“They kept the girls locked in the apartment all day. All they did was watch TV, eat, sleep, and do their hair. In the evenings they went out, always with pimps and bodyguards, someone to make sure that they got their work done and didn’t run away. They were driven in vans to the York, or the Regal, or other places. They simply told her to start producing, as they put it. She was supposed to pick up men any way she could, for any kind of sex. Blow jobs, two-for-ones, whatever the men wanted.”
Sharaf stared at the floor. Such an education he was giving her.
“After a week she was beaten because she had hardly made any money. Some man lectured her for an hour on how to be more aggressive—more appealing, as he put it. A few weeks later three more Iraqi girls arrived from Iran the same way Basma had come—inside a shipping container. Tatiana told her it was all part of a test, and that the shipment of three was the last one.”
“A test?” Sharaf said, looking up, forcing himself back into the role of a cop.
“For the main event,” Laleh said. “Those were Tatiana’s words.”
“Just like the space program,” Keller said, shaking his head. “Mercury with one astronaut, Gemini with two, Apollo with three—working their way up to make sure they could handle the logistics of bigger loads. All of it practice for Monday. Payload of fifty.”
“And if that works,” Sharaf said, “who knows how many more will follow. It is just as I thought. The crackdown at the airport is taking a toll, so they’re shifting to sea lanes.”
Halami shook her head.
“Awful. Despicable. And right under your noses.”
“Why do you think we are here?” Sharaf snapped. “Why do you think I am risking my daughter, and everything about her future?”
Laleh intervened.
“No one’s blaming you, Father. I’m not, and I know Basma isn’t. She is hoping it can be stopped.”
“How did she get away?”
“With the help of Charlie Hatcher, and Tatiana. Charlie was one of her customers.”
“A customer,” Sam said, somewhat incredulous. “So I guess part of Nanette’s cover story was true. No wonder he was talking about atonement.”
Laleh shook her head.
“Not that kind of customer. He bought her for information, not sex. And when he came to the York he asked for her by name. That scared her at first, because she already knew what a ‘special request’ could mean. Usually something kinky, even dangerous.”
Sharaf shook his head.
“But when they were alone, he didn’t take off his clothes. He just sat on the bed and started asking questions. He said Tatiana had told him how she had arrived, and he wanted to know more about the boxes that were also in the container, the ones marked with the corporate name of Pfluger Klaxon.”
Sharaf perked up.
“So even then he was already on their trail. I wonder how he found out?”
“He told Basma he had come across something in his work, something that made him believe he was partly responsible for what had happened to her.”
“Responsible? That makes no sense.”
“Unless …” Sam said, sitting up straighter than before.
“Yes?” Sharaf prompted. “Unless what?”
“The shipping routes. There was something in one of Nanette’s quarterly reports about a project she’d worked on with Charlie. Boring logistical troubleshooting, or that’s what I thought. But it had to do with securing and streamlining new shipping routes out of the Far East for a new line of imports, and I’m sure it mentioned some transshipment issues along the way.”
“Meaning he had unwittingly helped her set up the whole operation,” Sharaf said. “But how would he have found out?”
“Who knows? But once he did, he knew he couldn’t report it to the corporate security officer.”
“Or to law enforcement here,” Sharaf said.
“So this was his atonement. His one-man show of morality.”
They turned back toward Laleh.
“What else did Basma say about him?” Sharaf asked.
“He paid her triple the normal price and told her he was going to pay for her freedom, and put her somewhere safe, where he could talk to her some more. A week later Tatiana drugged one of the guards. Basma and an Uzbek girl got away. The Uzbek disappeared. Basma came to the Beacon of Light by prior arrangement. That was two weeks ago. A few nights later Charlie came to see her—last Friday. He told her everything was arranged. He was going to make sure they wouldn’t be able to send any more girls the way they had sent her. He told her it was all planned for April fourteenth.”
“Charlie’s ‘day of reckoning,’” Sam said. “No wonder they wanted me to follow him. He was their one big threat, and I was their homing beacon.”
“And from Charlie’s movements, they tracked down Tatiana and Patel.”
“What will you do now?” Halami asked.
