Chapter 10

“Great job, it looks like we’re still on an unbelievable run. Remember how this started? Remember how early this morning this was supposed to be just a simple retaliation against the gangs raiding the oil camps?”

“Yeah, and now look at it. I can’t believe what’s happening. Somehow or other it’s morphed into a major operation.” Ashley said. “The next step was just a desire to stop an attack on the school house. Now I think we’ve stumbled onto something much bigger. By the way, have you stopped to consider how much of its resources Galaxy has already committed to this? It’s turned into a huge operation.”

“No problem because the more Don sees of this, the more interested he’s become in seeing it through to the end. He says it’s beginning to look like the way a supposedly well-knitted sweater can be taken apart. All you have to do is find a loose thread and keep pulling on it until the whole thing becomes unravelled,” Max said.

Ashley smiled. She heard the story before. Only it was about a long row of dominoes falling down one after another when just the first one was tipped over.

“So,” she said. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

““What, that we’ve stumbled upon a much larger operation? That by sheer luck and coincidence we’ve latched on to the mother lode and arrived at the back door of the man who is holding the entire world hostage? Yes,” Max agreed. “I think we’ve managed to do what all the nations in the world couldn’t do. That’s why we have to super careful about this.

“First off: We must obtain absolute secrecy and not let anybody know we’ve found the girls. I suspect there could be a lot of leaks so that information could get back to Eli who would immediately start killing all the hostages to cover his tracks. Then he disappears like a prairie dog down its hole.

“Second: I believe we have to act immediately because the longer we wait the greater the risk that the news gets out. So as soon as you confirm who those girls really are find out how they were brought onto Adam’s estate, and then I suggest you go knocking on door number one to see what prize if offers.

“Third: Since the ultimate prize and the key to everything is hidden behind door number one tread carefully. Remember, we need the person in that room alive so we can get valuable information off him. The same goes for whatever else we find. Things like computers and thumb drives must be preserved. Nothing can be destroyed and I’ll put Margo on any computer stuff we find.”

“Right, just give me a moment to talk to the girls to confirm our suspicions and swear the team to absolute secrecy. Then we’ll see what awaits us behind door number one.” Ashley said.

It only took a few questions to confirm what Ashley and Max already suspected. Melody said she was the daughter of an English lady high enough up in society to receive a special invitation to the river boat ball the night the mass abduction took place. Susan announced she was American, attending the festivities with her mother when the kidnappers struck. Both of them described the horror of the mass rapes and how the women and girls were divided up like the spoils of war. They said while most of them remained in an underground compound at the mercy of the guards, they and two other girls had been presented to Adam and Abe as a gift from a man called Eli. However, they didn’t know where the compound was. Just that it might be somewhere in a desert because of the sand they walked through and the way the wind howled and blew up dust storms. When they were taken from the compound they were put into a big car with blackened windows so they couldn’t see outside.