All Necessary Force

“Get the van running and bring it around here.”

Jennifer said, “Pike, the prostitute’s coming with us.”

I glared at her for a split second, seeing the young woman cowering behind. “What the hell are you talking about? Go get the van. And leave her here.”

“No. I talked to her before she called those assholes. She’s from France. She was kidnapped.” Jennifer touched my arm. “She’s a sex slave, Pike. There’s no way I’m leaving her here.”

I kept my gun trained on the thugs, knowing we were running out of time.

“Jennifer, I’m really sorry to hear that, but we’re executing a plan. That’s it. We can’t save the world. Just our part of it. Now go get the van.”

“Pike, I can’t. I promised. She’s scared out of her mind, and she asked for my help. If we throw her back now, they might kill her for trying to get away. And the whole point of this thing was to get them to go to a leader. You know taking one of their little slaves would do that.”

I turned to rip into her and was drawn up short by the fear pulsing out. Her eyes were large, the hands on the girl’s shoulders trembling. But overriding all of that was her expression, an unspoken question of what I stood for.

Shit.

“Go get the van. Before I change my mind.”

I heard her running behind me, the small clicking of her ridiculous high heels sounding dangerous on the cobblestones. Seconds later, she pulled the van up next to us. I waited until everyone was loaded before I jumped in, finding myself face-to-face with the rescued woman. A seventeen-year-old girl shaking in fear. Looking at me as if I was going to save her world.

44

Sitting in the van thirty minutes later, I felt Buckshot staring at me, trying to get my attention without saying anything. I ignored him, keeping my eyes glued to the laptop screen and the beacon track.

When we’d linked back up with him and Retro, they’d both jumped in the van, grinning and laughing about Jennifer’s knockout punch. Right up until they saw the girl. All I’d said was “Don’t ask.”

Since then, I’d pretended to be engrossed in the little blinking icon on the screen. In the back, I could hear Jennifer softly whispering to the girl in French.

One more surprise. I had no idea she knew the language. She was clearly less than fluent but was getting by. Finally, Retro had had enough.

“Is someone going to tell me what the fuck we’re doing with a Czech hooker?”

I said, “Ask Jennifer. It’s her lost puppy.”

Before he could say anything, Jennifer spoke up. “Pike, we have a problem here.”

“No shit. Like where are we going to drop off the girl? Or what the hell was I thinking about?”

She said nothing for a few seconds, letting my comments settle in the van. I knew she was pissed, though, because she crossed her arms across her chest and eyeballed me.

Oh shit. Here it comes. I was used to her ideological rants, but what she said surprised even me.

“No, like we need to go help these girls. All of them.”

My mouth dropped open. “Are you serious? How?”

“I don’t know, but this girl’s been kept as a slave for over a month. She says there’s about twelve other girls with her. She was supposed to ‘learn her trade’ here before being sold to some pig. The girls come and go all the time at that place. She thinks she’s due to go in a day or two.”

I glanced at the girl and found her staring at me again. A young, black-haired little thing who should have been beautiful, but looked broken instead. Greasy hair and grimy nails, wearing a dress that was filthy. Scared out of her mind. Like my daughter would have looked if this had happened to her. Stop that shit.

“Jennifer, there’s no way we’re going to do anything about the girls. I’m sorry, but that’s it. We don’t have the authority, and we don’t have the means. We’re not the Justice League, for Christ’s sake. This isn’t a comic book. We have our own mission to do.”

Her expression was pleading. “That’s not true, Pike. We are the Justice League. At least the group I wanted to join is. Nobody else can help them. She thinks the police are aware of the place, but they don’t do anything. This is no different than that child you saved in the street. It’s what we do. Isn’t it?”

“No. It is different. You’re talking about altering the entire mission. We have the beacon. We’re just going to track it, then release the girl, like we planned.”

I turned to Decoy for help. I knew he wouldn’t stand for any risk to life, limb, or mission just for some women. Shit, he’d probably stop and ask the Albanians for business tips first.

His face was grim. “I wouldn’t mind dinging these guys up a little bit.”

What the fuck? “Have I entered the twilight zone? You ripped my ass for saving a kid in Cairo, and now you want to risk the entire mission so we can go rescue a bunch of women we don’t even know? We need to find the Arabs. Period.”

The girl, apparently picking up on something I’d said, became animated and rattled off at Jennifer in French.

Decoy said, “Jennifer translated a little of what the girl’s been through. These fuckers need to die. One way or the other.”

I looked at him with a new understanding. Man-whore’s nothing but an act.

Jennifer spoke. “The girl knows where the Arabs are.”

I exploded. “Jesus Christ! She speaks English? Everyone shut the fuck up. Retro, take her out of the van.”

I waited while they left, building up anger. I was more pissed at myself than anyone else. I’d laughed at the exact same mistakes before, having guys talking in English in front of detainees about operational matters, only to find out the terrorists spoke English as well. Now I’m the jackass….

After the door closed, I said, “I thought she only spoke French?”

Jennifer just shrugged.

I sighed. “Okay, what was that about?”

“She says that an Arab man came to the house she’s held in. Her friend was in the room with them. The friend knows what was said, and because of it, they all think she’s going to get killed.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, so if we save the friend, we get the information?”

“That’s what she said,” Jennifer snapped. “I’m not making it up.”

“Look, we’ve got the beacon. We know that thing works. That’s the reason we came here in the first place, not to rescue a bunch of kids. I’m not going to risk this mission based on a story from a crack whore.”

“She’s not a crack whore!”

I held up my hands, attempting to calm her while imparting some reason. “Jennifer, remember we have absolutely no cover for action here. We’re lucky we got the go-ahead to do some snooping around, but there’s no way we can do something like a building assault. You’re asking me to jeopardize our cover and the Taskforce for something that’s not related to our mission. Let’s use the beacon. Like we planned.”

“You’re the one who preaches that cover is just a tool, not the mission. You’re the one who almost had a friend die because someone was too worried about their cover. Now this girl’s friend is going to die for the exact same reason. And it is part of our mission. She’ll be able to tell us a helluva lot more than that damn beacon.”

She crossed her arms and glared at me. I pondered for a few seconds, then shook my head. “Okay, okay, get her back in here. Ask her why a master terrorist and an Albanian mafia lord would discuss operational stuff in front of a whore. I’ll bet the answer is ‘uhh… I just made that up.’”

After they were settled in the back, Jennifer spoke to her calmly, questioning slowly. As the answers came