by Matt Lincoln
I coughed as his foot hit me square in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me. He jumped to his feet and attempted to kick me again, and I just barely managed to roll out of the way before coming back up to my feet. He reached behind his back, but before he could pull out whatever he was keeping there, I punched him in the face.
He groaned with pain as he staggered backward, his nose gushing blood that dribbled down his chin and stained his shirt. He snarled as he swung his fist to punch me, but I blocked it with my arm before responding with another punch of my own, this time uppercutting him in the chin hard enough that he stumbled for a moment before falling over. He crumpled to the ground with a thump, his eyes half-lidded as he groaned with pain.
I fell to a crouch next to him, struggling to regain my breath after the harsh kick I’d received. I yanked his hands behind his back before he could regain his senses and clicked a pair of handcuffs around his wrists. As soon as I secured him, I looked around at the rest of the dock.
Holm was standing near the ship, along with two of the officers. The trio hovered protectively next to a sizable group of women, who I realized must all be victims. Around the dock in front of the ship, I counted three other men in similar positions as the suspect I currently crouched over, each being watched by one of the officers. I didn’t see Linden anywhere, though.
I began to worry as I looked around the dock and still couldn’t find him. I was about to haul the suspect back to his feet and hand him off to one of the officers so I could look for Linden when I finally spotted him, several yards away and walking back toward the dock from somewhere in the distance. He caught my gaze and headed toward me.
“He got away,” he muttered bitterly as he came to a stop next to me. “The Aruban gang member. I chased him, but he was so fast. All of a sudden, he turned a corner, and he was gone. It was like he disappeared. I’m sorry.” He bowed his head and looked at the ground as though he couldn’t look me in the eye. He seemed genuinely broken up about it.
“It’s fine,” I replied as I got to my feet and stared down at the suspect. Actually, I was a little upset that he’d gotten away since it would now be that much harder for us to track down that half of the operation, but Linden looked so guilty about losing him that I didn’t see the point in making it worse.
“Looks like we caught a lot of them. I’m sure at least one will know how to find the apartment.” I looked back down at the suspect, who was still moaning and half-conscious on the ground. “Even if we have to drive all over this city to find it.”
15
Ethan
Our first priority after the chaos at the dock was to ensure that all the victims were taken to a safe place where they could get medical attention and some rest. We’d stepped in before they’d been forced to ingest the drugs, but we still needed to be sure that they weren’t in danger from something else that the traffickers might have done to them.
Our second priority was ensuring that we had managed to apprehend all the traffickers. This was not an easy task and one that we could only accomplish if we knew that everyone who arrived on the boat was still present. To that end, the police made an announcement shortly after fighting ended that all passengers had to immediately return to the ship. That had gone over about as well as a lead balloon.
“You can’t do this!” one of the passengers yelled at an officer who was attempting to maintain order.
We had called several more police officers to the scene after the fight, both to transport the suspects back to the station and to help with crowd control. They’d formed a barrier around the perimeter of the ship in order to prevent people from leaving, which many of the passengers were understandably angry about. Holm and I stood just outside the ship, slowly and carefully observing all the passengers still outside.
“Sir, I understand you’re frustrated--” the officer attempted to respond.
“Frustrated?” the angry passenger cut him off. “I’m not frustrated. I’m furious! You can’t treat us like criminals! We haven’t done anything wrong! Those other people break the law, and we’re the ones that get punished? That isn’t right!”
“Sir, I understand, but--” the officer tried to explain, but the angry passenger wouldn’t let him get a word in.
“No, you don’t understand!” he roared. “This is ridiculous! You’ll be hearing from my lawyer…”
I tuned the man out as he continued to rant and rave. I could understand that he was upset, but it annoyed me to hear him whine about his vacation being ruined when the lives of several innocent women had hung in the balance. Part of me wanted to tell him to just settle down and consider himself lucky that he’d never have to live through something that awful, but I didn’t have the patience to deal with someone like him right now.
“You see anyone?” I asked Holm as we did another circuit around the perimeter of the dock that had been closed off by the cops.
“Nah,” he replied with a shake of his head.
“I don’t see anyone either,” Linden remarked.
“If there are any traffickers left, I don’t think they’re out here,” I noted. “I think we should go ahead and move inside.”
“Alright,” Holm replied, and we turned to head toward the ship. We’d made it about halfway across the dock when someone caught my eye.
It was a man, medium-height, thin, with sallow, pale skin and choppy black hair. Unlike the rest of the passengers still outside, he didn’t seem angry about not being allowed to leave or even confused. On the contrary, he looked nervous. He kept glancing around, looking over his shoulder all around, often focusing off to the side toward the road that led into the city.
“Hey,” I called out to Holm and Linden as I stopped in my tracks. “Look at that guy.” I nodded over to the black-haired man.
“He’s fidgety,” Holm noted. “Looks pretty nervous.”
“Yeah, he does,” I replied as I marched over to the man.
He turned, spotted me walking toward him, and went stiff as a board the moment our eyes met. Before I could reach him, he began to walk backward away from me, still glancing around anxiously.
“Hey!” I called out to him firmly. It was obvious that he’d seen me, so there was no point in trying to be subtle.
He jumped as I yelled, his eyes widening as he stared at me. For a second, he just looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights. Then, without warning, he turned and bolted. Not away from the dock but directly back onto the ship.
“Crap!” I exclaimed as I chased after him, Holm hot on my heels. Was he planning on taking someone hostage? Is that why he’d run back onto the ship instead of attempting to flee? Or maybe he was going for a weapon he had stored back in his cabin. Regardless, I needed to catch him before he hurt someone.
I burst through the entrance and into the ship. Even though the passengers had been told to return to their cabins, the communal areas of the ship were still full of people. For a second, I couldn’t find the suspect until I finally caught a blur of movement at the far end of the long corridor. I ran after him, trying my best not to knock other passengers down as I ran past.
“Stop!” I yelled as I chased him up the stairs that led up onto the main floor of the ship. Several people turned to at the sound of my yells, and one even reached a hand out to try to stop the suspect as he ran past.
I gritted my teeth. Honestly, the last thing I needed was for some civvie to get himself hurt or killed trying to be a hero. This man would certainly not hesitate to kill them if necessary.
The suspect continued to run through the ship, past high-end shops stocked with expensive designer items and crowded restaurants that were still packed despite what had happened earlier. By now, several people were actively watching as I chased him through the ship, so I increased my pace, worried that something would happen before I could catch up to him.
Unfortunately, something did happen. A pair of young men suddenly broke away from the crown and tackled the suspect, holding his arms down
as they pinned him to the ground.
“Move away,” I ordered them, concerned that the suspect might suddenly break free and pull out a weapon.
“Is he with those guys who were arrested earlier?” one of the men asked as he sneered down at the suspect. “The ones who were abusing those chicks?”
“Let us handle it,” Holm replied firmly.
The man didn’t look satisfied by the answer, but he and his buddy both took their hands off the suspect and got up. I expected the suspect to stand and make a run for it and braced myself to knock him back down if necessary, but to my surprise, he didn’t move at all. He just continued to lie there, his face white and his entire body trembling.
Something’s weird, I thought to myself as I crouched down to pull the guy up off the ground. He complied willingly, getting back onto his feet unsteadily before staring down at the ground. There was something familiar about the meek stance and empty expression in his eyes, and it took me a moment to realize that I had just seen that expression earlier this afternoon.
Except it hadn’t been on the faces of the traffickers, it had been on the faces of the victims. I let out a stream of curses inside my own head as I realized that we might have just made a huge mistake.
“Why don’t we go and talk somewhere quiet?” I suggested gently.
Holm eyed me curiously, probably confused about the sudden change in my demeanor, but he went along with me as I guided the man over to a more secluded hallway. There were still a few bystanders lingering around, but it was much quieter than it had been out in the main part of the ship.
The man fidgeted nervously, still glancing around as though searching for an escape route, but he didn’t actually try to run. On the contrary, he didn’t fight me at all.
“What’s your name?” I asked him, careful to keep my tone neutral. There was still a possibility that this man was part of the traffickers. However, the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that it wasn’t the case. If he actually was a victim, then I needed to be careful about the way I spoke to him.
“Anthony,” he replied so quietly that I could barely make out what he’d said. He continued to stare down at the ground even as he spoke, fidgeting with his hands.
“Okay, Anthony,” I replied as I looked around to make sure we weren’t being overheard. “Can you tell me why you ran from us just now?”
“I…” he muttered as he peeked up at me for just a fraction of a second. “I just got scared, I guess. You started chasing me, so I ran.”
We only chased you because you ran, I thought to myself, but I didn’t say out loud. At this point, it was incredibly evident to me, judging by this behavior and body language, that Anthony was almost certainly one of the victims. It was a little odd, considering all the other victims had been women, but nothing was impossible.
“Anthony,” I continued, thinking carefully about the most tactful way to broach the subject, “were you brought here against your will? By one of those men who was arrested earlier?”
He snapped his head up to look at me, his eyes wide and his skin a sickly green.
“No,” he replied quickly, his bony shoulders rising and falling as he began to breathe heavily. “What? No. Of course not. Look, I really have to go.”
He suddenly turned and tried to walk away, but Holm stepped in front of him.
“Anthony, it’s okay,” Holm assured the young man, careful to give him space even while blocking him from being able to leave. “We’re here to help.”
“I don’t need help,” he muttered meekly. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I’m just on vacation. I just want to go back to my room now.”
“The men who did this have all been arrested,” I called out as he attempted to slip past Holm again. “Look, I understand that you’ve been through something terrible, but we really just want to help. That’s why we’re here. We could really use your help in finding the rest of the people responsible for this.”
Anthony finally stood still at that, his shoulders hunched as he slowly turned around to look at me.
“You need my help?” he asked, his eyes narrowing at me in suspicion. “Really? You’re not going to arrest me?”
The moment he said that, I recalled the conversation we had with Gabby back at the hospital. She had also been terrified at our arrival, convinced that we had come to arrest her. I could only assume that they had brainwashed Anthony to believe the same thing.
“We don’t want to arrest you,” I replied. “If those men forced you onto this ship, then all we want is to get you somewhere safe. Then, if you’re up for it, we’d really appreciate it if you’d be willing to speak to us. The faster we find the men responsible, the more likely we’ll be to save more future victims.”
Anthony’s hands were still fidgeting, his fists clenching and unclenching as he considered my words.
“Okay,” he finally replied after several long beats of contemplative silence. He lifted his head and looked straight at me, his face ashy and his eyes bloodshot. “I want to get off this boat.”
16
Ethan
The next hour passed by in a blur as we got Anthony off the ship and to the hospital. The first thing we needed to do was get him checked out by a doctor to make sure he was alright. Fortunately, it seemed that he was relatively unharmed, though he was severely malnourished and dehydrated. After getting looked over and put on an IV to help recoup some of the nutrients his body so desperately needed, one of the nurses was kind enough to bring him a meal from the hospital cafeteria. It was standard hospital fare, and honestly, it didn’t look particularly appetizing to me, but Anthony began to scarf it down the moment the tray was placed in front of him.
I felt a pang of sympathy as I watched him eat, and I wondered when the last time he had a decent meal was.
“Alright, Anthony,” I began as I sat down in a chair next to his hospital bed where he was still eating. “Do you think you’d be willing to talk with us?” He nodded his head as he swallowed a mouthful of food.
“Yeah,” he mumbled. “I can talk to you.”
“Okay,” I replied as Holm pulled a chair over from the other side of the room to sit down as well. Linden stood on the other side of the room, close enough to hear but still far enough away so that Anthony wouldn’t feel crowded. “To start with, can you tell us about the men that forced you onto the ship?”
His face immediately fell, and he stopped chewing as he stared off into space for a moment, his expression pained.
“They’re some guys I used to be friends with.” He shrugged as he fiddled with the fork in his hand.
“Friends?” I repeated, shocked by his use of the word. Just how does someone go from being friends with someone to being used as a drug mule by them?
“Well, not really friends, I guess,” Anthony muttered. “They, uh… one of them used to be my dealer.”
“I see,” I replied. I could understand why he might be reluctant to admit that. He probably didn’t want to confess to having committed crimes himself. Honestly, though, busting him on some petty drug charges was the absolute last thing on my mind right now. “So you used to have an amicable relationship then. What happened?”
Anthony turned to look at me, his eyebrows knitted together, as though he was confused that I hadn’t immediately reprimanded him for his prior statement.
“I built up a lot of debt,” he admitted as he set the fork down and stared down at the half-finished tray of food. “A lot. They wanted their money, but I didn’t have it, so they told me I could repay them by doing them this favor. It didn’t sound so bad the first time. I’d get to go on a free cruise, and all I had to do was swallow some packets full of coke. It wasn’t that hard, like swallowing really big pills.”
“So they made you mule drugs for them because you owed them money,” I stated. “You said the first time wasn’t so bad. How many times have they made you do this now?”
“I don’t remember.” He shook his h
ead slowly. “I lost count. After the first time, they left me alone for a while, but then, they suddenly revealed that my debt still wasn’t paid off.” His eyes welled up with tears, and his voice started to crack as he continued. “I told them that was bull and to leave me alone, but then they said if I didn’t do it, they’d go to the cops. They’d tell them about all the drugs I bought and that I carried drugs over the border. Then I’d go to jail for sure. I really didn’t want to do it, but I didn’t want to end up in jail.”
“So this whole time, they’ve been dangling that over your head?” I asked, feeling sorry for the guy. Even if he had done bad things, no one deserved to be constantly manipulated like that. “And that’s why you ran when you saw us.”
“Yeah.” Anthony cleared his throat, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. “I thought you were coming to arrest me like the other guys. When everything happened back on the dock, all the girls got taken away, but no one paid any attention to Micah or me.”
“Who is Micah?” I asked, extremely alert at the mention of a new name.
“He’s like me,” he replied. “They’ve been forcing him to do this too since he’s got a passport. I don’t know what they’re holding over his head, he won’t tell me, but he’s been around about as long as I have.”
“Where is Micah now?” I asked, a bit annoyed that Anthony had barely thought to mention him now, hours after we’d left the boat. He was probably too scared and confused to really think clearly, but now this meant that there was yet another victim out there somewhere who needed help.
“I don’t know.” Anthony shrugged. “He took off running when you guys were arresting everyone. I wanted to go with him but… I was too scared. I don’t know where he ran off to.”
“We’ll let the cops know to keep an eye out for him,” Holm assured him. “I’ll specify that he’s one of the victims and not a trafficker, so they don’t make the same mistake that we did.”