Page 13 of One Minute Out

“Are you certain, or are you guessing?”

“Always police. Police from Mostar come to farm.”

I say, “We have to help the girls.”

“I want to help girls. But girls gone. Never see girls again.”

“How do you know?”

She shrugs now, looks me hard in the eyes. “Because you came.”

I feel that pain in the pit of my stomach that comes the moment I realize I fucked up. I went into this with the objective of making the world a better place by taking an evil man out of it, but in doing so, I just might have condemned many others to a horrific fate.

Gentry, what have you done now?

I stammer as I talk. “Someone down there told me they would all be beaten for what I did tonight. Is that... true?”

She nods assuredly. “It does not matter that they no responsible for what happen. The men... very bad. They punish for this.”

Slowly I ask, “Will they kill them?”

She shakes her head now. “No. They no kill them. Women are money to them. Thousands of euros a day. The men never let them go while they can make money.”

“Who are these people?”

“Serbian mafia. Local police, too. I think old man pays police for protection.”

I change gears. “Would you recognize the policemen who you saw at the farm?”

“Recog-nize?”

“If you see them again, will you know them?”

She nods. “They rape me. I sex with them. Of course I see faces.”

“Right.” I want to drop this chick off in Mostar and put this entire clusterfuck in my rearview, but I know I can’t do that. I’m responsible for those women now, for the simple reason that I showed up tonight and imperiled them even more than they already were. It may not make sense to others, but I accept it.

Their fate... simply put... is my fate.

I say, “Look. If I take you to Mostar, you can show me the policemen who came here.”

Again, I get the “what’s wrong with you” look from the young woman.

“If they see me, they kill me. Why I go to Mostar? I want go Moldova.”

“I can protect you, then I will get you back home. I promise.”

“How you protect me?”

“Sister, I just killed six... correction, seven men back there. Believe me, I can protect you.”

Her eyes widen. I don’t brag about killing as a rule, but I need her to know I’m deadly serious about this. Apparently, she isn’t quite buying it yet because she asks, “Why? Why you care? No one care about the girls in the pipeline.”

“The pipeline?”

“Da. The pipeline. Our countries, into Serbia, into Bosnia. From here I don’t know. Someone say a boat, but I don’t know where boat going.”

“How many girls?”

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