Page 19 of Wed
"Guess the wedding is off now?" Ben asked.
"Just delayed. I can't risk Becca being out in public here. Once we clear this up, we'll plan something new. She's okay with that. Saving Lenora was more important than our wedding ever could be. We've waited this long, we can wait a bit more." Bryon turned, seeing the group was settled. "Okay, let's get started. Xander and Matt will be back soon but can catch up on what we discuss later." He took a seat in one of the chairs. "As you all know, Lenora was taken from her foster home and given to traffickers who auctioned her off to the highest bidder. We all know exactly what would be happening to Lenora right now if Faith and Becca hadn't stepped in."
"Are we going after the others?" Beau asked.
"I'm not sure yet. I want to lay out everything we know and then we'll decide as a team if it's worth the risk. We are not prepared for something of this magnitude. We're away from home, without our normal resources, and without equipment. Thanks to the help of the Denver team, we have found out that the group that auctioned Lenora off was the Diaz group. We've come across them before in our research, but since they usually work in the border area, we haven't had to deal with them. They are a very violent group that is involved in human trafficking, sex trafficking, and drug trafficking. They also deal in organ trafficking. They are one of the groups who will steal human organs out of children in Mexico, then stuff the bodies full of drugs and send them back over the border, appearing to be a sleeping child in the backseat of a vehicle. They are a very violent group. Here in Vegas, they run several trafficking rings that supply prostitutes to the hotels. You'll see men handing out brochures on the strip offering women. Most of these women are underage and forced into this life. This isn't your old-fashioned street pimp with a few women working for them. This is a huge organization that makes millions a year off these women. Hell, women, men, and children honestly. Those who work for the Diaz group don't leave. You're in for life."
"He's right. I know of a friend who managed to get into the group to do some undercover work. He didn't make it out alive. Diaz is the worst of the worst. He has parts of the Mexican government working with him and I wouldn't be shocked to find out parts of the U.S. government as well. He's got the money to buy his connections and won't hesitate to use blackmail if he can. The fact Lenora said a police officer took her from the foster home to Diaz's place shows he's got some police in his pocket as well. Trust no one. We're going to see if we can find Lenora's brother and reunite them, but beyond that, I'm just not sure it's safe for us to go any deeper," Carter told them. "The large international hunting teams hesitate to take on Diaz, and they have a lot more power and structure than we do."
Bryon nodded. "Which is why we'll vote on any actions we take. I know even without our resources, if we can find Lenora's brother, and he's still at the foster home, we can get to him. If they've moved him, all bets are off. And if we find him, the next question is what to do with the kids. I need one or two of you to start digging into Lenora's life and see if there are friends or family that the state of Nevada didn't find. I have Becca and Faith getting more information from Lenora tomorrow about where she used to live, the names of friends, and other information. I'll have it to you guys as soon as they get it to me. It sounds like within days of their parents' deaths they were put into the system, so I doubt Nevada looked very hard. I can't imagine parents not having some kind of plan worked out in case they die. Even if it's not in their will, they would have asked someone to step in."
"I'll make some calls and see what I can find out through CPS." Parson ran his fingers through his hair. "I have a friend I used to work with who moved to Vegas about two years ago. I know I can trust her."
"Perfect. See if you can get her to share anything about her brother, Andy as well. If she could get us the location of his current foster home, that would make our jobs much easier." Bryon turned as Xander and Matt walked in holding several bags. "Late to the party as always."
"You guys don't need us. You got it handled." Xander tossed a bag onto the coffee table. "We picked up some candy bars to keep everyone going."
"Thanks." Kasey reached for the bag, pulling out two bars and handing one to Noam. "Been a long time since a man's brought me chocolate."
Xander winked at him. "Don't tell me I don't know the way to your heart."
Noam rolled his eyes. "I made him chocolate cake two days ago."
"While you two fight about chocolate, I'm sneaking in to make a delivery." Matt held up the other bags. "Are they still awake?"
"Lenora's out, but Faith and Becca are in my room," Bryon told him.
"Save me a Snickers." Matt headed down the hallway.
"So what are we talking about?" Xander sat down on one of the smaller couches.
"The usual. The downfall of society. The evil in the world. The dark perverts destroying our children," Carter quipped.
"Kill them all." Xander clapped his hands. "Issue solved."
"If only it was that easy. This time, we might have bit off more than we can chew." Archer sighed. "What do we know about these auctions?"
Bryon refocused. "They aren't uncommon. We see them all the time. They send out sample pictures of the boys and girls about a week before the auction to get interest, then on the night of the auction, the kids are on live video while the bidding happens. Once payment is made, they plan a place to drop off the kid. We figured that's what was happening today when Faith and Becca saw Lenora. Come in with one man, leave with the other."
"Never to be heard from again." Beau's voice was filled with disgust.
"Not this time." Xander smiled. "The girls came through."
"They did, but I still want to scream at the two of them for the danger they were in." Bryon shook his head. He still couldn't breathe normally when he thought about all the ways things could have gone wrong. They wouldn't have just killed Faith and Becca. The Diaz group would have taken and made the women pay in much more painful ways.
"I'll be taking that up with Faith later." Matt walked back into the room, slumping onto the couch beside Xander.
"They're safe and so is Lenora. That's what we have to focus on now." Beau glanced over at Bryon. "What do we have from the hotel surveillance system?"
Carter sat forward. "I've got the team in Denver working on this. They've got the video of one of the men walking into the hotel with Lenora. Then a video of them walking into the restaurant. They are seated in an area we can't see, but they did have cameras outside the bathroom. We got the whole thing. Becca appears drunk as she walks out of the bathroom and falls into the man waiting for Lenora. Faith times their escape perfectly. She rushes out with Lenora and is gone before the man can recover from Becca falling into him. They exchange words and Becca walks off in the other direction. About five minutes later, the man goes into the bathroom and comes out furious. We see him reach for his phone before he walks out of camera range. We have him and the other man leaving the hotel about ten minutes later, both looking extremely pissed off."
"I want to see this." Xander tossed a candy wrapper at Carter.
"You'll all get to see it. We're double-checking everything here is secure before we start using our computers for anything other than everyday stuff. We'll be ready by morning," Carter promised the group. "We also have a possible hit on the identity of the man who bought Lenora. We're verifying this, but if it's who we think he is, he's local here in Vegas. Quite the prominent businessman. We might have to pay him a visit before we leave here."
"Remember, we don't have the equipment," Bryon warned.
"All I need is a few zip ties and a sharp knife." Xander grinned.
