Allure (Mercenaries Book 1)

by Tony Lavely

  The next three rooms went as well, and as Dan had found yet another elevator, the four sleeping girls were laid out in the copter; with Jamse, the broken ankle girl and the three ambulatory girls, Jean-Luc had a full load; he departed with the warning that the second chopper would arrive in about ten minutes. Since crying hadn’t worked, Erin solved the problem of being sent away without her sister by stepping out of the copter as Jean-Luc lifted off; she tumbled after losing her balance, but aside from scrapes, she came to no harm. Under everyone’s eye, Beckie made sure she was okay, waved Jean-Luc to leave, then grabbed Erin by the shoulder and shook her, hard.

  “That was about as stupid a thing to do as… as me— You can’t think we’d leave her here! Well, you’re here, damn it, and I’m not gonna saddle any of my people who know what they’re doin’ with you. You will stay on my ass! Always, ‘less I tell you different! Understand?”

  Erin was sitting on the rocks near the hatch, looking around at the men and women staring at her. She looked down at her hands, started to pick some of the sand out of the palms. “I’m sorry, miss, I jus’… I can’t leave her here…” Cuts forgotten, face in her hands, she continued, “She’s my little sister, I’m s’posed to take care of her, yes?” Beckie dropped to her knee, Erin looked into her eyes. “I screwed up when we got taken; I won’t… I won’t leave her now!”

  Many in attendance had heard both Beckie’s brother and Wendy voice a similar position; Beckie herself had taken it. She picked Erin up, surprised at how little the girl weighed. “I know, Erin,” she agreed softly. “I know. Maybe I shouldn’t have hollered on you so much. But even if I don’t believe it for myself, you shoulda stayed on the copter.” Beckie pushed her cheek against Erin’s lips, quieting her protest. “But I sent Jean-Luc off, and you’re here. I was serious: you will stay with me; do what I say. Stick your hands and knees out so Sue can look at them before we get back to work. Sue, don’t take more than a minute. If you can’t fix it, we’ll tie her to the body with the photo guy till we get back.”

  Sue had her swabbed and ready to be attached to Beckie in record time. Erin stole a glance toward the body next to them and breathed a sigh of relief as she stood to follow.

  Beckie and her attachment, along with Derek, Dan and Freddie, plundered the other two floors—eighteen rooms—in similar fashion. Five of these were unoccupied, another six were at loose ends, so seven of the girls had clients.

  None of the ‘green’ girls had any hesitation about leaving, nor was any of them Erin’s sister. One of the clients on the second floor might have been breathing through his pillow or something to cut down the amount of gas he received; he began to come around as Dan fitted the ties to his wrists. Erin was near tears as she shook her head ‘no’ on looking at the penultimate girl, soundly asleep on the floor.

  Thus, it was either door 3/8, or she was somewhere else in the complex, or not. They had run out of information; if she wasn’t there, Beckie knew she’d brace the Boss, still lying outside at the foot of the hill. She hoped not to have to do that.

  Derek had run through his supply of the magic sleepy cylinders; Dan and Freddy had provided refills. Derek had the last one in hand as he opened the door. He disappeared, within a second Willie called “Moving in the room! Must have heard something! Coming to see… Lights! Get out!” But Derek wasn’t ready to fold his tent just yet. Giving up on the gas, he ran into the unit’s hallway, colliding with the man in the doorway to the bedroom. The impact threw Derek against the doorframe, costing him momentum, replacing it with a sharp pain in the shoulder. The man stumbled, unsettled by Derek’s boot on his bare foot as they collided. He traveled a yard before landing heavily on the floor, head against the foot of the bed.

  Derek had barely a glimpse of the girl on the bed; his reaction was ‘What’s Erin doing here?’ A question quickly ignored: as he spun off the door frame, the man began small motions preparatory to an attempt to rise; Derek willed his body to change direction to meet the threat. Twisting, another glimpse of the new Erin; standing nude on the bed, legs spread for stability, arms above her head. With a flash of avenging redemption, her hands shot down in front of her body, propelling a stone lamp at the top of the man’s head.

  Derek managed to avoid the resultant disaster, rising, he took neo-Erin by the waist and lifted her off the bed into his embrace. He started to the door as he hollered “Erin?! Got something ‘ere for you!”

  The sisters, now understood to be twins—“thought you said younger sister” Beckie recriminated later; “she is” was the rejoinder, “by ‘most a half-hour!”—named Erin and Erica, met in a noisy, splendiferous if tender greeting. Derek sent Beckie back to check the man. Freddy tagged along and was a bit put off by Derek’s action.

  “Let’s talk about it later,” Derek said, with a nod toward Beckie.

  Wonder what that’s about? Beckie thought. How bad that guy looked? Or me? Oh well, let’s get on with it.

  The expanded group, including the freed girls and augmented by Elena and Karen, made their way back up to the bluff. There were two helicopters waiting: Jean-Luc’s near the entrance; a larger machine with lights on down by the stream.

  Jean-Luc pulled Beckie, Derek and Elena aside. “Mr. Jamse would like a word.” He grinned. “He’s below somewhere…” He gestured at the hatch. “… inside.”

  He turned to address the girls, “Ladies, if you can walk easily, please follow M. Dan here to the helicopter below, so we may take you out of here. If you believe it too far to walk, I will assist you boarding here.” Dan led all but one of the girls down the hill; Jean-Luc lifted the last one into his machine.

  Beckie felt considerable trepidation as she led the way through the hatch down into the cavern.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The Boss and Money

  BECKIE FOUND JAMSE AND SUE in the semi-circular room where Derek had pushed the cabinet over on the girl. Beckie recognized the woman, the Boss, sitting cross-legged on the floor with one of Karen’s magic cylinders between her legs. The ties keeping her from moving were obvious.

  “Welcome, and thank you for prosecuting this action so successfully in my absence.” He took Beckie’s arm for an instant. “Rebecca, you and I will have a long talk with your parents on our arrival at the Nest.” They could hear the larger helicopter lift off and depart. Beckie could likewise hear her heart beat, this time in triumph rather than fear. With some acceptable trepidation. He nodded toward the sound. “Once they arrive at the motel, they, the hospital and the others will retire to the air strip where their aircraft is waiting; they will be airborne without delay.

  “Our discussions with this… woman have been somewhat fruitful. How many girls have we removed, not including you or Melissa?”

  “We got nine on the first load,” Sue replied.

  Elena and Beckie tallied the others together. “One more, plus two, plus six… no five, so eight in the second load. And then, fourteen more this load including a couple of boys. One of those is in Jean-Luc’s copter.”

  “That’s a total of thirty-one. Did we miss any?”

  “Apparently not; that is the number which she…” He nodded toward the woman. “volunteered.”

  Derek reached down to pick up the cylinder; they all saw the woman flinch as he moved it. Beckie finally saw that she was tied, not only up, but also to a railing attached to the floor, preventing more than token movement. “Ah, yes. That one. Good choice, Ian,” Derek said with a warm smile. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one go off at that range.” He replaced it.

  “With her continued assistance, that record will remain unblemished.

  “We have successfully retrieved all the girls for whom we originally came, in addition to rescuing you and Melissa, along with another two dozen children trapped, enslaved here as playthings.

  “Our next agenda item, which Susan is completing, is the use of this computing facility…” Sue had been working all along at a built-in keyboard. “to appropriate some of the
funds this operation has generated, thus damaging Werner’s asset base and cash flow position.”

  He turned back to the woman. “I am sure you have a local cache of liquid assets. Direct us to it.”

  It took but moments for her to communicate that the safe was at hand, but needed her handprint and retinal scan in addition to the wireless chip access.

  “Well, let’s go get it,” Beckie said. Looking to Jamse, ‘If you don’t mind, sir?” He gave her a large smile and a go-to-it wave. She turned back, caressing the butt of the pistol she still carried.

  She spat the woman’s earlier words back at her: “I trust you won’t mind.” She drew Elena’s knife, knelt in front of the woman, surprised and pleased to read fear in her eyes. “Please stand off with the control, sir.” The knife did a superb job of cutting through the fabric of the woman’s shirt, exposing her fancy, well fitted bra. Beckie pinned the knife to one cup. A drop of blood seeped out. It’ll heal faster than the girls will. She pulled the center clasp away from the woman’s chest. Picking up the stainless steel cylinder, she forced it under the bra.

  “Do you think that’ll be too close, Derek?” she asked innocently.

  “I believe it’ll ‘ave the desired effect, Beckie. Well done.”

  The knife back in her hand, Beckie cut through the bindings to the floor, allowing the woman to stand.

  “Not gonna let her walk, I don’t think. Can you two pick her up by the arms, keeping back some, in case it goes Boom! you know.” She found herself again gratified at the woman’s shudder. Beckie gave a nasty little chuckle. “Carry her where she says to go—till Mr. Jamse gets tired of bein’ led in circles.” They approached carefully. “No need to have her enjoy the ride; I think Mr. Jamse and all of us would like to get done quickly.”

  “Got it!” Sue exclaimed with pleasure. “First transfer is done. It’s halfway there.” She tapped keys. “I’ll need another three minutes or so, you guys.”

  “Excellent, Susan,” Jamse said as he moved to keep distance between the woman and himself while maintaining a clear view. His hands were never both visible at the same time. Hmm. I wonder if he’s actually got a controller. I guess we’d all be in trouble if it goes off. Well, only matters if she thinks he does. She put the thought out of mind as the woman said “Down. Here.” She was in front of the lovely Louis XV breakfront.

  “Don’t let her go. I’ll get it—”

  Elena grabbed Beckie back almost brutally. “No, you don’t! She opens it, in case it’s booby-trapped.”

  Beckie stuffed her heart back down her throat where it belonged and nodded. The woman was apparently afraid of either the cylinder against her chest or the several weapons directed at her; she went through a simple but not obvious sequence to expose the two readers. She rested her hand against the shelf and leaned forward to address the retinal reader with her eye.

  Yet again, the sound of small, happy motors issued from the furniture. After they had gathered themselves sufficiently, the pitch changed and the breakfront rose… because the floor beneath it pushed up. The motors and motion both stopped with the breakfront standing above all of their heads, having risen more than six feet.

  The section of floor appeared to be a block of stone, except that a pair of shelves had been hewn into it. The woman reached inside; waved her hand around. “No traps,” she said. Dan and Freddie carried her back and fastened her to the railing, again securing her hands.

  With the woman safely immobile, Dan was self-appointed to watch her while Jamse checked the two shelves, retrieving cash along with paperwork, and a pair of removable hard drives. These he flipped to Sue, then inquired of the woman.

  “Client list,” she responded. “If I give you the passphrase, will you remove this?” looking down toward the cylinder.

  “If you continue to answer our questions completely, I will make sure it is safely removed before we depart.”

  She nodded and recited a string of nonsense characters which Sue entered. A quick nod and she looked for the printer, making paper spewing sounds.

  “That’s it,” she said. “I’m ready.” She shut everything down, then grabbed the paper.

  “One last question: what are Werner’s plans for the near term?”

  The woman’s face flashed with a shrewd look, but only briefly as Jamse made a motion with his hidden hand. “He told me he was to remain in Phuket for another week, then come here on his way home, to Germany.”

  “In Phuket, on the island, or simply near there?” Jamse asked. Beckie reflected that he knew about it—more than she, who didn’t even know what it was.

  “Near there. It’s convenient; all the tourist traffic, especially with the work done since the tsunami. But he’s about forty-five or fifty klicks up the peninsula, in a little village in the jungle. It has a Thai name, but I don’t know it. The village supports the place, nothing else. Damn all but rain forest for a long way.”

  Jamse nodded. “What do you know of it?”

  “I’ve never been there. When we spoke, he planned to spend at least a week there before coming to interview the two we found in the pool this morning.” She looked hard at Beckie, then Sue. “You look like one of them,” she finally said, “but not you.” Beckie glared back.

  “Very well. Susan, can you retrieve the storage device from that system?”

  “Done. And Dan and Freddie got some of the disks out of the surveillance system before they were shanghaied,” she responded with a big grin.

  “Ah. Even better. First class work by a first class team, if I say it myself. Thank you all.

  “Now, the immediate future.” He turned to the woman. “My intent is to depart. We will leave all the locks open—if they function—and remove all those we have injured to the outside. We will not recover those who have… passed on. Anyone we have not come in contact with must fend for themselves.

  “I believe you have set in motion a mechanism to flood the interior; I am indifferent, or perhaps, slightly inclined toward its success.” He looked at Derek. “Two phosphorous grenades, one in each of these rooms, should do the trick. Do you agree?” Both Derek and Elena nodded agreement.

  He spun to face the woman again. “In moments, we will alert the authorities; I think they will have interest in the activities here, given the current political environment. Any attempt on your part to minimize your involvement will be rebuffed by evidence placed in the hands of those authorities. Reflect well on your upcoming actions.

  “Shall we be off?” Dan and Freddie picked the woman up and followed. Derek stopped them, extracted Elena’s knife from its sheath on Beckie’s hip, and used it to cut the bra through, catching the cylinder as it dropped free.

  He had a huge grin. “Stay with me, Beckie, show you ‘ow to make this work.”

  “Here,” Willie said, tossing a second cylinder to Beckie. She caught it, and he smiled, then pointed. “Out here.”

  Beckie watched, holding the small stainless steel cylinder as Derek looked the room over again. With a professor’s demeanor, he then explained, first how to identify the cylinder, then how to locate it near the object you wanted to be sure was destroyed. “‘Ere, it should be the computer system.” Lesson complete, he said, “Okay, take yours and ‘old it so.” He demonstrated a two handed grip that reminded Beckie of holding the pull line on a ski boat, “Remember, you’ve got thirty seconds to get clear, okay? Clear means minimum ten meters with your back to it running. Okay. Map your path out, twist till it clicks, set it down, and get out!” She did.

  Willie was listening to the exchange as first Derek and then she came through the opening; the wall was already closing. Willie ran up the ladder, fairly pulling Beckie behind him. Derek set the second grenade and clambered up, both Beckie and Willie waiting to help if needed. A kick at the top of the passage; as the rock slid back a hellish sound and glare tried to escape the shrinking opening.

  Willie jumped to Jean-Luc’s copter; Derek handed Beckie up, then climbed aboard himself as Jean-
Luc lifted away from the bluff.

  Beckie fell back between Dan and Jamse’s legs; embarrassed, she quickly sat up and tried to speak, but both men used their hands to suggest that the noise in the cabin would make conversation difficult at best. Although recalling that she and Elena had had no problem, Beckie did not argue.

  After a few moments, Derek gave her a hand up from the deck and indicated a seat near the window, aft of Jean-Luc’s position.

  “Ah, mademoiselle, are you going to grace us again?” he teased over the noise of the wind.

  “No, Jean-Luc,” she replied lightly. “After the last time, it’s…”

  “Quel dommage, ma chérie,” he replied with a grin. “But no doubt, you are as correct as you are beautiful.”

  She spent a moment reflecting on the different possibilities for ‘correct.’ “Merci indeed, ma cher,” she retaliated. “Where are we headed? Not the motel?”

  “No, the airport,” Jamse responded. “The Hercules departed…” He looked at his watch. “twenty minutes ago. Our aircraft awaits our arrival.”

  The flight east was blessedly, completely uneventful. Beckie, like most of the others, collapsed in a seat and was asleep before Jean-Luc had completed the take-off roll.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The Nest

  THE LARGE PLANE, A RETIRED military version of the C-130 Hercules, had made good time. Mike appreciated that he was in an enviable position, having not only Melissa but both his parents to make sure he was alright and needed nothing for complete satisfaction—except the thought he graciously didn’t put into words: I sure wish I could hug the heck outta Lissa!

  Since he had been forbidden that—“You sit right there in that jump seat till we land,” Doctor Ardan had said. “Lissa, you keep him there.”—he watched his mother as she asked what she could do to help, and one of the nurses finally gave her the forgotten task: find out who the girls and boys were and where they were from, and other contact information, so their separations would be no longer than necessary.