Page 46 of One Minute Out

“Christ,” I say.

“The people running the pipelines and other systems like it have this down to an art. The way stations are hellholes, but they are also refuges. Food, music, the bonds made between the captors and women, the drugs administered to them. It’s all part of the plan. These young women and girls go into a system that has been honed for hundreds of years. Thousands of years.”

And here I am, getting in the middle of all this.

She sighs loudly now, then asks, “How can we possibly locate them in a city the size of Dubrovnik?”

“I have an idea. But you may not like it.”

“Anything. I’ll do anything to find out who is responsible.”

“I was hoping you might say that.” I breathe out a long sigh, knowing this idea isn’t great, but it’s all I have. “We use you as bait.”

She looks up at me slowly as I drive. “Bait?”

“Look, the cops have been tainted at each stop on the pipeline. Not just here in Mostar, but in the other locations, as well.”

“Yes.” I can tell she gets it. “So... so you are saying I go to the police in Dubrovnik and start asking questions?”

“Exactly.”

“About my sister?”

“I wouldn’t do that. If there is one chance in one hundred she could still be alive, you will endanger her by letting the opposition know you are looking for her. She just may become too incriminating for them to keep around.”

Talyssa thinks about this for a long time. “I can’t do that. I think she is gone... but without a body, I do not know for sure. So... what do I say?”

“Tell them you know about the pipeline, and you know about the Consortium.”

“But... what do I know about the Consortium?”

“Nothing, really, beyond the name. Throw that out there. Ad-lib. Like I did back there with Niko.”

“And then what?”

“Then return to your hotel and let me take over. They’ll come for you, I’ll get you out before they take you, and then I’ll be there to see who they are and where they go.”

She sits in silence a moment. I start to waffle. I even consider telling her we’ll think of something else because this is too dangerous. But I know there is nothing else.

She knows this, too. “Yes. That is the best idea.”

“Not sure it’s the best idea, Talyssa, but it’s pretty much the only idea I have.”

“When do we leave for Dubrovnik?”

I’ve turned on the highway through high hills towards mountains in the south. “We’ll be there in a few hours.”

She nods and we drive on.

I’ve made it out to her like our plan will be much easier than I envision things, because if Dubrovnik is, in fact, the next stop along the pipeline, the people who run this thing are going to be looking for us there. The same guy—me—shot up one of their way stations and then snatched one of their police conspirators, so it’s no great leap to assume I’ll turn up again at the next stop in the line.

If they normally had five guys with guns around the girls, now they will have fifteen. If they would normally send two guys to pick up Talyssa when they realize she’s on to them, now they will send six.

My involvement in this whole thing has made it more difficult for everyone—victim, friend, and foe alike.

Nice work, Gentry.

This is going to get complicated, and it’s just me and the accountant with the missing sister against an opposition we haven’t even identified yet.

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