Page 24 of Fear and Desire

WTF are you going to do?Josh texted as he picked up the crumpled list and smoothed it out. He gave it back to Dan, who grabbed it and threw it on the desk.

He wants her in excellent physical shape. I’m going to start her training as soon as I get back this afternoon.

Training? She can’t walk yet.

She has to. We have to talk.

He had to hold his anger in check for the time being. He didn’t have time to dwell on the implications of DeLeo’s demand right now because he had an appointment.

Josh looked at his watch. “Aren’t you headed to the dentist soon?”

“Yep. Have to get it over sometime.” Dan grimaced with the effort of faking a lighthearted tone. “It might be a while.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll look after everything.”

15

Dan:

Dandrovedownthesteep, winding road. Thick woods surrounded the Farm on this isolated section of the mountain, and only a vague set of tire tracks off the main road revealed the dirt path that led up to the two buildings.

It was early summer, and though it was unusually warm, the trees were lush, and the sky was a bright blue. Once he was on the paved road, he only passed two cars the whole way down. He drove over a bridge that crossed a wild, churning river, and continued on into the small town. He cringed at the evil located so close to the place where he’d grown up and still loved.

He pulled into the parking lot of the medical building and walked in, up to the third floor, looking for all the world like a man dreading a root canal.

After entering the small office, he nodded to the receptionist. She nodded back. Instead of sitting down, though, he continued past the desk and entered the hallway that ran between the small rooms. He shivered at the high-pitched whine of a drill from behind one door. At the very back of the office was an elevator. He took it down to the garage and opened the door of a waiting SUV. As soon as he was seated, the driver took off.

Thirty minutes later, he disembarked at the entrance of a shiny office building that sat on a busy city street. His boss met him at the front desk, and the two entered the elevator together.

“You look tired,” Pearson observed.

“Yeah, well, it’s just gotten a lot harder than it was a few days ago.”

“Oh?”

Before Dan could answer, the elevator door opened. The pair made their way down the hall to a large conference room filled with some familiar faces and some strangers. Every woman and man there did highly covert things in this shadow organization which had loose connections between different governments.

Assistant Director Lawson welcomed him with a firm handshake and steered him to the head of the table. The room quieted.

“As you all know,” Lawson began, “in four weeks, there’s going to be an auction of sex slaves nearby. This is unfortunately not unusual, but whatisunusual is who the host is. Victor DeLeo, head of the largest human trafficking ring in the world, will himself be present to oversee the activities. Also attending will be some of the wealthiest scum who’ve ever bought and sold women. This sting has been almost five years in the making. Though these women are all from the United States, DeLeo has been running this ring in many countries. The buyers come from all over as well, and with those facts, we have secured the cooperation of a number of governments around the globe.”

He paused. “The methods that we are using to manage this operation areslightlyirregular, according to US law,”—he was interrupted by widespread chuckles—“and therefore we have made it plain to all our agents from the start that there would be no public acknowledgment of this operation or their participation in it. Reality tells us, though, that rumors will fly, and we expect Congress will take a deep interest in these events, after the fact. By then, we all hope to have presidential pardons locked in our desk drawers.”

There was nervous laughter at this statement. Everyone who was heavily involved in this operation was promised a pardon for any illegal activities, though the highly prized documents could not be issued until after they committed the crimes, so it was an act of faith for each of them to take part.

“Most of you know Agent Dan Westbury. He’s been with the Agency for almost seven years. When we started investigating this sex traffic ring and we found a ‘branch’ in this geographic area, we assigned him to the investigation. As a local man, he stands out less, and he has some, uh, unique talents for this type of work. And indeed, the compound where the women are being kept, called the Farm, is just a few miles outside of the town he lives in. He’s spent several years working his way up the ranks of DeLeo’s organization, and now runs the Farm. He’s here today to provide an update of the plans and the progress.”

Dan warred with himself as he stepped forward. He didn’t really want to go into a description of the circumstances surrounding Laura, but her involvement had very real implications for the investigation.

“Thank you. Unfortunately, my first piece of news is not a good one. A very close female friend of mine was kidnapped, and is now one of the slaves I oversee.”

Voices broke out in question, but Dan held up his hand for silence and they died down. He described Marco’s attempts to gain favor with his uncle, leading to Laura’s capture, and what DeLeo had decided to do with her.

“So, can you put aside your personal feelings and just train her like the others?” Pearson asked.

“Sir.” This was a sore point for Dan. Though he himself used the word ‘training’ because he had to, he knew Pearson had never understood why the word wasn’t appropriate. “I don’ttrainanyone there. Training is for willing submissives who ask for it. I have accomplished the goal ofcontrollingthese women through the fear of punishment. That is not training. DeLeo wants me to do more than control her; he wants me to break her.”

“What’s the difference?”

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