Page 108 of Spooked

“Who’s the contact? How the hell did he get involved in this?”

“The hostel hasn’t been profitable for years. Silvio’s the owner of the place as well as the manager. Not so many people want to visit the interior anymore, and those that do come prefer to stay in Airbnbs. Fundão’s population has been decreasing, which has depressed the property market, so when folks leave, they rent out their homes instead of selling them. Anyhow, Silvio borrowed money, got into dire financial straits, blah blah blah, and rather than going bankrupt, he started a sideline selling access to young women.”

Holy hell. How were they meant to explain this to Indi?

“Selling young women to who?” Alexa asked.

“He claims he doesn’t know.”

“Bullshit,” Brax blurted. “You don’t just stumble into a criminal enterprise. What did they do, advertise on Craigslist?”

“No, an old high-school friend recruited him. They met by chance in a bar in Porto four years ago, and Silvio confessed his troubles over bad music and cheap liquor. The friend said he had a solution—all Silvio had to do was identify women suitable for a new ‘business opportunity.’”

“That’s what they called it? A business opportunity? What happens to the women? Where do they go?”

“Where do they go? He doesn’t know. But in the initial phone call, he was told that rich foreign men like to marry pretty English-speaking girls.”

“So he’s sourcing mail-order brides?”

“Sure seems that way.”

“And the man has daughters himself? He’s a monster.”

“He said the only women he recommended—that was the word he used, ‘recommended’—were unhappy. Lonely, struggling financially, disappointed with the world in general. He believed that the new life would be better than the old one.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Clearly, but I think he’s genuinely convinced himself of that. Whatever helps him to sleep at night, I guess.”

“He doesn’t deserve to sleep at night.”

Jerry took a sip of black coffee. “Fun fact: sleep deprivation as a form of torture is outlawed by the Geneva Conventions, and yet here we are, existing on artificial stimulants.”

“Caffeine is natural,” Alexa pointed out. “It grows in plants.”

“It’s also dangerous in high enough quantities. Although overdosing is a challenge—you have to compensate for the bitterness.”

Jerry wasn’t talking about an accidental overdose, was she? The revelation made Brax shudder. All these years, he’d assumed that Alexa was the renegade of Blackstone House, but Jerry had been hiding a much darker side than he’d ever suspected. A part of him was appalled—there was a man tied up in the cellar, for crying out loud. But the bigger part was relieved. Relieved that Jerry was on their side and competent when it came to unorthodox operations. Meera’s life could depend on it.

“Can we stay on track here?” he asked. “Who’s selling these so-called brides? Where’s Meera?”

“Silvio doesn’t know,” Tulsa said. “He wasn’t involved in that side of the operation, or so he claims, and on balance, I believe him. But that old high-school buddy mentioned the name of a place once.Estrada do âmbar—it translates as ‘amber road.’ Silvio got curious and looked it up, but the only reference he found was for an ancient trading route that ran from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean. If Meera’s located somewhere along it, we’ll have a hell of a job to find her.”

The Baltic to the Med? That had to cover thousands of miles.

“If this school friend has additional information, why aren’t we talking with him?”

“Because last year, the guy jumped off the roof of his apartment building, bounced off the hood of a police car, and got run over by a semi-truck. His death made the news. Obviously, we’ll confirm the details. And by ‘we,’ I mean Echo.”

Alexa spoke up. “He might have been useful, but I already know what Amber Road is. It’s an online marketplace. The dark web’s equivalent of eBay. The guy who runs it is called Ivan the Magnificent—Mag for short—and he has a reputation for being trustworthy, or as trustworthy as a man gets in that space. Most of those types of marketplaces are set up for exit scams, but Amber Road has been running for almost four years.”

“Exit scams?” Jerry asked.

“Payments are held in escrow until the buyer confirms receipt of the goods, and only then are the funds released to the seller. Amber Road deals mainly in crypto. In an exit scam, the site owner waits until there’s a fuck-ton of money on hand, then closes the marketplace and steals it all.”

While Jerry was concerned with the logistics, Alexa’s words were sinking in. Just when Brax thought this nightmare couldn’t get any worse, it did.

“Do I have this right? Meera’s abductors are planning to sell her on the internet?”

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