From the rear of the trailer, I heard muffled sounds. Then I thought how much of a dumbass I was. They all still had duct tape covering their mouths.
“Boss, I need help in getting the tape off their mouths.”
He came over with two other agents and we slowly got that job done. Most of the women were mumbling and weeping silent tears, but what got me the most was how much they were trembling. Their bodies were nearly vibrating. I grabbed the clippers that were hooked on my pants and started snipping off the cable ties, one by one. Some of them had been so tight, they’d cut deeply into their skin. These women were filthy and smelled something awful. No telling how long they’d been in here or wherever they’d come from.
“Let me try this again. Does anyone speak English?”
“I speak little,” a raspy voice said.
I hunted the source and when I located it, I was troubled to see a small child. It infuriated me to think this little girl had been stolen from her family.
“Hi. Are you alone or is your mother here?”
Her head moved slightly. “Alone. Man took me.” Then she wept like the young child she was. The woman next to her hugged her and gave me a nasty look.
“Can you tell me how old you are?”
Through her sobs, she eventually managed to tell me she was ten. Fucking ten years old. I counted the heads in that damn trailer and there were thirty-seven of them crammed inside.
Calling the boss over, I told him. “I want to kill the bastards who did this.”
“They’re nothing but animals, Chambers.”
He was right. Humans didn’t do this kind of thing, only monsters. And I was going to make it my mission to find them.
Chapter Two
ACER
Reynolds picked me up and we took off. I had never been this frightened in my life.
“Care to explain everything now?” She took the next exit and pulled into the first gas station.
At first I couldn’t speak. How could Paulie be involved in something so horrific? When the car came to a stop and she glanced over, she immediately became sympathetic. “Hey, everything’s going to be all right.”
“I can’t understand what just happened,” I finally said.
“I want to know who this friend of yours is.”
“I’m wondering that myself. He used to find odd jobs for me when I still lived up north, but when this came up, I pressed him about it and he said I’d be hauling computer chips.”
“He’ll be implicated, you know. And we do have to return to the scene, or the FBI will come looking for you.”
I didn’t have anything to hide. I was just scared that whoever did this would find me, which was why we left.
“Do you think they’re there yet?”
“Probably, that is if you called them right away.”
“I did. We should probably go back then.”
When we pulled in, the whole place was lit up like an amusement park. They’d closed off the rest area to traffic, but when we explained who we were, they let us through and pointed us to an area toward the trailer.
Reynolds parked and we got out. A man immediately greeted us and said his name was Art Sanderson, the agent in charge. I introduced myself and then Reynolds and explained why we left. He was cool with everything. Then he hit me with all kinds of questions. “You understand we’ll want you to come in. We need you to make a statement and answer some questions.”
“Sure. Do you think they’ll be all right? All those women?”
“I hope so. The ambulances are using triage to take the worst ones in first. But there were some children in there too.”
“Children? I didn’t see them, but then again, I didn’t spend much time looking.”
“Yeah. Some were fairly young by what we could tell.”
“Oh, God. That’s awful.” I couldn’t imagine who would want to do that to anyone, much less a child.
“Hey, it’s a good thing you were suspicious and had the inclination to look at what you were hauling.”
Then I thought of something. “What about the warehouse?”
“Warehouse?”
“The place I was supposed to take them.”
Agent Sanderson nodded. “Right. We sent a group over there to check and it was empty. My guess is when you didn’t show up as you were supposed to, they cleared out. They must’ve had eyes on the place and saw us arrive. We’re tracking down who it’s rented to and hope to get a lead there.”
“And my friend? Paulie McCutcheon?”
“We called him but no answer.”
“Let me try.” I pulled out my phone and when Paulie didn’t answer, I left him a message.
“Do me a favor. Let me know if you hear from him.”
“Sure thing. This has really freaked me out. What do you think was going to happen to them?”
Agent Sanderson sighed. “My guess is this is just a small part of a larger human trafficking ring. Do you have any other connections with them?”
My gut clenched as acid burned a path up my esophagus. I was all for making a buck, but not through these means. I shook my head. “No! Like I said, Paulie told me I’d be hauling computer chips.” I crossed my arms to stop them from gesturing as I thought about what happened. I was pissed off at Paulie but more upset by this situation.
“Hey, you did the right thing by calling us,” Agent Sanderson said as he clenched my shoulder. “We don’t normally get notified in time and when we find these women some of them haven’t made it.”
“You mean as in died?” I sounded so stupid and naive.
“Yes. They’re crammed in these trailers with no space, food, or water, for endless hours. Often they’re drugged to keep them quiet and by the time we find them, or if we find them, it’s too late.”
Reynolds spoke up this time. “How often do you find situations like this?”
“Like this? Hardly ever, which is why I commended your brother-in-law for calling. Human trafficking is a much larger issue than most people realize. Atlanta is a major hub for it too because of the airport and the interstate system. It’s also close to Savannah, which makes it easy to get them in or out of the country.”
A woman approached Agent Sanderson and he excused himself.
“Reynolds, this is just terrible. I never knew.”
“Neither did I, so don’t beat yourself up over it. I knew it occurred, but not like this.”
I started to walk away.
“Where are you going?”
“I want to see those women. See how they’re doing now that the ambulances are here.”
She followed me toward the crowd. Art was talking with two women, one was middle-aged and the other appeared to be in her twenties. The older woman was telling him she was fluent in Mandarin and would take over the communication with the women.
Art seemed happy as he said, “Great to hear. Some of them have been understandably upset and don’t trust us. Having you here will be helpful, especially with the children.”
The two women walked off and I followed with Reynolds in tow. Some of the victims had been carried out and placed on stretchers where medics were attending them. One young child kept crying and that’s when the woman went over and began speaking to her. The child was so upset, she could only nod. Whatever the woman told her seemed to work, because the girl calmed down and allowed the paramedic to examine her. I watched in awe as she moved on to the next woman. With the help of the two women, they were able to move through all the captives. The worst ones were taken to local hospitals for treatment. The others were taken to local women’s shelters until it could be decided on how to get them home.