This constituted dire emergency.
“Raze?” he answered, careful to call me by my alias.
“I need you to meet me out on Six Forks Road, north of Durant… there’s a small country gas station about quarter of a mile down on the left.”
“I’m familiar with it,” he said.
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Have EMS there and tell them they’ll need Narcan,” I said quickly as I got in the driver’s seat and started the engine.
“What’s this about?” Mike asked quickly.
“I just walked into the middle of an abduction. Simon and Lance drugged the girl. I’ve got her in my backseat.”
“Fuck… are they on the run?”
“No. He asked me to get her out of there when ALE showed up. Wants me to bring her back when it’s clear.”
“Then that’s what the fuck you do,” Mike growled. “If you don’t return her, you blow this entire operation out of the water.”
“We are not turning her back over to them. I overhead Simon… he was taking her to a buyer tonight.”
“Wyatt… we have to let him take her to the buyer. We can follow and make the bust there.”
“No fucking way,” I snarled. “You’re not putting her at risk. You said we had an agent ready to come in on the inside. We need to go that route.”
“And just how do you think you’re going to explain this girl’s disappearance to Simon?” Mike asked skeptically.
I took a deep breath and blew it out. Putting the car in reverse, I started to back out. “I’m not sure yet, but I’ll have something figured out by the time I meet you. Just get there on time.”
Disconnecting the call before he could argue with me, I pulled my car slowly out of the parking lot of The Platinum Club onto Kramer Street, heading toward the outer beltline. My mind was racing but by the time I met Mike and several other agents at the gas station, I knew what I had to do.
Mike had made a judgment call and did not bring in an EMS unit. He felt it would call too much attention and didn’t want it out on the airwaves. Instead, he insisted they’d take the girl to a hospital for treatment.
We made the transfer quickly as I assured Mike I had a plan. He accepted me at my word although his face held worry, and as soon as they were out of sight, I pulled my phone out and called Simon.
“What?” he whispered harshly into the phone, so I knew ALE was still there.
Putting on my best frustratedly panicked voice, I said, “Fuck, Simon. We got a major problem.”
“I’m listening,” he said quietly.
“She started convulsing, man… vomit and foam coming out of her mouth… shaking and shit. I tried, man… I tried to save her. Fucking did CPR… got her fucking vomit in my mouth. SHIT,” I yelled for good measure and then groaned into the phone. “She’s fucking dead, Simon. What in the hell did you give her?”
I heard some shuffling noises, and knew Simon was moving somewhere for privacy. “You’re sure she’s dead?” he asked urgently.
“Yes,” I yelled into the phone. “Fuck, what in the hell do we do now?”
“Just ease the fuck up, Raze. Listen… you dispose of the problem, you hear me?”
I took a deep breath and let out a shaky breath, but I was smiling on the inside. Simon just bought my panicked lie hook, line, and sinker. “Yeah, man… I got it.”
“Don’t fuck this up,” he warned.
“I won’t,” I said with confidence. “I got this. Don’t worry.”
“Come straight back here when you’re done,” he said and then disconnected the call.
I leaned back against my car and looked up at the stars in the night sky, immensely relieved I just saved Carla’s life and kept the operation intact.
So yeah… I was now fully in the circle. I went back to the club and relayed again in detail to Simon and Lance what happened. They didn’t seem to have a doubt over my veracity, and in fact, Lance muttered that he was afraid they’d given her too much of whatever drug they had pumped into her, hypothesizing she was probably high on something else and overdosed.
I assured them both that I weighted her body down and dumped her in Falls Lake, and that she would never be found. I said it with almost a pride in my voice over having done such a bang-up job for Simon, sounding like an eager puppy looking for praise. They accepted that as well, and then proceeded to bring me in on the details of their sex-slave trade. There was some concern that Carla’s buyer would turn tail and run, but after a call to him to explain the situation, he said he’d wait for another girl.
So, as Lance just instructed me, I am now in charge of getting some new talent.
Operation Bust Simon’s Ass is now in full force. I’ve got a meeting tomorrow with Mike and the female FBI agent they’ve brought in to go undercover, so I can fill her in on the details of the case so far. Since I’m in charge of all hires now, it won’t be a problem to get her in the door. I just hope the FBI chose someone that could handle the delicate, yet stressful nature of this situation. I wasn’t worried about the background alias they would provide for the plant. The FBI is good at that shit.
I just hope the woman is tough enough for what is about to be thrown her way. She’s going to be playing an important role in this operation, and she’s going to be in incredible danger. While I will do everything I can to protect her, if we’re lucky enough for Simon to target her as an appropriate item of merchandise, she’s going to need to be prepared to see it all the way through to the end.