CHAPTERNINE
The first part of the mission ran like clockwork.The various safes at the embassy had been opened and their contents stripped.Each piece of tech had been dismantled.They had the proof they needed to have the ambassador discredited and the embassy closed down.Kasiki diplomats would be removed from the country with immediate effect.The authorities were pleased.Conor was not pleased.The ambassador had gotten away, the women moved out, and he could not get in touch with Karolina.
Both the warehouse on the dock and the embassy were too hot to use, so another link in the chain must have been forged.His task was to find that link, but first he had to know that Karolina was safe.He placed another call.No answer.Where was she?Gut instinct suggested nowhere safe.
The phone vibrated in her pocket.The sound was deafening in the silence.She coughed to cover for it.The woman next to her glanced across.“Are you police?”she asked fearfully, a whisper of hope in her voice.
Karolina gave a quick shake of her head.As far as she could tell, everyone in the van was in the same sad situation, and the ambassador would sell Karolina along with the rest.
Everyone was tense when the vehicles finally ground to a halt.The windows were blacked out.They had no way of knowing where they were, or what their immediate fate might be.Not knowing was the most terrifying part of all.
Her stomach squeezed tight as the van doors swung open.An order that needed no translation was barked out.As they began disembarking, Karolina’s mind whirled.They had parked on an airstrip.The auction had yet to take place, she gathered, taking in the floodlights and cameras.The choice of venue was perfect for a swift removal of the women to the various private jets waiting to transport them on to their next destination.There was a rostrum in the center of the makeshift arena, equipped with a microphone and video prompt.And there, standing ready for the proceedings to begin, was her father.
“It has come to my attention,” the ambassador announced, “that one of you has a phone.Will that person please step forward?”
Please?He was as cool as you like, and as vicious as she knew him to be, but as Karolina stepped forward, the young woman who had been sitting next to her in the van stepped forward too.
“Any more?”her father inquired mildly.“I should warn you that I’m in no mood to play a game of Spartacus with you.”
Every other woman in the group had her head down, staring fixedly at the ground.Only Karolina and her companion had their chins raised and their lips pressed firmly together.Their focus was identical.They stared straight ahead.Enslavement unacceptable, submission unthinkable.
“One phone.Two women.”The ambassador’s lips pressed down as he shrugged.Waving one of his thugs forward, he instructed, “Search them both.Start with that one,” he commanded, pointing to the defiant young woman at Karolina’s side.
The thug barely had the chance to thrust his hand down the back of the neck of the flimsy cardigan of his ashen-faced young victim, when Karolina yelled out, “Stop!”
Tutting rhythmically into the mic, the ambassador slowly shook his head from side to side.“You never learn, do you, Karolina?You will be sold alongside the rest of my stock.A little soiled, it’s true,” he added with a smiling sneer, “but you haven’t lost your looks yet.”He cocked his head to one side as if weighing up a heifer at market.“I should get a good price for you.If you don’t go into a brothel, I’m sure you’ll make a good domestic servant.”
“Slave, don’t you mean?”she yelled.“Why don’t you admit the truth, or can’t you face it?”
The women behind her were becoming uneasy at the way she was provoking the slave master.She could feel them shuffling and sense their fear.The circle of guards held loaded guns, and unless Conor had picked up a signal from her phone, no one knew they were here.They were invisible, soon to disappear.
He didn’t see Karolina at first.When he did, it was a punch in the gut.Grinding his jaw, he fought back the fury threatening to distract him.It accelerated when he took in the women grouped with her.The plan was to hold off until the auction was well underway.That plan couldn’t be changed now.The line of women awaiting sale was growing shorter, while the huddle of miserable souls already sold grew by the minute.Auctions like this were fast and furious.Karolina would soon be the only one left.The only positive was the ambassador being so sure of his ground.Karolina was standing with an armed guard standing over her.She’d lost the game as far as her father was concerned.
Private jets were lined up on the runway.Their tail markings would lead back through countless shell companies to an apparently blameless enterprise with no identifiable connection to the principal behind the purchase of slaves.The first move was to take out the guards around those jets and disable the aircraft so no one could get away.The trap was about to close.
The attack was fast.Lights were shot out.A microphone screeched as it hit the ground.Women screamed.Men cursed.Guns went off.
Noise and panic masked her intentions, and that was when Karolina came into her own.Felling the guard standing over her, she took his keys.The next thing Conor knew, she was fighting alongside his men.
Shadowy figures milled about, while others attempted to run.The thugs were quickly brought down by his team and handcuffed.Blundering about in pitch black had left them disadvantaged as he’d planned.The moment Karolina could see that her help was no longer needed where fighting her father’s gang was concerned, she went to reassure the women.
He had two immediate objectives.
Knocking the ambassador to the ground, he turned him on his stomach and attached his ankles to his wrists.Trussed up like a turkey, the ambassador wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry.Conor’s next goal was to get Karolina to safety.
One quick glance of relief at the sight of him, and she exclaimed, “Leave me!Get these women out of here first.”
A quick glance around the watchful faces of the women proved that Karolina had calmed them and prepared them to leave.Those only recently captured had heard about the ambassador’s daughter and how Karolina did everything she could to help them, so they were confident when she told them they would be taken to a place of safety where, after proper care and rest, they could tell their stories and be reunited with their families.
“I have to stay until the authorities get here,” he explained to Karolina, “but I won’t leave without you.”
“You’d better not,” she said with the first smile she’d risked that evening.
“Come on,” he urged with a glance at the women.“Let’s get them started on the road to freedom.”
Karolina looked at him as if seeing him for the first time.And in a good way.“This is one hell of a time to say this, but I love you, Conor Murphy.”
Rewards came in many forms and that was his.A brief, fierce embrace sealed another, very different deal between them.There was no time for more.The women remained their priority.Karolina had a few words for each, and hugs were exchanged.She didn’t relax until the last of the former captives had been escorted onto the comfortable coach his team had provided for them.
