Page 63 of Fear and Desire

Dan shook his head and took a step back. “God, I’ve been living in your world for too long.”

Laura caught Kamlai’s slight sideways step out of the corner of her eye. The tiny woman flashed her a quick smile.

DeLeo raised his eyebrows. “Perhaps it intrigues you, then? There’s a lot of money in this business. You might consider giving it a try for real. You’re good, that’s for sure.” His voice oozed honey.

Kamlai moved so suddenly no one had time to act. Three gunshots rang out over Laura’s head. The other women shrieked and Laura screwed her eyes shut. When no more shots came, she looked up. Kamlai stood with a gun in her hand, grabbed from under one of the dead guards. She was pointing it at DeLeo and his two men, who lay on the ground with large holes in their chests. DeLeo made a strange gurgling sound and went silent.

The other men were all aiming their weapons at Kamlai. She turned the gun on Dan. The tension in the room went up dramatically.

“Kamlai, why?” Laura asked calmly. She pushed herself to her feet and put a hand on the other woman’s shoulder.

“Evil.” Kamlai nodded toward the corpses. She turned back to Dan. “You evil too?”

Kamlai didn’t know if these armed men were rescuers, or the same kind of men DeLeo had been. Ignoring the silent, frantic plea in Dan’s eyes to stand back, Laura walked around the shaking woman to place herself between the gun and Dan. “Kamlai, no. Not evil. I promise.” She kept her voice low as she turned the weapon to the side, then pried Kamlai’s trembling fingers loose until she had the gun in her hands. She held it behind her and Dan grabbed it. The agents all lowered their weapons as Laura enfolded the woman in her arms. Kamlai didn’t resist, but she stood rigid. Laura whispered, “it’s okay, it’s okay”in Kamlai’s ear, and the tiny woman finally relaxed. Eventually Laura took her hand and led her back to the wall near the other women, and they sat down together. Laura’s head was spinning and there were pricks of blackness at the sides of her vision.

“Well,” Dan cleared his throat, “that, um, solves some problems.” He gestured out the door. “Gentlemen, I think it’s time we clean up and head home. And let’s actually search the dead bodies for any weapons, eh?” He lifted an eyebrow at one of his agents.

“Sorry, boss.” A short, wiry man had a face that was as red with embarrassment as his hair.

Dan put an arm under Laura and helped her off the floor. Kamlai refused help, standing up tall and proud without help. The two Polish women allowed the other men to escort them out the front door.

Three old, battered trucks and a car waited in the driveway. A woman older than all four of the vehicles combined stood next to the car. As the three former slaves drew near, she pulled out loose, brightly colored dresses, and helped them slip the fabric over their own tiny gowns. She smiled approvingly and gestured them into the car.

“Her husband is going to drive them into St. Petersburg, about three hours away,” Dan told her. “He’ll drop Kamlai off outside the Thai Embassy, and the Polish women outside their embassy. I wish we could do more for them, but if we’re found here…” he trailed off and Laura nodded. He handed her a dress like the other women wore and she donned the voluminous garment gratefully. Her knees suddenly buckled. Dan caught her, and with one motion, he swept her into his arms.

“Whoa there. Need to get you into the truck. Hang on.” To her surprise, he didn’t carry her to the cab; he carried her to the back. One of the other men lowered the gate. A mattress with pillows took up most of one side.

“We hoped you wouldn’t need this, but we wanted to be prepared.” He climbed into the truck and settled her on the soft surface.

Another man jumped in. “Okay, Dan, you’ve had her long enough. Let me get in here and see what she really needs.” Dan backed off to let the other man through.

“Hi there. I’m Anders, and I’m going to look at you while we get out of here, okay?”

She nodded, sleep already tugging at her now that she was safe.

“Dan filled me in on a few things. The first thing I’m going to do is get some IV fluids going. Can you tell me a little about what went on while you were here, so I know what you need?”

She closed her eyes and haltingly tried to relive the last week for them. She faltered a moment at the prick of the IV needle, and paused for a drink of something orange flavored that he said she needed to sip every few minutes for the next day. It was wet and cool; she was happy to oblige, no matter how horrible it tasted. The truck started up, and they moved away from the place that would have been her grave, even if she had lived.

She drifted off to sleep in the middle of her story. The crackling of the radio startled her awake.

“Team leader, goal is accomplished. Rendezvous in fifteen minutes.”

“Roger. Fifteen minutes.” Dan replaced the radio and looked down at her. “We’re going to wait here for the rest of the team.”

“What are they doing?”

“They’re breaking into DeLeo’s safe and combing through his files to look for the locations of any other women he’s sold. We also got two laptops that we’ll turn over to our tech experts to comb through. In a few minutes you can admire their finale.”

Laura woke again when Dan touched her shoulder. He pointed at the large plume of thick black smoke rising in the distance.

“All the bodies were dragged inside the house,” he explained, “and small charges were set at structurally significant points. The house should collapse on top of them. There’s not a lot of heavy moving equipment near here, so by the time anyone realizes this wasn’t an accident, we’ll be long gone.”

They waited in silence, listening to bird chirps and the buzzing of a tractor in a nearby field. At last, an old, beaten pickup truck came around the bend. A man leaned out the passenger window and gave a thumbs up and the convoy of trucks resumed its journey.

Somethinghadbeentuggingat her subconscious since she’d been dragged out of the house by the guards. “Dan, why was DeLeo so mad when he saw… the mark… on my hip?”

Dan’s face sobered. “That was a stupid idea on my part, and it almost got you killed. I’m sorry. I never thought he’d actually get his hands on you.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

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