The stairs descended into darkness, the light of the warehouse not quite bright enough to illuminate things in the depths. She didn’t dare turn on a flashlight for fear of alerting whoever was guarding the women down below.
“Well, that’s creepy,” Crystal muttered.
“Also a complete nightmare if we get into a firefight in an enclosed corridor with no cover,” Robbie said. “Last time we saw something like this overseas, I lost four squadmates trying to breach the damn thing. The commander ended up dropping a bunker buster on it instead.”
“Were there hostages?” Ashe asked.
“Not after we were done,” he admitted.
Ashe swallowed heavily. There was a good chance that if she rushed in there, someone would get hurt, or even die, probably her, given her luck. The faces of the women being loaded into the van flashed through her mind and she knew she couldn’t just leave them to their fate. Even if she called the police, would they find the hidden passage? Would the girls get moved through some connected building before they found them?
No. It had to be now.
It had to be her.
“I’ll take point,” Ashe said, stepping down the first of many steps.
A hushed argument erupted behind her, but Ashe made her way down all the same, a second set of steps quickly followed and Ashe didn’t need to look back to know that Crystal was right there with her. A few seconds later, heavier steps hurried down.
“You are fucking insane,” Robbie growled deep and low.
“Hanabi watching the van?” she asked.
He grunted and she took that as affirmation and began to press forward. She moved slowly at first, but quickly picked up the pace at the length of the hall. A light clicked on behind her, low enough to not be blinding. She knew Robbie must have done it, which was probably the right call even with the risk of it tipping someone off to their presence.
Judging the length of the hall was difficult, but Ashe guessed they had gone far enough to cross the street. She knew a good portion of downtown Jericho was built in a similar manner to some theme parks. An underground network of passages stretching beneath the streets to allow for more stable foundations than sand.
“Door,” Crystal said.
Sure enough there was a door just coming into view, the hallway coming to an end. She knew that the passage had to have been built before the road above, and there was good odds that the city workers were paid off to overlook the construction. She stamped down on her smoldering anger at the level of corruption required to make that happen.
“Form up,” Ashe said, stepping to the side of the door. She could hear voices inside, laughing over something. The three took up their same positions and Ashe took a deep breath, her heart hammering in her chest as she did. “Breach and clear.”
Robbie nodded, signaling for her to let him take point for this. She nodded back and he pushed the door open before tossing a small cylinder inside. The door was jerked shut in the same motion. A deafening bang sounded from inside and Robbie threw the door open, rushing inside. The crack of gunfire followed an instant later. Ashe fell in behind him, one man was down across the room, another scrambled behind an overturned table. Ashe aimed for the center of the table and fired three shots in quick succession. She didn’t have time to consider if she had hit the person hiding, one of the doors burst open, three men armed with AKs coming out. Crystal dropped to her knee and put rounds into them, Robbie and herself joining her in dropping them even as they moved for cover.
A sharp line of burning fire cut across her leg, gritting her teeth as she stumbled. She stumbled past the table only to find a groaning man in a pool of blood from where she had shot at him. The man looked up, seeing her and started to lift his gun.
Ashe put a round through his head before he could kill her, the splatter of red searing itself into her mind. Her stomach cramped, but she swallowed heavily. She could be sick with herself later. The gunfire ended and Ashe took stock of the situation. At least six men that she could see were bleeding on the ground, she couldn’t tell much more than that. Robbie and Crystal were both upright, which was a relief to see.
“Everyone alright?” she asked, panting.
Robbie checked himself briefly, then pulled a cloth from a pocket and began to tie it around his forearm. “Got nicked, but it ain’t bad,” he grunted.
Ashe nodded, turning her attention to Crystal. Ashe couldn’t see any injuries on her, which took a weight off her shoulders. Crystal hurried over, and she almost expected a hug when Crystal grabbed her and pushed her onto a table. Her leg protested with a sharp stab, and Crystal bent down to check where the pain had originated from.
“Shit,” Crystal said, pulling out her own aid kit, dabbing some antiseptic to a cloth and pressing it to her leg. Ashe hissed at the burning sensation. She pulled it away and looked closer. “Looks like a bullet grazed your leg. You’ve got a chunk missing.”
Oh.
She’d been shot.
Robbie came over and checked it. “Tie something over it, she can get it looked at later.”
“I’m good,” Ashe said distantly. It didn’t hurt that much, but she knew that was the adrenaline and shock speaking. Crystal was applying something to it as she laid on the table, staring at the ceiling. “Let’s get this done.”
“You sure?” Crystal asked.
“We’ll need to sanitize the blood,” Ashe said, getting upright on unsteady legs. Her thigh burned under the weight of it but she could stand. “We don’t need them to link it to us when the forensics team comes in.”
“Good point,” Crystal said, pulling something from her bag before spritzing it across the table where some of her blood had dripped. “Alright. Ashe, take the rear position, Robbie can handle being on point.”
She nodded, testing putting weight on her leg. She could walk at least, even if it hurt.
Robbie stepped to the front and they moved into the door that the men had come from. Ashe followed with a slight limp. Crystal looked back, concern heavy in her eyes as she glanced down at Ashe’s bandaged leg. A surge of warmth ran through her, glad to have someone that actually cared with her as they did this.
Inside was a break area, complete with armory and stairs that led up, and Ashe could only stare at the wall of guns and munitions. She recognized many of them, several AKs were the most common, but there were AR-15s and a few other assorted rifles likely brought in through the pawn shop. It was clear that whatever they had stumbled on was more than just a human smuggling outfit. It seemed more like a staging ground for strikes across the city.
“Jackpot,” Robbie said with a manic grin. “Riptide, see if they have any bags we can fill.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Crystal said, finding a heavy duty gym bag and began to fill it.
Ashe felt bad that they were prioritizing theft over saving the girls, but she understood why. They had to make it look like their actions were gang on gang violence for when the police came sniffing. It still hurt, much like her leg did.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Want to bet that the door leads to a stairwell?” Ashe asked.
“Fool’s and their money,” Robbie said.
Crystal chuckled, having loaded the guns they could easily use or resell in favor of more exotic fare. Ashe almost whimpered at the Soviet era sniper rifle left behind, but it was far too cumbersome to take with them. One thing Ashe was determined to come back for was the M32 launcher, even if there were only two rounds for it sitting on the shelf beside it.
“We should leave the bags here, collect them on the exfil,” Ashe said.
“What if we can’t return this way?” Robbie countered.
She shook her head. “Then we’re already fucked on the van, we would need a new plan.”
“Got us there,” Keiko said. “Less weight too if there’s more bastards waiting for us.”
Robbie nodded and the group formed up on the door once more, keeping the same pattern for familiarity’s sake. Robbie pushed in, then called the all clear. Ashe relaxed and followed him inside. The stairs were hell on her leg, the throbbing burn pulsating with each step she climbed. They reached the ground floor, the door already open. Robbie signaled for them to stop, then crept forward.
She could hear rustling from the other side, and low voices. They were in for another firefight. Her heart jumped into her throat, breath shallow and ragged. Her hand began to tremble at the thought of going back into that chaos again, of putting a bullet into the head of someone who was already down.
Ashe shook her head, she couldn’t lose her nerve now, they were counting on her to keep her cool and have their back. She tightened the grip on her gun, letting out a shaky breath and took her position at the door. Robbie then kicked the door and rushed in. Screams erupted, and shots fired.
Ashe came in behind him and almost stumbled. There were dozens of girls on the ground, white powder kicked up from the sudden chaos and Ashe’s gun was up. She snapped off two shots, dropping someone coming down the stairs. Robbie stepped right into the cloud of powder and breathed deep.
“Nothing like good cocaine,” he said, shivering slightly. “Alright girlies, if you want to live, keep your heads down.”
Ashe kept her eye on the stairwell, but knelt down to one of the girls. “Do you know what’s upstairs?”
The girl looked up, peeking from under her covered head. Ashe had to bite back a comment, Jessica sitting there with fear in her eyes. Ashe could only hope that her voice was muffled enough by her face mask to hide her identity.
“I don’t know, I just got here,” Jessica said.
Ashe nodded. “Hang tight then. We might be robbing this place, but the Viuda don’t sell women, not like this at least.”
Jessica nodded, but showed no signs of recognition as she ducked back down. Ashe moved over to the stairwell, looking up before she took a position to watch the room. Robbie was loading up much of the coke into one of the bags, no doubt a massive grin on his face as he did. Crystal left him to it, stepping around the mess, checking each of the downed men to be safe.
She stopped at the last one, only for them to start to move. Crystal fired before he could finish rolling over. Half the girls squealed, but none got up. Crystal shook her head and dropped the magazine from her gun and swapped in a fresh mag, stowing her empty as she did. She then joined Ashe by the wall.
“Fuck,” she muttered.
“Yeah,” Ashe said in agreement. “This isn’t nearly as easy as TV makes it look.”
“It really isn’t,” Crystal said with a sigh. “How’s your leg?”
“Hurts like a bitch, but I’ll live,” Ashe said, pulling her phone out and grimacing at the time. “We’ve been at this for thirty minutes, odds are the police know we’re here by now.”
“Assuming they don’t just call the Patriots,” Crystal said. “At least one of these guys had the iron cross tattoo.”
“Pretty sure that first guy I killed had one of their shirts on,” Ashe muttered, her stomach twisting at the memory. “I just want to get this done, get a fucking shower and crash.”
Not to mention that she needed to have her leg looked at by an actual doctor.
“I get that,” Crystal said. “We should check the upper floors, make sure there aren’t any other girls up there.”
Ashe sighed, and pushed off the wall. “We’re going to clear upstairs, you got this?” Robbie flashed her a thumbs up and kept filling his bag. Ashe shook her head and looked at the girls. “Alright ladies, on your feet and line up on the wall over there so my friend here can keep an eye on you.”
The girls rose hesitantly, but slowly made their way over to the wall. Jessica looked back for a moment, but fell in with the other girls. Ashe turned and gestured for Crystal to head on up, Crystal rolled her eyes but started up the stairs, gun at the ready. Ashe smiled, following her up.
Her leg still hurt, but she was growing accustomed to the ache, her heart hammering in her chest. She had definitely gotten a whiff of the cocaine despite trying to avoid it, it was helping if nothing else. Ashe checked her own ammunition, and swapped the magazine out just to be safe. At the top, there was no door and another open room with support beams and tables. More drugs were sitting on tables, but that was secondary to all the cash.
“That’s more like it,” Ashe said with a grin. “We got the bags for this?”
Crystal hurried over to the cash and started stuffing the bundles into the bag and Ashe started checking around. She made sure to keep the stairs in her peripheral as she searched. There was some paperwork, and Ashe gathered it up as she went. That was when she paused, seeing the stained mattress on the floor.
Curtains hung from the walls, dividing sections off, each holding a mattress and little more. Ashe’s stomach dropped as she continued counting the beds, seven in total, all well worn from frequent use. Bile rising in her throat, Ashe came to one conclusion. She was going to burn this fucker to the ground.
“My bag’s full, swap me,” Crystal said.
Ashe took her pack off and tossed it to Crystal who then tossed her the full bag of cash. Ashe grunted as it hit her, her leg protesting the impact and stumbled, barely managing to stay upright. Crystal winced when Ashe glared at her, but she slung it over her shoulders and continued to check things as Crystal went back to packing, muttering an apology as she did.
She pocketed a few packets of weed, but wasn’t sure if they would be safe or not. She’d have Crystal look into it since she couldn’t trust Robbie and she sure as shit wasn’t trusting Keiko with shit after the stunt she pulled.
Ashe paused at one of the papers, some sort of shipping manifest. She opted to fold it up and pocketed it, she could study it in-depth once they made their getaway. Content that she wasn’t finding much else, she rejoined Crystal who was zipping her bag up.
“Is that everything?” Ashe asked, looking at further stacks of cash.
Crystal nodded, moving back to the stairwell. “Everything worth hauling. Anything below twenties is generally not worth their bulk.”
“Makes sense,” Ashe said, breath heavy. Stairs and her were not going to get along for a fair bit, luckily she still had painkillers left from her last injuries. Reaching the bottom, she could see the girls still lined up, and Robbie was done packing his own haul away. “Alright girls, thanks for cooperating. You’re all free to go. You can either come with us and get the protection of the Viuda, or you can go to the police and be returned home. We want you safe, whichever works best for you.”
“We can’t trust the Viuda,” one of the women muttered, an older Hispanic woman that was watching the floor. Her clothes weren’t as ratty, but her posture suggested they had broken her long ago.
Robbie turned a heated glare upon her, but Ashe didn’t care what he thought about that. There were already rumors that the Viuda were involved, and that woman might just know more. Ashe refused to leave the girls to simply be collected back up by whoever was trafficking them. She still had doubts about the Viuda being involved given her source, but these girls might know more, and some might even be willing to help investigate things. Somehow, Ashe knew her workload had just exploded, because she wouldn’t be able to turn her back on those in need.
She was surprised when Jessica stepped forward. “What promise do we have that we’ll be safer with you?”
Ashe glanced at Crystal who shrugged. It was apparently Ashe’s show then. “You have none but my word, which means little to nothing in the grand scheme of things.”
Jessica snorted, then sneezed, her expression turning to anger after. “I can’t go back to my family, and the police would send me into their arms. I don’t have a choice.”
“Me either,” a meek sounding girl said in Spanish, she seemed far too young and Ashe struggled to follow her swiftly spoken words. “My parents died on the way here… I have nothing back home.”
Some of the girls nodded along and it soon became clear that Ashe had inadvertently made herself their only safe option and she had no idea what to do about it. She could pass them off to Mercedes, but until she had confirmation of the level of involvement with the traffickers, she needed to proceed with caution.
“Ugh, guys,” Keiko said over their earpieces. “There’s a cop car pulling up in front of the pawn shop.”
“Well shit,” Ashe muttered.
She was not ready to accept responsibility for nearly a dozen teen girls, let alone getting them away from the police.