Howie arrived five minutes early and parked his car in the parking area less than 100 feet from the fountain. I watched from R1 as he and a short brunette got out of the car. Neither said a word as they walked purposefully towards the fountain. The woman seemed young, in comparison to Howie, probably in her late twenties, and around 5’2”, compared with Howie’s 5’10”. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore no makeup. She had a darker skin than mine, but that didn’t mean much, as I’m fairly pale, and her bearing was pure military, even though she was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt. I was reminded of all those movies where a tiny drill sergeant would stand toe-to-toe with a massive cadet and dress him down as if she were three feet taller than him. It didn’t seem like this was a person to mess with and, for some reason, I liked her right away. I hoped that I wouldn’t be disappointed after having spoken with her.
The two of them stopped beside the fountain and Howie checked his watch. The woman simply stood at parade rest and looked around. Checking my phone, I saw that I had around a minute left before two o’clock and I made my way to the other side of the fountain, where I wouldn’t be seen as I slipped back to reality. I made the transition with ten seconds to spare and came around to greet them.
“Hi Howie. Thanks for setting this up.” The startled look on Howie’s face as I greeted him was priceless. I knew that he’d been looking forward to giving me a lecture about the importance of being on time and how being late wasted everyone’s time. Blah, blah, blah. In contrast to Howie, the woman took my entrance in stride and merely smiled at me as I approached.
“You’re welcome, Abby. Thanks for being on time.” I gave Howie my most innocent smile and looked towards the woman. Howie picked up on my cue immediately and said, “I’d like to introduce you to Captain Shauna Martinez. Captain Martinez, this is Abigail Smith.”
Shauna and I shook hands and Howie continued, “Since we spoke last, I’ve had a chance to review Captain Martinez’s background and confirm that she has the qualifications that you requested. Unless you need anything, I have to make a quick delivery to another client. I’ll return in half an hour to take Captain Martinez back to her car. This envelope has a copy of Captain Martinez’s resume and background information.” Howie handed me an envelope and started to leave.
“Hold on a second, Howie.” At my words, he turned around and I handed him one of the two backpacks that I’d brought with me. “Your fee is in there, as well as a list of a few things I was hoping that you can get for me this week.”
Howie swung the backpack over his shoulder and said, “I’ll see what I can do.”, as he walked back to his car.
When we were alone, I turned to Captain Martinez and said, “Captain Martinez, I’d like to thank you for coming out to meet with me. I’m not very formal, so please call me Abby.”
“I will, if you’ll call me Shauna. You’re not what I expected when Howie contacted me about a job opportunity.”
“No, I don’t suppose I would be. Not many teenagers try to hire experienced military personnel. This is real though. It’s not a prank. I’ll explain why I need your expertise soon. First, I’d like to know a little bit about you and why you’re here. Why aren’t you still in the army?” It was another hot day and I started walking further into the park, towards a tree covered path that was usually several degrees cooler.
Shauna fell in step beside me and said, “I joined the army when I turned 18. My older brother, Samuel, had enlisted when he was 18 too. For him, it was highly recommended by the courts and it allowed him to stay out of jail. For me, it was to stay connected to Samuel. By the time I joined up, he had already cleaned up his act and had made the army his home. He was a rising star in military intelligence. My organization skills led me into the logistics side of the army and over the next five years I rose in the ranks and went from a supply clerk to managing entire supply warehouses to working with generals to make sure that their units had the equipment and the supplies that they needed in the field. Throughout those years, my brother and I stayed in touch and when a good position in military intelligence opened up, he pushed me hard to take it. I really enjoyed running logistics, but the chance to work more closely with my brother was hard to pass up. Initially, it wasn’t much of a change from what I’d already been doing. Instead of outfitting full battalions for the field, I was outfitting individual agents and making sure that they had safe houses to go to and equipment in the various cities that they worked in. Eventually I ended up running a team of people that made sure that the agents in the field had everything they needed, from local currency to proper visas and passports to housing, even pets. Anything they needed to make their covers believable and as airtight as possible.”
Shauna paused in her story. It was a nice story, but I could tell that she was hesitating because her story was about to take a turn. We found a bench that was entirely in the shade and Shauna continued, “Six months ago, my brother missed sending in a scouting report from Venezuela. I wasn’t involved with his team, but word gets around. I asked my superiors to be involved and I was refused. They said that because he was my brother, my judgement would be clouded, and I was ordered to stay away from his case. My unofficial sources were telling me that he’d been caught up in a general sweep by the Venezuelan secret police, but they didn’t know where he was being held and they couldn’t ask through diplomatic channels without giving away that he was an agent. All they were doing now was waiting around and hoping that one of their other assets would find something out.
After he’d been missing for three months and with no updates through official channels, I tried again, and I was refused again. I decided that I’d try to find my brother by myself and I requested a leave of absence. When that was rejected, I resigned my commission. For the last two months, I’ve been using every contact I know of to find out more about where my brother was taken and I think that I’ve finally found out where he might be. It’s only rumor so far, but I know a few people that might be able to corroborate the information. My next goal is to find a way rescue him. Unfortunately, I’m almost out of money. I need a job that will pay me enough to continue working towards freeing my brother. So far, all the openings that I’ve found are for security jobs that don’t match up with my experience.” Shauna let out a frustrated breath as she finished her story.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“If you manage to rescue your brother, will you return to the army?”
“No. I’d don’t think that they’d take me back and I don’t want to go back. When I succeed, my brother will go back, but I won’t. I was hardworking and loyal to the army for almost ten years, but when I needed their help, they cut me out. My superior didn’t even try to be understanding. He quoted the rules at me and sent me away.”
“I asked you that question because I’m looking for someone who will stay with me long term. I need someone to build a team and run it. Your experience with logistics and intelligence is exactly what I need. Having heard your story, I think that you’re the perfect candidate for the position.”, I explained.
“What is the position and how would you be able to afford hiring me, much less a team? Are you one of those geniuses that created a computer company and sold out for a billion dollars?”, Shauna asked.
I laughed at that. “No. Nothing like that. Let me tell you my story and you’ll understand.” I gave her the rundown on my kidnapping and mom’s disappearance and then I told her about my idea for the Hannah Foundation and its goals.
“The public face of the Hannah Foundation will be all about helping the victims of human trafficking and their families and I’ll need of your organizational and logistical services for that. However, the foundation needs to have another aspect to it. It can’t just be about helping the victims once they’re freed or escape. I want to go after the traffickers themselves. I want to stop their operations and rescue anyone we can. For that, I’ll need intelligence gathering and logistical support during the operations.”
“I love the idea of the foundation and what you’re trying to do, but how are you going to pay for it?”, Shauna asked.
“I wondered about that too when I first got the idea. I thought that it would take me years to get enough money to even start on the public face of the foundation. However, a few months ago, I went gemstone mine with some friends and I found some incredible gemstones. They go to auction in July. Uncut, they’ve been appraised at over ten million dollars. When the money comes in, I’ll be donating most of it to my foundation and starting the public side of the operations. The hidden side of the foundation will be funded separately from the public side and it won’t show up in any Hannah Foundation records. It will be strictly off the books. For now, your salary and that of the team will be paid in cash and in advance.” I saw Shauna’s eyes widen when I said that.
“Before we go further, I need to know if you want the job.” I thought she’d take the position, but I wasn’t sure. She’d done a great job in keeping her expressions neutral so far. Her reaction to the upfront cash payment had been her only giveaway. She’s probably a very good poker player.
“You didn’t really explain where the cash was coming from for the second foundation, but seeing as how you’re paying in advance, I guess its not something that I have to worry about. Also, if I’m going to save my brother, I don’t have the luxury of being picky right now. I’m in.” I hoped that she wouldn’t be picky later, but like her, I wanted to get things started.
We agreed on a salary for her services and soon began discussing the team that I needed her to build. My plan was to hire a technology specialist as well as an accountant specializing in following money transfers.
“We’ll need the technology expert right away to set up our systems and communications networks, but the accountant can wait until we have some leads to follow. The accountant will need to have other skills to fill up their time. Also, if we’re providing the information and logistics, who do you have to carry out the actual operation? Or do you plan on giving over the information to the police?”, Shauna asked.
“The accountant can wait until we have a secure network set up, but I already have enough work to keep him or her busy for weeks. I don’t mind if they have other skills, but I’d rather you focused on finding us the best person for that job, even if they have no other skills. As to someone to carry out the operations, I’ve got that covered already. He has asked to remain anonymous for now. I can assure you that he’s very good at his job and I’ll arrange for you two to speak prior to any operation. Right now, I’d like you to focus on finding some temporary space and finding our team.” Before Shauna could object to not knowing who she’d be working with, I handed her my backpack.
“This is your first three month’s salary and some start-up capital. Once you’ve come up with a list of the equipment that you’ll need and a budget for your team, I’ll give you enough to cover those costs as well.” Shauna unzipped the top of the bag, peeked inside and then looked up at me in surprise.
“How much is in there?”, she asked.
“$100,000”.
“And you’re just trusting me with this? After meeting with me for less than half an hour. What if I just take it and leave.”
“You won’t. Howie wouldn’t have introduced us if he didn’t have reason to trust you. And even if he got bad information about you, it wouldn’t be in your best interest to take the money. Howie would put the word out about what you did, and you’d have a much harder time finding work in the future. You’ll need a lot more than that to rescue your brother and you’d have fewer options available to you. You also need to remember that I’m putting together a team and if you took the money, then their first mission would be to find you and ask for it back.” Although I had said all that in a matter of fact way, I kept my gaze locked to hers the whole time and I made sure that she knew how serious I was. “Finally, you know what that money is being used for. If you took it, you wouldn’t just be stealing from me, You’d be hurting people like yourself. People who’ve been victims of a kidnapping. You’d be helping kidnappers continue to profit from slavery and you’d be no better than those slavers or than those that took your brother.”
Actually, it was Len's blood money and I had no way to spend it legally without calling attention to myself so even if I lost it all, it wouldn't matter much. I didn’t think that would happen though. I had a good feeling about Shauna.
“I see. You’re not blindly trusting me. You’re trusting me to do what’s in my best interests and you have plans just in case I’m not smart enough to do what’s best for me. I can respect that.” She held out her hand to me and we shook on our agreement to work together.
We made our way back to the fountain and saw Howie waiting for her in his car. As she was about to go to him, I said, “Shauna. I don’t want your concentration split while you’re working for me. I’m going to need you 100% focused on finding the slavers. So, we’ll need to rescue your brother as soon as possible. Get the team set up and verify where Samuel is being held and his rescue will be our first order of business.”
Shauna’s face lit up and then she totally floored me by coming to attention and saluting me. She let out an enthusiastic, “Yes, Ma’am”, and took off to meet up with Howie.