Page 78 of One Minute Out

“I saw the girls.”

“Did you see... did you see Roxana?”

“I couldn’t make out any faces. I’m sorry, I was too far away. They were taken to a yacht offshore.”

“A yacht?”

“A big one. Where are you now?”

“According to my GPS, I’m in a little town called Stikovica. It’s on the coast just fifteen minutes north of Dubrovnik. I ran out of gas. I left the scooter in the woods and am sitting at a bus stop, waiting for morning so I can rent a car or get on a bus or... or... I don’t exactly know what I’m doing.”

I look to the GPS and see exactly where she is. The yacht will probably motor past her location within minutes, but it will likely be well out to sea, and she doesn’t have binoculars that would allow her a chance to get the name off it.

But she might still be able to help.

“If I send you a couple of images, can you lighten them so we can read the name of the vessel on the stern?”

“No problem. I can Bluetooth it to my laptop and do it from here.”

“Good.” I text her the pictures, then glance up at the lights of the distant boat, barely more than a pinprick now. I know the girls from the red room in Bosnia are on board, and I feel so utterly helpless watching them go.

She says, “I’ve got the images. This will take me a few minutes.”

That yacht is headed north, so even though I don’t know its name, who owns it, or where the hell it’s going, I’m going to haul ass to the north to be in position to intercept it.

I consider stealing a boat to go after it, but decide against it. A yacht that size probably cruises along at around fifteen to twenty knots; I can steal a car onshore and move three times that speed in the same direction.

Thirty minutes later I’ve boosted a Volkswagen Golf from a lot next to an apartment complex up the hill, and I’m negotiating my way out of Dubrovnik, being very careful to avoid any roads near where I tipped the van earlier, because there is no doubt they will be full of cops.

And I do my best to avoid cops, even when they aren’t also evil sex traffickers.

My phone rings, finally, and I snatch it up. “I thought you forgot about me.”

Talyssa says, “No... I just needed some time to—”

“Save it. I’m picking you up.”

“What?”

“I’m ten minutes from Stikovica. Tell me exactly where you are.”

She does so. I hang up and stomp the pedal down to the floor.

•••

Talyssa Corbu is right where she said she’d be, standing near the train station. She climbs in with her pack, and then I floor it back onto the highway as the first hues of dawn appear to the east.

Before she says anything, she puts a couple of candy bars and a bag of chips in my lap and opens a bottled water for me. “The stores were still closed, but I found vending machines outside the station. I thought you might—”

I’ve already ripped into a chocolate bar and am wolfing it down. I put the water between my knees and unscrew the cap.

She finishes her sentence while staring at me. “—be a little hungry.”

Between bites I say, “I thought you said it would just take a few minutes to get the images lightened.”

“What? Oh... it didn’t take long at all.”

“You found the name of the vessel?”

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