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  Just reading those words on my screen was enough to make my blood boil, but I knew I had to continue in order to collect information. It was my job and I knew that if I did it well, the scum behind the entire operation would be taken down.

  Once I clicked the link, I was taken to a page that listed the names of the girls that would be available at the auction. Each name was a clickable link that led to the profile of the victim being auctioned.

  The first 9 names were obviously foreign and had either been abducted overseas or, more likely, while they were visiting America as a tourist.

  Argam Barsotti

  Fionnghula Biondi

  Mayme Mohammed

  Edyta Gulbrandsen

  Terezia Ola

  Zita Einarsson

  Kaisa Martens

  Anouk Atanasov

  Usha Rennold

  It looked the standard auction that I’d received info on numerous times, but this time there was one difference. There was one name that stuck out on the list like a sore thumb.

  Hannah Sullivan

  I knew the name instantly. It was the same name of the woman that I’d seen around Vegas since I arrived. Surely it would have to be a coincidence because the woman I had looked up wasn’t a tourist and she sure as hell didn’t fit the mold of the naive foreigners that are usually involved in sex trafficking.

  Normally, I’d never click on any of the links because I like to keep myself separate from my work, especially because I’m not actually able to save any of the girls individually, but this was something I needed to know. I clicked on Hannah’s name and her picture appeared along with her bio.

  Name: Hannah Sullivan

  Age: 22

  Height: 5’6”

  Weight: 135

  Hair: Red

  Eyes: Blue

  You don’t want to miss this one!

  A rare American girl!

  Be sure to have plenty of Bitcoin!

  Expected to sell for over $1million USD!

  The ad read way too much like a department store ad and I Couldn’t believe they were describing a person in the same way that they’d describe a necklace or a wool sweater.

  Suddenly, I felt infuriated. I didn’t even know this girl personally, but I somehow felt responsible for her. I knew that she needed to be saved and I could be the only person at the auction who wasn’t one of the bad guys. If there was anyone with the ability to help her, it was me.

  I grabbed my phone, knowing that if I was going to put a plan in motion, I had to do it quickly. I made a call to Victor Campbell, the head of the FBI Human Trafficking Task Force.

  “Yeah?” he answered, sounding less than happy to hear from me so late at night.

  “I just got an email about a new auction,” I told him. “I need to discuss it now. Can you meet me at your office in an hour?”

  “Christ, can this not wait until morning?”

  “No, time is important for this. Just meet me at your office.”

  “All right, but this better be good.”

  I grabbed my FBI assigned laptop and phone and raced towards the FBI field office located just east of the Las Vegas airport. I knew I’d get there before him, but the extra time would allow me to prepare my argument.

  “Evans, what is so urgent that this couldn’t wait until morning?” barked Victor the second he burst into his office.

  “I got a link to a new auction this evening.”

  “Okay? Isn’t that the kind of thing we handle in a morning briefing? I’m not sure why you had to drag me away from my wife for this.”

  “With all due respect, this auction is a little bit different than what we normally see.”

  “Yeah? What’s different?”

  “There’s an American citizen in this auction.”

  “What?” he asked, surprised at this new piece of information.

  “Yes, a local girl by the name of Hannah Sullivan. By the looks of it, they’re expecting her to fetch over a million dollars at auction.”

  “That is an interesting development, but it still doesn’t tell me why we have to do this now instead of in the morning.”

  “Are you being serious, Victor? This is an American who has obviously been abducted. We need to put a plan in motion to save this girl!”

  “Look Reed, understand your concern and I appreciate your passion, but you know there’s a process in the way we do things.”

  “I knew you were going to say that, Victor, but Jesus Christ man! This is an American citizen about to be sold and sent to God knows where!”

  “We’ll keep tabs on her just like we do the others. They’ll all be rescued. You know this.”

  “Do I know that for sure, though? Since I’ve been doing this, I’ve not heard of any of the girls being rescued. Do we really know where they are?”

  “Yes, we know exactly where everyone is.”

  “So we’re just letting their captors do whatever they want with them? When do they come home? We’ve never had an American at one of these auctions and I’ll be damned if I let her get away.”

  “I appreciate your enthusiasm, I really do, but you know that we have a protocol to follow here. Are you willing to jeopardize our entire mission for just one girl? What about the rest of the girls out there who are praying to be saved on a daily basis.”

  “Evans, listen to me. I really want this to sink in. You have to understand that you’re here as a contractor. You’re here to assist us. With that said, we make the rules. I hate to sound cold, but we could give two shits about a single girl. We are here to bring down the people behind this organization.”

  “Why can’t we do both?”

  “This conversation is over. I’m going home. Feel free to address any of this in the morning, but my mind isn’t going to be changed. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that it works. This girl will be tracked just like the others. Try to have a good night and don’t get too worked up over this.”

  My knuckles were white as I gripped the steering wheel hard during my drive home. I couldn’t believe that they weren’t willing to step in and save an American citizen because it would put the mission at risk. That’s not to say that she is any more important than anyone else just because she lives in the United States, but after serving this country, I’ve always believed that you never leave one of your own behind.

  Over the years, I’d saved most of the money I’d made through my mercenary work and had actually invested quite a bit of it in Bitcoin on the advice of a girl I once knew. I had no idea how much it was worth, but if it grew like they were predicting, I might have a decent amount.

  Upon arriving home, I decided to login to my cyrpto wallet and see what I was dealing with. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I discovered my investment was worth $2.3 million. I’d invested several hundred thousand, but even at that rate, the growth was nearly unbelievable.

  That was when I decided that if the FBI wasn’t going to step in to save Hannah, I would.

  Old thoughts that I’d kept buried away started to creep back into my mind. Thoughts that I never dreamed would ever enter my head again. Not only could I save Hannah Sullivan. I could own her.

  6

  Reed

  With my mind made up, I grabbed my burner phone and hit reply to the text message that had been sent to me about the auction.

  Thank you for the invite. H3L74 confirming my participation.

  H3L74 is the personal identification number that has been assigned to me and it is required for anything I do with the organization. Without it, I’d never even be allowed in the door. Hell, if I would have replied without my identification number in the message, my number would be removed from receiving the notifications.

  About a half hour later, I received a reply to my text message.

  The event will be held at 953 E Sahara Ave. Come to the back and go down the stairs. You will be vetted at the door. We reserve the right
to turn away anyone for any reason. Law enforcement officials will be dealt with appropriately. Payment is due when the winning bid is announced. No exceptions. All sales are final. Be on time as no one will be admitted once bidding has started.

  Once again, the reply rubbed me the wrong way. These are human beings being auctioned and the message makes them sound no more important than a shirt on sale at the mall. The thought made my stomach turn.

  If it were up to me, I would track down the people behind these auctions, lock them in a room and give them my own form of justice, but it would never be that easy. There was a reason that you almost never saw the people responsible face to face. Even at the auctions, the people in charge are smart enough to keep themselves at a distance.

  I made one final call to Victor at the FBI to see if I could persuade him to do the right thing before I took matters into my own hands, but he shut me down, just like I thought he would. I didn’t think it would work and the call was more about me covering my own ass than anything. If I got caught with this girl, I wanted to ensure I had a trail where I was trying to do things by the law.

  With the authorities completely against helping out, I got myself ready and made my way to the auction. I was surprised to see that the address led to a pretty nondescript strip mall area, with the address being a swingers club.

  As instructed, I pulled my car to the rear of the building. The parking lot was nearly pitch black and the cars that were parked around me were ominous, with windows tinted so dark, you wouldn’t be able to see inside even if you put your nose to the glass.

  I descended the stairs and tried to open the door, but it was locked. Suddenly, I got the feeling that I was being watched and that feeling was confirmed when a voice came out of the small box wired next to the door.

  “Who are you?”

  “H3L74,” I replied.

  “When you hear a buzz, pull the handle and come inside. Pull the door closed as soon as you’re inside.”

  I stood there for close to 30-seconds before I heard the sound and opened the door. I found myself in a small lobby with four extremely large men staring at me. To say that they would intimidate the average person would be an understatement. I am not the average person, but I still had to play it cool.

  “Any cell phones, video cameras, or weapons?” the large black man asked me while his buddies stood behind him with their arms crossed.

  “No, I don’t have anything like that.”

  “I’m going to have to pat you down before you head inside.”

  “That’s fine,” I told him, even though he wasn’t bothering to wait for my permission.

  As he frisked me, it occurred to me that he was a little too good at it and that’s when the realization hit me. The man had a law enforcement background. He was either currently an officer or had been one in the past. I hoped that he was a bad cop that had been kicked off the force because if that wasn’t the case, the people behind this organization would be nearly untouchable.

  “What’s this?” he asked, pulling a pen from my pocket.

  “That’s just my ink pen.”

  “I’m gonna hold onto it. No documenting materials of any kind allowed inside.”

  “That’s fine. I wasn’t trying to document anything. I just always carry a pen.”

  He didn’t even acknowledge me, he just turned to the others and told them I was clear. One of the other men turned to a pin pad on the next set of doors and punched in a code while the remaining men blocked my view.

  “Rules are posted inside,” he said as he opened the door and motioned me through. “You’ll be in room 3.”

  Once inside, there was a line of doors with numbers to the side of them. The doors to rooms 1 and 2 were closed as I walked past them, but the remaining doors were open. I found the one with the number 3 beside it and walked in.

  Inside was a small table with a computer and a laminated sheet of paper that included the rules of the auction.

  As soon as you enter the room, please close and lock the door behind you.

  I did as instructed and then went back to see what the rest of the rules were.

  The auction will begin exactly at 11:00pm. All bidders are required to log into the computer with their personal identification number along with the phone number used to be notified of the auction. At 11:00pm, we will turn off the log in system and anyone who has not yet logged in will be escorted out of the building.

  I checked my watch and saw that there was still nearly 20-minutes before the auction was set to begin. Still, I thought it was better to be safe than sorry so I turned on the computer and logged in. The screen flickered to life and the monitor showed a green background with black letters that said: Welcome. The auction will begin soon.

  At 11:00pm, the lights in the rooms will turn off and you will see that the wall directly in front of you is a two-way mirror. The girls will be brought out and will sit facing you.

  The auction will last for sixty minutes, with bids closing at 11:59:59. There will be a countdown timer on the screen counting down until the final second.

  If you are the high bidder, your screen will change to a Bitcoin wallet, where you will enter your payment. Payments must be made immediately.

  Upon successful payment, your girl or girls will be delivered to you.

  Good luck!

  As soon as the clock hit 11:00pm, the screen on the computer changed to a bidding page and the light in the room turned off. At the same time, a light flickered and I could suddenly see the room on the other side of the mirror. There were 10 chairs facing the mirror.

  One by one, each girl was brought out through a door at the rear of the room. The girls were frightened, looking around at one another as though they were trying to communicate through looks since I’m certain they were told not to utter a word.

  It wasn’t until the other nine girls were seated that they brought out Hannah. She was obviously the main attraction for the evening. She was led around the room in a circle, her handler showing her off like she was part of the Westminster Dog Show instead of a fucking human being.

  When she got to my mirror, she stopped and I could have sworn she was looking me directly into my eyes. The look on her face was that of helplessness. I knew it was crazy. There was no way she could see me from there, but at that moment, I felt that she and I had a connection. If there was any doubt in my mind, it had been erased. I knew what I had to do

  7

  Hannah

  I don’t know how long we had been kept in the damp, cold room that was barely bigger than the size of a walk-in closet. I guess in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter.

  My new captors had fed us and given us water to drink, but none of us could stand to eat or drink. We weren’t allowed to talk to one another, but you didn’t need words to tell you what everyone else was thinking. Eyes filled with fear and wondering about what was going to happen next. That was all we could see, no matter who we looked at.

  At least I had put myself in this position for a reason. I had agreed to be there in order to save my father from being killed for his gambling debts. Who knows what the story was for the other girls but judging by the way they were trembling, I could guarantee none of them were there of their own free will.

  That’s not to say that I was there because I wanted to be. No, I was simply there to protect my father. Looking around, all the girls appeared to be very young, probably just 18 or 19 years old. Not one of them was from America and I had a suspicion that the majority of them probably didn’t even speak english.

  For some reason, the masked man that led the girls into the big room with chairs had me stay back and enter by myself. It didn’t take long to realize why that was. I was the equivalent of the grand prize for the evening. The main event so to speak. The thought made me nauseous and I could actually taste the bitterness of the bile trying to come up my throat.

  Swallowing, I made sure to get myself under control. I had one advantage that none
of these other girls had. I was tough. No matter what was about to happen to me, I knew that even though my body would be present, I had the ability to put my mind somewhere else. That alone would get me through this ordeal.

  Although the room I was in had mirrors all along the wall, I could tell that there were people on the other side watching me. I couldn’t see them, but I didn’t have to. I knew they were there. I could sense them. There was a feeling of evil in the air. I knew I was surrounded by very, very bad people.

  Once I walked by the final mirror, I was grabbed tightly by my arm and led to the last chair in the room.

  “Bidding begins now!” the man under the mask said. “Upon winning an auction and confirming your payment, your prize will be delivered to your vehicle. Good luck!”

  8

  Reed

  As soon as it was announced that bidding was starting, the names of each girl appeared on the screen along with a number that correlated to a number located on the front of the chair they were sitting in.

  Almost immediately, the numbers next to the names started increasing. I wasn’t going to bid on Hannah just yet. I was going to sit back and watch what happened as far as the interest she was generating.

  I could feel a lump beginning to develop in my throat when I realized the numbers next to her name were increasing far faster than those of her counterparts. There was indeed going to be a bidding war, which was exactly what I was hoping to avoid. Sure, I could go pretty high, but who knew what the bank accounts of the other bidders looked like?

  Biding my time, I watched the auction time clock counting down while her bid price only continued to go up. With more than a half-hour to go, the bid was already 140 Bitcoin, which was just over a million dollars. Every few seconds, the number would increase.