Part 21 (2/2)
”Oh, Jesus,” Luke said, as Bart and Patrick lowered their weapons.
The inhabitants of the room, all women, were huddled against the back wall, their haunted eyes wide. Luke immediately threw his hands up in front of him and said, ”Easy, easy. We're here to help.”
A toilet was in the corner of the room and the food remnants were near the door. Several mattresses were on the other side of the room, pushed together to form a large bed. One young woman, her dark hair matted but her eyes clear and hard, stepped forward. ”Can you get us out of here?”
”Absolutely,” Bart said, as Luke immediately radioed Monty.
”Get Nick in here now,” he barked. ”Seems like Charlie's supposed connection with human trafficking was right. There's a roomful of women imprisoned here.”
”Charlie?” whispered one young girl, her eyes wide. ”You're Charlie's friends?”
Luke stared at the girl, her blue eyes brighter and blonde hair cleaner than the other women inside the room. ”Penny?”
”Yes!” she cried out, racing forward to slam into him. He caught her slight weight before pus.h.i.+ng her back gently to look into her face.
”I thought Charlie came earlier to get you,” he asked, forcing his voice to steady.
”She was supposed to but they took me before she got here. Please, you've got to help me find David.”
While Luke questioned Penny about Charlie's possible whereabouts, Bart and Patrick carefully attended the women, who appeared to be in good, although unkempt, shape.
”How long have you been here?” Cam asked the woman he was squatting next to.
”Three days,” she said, her voice shaky. ”They were going to s.h.i.+p us out tomorrow.”
”Did they say where?”
Before she could answer, Monty and Nick entered, both men's faces tight with anger. Nick, surveying the situation, pulled out his phone and called his supervisor. Giving a terse explanation, he arranged for the FBI to get to the facility immediately.
Luke, still holding onto Penny's shoulders, asked, ”David?”
”My friend. The one Charlotte was going to help me get out of here. He agreed to give up his kidney for money and they're going to do the surgery tonight.”
Luke's gaze swung around to the Saints, landing on Nick's wide-eyes. ”f.u.c.kin' h.e.l.l, Charlie was right. This place is a front for organ harvesting as well as human trafficking.”
Leaving some to stay with the women, Luke prepared to lead the others and Nick to the stairwell. He halted his instruction as Jude spoke in his earpiece. Eyes wide, he cursed, ”s.h.i.+t!” Quickly looking at the others, he said, ”Jude's just gotten an alarm from Charlie's medallion. She's here...in this building...right now!”
His mind racing, ”She must have gone inside or was taken inside.” His gaze moved back toward the horror they had just discovered and he choked out, ”Find her. Priority One.”
”Me too!” shouted Penny as the men left the room. They appeared to ignore her, but she followed them nonetheless.
The Saints, immediately flying into action, jogged up the stairs and out onto the first floor. Spreading out, they searched the rooms before clearing the area. Rounding the corner, heading back to the stairwell, they ran right into a pet.i.te woman, her dark bob swinging as she came to a halt, her gun held firmly in her hand.
”Agent w.a.n.g!” Luke growled, his eyes pinned on her.
Nick rounded the corner, his weapon drawn, facing her. ”Put down your weapon, Agent w.a.n.g,” he ordered.
Penny heard the name w.a.n.g and peeked around the large man standing in her line of vision. Fuming at the woman who had thrust her into the dungeon, she was stunned to see a different woman standing there.
”What the f.u.c.k are you doing here?” Lin bit out, her dark eyes narrowed in anger. ”You're going to ruin everything!”
”I said put it down!” Nick repeated.
”Where's Charlie?” Luke interrupted.
Lin's eyes jumped from Nick's to Luke's. ”Who the h.e.l.l is Charlie?”
”Charlotte Trivett,” he yelled. ”Where do you have her? With the others you keep downstairs?”
”What others?” she asked, her voice hard.
”That's not her,” Penny said, jumping back a step as the men angrily turned toward her. ”There's another woman named w.a.n.g...the one who put me in the room, but it's not her. The other woman has a dragon tattoo on her wrist.”
”d.a.m.nit, we've had the wrong L. w.a.n.g!” Luke swore.
Lowering her gun, Lin grimaced. ”No s.h.i.+t. It's like Smith or Johnson...you think there's only one Chinese woman with the last name w.a.n.g?”
A side door opened and Xia Wu popped out, her face stunned as she realized she had stumbled into a guns drawn standoff. Her eyes sought Lin's, but she said nothing.
”Is he still there?” Lin asked.
Xia, nervously shaking her head, said, ”No, his room is empty. They're all empty upstairs.”
”What the h.e.l.l is going on?” Nick asked, his eyes never leaving the other agent's face.
”I've been investigating this clinic for almost five months,” Lin answered tersely. ”And you and your band of Merry Men are about to f.u.c.k my whole investigation up!”
”I don't know what your game is, but Charlie is in this building and I want to know where,” Luke barked.
”I saw her,” Xia answered quickly. ”She came in the back, from the side door. But I haven't seen her since.”
”And who the f.u.c.k are you?” Luke asked, his gaze moving between Lin and the other woman.
”She's mine,” Lin stated, her voice as hard as her expression. ”I've had her on the inside reporting to me.”
Nick, his focus still on Lin, said, ”You've been investigating? Why didn't anyone at the Bureau know about it? Why didn't anyone tell me?”
Lin pinched her lips together, lowering her weapon. ”Because I was working on my own, trying to see what I'd missed.”
”Missed?”
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