Twisted Traffick Read online

  “So, Julia, it seems that they expected to be able to force you to help them somehow,” Anne gave voice to the obvious. “But the video was made before we got you away.”

  “They might still be planning to carry this heist out,” Greg warned. “They may just end up using a Julia look alike. An impostor. They seem to be big on that.”

  “Julia, can you look at the email address [email protected]?” Anne said, thinking it must be well after noon already in Ozersk. Which was the deadline the voice gave Gospodin Glinkov to respond by.

  “I think I saw a message forwarded from that site to Hetzel’s email. Just a simple ‘Yes,’” Julia answered as she searched again for the email from Glinkov. “Yes, here it is. And his answer is a ‘Yes.’”

  “So, Nadia’s poor father will have been subjected to this grotesque video of his daughter,” Labrecque observed. “And it appears that he has agreed to cooperate with them. To try and get his daughter back, not knowing that we have rescued her.”

  “Have we got anyone in Ozersk or Chelyabinsk?” Anne turned to her former Interpol colleagues, a sense of urgency in her voice. “We need to get to Nadia’s father. ASAP. Even though--thank God--Nadia is safe, and Julia is with us, and no longer in their hands. But I think Greg is right. These gangsters will still want to go through with a heist, now that they have Glinkov playing along.”

  “I will check with Demeter,” Labrecque answered, as he got out his cell phone to make the call.

  Anne touched Julia’s shoulder, seeing that she was suffering. The mention of her name, and the video--which had replayed the terrible memories of her ordeal--had brought her close to breakdown. She had been through so much the last few days.

  “It’s okay, Julia.” Anne pulled her friend to her feet. “We’re going to get you out of this hellish place. Come on.” She started leading her toward the door, as Greg, Labrecque and Szekely picked up the printouts, closed down the laptop, and followed the two women out the door.

  Chapter 21

  While Greg waited outside with Julia, the others went to track Kormendi down in the main building. He and his team of local police were still busy photographing the evidence they had managed to uncover there, and putting up police tape all over to prevent any tampering.

  “We found a girl. Russian. Locked up in a cage. Like an animal,” Szekely informed his Hungarian police colleague. “Awful. We sent her off to the County Hospital in Vasvàr.”

  “Bad shape?”

  “She was very traumatized,” Anne answered. “And drugged. It seems they wanted to use her to blackmail her father, who is a security guard at a Russian nuclear facility. Probably to help them steal some uranium or plutonium. We’re going to go to the hospital to interrogate this Hetzel anyway, so we will see how she is, and maybe ask her a few questions as well.”

  “Good.”

  “By the way, Peter, did you find anything that might tell us where these criminals would have gone?” Anne asked the Hungarian police officer. “With the other girls?”

  “No. But maybe your man Hetzel can tell us. I will come with you to the hospital. I want to make sure that pervert is properly locked up. And answers all our questions. Even if we have to beat the information out of him, the bastard.”

  ***

  The six of them went back to the Zala County Hospital in two cars, Labrecque driving Anne, Julia and Greg.

  “Any feedback from Demeter?” Anne asked her former colleague from the back seat. “Do we have any Interpol agents near Chelyabinsk?”

  “Yes. John said we have no one there. The main office is in Moscow, the closest regional branch in Ekaterinburg.”

  “We absolutely need to get to Nadia’s father. Someone, and in person. Before four p.m. on Tuesday,” Anne reminded them. “It is a must, otherwise we will have another major heist of nuclear material on our hands.”

  “I am not sure how safe it would be to call or email the guys in Moscow. They would have to coordinate everything. We know from experience that the FSB intercepts all our communications. We could try to get them and security at Mayak on our side, but it would be problematic to do it from here.”

  “Yes, I know,” Anne said, not too happy.

  “And Polyakov’s brother is the Deputy Director at the FSB,” Greg reminded them. “He would certainly make sure that the information that we were trying to stop this operation gets to his twin. And they would somehow manage to prevent us from connecting with Glinkov. This nuclear deal could be too important for these gangsters to miss out on.”

  “You’re right,” Labrecque agreed.

  “Plus, a bit of under the counter nuclear proliferation to cause problems for the West would no doubt be welcomed by many elements of this rogue ex-FSB run government,” Greg added. “Vlad the Impaler included, notwithstanding what he says to our politicians.”

  “I know. You are right. One of us simply must go to Mayak,”Anne pointed out. “There is no other way.”

  “The problem though, is getting a visa. It can take days, as you know,” Labrecque said. “And we would have to go latest tomorrow to be of any use. I guess from Budapest. Or Vienna might be better.”

  “Also, even if you do get a visa, the last I checked, you need a permit to go anywhere near Mayak,” Greg added. “Not easy.”

  A few moments of silence, while they pondered how to proceed. Then, from the back seat, Julia said in a grave voice, “I will go. I don’t need a visa. I have a Russian passport, plus my job takes me regularly to Mayak. As an IAEA official I have all the necessary papers to go there.”

  “Julia, are you sure?” Anne asked, surprised and worried about her friend. “You have been through so much.”

  “I’ll be okay. It is my job, after all. And their video did claim that I would be the one taking the nuclear material out illegally from Mayak. Those criminals. I have to make sure I protect my good name.”

  “I am not happy to have you go, Julia,” Greg said, frowning. “We just got you back, for Chrissake. In Mayak, you would be exactly where they want you in the next few days, as we learned. And if they get a hold of you--which will not be difficult for them--we know very well they have the ways to coerce you to do what they want.”

  “But if I don’t go--if we don’t get to Nadia’s father--they could just use someone to pretend she is me--an impostor--and get the nuclear material out that way. They seem to be good at using other people’s identities.”

  “Well, Nicholas, you really need to find a way to get your colleagues from Moscow to the Mayak area to help Julia if she does go.” Greg knew there was no other solution but for Julia to go.

  “Sure. I will see what we can do.”

  “In any case then, Julia, we’ve got to get you back to Vienna,” Greg said. “There will be more flights from there than from Budapest, I am sure, and you can change your clothes and pick up your passport and papers. As soon as we’re at the hospital, I will see if I can get reservations for you. For tomorrow.”

  “I will get my two colleagues to drive you to Vienna,” Labrecque said. “And make sure you get on that plane.”

  A few minutes of silence ensued again, while they all took note of what was happening. Then Anne remarked, “These human traffickers could be anywhere by now with the other girls.”

  “How many did they have with them?” Greg asked. “Do you know?”

  “There were maybe fifteen in the truck that brought me to the compound. Perhaps more, I don’t know. Nadia may be able to give us a better fix.”

  “There might have been others already there, too,” Julia observed.

  “And how many were they, the traffickers? Do we have any idea?” Labrecque asked.

  Anne and Julia looked at each other. “Hmm. At least fifteen, I would say. Maybe twenty in the whole facility,” Anne answered, racking her brains. “More, for all I know.”

  “I have no notion, really. I was not allowed out of that side building, and only really saw Hetzel--” Julia shuddered at the recollection. “
--and a couple of the guards.”

  “Well, we have our hands full now with tracking them down. Let’s hope we will be able to pry out of Hetzel where they have gone,” Greg said.

  “Yeah, Szekely and Kormendi will make sure of that, I’m sure.” Labrecque knew from experience that his colleagues would show no mercy with this despicable abuser of women.

  Chapter 22

  Nadia woke to a hubbub of people arguing outside the door to the hospital room where she had been resting. She was warm and cozy in the bed and felt her energy returning with what already seemed like several hours of rest after her unspeakable ordeal. She had to work hard though to prevent her mind from going there, so she was glad when her door suddenly burst open and the motherly nurse who had been so kind to her earlier entered. But then anxiety took over when she saw that the caregiver looked very upset, and outright fear when the woman was followed immediately by two large men dressed in what Nadia thought were probably Hungarian police uniforms.

  “These officers say they have to take you with them,” the nurse said to the Russian girl in her passable English. “Even though you just arrived and need some rest and care. They have showed us a warrant to arrest you--”

  “What?” Nadia was incredulous.

  “For--for prostitution, they claim. Of course, we do not believe it and we have argued with them that you have been abused and you needed to stay here, but they insist to take you with them. I am sorry, but there is not much we can do. They have already forced my boss to sign the release papers.”

  The policeman who seemed to be in charge gruffly told Nadia in Russian to get dressed, and when she answered that she did not have any clothes, he said, “Okay, you come with us as you are then,” which she took to mean that she was to accompany them in her hospital wear.

  She gave the nurse a desperate look. “I don’t have anything to put on--” whereupon the woman left and, while Nadia went to the bathroom, managed to rustle up some jeans and a T-shirt that more or less fit.

  Nadia was ushered outside by the two men and led to the second of two Hungarian police vehicles, which both had their engines running and the blue lights on top flashing. As she passed the car in front, she was horrified to see that the monster who had abused her, Kalinsky, was in the back seat. He was seemingly in some pain, but chatting away with yet another large police officer sitting beside him.

  Had they arrested him too? Of course, he deserved to be locked up--but then why were the two men laughing?

  The police cars took off, speeding through the town with sirens bleating and blue lights flashing, and finally pulled into a small parking area somewhere in the outskirts on the other side. The front car carrying Kalinsky stopped right beside a big black SUV with two men lounging and smoking around it. Nadia saw the boss get out slowly and, grimacing, limp over to the sports utility vehicle with the help of a cane--he must have gotten a wound or some injury since he abused her, she thought. He then shook hands with these thugs, and beckoned back toward the car she was in. One of the men started making his way over toward the second police car, while the other pulled out a thick envelope from his jacket pocket, which when Kalinsky nodded, he took back and carried over to the boss’s earlier police companion who was still waiting in the first car. Nadia saw him hand this officer the envelope, as she obeyed the instructions of the other thug to get out of the police car and climb in the back seat of the SUV. With all these men around her who were obviously in cahoots, there was no way she could even think of disobeying, let alone escaping, so she reluctantly did as she was told.

  Then to Nadia’s horror, Kalinsky climbed in the back beside her, the man who had handled the pay off in the front passenger seat, while the other crook jumped behind the wheel. The vehicle careened out of the lot and started heading south, Nadia thought, at well over the speed limit. She inched as close to the door as she could, away from Kalinsky, as he plunked his jacket on the seat between them and leered at her, saying, “Well, it’s really nice to have you back with us, my dear. You have become such an integral part of the team. We would hate to lose you.” She cringed as he placed his hand on her thigh.

  What did the creep mean? Nadia wondered, shuddering with fear.

  ***

  As the SUV sped along the highway, Nadia looked out the window: farms whizzed by and eventually, she saw a sign saying they were on route E74 heading toward some places with difficult names like Zalaegerszeg and Nagykanizsa.

  The towns meant nothing to her, but from the position of the sun, she could tell that they were definitely heading south.

  The silence was broken by Kalinsky’s colleague in the front seat. “Boss, we have the passports. Yours and the girl’s. We found them where you said they would be.”

  “Excellent, Ivan,” was Kalinsky’s reply.

  So that meant that they had been planning to kidnap her. Get her back from her rescuers. Her rescuers--yes, that nice Anne who had befriended her. She remembered seeing her in all that hullabaloo back at the compound. And the blonde, the beautiful blonde she had been forced to--to perform that sex act with. Had she been there too? Lots of men. It was all such a muddle.

  But the passports--that meant they were probably going to cross a border. Slovenia? Croatia? Serbia? Those were the countries just to the south of Hungary, Nadia remembered from her geography class. Maybe, just maybe, she hoped, then that the border guards would ask what a young Russian girl from Ozersk was doing with wherever all these men were from. And where were they all going? Where were they taking her?

  “Fortunately, I know the local police chief, who led the raid on the compound,” Ivan continued. “So it wasn’t hard to sneak back in and get what you asked us to find, Boss.”

  After a few moments of silence, as the driver tried to get around a big truck, Kalinsky asked, “By the way, Ivan, did you see my laptop in my room? It was on the desk.”

  “Hmm.”

  “If yes, then somehow we have to get that back too. Maybe you need to call your police chief buddy. Unless the others took it when they evacuated.”

  “I don’t recall seeing a laptop anywhere in the room. Definitely not, Boss.”

  “Shit! Let’s hope the others took it.”

  “Well--”

  “Damn, Ivan, can you call ahead and ask?”

  “I will phone Pyotr.”

  “Thanks. Do it right now, for God’s sake.” Kalinsky seemed rather nervous as his friend took out his mobile and pressed a few buttons.

  As Kalinsky got increasingly agitated, Nadia surmised from the conversation that the man called Pyotr did not have the laptop, and did not know whether any of the others might have taken it when they left the compound. He promised though, to check with the other vehicles in the convoy taking the girls south and call back. Ivan hung up, but kept his cell phone in his hand.

  Within minutes, the phone rang. Pyotr again. The two guards talked, and Ivan swore this time as he closed it. “Fuck. They don’t know where the laptop is, Boss.”

  “That’s really bad, Ivan. If those assholes from Interpol have got their hands on it--”

  Nadia pricked her ears at the mention of Interpol. Maybe, maybe, there was a chance that they might get this monster!

  Chapter 23

  They pulled up right beside the two Hungarian officers in the hospital’s parking lot.

  “Let’s get this fucking asshole behind bars,” Kormendi said, more to himself than the others, after greeting them.

  “We want to find out everything he knows first though,” Anne said, following him through the glass doors. “At least, about where the other girls and his gangster buddies from the compound are.”

  “Yeah, I’d love to rough him up a bit to get at all that is in his pea-brain, the jerk. Besides just plain smut, that is.” Kormendi was clearly on a warpath as he strutted up to the front desk, Szekely following, to ask for the patient Kallay.

  The others went over to sit in the waiting area. Greg immediately started to look for a flight
for Julia on his phone while Labrecque went off to search for his two Vienna-based Interpol colleagues. When Julia came back from the ladies’ room, Greg looked up and said, “I can get you on a plane tonight at five past midnight. It is now just before four p.m., so that should be sufficient for Nicholas’s guys to take you back home, pick up your things and get you back to the airport. Gets into Chelyabinsk at eleven-fifty-five a.m. tomorrow, so, Julia, that should give you enough time to talk to Nadia’s father and to line up some extra security to help carry out the operation.”

  “Good. I think I remember his email [email protected]. I will ask him to meet me after work tomorrow. If I am right, he will have the early shift the whole week, not just Tuesday.”

  “Look! What’s going on over there?” Anne interrupted Julia and her husband, her attention suddenly drawn by an explosion of anger and frustration from the Hungarian officers as they conversed with the two duty nurses: Kormendi banged the desk, and both policemen gesticulated with their voices raised. The conversation dragged on, and it was obvious they were not happy. Finally, a grim Szekely came over to them, as his exasperated colleague got on his cell phone.

  “Un-fucking-believable!” he said. “Excuse the language, ladies, but that’s the only way to describe what has happened. A real fucking mess.”

  “What do you mean?” This was not going to be good, Anne was sure.

  “Hetzel’s not here. Do you believe it? Gone. Vanished into thin air!”

  “So, he’s down at the station, no doubt, then?” Labrecque asked.

  “I bloody well hope so. But it doesn’t look good, from what those incompetent nurses told us.”

  “What do you mean?”