People Trafficker (43 page)

“I was a little different. Mine was a gang rape. Five men queued up to take me. But I killed all my rapists, apart from Saeed, who survived. For me it had a sort of closure, like someone being sent to prison for rape. What law there is in this country seems not to include women’s problems, particularly the rape of a foreigner. So killing them was their only real punishment. Perhaps with Salem dead you will feel he’s been suitably punished, and have the same attitude as me? The only thing I was worried about, after my story in the paper, was people would think I was an easy target, at the screwing level I mean, and would take me out just for what they could get. They’d have a nasty shock, I’d never go to bed on a first date, in fact it’d have to be at least a month before I’d even think about it.”

“I suppose you’re right there. I mean I could never walk into him on the street now, and I’ll never have to endure the thought that he’d be somewhere in the world, doing the same thing, probably gloating over what he’d forced me and Natasha to do with him. In fact I could even turn round and tell the world we were treated well and rescued before anything happened.”

“You could, if it makes you feel okay over it, after all the man doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t think Natasha will feel that way, she will find it very hard, and you might have to admit it, when they counsel you, in order to help Natasha through the healing process?”

Karen moved her backpack and lay down, placing her head on it. “I’m going to try to sleep for a short time. Unless you want to talk more?” she asked Sammy.

“No, you go ahead. You’ve given me a lot to think about, Karen. Besides I’m tired and will probably fall asleep anyway.”

By dark they were all ready to move on. Progress was decidedly slow. Twice that night they had to turn off the highway and wait while large convoys passed, heading for the trouble areas. Once they actually waited for close on two hours when a tank transporter had a tyre blow-out, which had to be replaced. However, by daybreak they had still managed fifty miles, which placed them less than fifty miles from Karen’s target area.

Settled down for the day, all the girls were asleep apart from Karen, who had taken the first watch.

Abed came over to her. “Tomorrow night, Karen, I will drop you around twenty-five miles from the location you’re heading to. I’ll be taking the road to Jina. I will be going home and see Sirec the next day, if he’s in the area that is. You have a choice. I can tell him I brought you and dropped you off. Otherwise I’ll say you never came back and the two girls with me refused to leave, convinced you’d come for them.”

“Would he believe you?”

“On which option?”

“Either I suppose.”

“Why not? None of us were told you were to be brought back for him, only Halif knew that and he doesn’t tell you anything. As for leaving the girls, what did they mean to me? Besides I could say that I didn’t think he’d want two abducted girls, one of fourteen and another just out of school, around his house.”

Karen thought for a few minutes.

“I’d go on the premise that I didn’t come back and you left the other girls. After all no one has seen us, we’ve kept well out of sight and not even collected food from any village. He’s bound to have found out about Halif’s death and the fate of his gunmen by now. He’ll never think I’d come back this way, it’s too far and it would have been easier for me to make my way to the border.”

“If that’s what you want, Karen, then I’ll keep to that story. It will be logical that I was just making my way home through bandit country and couldn’t call him. Sirec never gives his contact number out to people like me, we are nothing.”

With this agreed, he wandered off to settle down for the day. Karen again checked her GPS location, marking it on the map. Then to pass the time she stripped her gun down and began to clean it carefully. Tonight it was possible that she might just need it, and it was essential that it was in good working order.

By ten that night they were on the road once more. Three quarters of an hour later they were stood at the side of the lorry.

Abed hugged each girl, finally he hugged Karen. “Look after them, Karen, and yourself also. But please don’t ever consider coming back. It is a hostile and unforgiving country.”

“I’ll not be coming back, Abed, that’s for sure. Twice is enough, to tempt providence three times would be one step too far.”

They stood back and after one last wave he turned off toward Jina, his home.

Karen and the three girls set off, not following the road, but directly across scrubland towards Talia. She had estimated three miles an hour would be achievable, and although cutting it fine, towards daybreak they should make it.

Annette was a short distance behind them acting as rear guard and lookout. She still carried the gun she’d picked up from the dead man at Lomax’s house. Karen had cleaned the gun, and checked it over. She’d fired just one shot to test everything worked and spent time explaining to and teaching Annette how to hold and more importantly fire it. They looked a strange bunch. Karen in her army combat gear with bulletproof vest and peak cap leading. Sammy and Natasha both dressed in jeans, t-shirt and jumpers a short distance behind, with Annette also in jeans, except she wore the leather bomber jacket Lomax had bought her.

After two hours they rested for ten minutes. The sky was clear, the moon giving just sufficient light to keep to well-used animal tracks. Karen checked the GPS.

“We’ve done well; we have already covered nine miles,” Karen said after marking their position on the map. “At this rate we should reach the farmhouse by five. Plenty of time to hide out before daybreak, besides gets a call off to Sir Peter.”

“I just want a bath,” Sammy commented. “I have never felt so dirty, I must stink?”

Annette laughed. “I think we all stink, Sam. You just don’t appreciate modern living until you don’t have any of the perks.”

Natasha frowned. “I don’t think I smell?” she said trying to sniff herself.

“Oh you do, believe me. It’s a good job we’re not sharing a bed anymore,” Sammy ribbed her.

Karen stood. “Okay, let’s move on shall we?”

The going was still easy. Karen felt a little put out; the last time she’d been here, this journey had been a nightmare. Now it seemed like a stroll in the park. Soon they stopped close to Martha’s house.

Karen called them together. “Right, gather round and listen. What I’m about to tell you is your way out, if things don’t go to plan.”

She removed the GPS tracker unit and switched it on. “You can all see the map and the small flashing light. This flashing light shows you where you are on the ground. As you can see I’ve programmed a route to follow on the map which will guide you to a pickup point if I don’t come back. Basically you just follow the route and check the little flashing light which shows where you actually are. If I do return then we all go on from here, if I don’t you have until Friday night to travel about twenty miles using the tracker. You should travel during the hours of darkness, lie low in the day, the same as we have done up to now. You have to be at the pickup point by twenty hundred hours, that’s eight o’clock at night. They will wait half an hour then go.”

She then pulled out her torch and placed it alongside the GPS unit. “Once you arrive at the pickup point you’ll find it’s a cove. Send three flashes out to sea every five minutes. When you get a return three flashes, if it’s safe to pick you up directly, you return with two flashes. If it is not safe then send three flashes. Your rescuers will know what to do, and they will try to help you. Now Sam, Natasha, over to those bushes and settle down behind and keep your heads down. Your white faces can be seen very easily, so no looking up unless you hear me call you. Annette, you take the bush over there,” she directed pointing at another clump. “Again keep your head down, the gun at your side with the safety on; we don’t want any accidents at this stage. I’ll go and survey the house, make sure she’s alone. I could be gone some time, after all she’ll be in bed asleep, but don’t get worried and decide to come and find me, I’ll find you. Lastly if you hear shooting, don’t hang around and wait for me, get out fast to about a quarter of a mile back in the direction we came. Keep your fingers crossed it wasn’t me caught in the gunfire. If it was, and I don’t come to find you, you have your instructions on how to get home. I can do no more.”

“Good luck, Karen,” Sammy said.

“Yes good luck and don’t take risks,” Annette added.

Natasha came over to Karen and hugged her. “Don’t be too long and come back for us,” she whispered.

“I won’t, now into your places, so I can check you’re all well hidden.”

With the girls settled Karen moved on towards the house. Unlike the last time she was here, and fell over garden implements, this time she was very careful and was soon at the window. As expected the inside was in darkness, even the fire was out. But it was very early in the morning, in fact just after half-past four, so she could hardly have expected anyone to be up and about. Moving round to the door, she gazed at it for a moment, the door was partly open.

Alarmed that the door was like this, Karen unclipped the hand grenade with the red band from its pouch. Then holding the grenade in her left hand, with the ring through her thumb as in Lomax’s house, she felt safe. This was a time to be cautious, going into an already open and inviting building and Karen did not want to be in a position where she could be taken alive. Now with her gun strap over her right shoulder, the gun in her right hand and the safety off, output at maximum, she pushed the door open very gingerly with her foot.

Suddenly all the lights came on, Karen blinked for a second or two in the strong light, but stood motionless. Two men stood looking at her from the other end of the room; both had guns similar to hers. Sirec was sitting in the armchair Martha had been in last time she was here. How she’d not seen him through the window she didn’t know, but she hadn’t. But what annoyed her more was she’d fallen for the same sort of trap as she had with Lomax.

“Dead on time, Karen. You’re so predictable. Why don’t you take a seat, I’m sure you would like a drink? Maybe we should call the other girls in as well? Your good friend, Saeed, is in the kitchen waiting to take them away and of course you. But he assures me you’ll not be going up for sale to a private bidder, as are the others. He says you’re more of a party animal, well able to satisfy a number of admirers all at once, saying you like it that way, spread over a table.”

Karen didn’t move from the door. “Where’s Martha? Why are you here? Who told you I was coming?” she asked ignoring his derogatory words.

He smiled. “Such a lot of questions but I will answer them for you. First of all Martha is dead. We found her on the floor in the kitchen. She’d died of a heart attack. We’ve had no time to bury her, so she’s in the barn. We’ve been following you for the last few days and knew you were coming here, after all this is where you hid out last time, isn’t it? And of course Abed called me only three hours ago, telling me of your new plan; that no longer included you and me. I thought we had a deal, Karen? You’re so fickle girl, and then to kill Halif was not the right thing to do.”

Hearing that Abed had lied to them and contacted Sirec, in some ways didn’t surprise her, after all she’d found many in this country lied as a matter of course. However, she realised it was her fault for trusting him, he was a Sirec man after all. But she decided it was a waste of time showing her annoyance to Sirec, he’d probably laugh at her for being so trusting. However, she was glad she’d not told Abed about the final way out if all else failed.

“Yes well your plan for me, according to Halif, wasn’t quite what we agreed either, was it? And while we are talking about Halif, I never killed him; Lomax shot him in the head. I just took out Lomax afterwards,” she replied.

He shrugged. “An easy mistake if that’s true, Karen, after all you blew them to pieces, and so it’s a little difficult to prove one way or the other now. But I must thank you for killing Lomax. I’ve been able to take over his patch, which will make up for the money you’ve cost me. What with paying Saeed, supplying men and all manner of things, including having to replace my home, which you and your SAS friends kindly destroyed for me, it adds up to quite a figure.”

She sighed, but still didn’t move. “Why the girls, Sirec? I can understand you want me, but the girls. They’ve been through so much; it’s inhuman to let Saeed sell them again?”

At that moment Saeed was pushed into the room, from the kitchen, by his mother.