Two minutes later, there was a light knock at the door, and then the child opened it, eyes averted, and she stepped into the room. Jet moved to the door and locked it. She knew the club would have a key, but they would only open it if it was an emergency. The girl was on her own.
She moved to the edge of the bed and then looked up at Jet, whose heart lurched. Beautiful brown eyes gazed at her, terrified but resigned, and then she began pulling her dress over her head.
“No. No. Rob. Tell her she doesn’t have to do anything. Tell her,” Jet whispered.
Rob fired off a rapid fire burst of Thai, and the girl looked confused. She stopped trying to disrobe and looked at Jet quizzically. Rob turned to Jet. “Now what?”
“Ask her what her name is.”
Rob did so.
Jet could barely hear her response. Rob repeated it.
“Lawan. It means beautiful in Thai.”
“How old is she, and how long has she been here?”
Rob asked, and the girl murmured another soft few words.
“She says she’s almost eleven and she’s been here for a week.”
“How did she get here?”
More discussion.
“Her father sold her to some men, who brought her to Bangkok.”
“Sold her?”
“She says they were hungry for many days. So her father did what he had to in order to keep everyone alive.”
Jet bit back the cold fury that was threatening to explode from her.
“What has her week been like?”
The discussion lasted ten minutes, with Lawan describing the trip south, then being put to work in the club. As she went on, Jet seethed with rage. The little girl had been bought and sold like an animal. Even dogs were treated better. She slept on a mat in a tiny back room with several other children who were in similar circumstances. Lawan was the youngest. The others were twelve and thirteen, a boy and a girl. Lawan said she didn’t like either of them. They had emotional problems — the little boy was always angry, and the girl didn’t communicate.
“Tell her that we just want to talk to her. She doesn’t have to do anything. I want to know what she’s seen here, and everything about her,” Jet said, sitting on the bed after pacing the floor while listening to Lawan’s account.
Rob translated, and they spent the rest of the hour talking to her, listening to a story that was as tragic as it was commonplace.
“What can we do, Rob? How can we get the police involved? This has to be stopped.”
“I’ll ask Edgar, but my hunch is that, given the amount of protection Lap Pu has, they will have disappeared by the time anyone gets around to conducting a raid, assuming that any raid ever took place. This is one of those sad truisms of life here. Sometimes there isn’t anything you can do. It’s sickening, but true.”
“That’s not good enough. There’s always something you can do.”
“I know, but reality is that as horrible as this is, it’s not part of our mission. You know that. We need to concentrate on the objective.”
He was right. She knew it. This was a distraction they couldn’t afford. The logic of it was clear. But sometimes logic wasn’t everything.
“Rob, I want you to tell her that we’re sorry she is here, and that I’ll be back to help her at some point. I don’t know how, but I will.”
“I’m not going to tell her that. She’ll tell someone eventually, and then they’ll just move her, and that will be it. And not to be redundant, but again, that’s not our mission.”
She counted to ten, calming herself.
“You’re right, Rob. I’m sorry. It just makes me crazy to see this.”
“I know. It’s not doing anything for me, either.”
Jet got onto her knees, and Lawan came to her. She held the little girl’s trembling frame for a brief eternity, and when Lawan stepped away, a tear rolled down her cherubic cheek. Jet’s eyes moistened, but she shook it off and stood.
“Tell her that if anyone asks, all we wanted her to do was watch us. Think she can manage that?” Jet asked.
“I doubt anyone will ask, but okay, I’ll tell her.”
Precisely one hour after Lawan had arrived, another knock sounded at the door. She shuffled to the knob and unlocked it, and then threw Jet one final look, a combination of sadness, fear and misery. Jet took a deep breath and steeled herself. The
Once back in the booth, Rob ordered another beer for them both and then leaned forward, as if telling Jet a joke.
“That was about as close as you could ask to get. But it looks like he’s got the troops with him. Good luck getting a tracking chip on him. That was a swell idea, but now…well, it looks pretty much impossible.”
“Nothing’s impossible. But I agree that now’s not the time. We need to find his car and figure out a way to get the chip on it so we can find his house. I’ll need a distraction. Here’s where you earn your keep. Got any ideas?” she asked.
“I think we-”
The waitress interrupted them with two more cold beers, and by the time she’d collected payment, the music started blaring again. Time for more of the show.
They sat watching another half hour of seemingly impossible acts, each more depraved than the last. Halfway through the festivities, Rob proposed something that could work. It would take perfect timing, but it was their best chance. As the show wound down to a smattering of tired applause, he pulled out his cell phone and called Edgar.
Chapter 13
Rob and Jet exited the club and wove their way drunkenly down the street, turning the corner on the alley that ran behind it. A gleaming black Mercedes sedan sat by the seedy emporium’s back door, the driver standing by the hood, smoking a cigarette. Jet laughed at some witticism Rob had uttered, and they stopped, she leaning against the brick wall as he moved close and kissed her.
Two men darted into the alley, one with a knife and the other with a chain, and before the couple could disengage, the shorter one slammed Rob in the back with the chain, screaming at him in Thai to give him his wallet. His companion repeated the demand in a guttural voice, and Jet backed away from them as Rob stood, aggressively facing the two.
They began circling him, the assailant with the chain swinging it over his head in a threatening manner as the one with the knife tried to flank him. Jet ran towards the Mercedes, eyes wide with fear.
“Help. Please. Help us,” she screamed in English, and then the two men attacked Rob in a flurry of motion.
The driver wanted no part of the scuffle, even when the woman begged him. He shook his head. Rob broke into a run and sprinted down the alley towards him. The driver shrugged away as Rob stumbled, falling to the
