While the police milled about, confused as to how all four of the bad guys were out of commission, I walked over to the small desk and picked up the computer from the floor. It was one of the newer smaller models and it would fit easily in my backpack. The computer under Daniel’s desk was an older tower model. I picked that one up and moved it away from the wires that used to go into it and gently set it down. I knew that the field would allow the computer to go back to reality and not be in the same space as the wires, but it was too important to even chance it. Once the tower computer was on the ground, I shifted it back to reality. I didn’t bother to plug it in.
With the computers taken care of, I put a field around all the cash and shifted it to R1. I did the same with my three chosen guns and their ammunition. The guns and ammo I packed away immediately, but there was simply too much cash to pack away right now. I still didn’t know how I would get it all to the airport and back to my house. It was too bad that I couldn’t simply drive home. It would be a four or five hour drive, while the first flight back wasn’t until 9am; still six full hours. Wait. Why can’t I drive? Each of Daniel and his crew had driven here, as had the guards. There must be at least one car that I could use and even if I crashed the car, who was going to complain about it.
I found Daniel’s keys in his coat pocket. The coat was hung up nicely on a hook behind his door. Seb kept his keys in the upper left-hand drawer of his desk. One of their cars would suffice.
I watched for a few moments as stretchers were brought in and the bad guys were carted off. I followed them out of the building and to the waiting ambulances. There were a lot of ambulances, but none of the prisoners were out yet. What was going on? I went off to the side and called Captain Stevens.
Stevens answered on the first ring. Before he could say anything, I asked, “Didn’t you find the entrance to the basement? Why haven’t you freed the women and children yet?”
“We found the entrance where you said it would be, but the door was built like a vault. We’ve got people working on it now.” That reminded me to reactive the cameras in the basement and with a few swipes on my phone it was done.
“What about the woman in the office?”, I demanded.
“What woman in the office? We didn’t find anyone. Was she a prisoner?”, he asked.
“Yes. She might be hiding and is too scared to come out. She’s in the office adjacent to where you should have found two knocked out guards.”, I explained.
“Hold on.” I heard him give some commands and a policewoman and a paramedic raced into the building. While we waited, he said, “You were wrong about the guns. There weren’t any in the offices upstairs.”
“Did you look in the walk-in safe?”, I asked, knowing that he didn’t know there was one.
“Walk-in safe?”, he asked.
“You keep repeating what I say. Yes, the one behind the credenza. To save you some time, there’s also a room behind the bookcase and a floor safe under the rug.” I could hear Captain Stevens swear under his breath and call for more officers. A few seconds later, the police returned to Daniel’s office in force.
“Sir. Do you mind if I ask you how you knew all of this? Also, can you tell me how you managed to send six guards and four others to the hospital, all without being seen by anyone, including me?”, he asked politely, but I could tell that he’d rather wring my neck to get the information.
Before I could answer him, the paramedic and the policewoman came out with the woman that I’d saved from the rapists. They had a blanket around her shoulders, but you could still see the shackle chains around her wrists. She looked dirty and beaten up but not so broken anymore. When she saw all the police cars, her rescue became more real to her and she straightened up a little bit, as if some of the crushing weight bearing down on her had been lifted a bit. She wasn’t alone anymore.
I nearly cried as I watched her walk to the ambulance. I pictured my mother in her place and the joy she must be feeling to know that she would be going home, that her nightmare was ending. The effects of her imprisonment would last for the rest of her life, but at least she’d get to live out that life in a manner of her own choosing and not as a slave.
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Captain Steven’s voice brought me out of my thoughts. “Sir. Are you still there?”
“Sorry Captain. I was thinking about the driver of the transport truck. Were you in time to catch him?”, I asked, as much to deflect his questions as out of curiosity.
“We got him. He swears that he didn’t know there were women and children in the truck.”, Stevens said in a tone that showed he knew the driver was lying.
“He knew. He’s been here before and his actions were practiced. I won’t tell you how to do your job, but I’ll just remind you that if his truck doesn’t have a GPS tracker on it, his phone most likely does. You’ll probably be able to trace him through his Waze history, if he uses it, or Google maps history.”, I suggested.
“Already on it.”, he answered and was again interrupted by someone, but I couldn’t hear what was said. I figured it out a few seconds later when the captives started being led out. Captain Stevens said that he’d call me back and went off to oversee the care of the thirty-nine newly released prisoners.
In R1, I walked among the victims and this time I did cry. Many of them were hugging each other and crying tears of joy at their rescue. Some were just sitting on the ground, wrapped in a blanket, and taking in their newly recovered freedom. Most of the children were holding up pretty well, but two of them were nearly catatonic, seemingly unaware of their surrounding and staring at nothing. Their recovery would take a long time.
The woman that I’d saved was going to each of the ex-captives and saying a few words to them or giving them a hug or a smile. She’d borrowed a pen and pad from one of the police officers and she exchanged email addresses with several of them. They thanked her for her encouragement and for keeping their spirits up or for making sure that they’d gotten food. I learned that her name was Magda and it was obvious that she’d been a leader to these people in their time of need.
I wished that my foundation was up and running already. This is what it was set up for. These people needed the resources that the foundation could provide, and Magda was just the type of person that I needed working at the foundation.
Through it all, the police and the paramedics were taking statements and seeing to the medical needs of the ex-captives. Other than malnutrition, most of their physical hurts was superficial. The slavers hadn’t wanted to damage their merchandise. The psychological damage was another matter altogether.
Heading back into the building, I heard a familiar voice and walked over to Captain Stevens as he was giving the Chief of Police a report. “Yes, Sir. They’re all being checked out as we speak. So far, no major physical injuries except to the guards and to the Serpentine people. Three of the guards are dead from blunt force trauma, two others may not survive their injuries and if they do, the medics don’t think they’ll regain their full faculties. The last one will be in the hospital for awhile. The four Serpentine people each have broken bones, but they can talk, and they’ll be able to stand trial.”
I’d killed three people. Maybe five. In the books that I read, the heroes always feel guilty about taking lives. Even though they know it was in self defense or there was no other way, they agonize over their actions. I didn’t feel that agony. I didn’t really feel anything negative at all about it. I’d felt great satisfaction in giving them back some of the pain they’d dished out and I was glad that I’d stopped them from hurting more people. Maybe when the excitement of the night wears off, I’ll feel different about it.
“No Sir. No one besides one of the victims saw the guy. I’ve spoken to him a few times, but we haven’t been able to get a trace on his location or find out anything about him. All we have is the name Roger Willoughby and even that we had to get a judge to approve, since our tip line is supposed to be anonymous.” I knew they’d break their own rules of anonymity, if it was important enough. Thank you, Howie!
“We’ll continue trying, but I hope that we don’t find him. He did a really good thing here. We were able to rescue forty people today and shut down a part of the human trafficking ring. We’ve got to their computers before they could wipe them and there’s bound to me some information on the rest of their operation. This could be a really big break for us. In my mind, he’s a hero.”, Stevens paused and listened for a bit before answering, “No, sir. I won’t be repeating that to the press. We’ll just say that we were led to the warehouse by an anonymous tip from a concerned citizen.”
I left Captain Stevens’ side and went to see which cars belonged to Daniel and Seb. I still had to pack up the money and my gear and find a way to fit my bike in the car before I could drive home. It had been a long day and I was tired, but I felt triumphant. I’d done it. I’d tracked down the people who’d taken my mother from me and gotten some payback. Not everything had gone according to plan, but enough had and lives had been saved. I knew that this was only a battle that I’d won and not the war, but I’ll take my victories one family at a time. Watching the captives hugging and celebrating their freedom had made me feel whole, like I’d accomplished something truly important. I wanted to feel that again and I knew that my work was just starting. There were so many victims of human trafficking and I was going to help as many as I could.