“I’ll be back in an hour. It’s in your best interest to sign. If you care about him,” he points at Scott, “you’ll sign. You don’t want to be around for the alternative.”
With these words, they leave the room and the large iron door falls shut with a thud. How could we ever think the guy is nice? Have Scott and I been so blind?
“Scott, can you hear me? Scott?”
“I’m okay. I’m just frustrated that I was stupid enough to walk right into his trap. Self-sustained community, my foot. What about you? What did he do to you?”
“I’m good. A bit wobbly from the drugs they knocked me out with, but other than that okay. You don’t look okay.”
He pulls his face into what I assume he intends to be a grin, but it looks even more frightening than before.
“It’s just cosmetics. We need to get out of here.”
“I’m sorry I got you into this.”
“Don’t be, it wasn’t your fault. We didn’t expect this.” The way he lets his head drop down to his chest tells me that he is struggling.
“At least one of us needs to get out and call the police. Once they raid the place they’ll hopefully find enough evidence of their activities.”
“Oh, I have good news for you. I broke into Raymond’s office and found lots of stuff on his computer. Reports of the children they used, heaps of photos and video clips, dates they posted them on the net, bank account payments, all the shenanigan. I couldn’t make copies, but I backed up his document folder to my Google drive and emailed a copy to Officer Burke in Wellington.”
“You did? You mean we have evidence of everything?”
“Of everything. And this time there is lots of info about their connections in Asia and their Internet consumers. You see, deep inside Raymond must be a very, very anal, tidy, bean counter. The nice guy, the abuser, the organizer, the CEO is nothing but a lowlife criminal.”
“You are amazing, do you know that?” If his face weren’t black and blue and swollen, I’d say he looks at me with admiration.
“The trafficking involves the whole community. Everyone is in on it. They’ll all go to prison. But first, we need to get out. We can’t rely on the police to arrive in time to stop him from hurting us.”
“You are right, we need to get out of here.” He pulls and wiggles his hands behind his back. “Can you free your hands?”
“Not sure.”
I tried loosening the knot … with no success. We’re never getting out of here.
“If you let me into the body, I can get us out. I have smaller hands than you.”
Sweet little Toby comes to the rescue. I’m not convinced he can help, because we all share the same adult body. But there is a small chance that Toby gets more bend out of this body than I can.
“Thank you for letting me help.”
Toby wiggles and wiggles, with no success. The skin of my wrist is scraped off and raw. I’m about to tell him to stop when I hear a click and the door opens. I let out a sigh of relief when the little girl that greeted me in front of the community hall slips in. Her eyes blink nervously and she puts her index finger over her lips.
“I can help,” she whispers. “They don’t think we kids are good for anything.”
She pulls out a knife and starts slicing through the rope.
“She is amazing!” Toby is full of admiration.
Not much later my hands spring free of the rope.
“See? Ama always says together we’re strong.”
I feel sorry when he disappears again into the back of my mind.
“You’re hurting.” Rena looks at my hands. When it happened I didn’t feel anything. Now, however, it hurts like hell. Ignoring it, I scoot over to Scott and slice through his ropes too. We both get up and stare at each other in wonder. My fingers glide over his face. I lift to my toes and kiss his bruises until my lips find his.
He is my home and if I read his body right as we find comfort in each other’s arms, I am his.
“We need to go.” Sky’s reminder brings us back.
Rena’s glance goes between Scott and me. She swallows.
“Can you take me with you? I’m scared.”
“What about your parents?”
“I don’t have parents. This is a bad place. They hurt children here.”
I look up to Scott and he shrugs. “We can’t leave her behind.”
No, we can’t. She rescued us. Without her knife … I hate to think what might have happened. I bend down to her and smooth her bangs away from her eyes.
“We have to run very fast. Can you do that?”
She nods so hard, her braided crown loosens and her beautiful hair flows over her shoulders.
Scott looks around the room.
“The bastards took our shoes.” He grunts in anger and opens the door. He looks at Rena.
“Do you know the quickest way to the forest?”
She nods and takes his hand, rushing down the stairs with him in tow. I follow, somewhat stunned that Rena is not afraid of Scott. On the ground floor, we open the door. These arrogant bastards didn’t even think to lock the door. They were so sure they had us. Nobody was standing watch either. Outside, I take my bearing.
“We are in the building across the park from the Community Hall. The forest must be right behind us.”
There is a one hundred yard sprint to the tree line. After that, the trees and the bush will protect us. It is the kind of terrain Scott is at home in. He will lead us out safely.
He slings Rena on his back.
“Hold tight, little peanut.”
Then he grabs my hand and we run toward the trees as if our lives depend on it. And it does, going by the sound of four-wheel-drive SUVs coming our way.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lilly: 24 March 2017, Gateway
They’re after us.
And this time it’s
