Chapter 20

The Mexican Border, El Paso

The tomato delivery truck stopped to clear customs. It was a matter of routine. Their papers were all in order, and the enclosed body of the truck was empty except for a few used, empty crates. NAFTA was a wonderful thing for JJ Reodondo's trucks, as all the border crossings were routine, now. Even the drug and explosives sniffing dogs were giving their approval to the trucks.

Reodondo's drugs were taped to the inside of the diesel tanks, in vacuum sealed, triple wrapped plastic. No trace of scent escaped. And of course, there were no drugs in the tanks on the return trips.

Instead, in a narrow compartment between the axle/transmission machinery and the floor of the truck body, were three young girls. The compartment would have been very uncomfortable for the girls, if they had been awake. It was moderately ventilated, but very cramped. There were only a few inches of clearance above their faces. The girls were strapped down, to prevent accidental movement or removal of the IV needles inserted in the backs of their hands. Each was neatly packed in cotton batting, so the 'cargo' wouldn't shift as the truck moved.

The IVs led to small plastic bags, suspended from the ceiling of the compartment. Each contained a saline solution mixed with the kind of sedatives used during surgical operations. Reodondo was, after all, a merchant in pharmaceuticals; he had experts at his disposal.

There was a GPS tracking system in the cab of each of JJ's delivery trucks, and he tracked every mile of this particular, very valuable delivery. Every twenty seconds, a new red dot appeared on his laptop's screen.

He watched as the red dot approached the border, crossed into Juarez, and proceeded down the road toward Ascension, Mexico. But Ascension was 200 km away, and the truck would turn off about half way there, into the nearly barren wastes of northern Mexico. The isolated cabin near the canyon would be ready for them.

JJ Reodondo sent an email to Mr. Lee Tran at his address in Burma. Where Mr. Tran was at this exact moment was anyone's guess. But JJ knew where he would be in a few days.

He would be exchanging a load of heroin for three meaningless girls, near an isolated cabin near a canyon.

Idly, he stroked the inner thigh of his sister with his .45 caliber handgun.

North Phoenix

In a randomly addressable memory space, Io tracked every single one of JJ Reodondo's trucks also. Every twenty seconds that went by she updated their location in the real world, as the trucks issued their coded messages. One of them, she was sure, contained the three girls.

When the email went to Lee Tran, she wanted to alert Zeus and Artemis as well, but they were training for their flight into Mexico. She did, however, develop a full dossier on Mr. Tran.

Lee Tran was 5'9", weighed in at 325 pounds, and was of mixed Chinese-Southeast Asian heritage. He traveled around the Pacific in a new Gulfstream G650 jet. He, reportedly, had several million dollars in platinum bars with him at all times, along with two bodyguards/pilots, who were experts in various martial arts.

He was a drug lord.

'No, ' Io decided, 'he is beyond a mere drug 'lord.''

He was nearly a heroin king. Mere drug 'lords' reported to him. His personal holdings were estimated at over five billion UK pounds by the authorities, but no one knew were it was. No one ever had the resources or skill of the abiological person who was tracing him, now.

From Interpol reports, he was reputed to be a savage sadist in his personal life, leaving a trail of heavily drugged and mutilated corpses behind wherever he went. The corpses were always those of young girls.

Edited By TeNderLoin