“I’ll be tied up for days, maybe arrested,” I said.
“We’ll send lawyers, guns, and money,” Adrienne said. “We’ll get our girls back, Linda. You did everything you could today.” She hung up, already yelling for someone to get the car ready.
I started pulling memory cards from the cameras I’d collected, transferring files to the laptop, then deleting everything before putting the cards back. Once I had the video files sending to Adrienne, I used the computer to call the police. It didn’t take much acting ability to sound emotional and distraught. I then called the American Consulate in Cancun. They said they would send someone to the scene; I could tell it wasn’t their first time dealing with tourist kidnappings. “If they wore hoods, they are after a ransom,” the FBI liaison said. “There is a local gang that does this, and it sounds like their work.”
“I hear sirens; I have to go,” I said. I closed down my laptop and tossed it in the back seat. When the police approached, I stood by the turnoff and waved them down. Crying, I repeated my story, pointing down the trail to where the owner’s body lay on the jungle floor.
One of the officers moved my car out of the way as more cars and a detective arrived. He had me show them where I hid during the kidnapping, as one of his men jumped in and retrieved the rest of my gear. “The scuba guide is down there?”
I nodded. “It’s almost a hundred feet down.”
“We’ve got divers,” he said. I went through my story, telling him everything I overheard. I’d hired the police through a local agency, and I gave the detective the details. “We were diving, so we heard nothing until we got out,” I said.
I sat with the FBI liaison as the police continued to process the scene. “Will we get them back?” I asked.
“Your friend has money, so we’ll keep a watch on her accounts,” she said. “The Australian Consulate is sending an agent to stay with Vicki’s mother, while agents out of our Seattle and Minneapolis offices are staying with the other families. If they call, we’ll assist, and I hope to hell that they call with a ransom demand.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then this wasn’t about money, and that’s the worst-case scenario. Your friends are famous, and owning them would give bragging rights among some of the world’s richest assholes. If they enter the global slave trade, they could disappear in some Mideast estate, never seen again.”
“That happens?” I was shocked.
“More than you might think. Sheiks and oligarchs like owning blonde American girls, and dozens disappear every year from Mexico. The local kidnapping ring targets both rich Americans for ransom and beautiful but alone Americans for the slave trade.”
“How do they get out?”
“Private aircraft, shipping containers, even diplomatic luggage. When you have money and power, you can own anyone or anything.”
It made my heart ache to think of those girls, drugged and transported overseas to end up as sex slaves. If their new owners were human, they had no idea what they were getting into with those six girls. If they didn’t keep them silvered, they would wait for the opportunity to shift and kill them all.
A dive team arrived, and I briefed them on what I knew of the cenote. An hour later, men were pulling Juan’s body out of the water. The divers recovered the knives and my underwater camera; I’d thrown Fiona’s pistol deep into the jungle on the other side of the road. I thanked the men as I broke the camera down and stowed it in the open case with my gear.
It was five hours after they disappeared before I was allowed to leave. The police put a hold on my passport and told me to remain at the hotel until the investigation was complete.
I followed the consular agent back to Cancun, worried the whole time about my friends. Security was tight, and I had to pass two checkpoints to get back to the tourist area. There were television stations set up outside our hotel when I arrived. A bellhop ran over to me, and he loaded all of my equipment cases and bags onto a carrier while I grabbed my laptop.
One of the reporters recognized me, and they all ran towards me to get a statement. Word of the kidnapping had gotten out. Letting out a sigh, I turned around near the front doors and waited for the cameras to turn on. “Someone took my friends away,” I said as tears streamed down my face. “Please. Don’t hurt them; they are good people. I want them back,” I said.
“Has there been a ransom demand?”
“I don’t know; you’ll have to talk to the police.”
“How did you escape?”
“They didn’t see me. That’s all I’m at liberty to say.” With that, I turned and walked towards the front desk. Hotel security kept the reporters out as I headed for the elevators.
The hotel concierge approached me as I walked. “Miss Cartwright? May I be of any assistance?”
I pulled my broken phone out of my purse. “I need a new phone,” I said as I handed it over with a stack of pesos. “If you could arrange that and get the SIMM card transferred, I would appreciate it.”
“Of course, Ma’am. I will bring it to your room personally.” I nodded and headed to my room, followed by the bellhop and his cart.
Looking around my room, I could see the evidence of a police search that must have taken place during my interrogation. I took a quick shower and pulled on fresh clothes before setting up my computer for a video call. Adrienne was in the air. “Anything yet?”
“I can’t say anything except that I have good people on this. I’ll be at the hotel in three hours, and we’ll set up a command center. Leo’s coming, along with Nicholas and a bunch of others.”
“All right. I’ll see you soon.” Whatever she knew, she couldn’t tell me around others. I heard a knock on the door, and the concierge handed me my new phone and my change. I gave him a large tip as I fired it up; I had many messages when it finished downloading. The police still had everyone else’s phones, not that it would do them much good. I couldn’t even get into their rooms, as the police had secured them as potential crime scenes.
I quickly texted everyone to tell them I had my phone again and was back at the hotel with nothing else to do. Sitting down with my laptop, I started editing everything I had of the kidnapping, starting with the GoPro video I’d taken while chasing after them. I sent the encrypted video file to Adrienne, Alpha Leo, and Alpha Steven.
I ordered room service and continued to search for clues, stopping only when there was a knock on my door. I opened it to find Adrienne and four other men. She pulled me into her arms, hugging me as I broke down. “Grab your computer and come with us,” she said. “It’s time to find our girls.”
*****
Vicki’s POV
We communicated over the link as we drove to our fate, planning out when we would make our move. “We can’t do it now. You’ll dislocate your shoulders if you shift in these zip ties, and there’s no way to get through the cage or out the back door.” The cage had no openings, and where the handle for the doors would be, there was a steel plate welded over it.
“I could shift a nail, cut through these zip ties, and when they open the door, we could take them out,” Amy suggested.
“No. There are six men with rifles, and they expect we might try to run. No, we have to wait for a better opportunity.”
“What about these necklaces? They transmit, right?”
I thought back to what Linda had told us. “They record and transmit, and they are still on,” I replied. “If they search for something transmitting on this frequency, they might find us.”
“Lay down until your head is behind me, and I’ll pull it off,” Amy said. I was closest to the driver, so I went onto my side as Amy turned slightly towards the back. She worked until she could touch my neck, then Amy rotated the loose-fitting necklace until she could pop the clasp.
“Put it in my mouth,” I told her. She moved until I had it in my teeth, then I struggled to sit upright again with no hands. Noelani got a foot under me, and that was just enough to make it to a sitting position. The guards weren’t paying attention, so I leaned my head against the cage and let the necklace fall. It hit my hip, landing in the corner. I butt-scooted around until I had my back to the corner; using my fingers, I pushed the necklace through the opening until it was under the driver’s seat.
“How long do those transmit,” Fiona asked.
“Four to twenty-four hours, depending on how much you talk,” I replied. “If there is no noise, they go into sleep mode. Better than nothing, though.”
“Are you all right, Carla?” Noelani looked over at me, then linked, “We should talk every five minutes or so just to get them to transit, or they won’t find us.”
“I’m fine,” Carla said. It was the female version of ‘fine,’ which meant anything BUT that. I could tell she was mad at herself; she was in charge of my protection, it happened on her watch, and she felt terrible about it.
“It’s my fault,” I told them all. “Cross-training my security as camera operators took away from their mission and left us vulnerable. I should have known better.”
Carla shook her head, no. “No, Alpha, it’s not your fault. We had security, I hired them, and they took off. I’m going to hunt those men down and kill them for what they’ve done.”
“No, you won’t, and that’s an order,” I said. “Those men may be crooked, but they are still cops, and we’re in their country. For all we know, the Cartel could be behind this. Those bastards don’t hesitate to wipe out whole families in front of you if you don’t play ball.”