Page 50 of Soros
It felt like an eternity but finally, we reached the destination. According to the map, Tania should be inside a burger place.
We were all on edge when we walked inside. Only twelve people were in the fast-food restaurant and none of them looked remotely like Tania. A family with three children, an older couple, and a group of young women followed the instructions of the detectives who asked everyone to kindly cooperate. They all searched their pockets and bags for a phone. My heart fell the moment one of the young women held up a phone and said, “I found this one in my pocket. It’s not mine.”
“We should have gone inside that nightclub,”I said telepathically and felt upset that I hadn’t followed my instinct. “Instead, we’ve allowed Ko’roz to distract us by chasing Tania’s phone.”
The detectives took the phone from the woman. It was on silent and had all Lios’ missed calls. The agents interviewed her about where she had been and sure enough, she had been at Columbia University and taken the subway back to meet with friends close to her home. She had no idea when someone had slipped Tania’s phone into her bag and couldn’t remember anything unusual happening.
“We need to get back, right now!” I insisted. “I want to go inside that night club.”
Nerix stood with his hands on the roof of the car, leaning his head forward and closing his eyes.
“Any luck,” I asked him.
“It’s vague, but I’m getting little glimpses of where Star is. She’s showing me that there are no windows.”
I growled low with irritation, blaming myself for not going inside that night club. There hadn’t been any windows. It had to be where she was.
“We’ve just given Ko’roz time to move Tania and Star. He knows we’ll be back. Why didn’t we split up and you could have chased the phone signal while I searched the night club? She was there… I should have trusted my instinct.”
Nerix looked as frustrated as I felt. “Let’s get back then. Maybe Ko’roz thinks that we’re too stupid to come back.”
I scoffed. “Ko’roz is many things, but stupid isn’t one of them.”
Lios came toward us. Lowering my chin, I declared. “When we get back to that night club, I’m mind clouding anyone that opens that door. You can report me to the Federation, or you can help. I’m not taking no for an answer.”
Lios’ jaw was set as he gestured for us to get back inside the car. “You do that, but when it comes to Ko’roz leave him to me.”
When it came to mental powers, Nerix and I knew we were no match for an Ugon like Lios. But in that moment, I noticed a weariness from Lios that I hadn’t seen before.
The two detectives got into the car and once again, we took off with Nerix, Lios, and me feeling deeply frustrated that human transportation was so painfully slow.
CHAPTER 19
Trafficking
Tania
Trafficking was something I had read and heard about, but never had I imagined that it could happen to me.
Sitting in a disgusting basement room without windows, Star and I listened to the story of the other two German women who were in the room already when we entered.
“We were hypnotized,” a woman who had introduced herself as Veronika explained. “We’re tourists from Germany and we can’t figure out how it happened. All we remember was a man approaching us on the street. He was charming and friendly, and we were stupid enough to follow him here.”
We didn’t explain to the two German women that they had been mind clouded by an alien. They were already trying to process how they had ended up in this dreadful place.
“We came here with our friend Malene, but she fought back this morning when the men collected the other women. There was a nasty man with a tattoo of a snake who smacked her to the ground and dragged her out of here by her hair. Veronika and I screamed and cried and maybe that’s why the men left us alone in here,” Hanna, the second German girl explained. “It’s horrible. The other women told us last night that they’re all victims of trafficking. Each morning they’re taken to a different motel where they have to service customers all day. They’re told that they have to earn enough money for the boss to let them go, but that makes no sense. Our logic says that the more money they make him the less he wants to let them go.”
“I can only agree,” I said and placed a hand on top of my bobbing leg.
“Last night, we were told by the other women, that it’s not uncommon that women return at night bruised and beaten.”
Veronika, who was short with a pixie haircut, added in a disturbed tone, “They also said that sometimes women don’t return at all. At first, we thought that was a good thing because it could mean that the women got freed, but the others think it’s because they are either sold or killed.”
“We need to get out of here,” I said and stood up. “We saw a woman hanging on a cross. She was badly tortured.”
“Did she have long, blonde hair?” Hanna asked with concern.
“Yes.”
