two are excellent choices. Let’s have everyone meet at the Field Office at seven am for a briefing and we’ll get the truck in place just before eleven. The driver will be in coveralls with a clipboard and he can walk up to one of the houses with some cover story. Li Mei will make her move at eleven fifteen
.”
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The next morning, after meeting Fong Lei and Wang for breakfast, they drove to the brothel. This time, they didn’t take Li Mei’s cellphone nor did they blindfold her. She seemed to have gained their trust.
When they approached the front gate, they saw a large white truck parked about thirty yards from the gate on the opposite side of the street in front of a house set well back from the roadway.
“I haven’t seen that truck before,” said Fong. “Drive by it and let’s have a look.”
Wang drove slowly down the street as both men drew their guns from their holsters.
“It’s a septic tank service,” said Wang. “We’ll have to have that service ourselves some day in this area.”
“Yes,” replied Fong. “There wouldn’t be any sewer services around here.”