Chapter 11

Midwinter’s day was rapidly approaching. John had been working in the FBI office in Phoenix every day. He was investigating a pattern of abductions that looked suspicious to him. He was pushing himself as hard as he could to identify what was going on. The urge to solve this case was pushing him to work day and night.

He stared at the bank records of a number of individuals that had been arrested for abducting young kids and women. They all had significant deposits about every three months before they had been caught. Yet none of them had jobs that could explain it. He pulled a few of the records together and then realized that those deposits had occurred within a week of unsolved disappearances. In an epiphany, he realized that they were dealing with a white slavery ring that was operating all over California.

He rapidly began gathering the data that supported his idea. He traced the locations where people had been abducted or reported missing under unusual circumstances. They formed about twenty clusters in different parts of California. After each arrest, the number of missing people in a cluster dropped. Significantly, the individual lived within that specific cluster. After some time had elapsed, another cluster would appear elsewhere in the state. He then identified where all of the arrests had been made. It looked like three arrows all pointing to a desert region below Las Vegas.

He jotted down a list of individuals that were serving time in prison. Under each individual’s name, he jotted down the list of people that he suspected they had abducted. He got up and walked over to the office of Ann Moore. He entered without knocking and sat down in a chair. She studiously ignored him.

He set the list of names on her desk and said, “There is a white slavery ring operating in California.”

She looked up startled. Not sure that she had understood him, she asked, “What?”

“I said there is a white slavery ring operating in California. They are abducting young women and children. They are being taken somewhere in Nevada south of Las Vegas.”

As the implications of what John was saying sank in, Ann started mentally reviewing any warnings that might have been issued. There were none.

She asked, “Are you sure?”

John nodded and answered, “Very sure.”

Ann challenged, “Prove it to me.”

John took her to his office and presented his data. She stared at the relationships that he had found among the missing individuals and the people in custody. His argument was airtight.

She asked, “What do you suggest we do?”

John smiled and said, “Send agents to interview the people on this list. Confront them with the names of the other individuals that were abducted within their specific cluster. Convince them that we will be prosecuting them unless they give us the location where their victims were taken. Stake out that location and when a car arrives with another victim, arrest everyone. Roll them all up at once.”

Ann considered the plan. She said, “It will take a couple of weeks to set things up.”

John shook his head and said, “I’m sorry, but we don’t have a couple of weeks. There are going to be a rash of abductions starting in about four days. We need to be in place by then or else I believe that at least eighteen people are going to be victims. I don’t know if we’ll be able to find the past victims, but we can save the current bunch.”

That was a pretty tight deadline. Ann said, “It’s going to be tough. It’s going to take that amount of time to line up all the agents we’ll need.”

John was blunt when he replied, “Bullshit. If it were a nuclear weapon, we would be there in five hours.”

Ann stared at John realizing that he was correct. She picked up the phone and dialed a number. She asked for the director and when she was told that he wouldn’t be able to take her call, she became more insistent. She used John Carter’s name in an effort to speed things along. Finally, she said, “Tell him it’s a broken arrow type of situation.”

Those magic words opened doors. She put the call on speakerphone. Within seconds, Mike was on the telephone shouting, “Did you say broken arrow?”

“I said it was a broken arrow type of situation, sir.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that as a result of John Carter’s research over the past three weeks we have a huge case that is time critical. A white slavery ring is about to take another eighteen people in the next four days. I need FBI agents in California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and, of course, here in Arizona. I want a conference call with deputy directors in all of those areas in an hour.”

Mike was still about to explode over using the phrase broken arrow. He paused as he considered it. He asked, “Are you sure?”

John answered, “Mike, have I ever been wrong?”

“No you haven’t.”

John said, “As far as I can tell, over the past five years this ring has been responsible for at least three hundred missing persons. As far as I know, they are probably being sold for child pornography, lock box prostitution, or snuff films. In my opinion, this is the ugliest crime there is. I haven’t even looked at the East Coast yet. It may be national in scope, I just don’t know yet.”

Mike was silent for a moment as he thought about it. He said, “I agree. I’ll set things in motion.”

All of the agents assigned to the Phoenix Office were called into the conference room. The room was filled to capacity. John entered the room followed by Ann and Rover. Many of the agents had never seen Rover, although the cat was already a legend in the office. As soon as he reached the front of the room, John said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I know that the holidays are rapidly approaching. Everyone has shopping to do and family gatherings to attend. However, for the next five days everyone will be on duty twenty-four hours a day.”

After the grumbling quieted down, John continued, “We have identified a white slavery ring that is operating on the west coast. Within the next four days, we expect that at least eighteen people will be abducted. Although little Timmy may not get his dream bike, I want to make sure he gets to spend Christmas with his family rather than as a sex slave to some pedophile. And maybe, just maybe, we might be able to rescue three hundred others that have been abducted in the past.”

The noise level in the room rose as people considered what John had said. They all looked at each other. This kind of case makes the national news in a big way. John waited patiently for the noise to abate. When it was quiet enough to be heard, he said, “Go call your families and let them know you won’t be home for the next couple of days.”

The next hour was a flurry of activity as agents got busy faxing John’s data and conclusions to the various offices that were going to participate in the conference call. John estimated that they were going to have over two hundred agents involved in this arrest. Other agents were arranging for cots to be brought into the office and for catering services to providing meals.

The conference call went like a dream. Other offices had already had a chance to look at John’s data. Everyone had to agree with his conclusions and recognized the need for a fast response. All courtesy procedures were suspended for the duration. Rather than interviewing people one at a time by a single pair of agents, all of the interviews were going to occur at the same time by fifty pairs of agents. Instead of business hours, they were going to wake people if necessary to get the interviews. They would wake judges if necessary to get warrants.

John watched as the agents left the conference room to attend to their individual tasks. He could imagine the same scene playing out in twenty-three other offices. John returned to his office and sat there starring at Rover. He asked, “Rover, would you be willing to go back to the house with Ed and stay there a couple of days without me?”

The cat sat there and didn’t move or react in any way. John added, “You wouldn’t like to stay in this office for three days straight, would you?”

Rover, as if in answer to the question, got up and walked to the corner of the room where he lay down. In seconds, he was asleep. John said, “Okay, stay with me. I’ll call Ed and have him arrange for food and a cat box. Maybe we won’t be stuck here too long.”

John called Ed at the school. Answering the phone, Ed said, “Hello?”

“Hi there, hubby to be!”

“Hey, John, how are you doing?”

John considered his answer and then said, “Well, it looks like I’m stuck here at the FBI for a couple of days. Can you pick up some burger for the cat, and a cat box?”

Ed frowned and asked, “What’s up?”

John said, “We have a big case with a four day deadline. I have to be here to help correlate data. I need to be ready to leave at a moments notice. Maybe you can get my backpack from the house when you come in for school in the morning.”

Ed said, “I’ll be there in an hour with the food and cat box. Be ready to tell me the details when I get there.”

John answered, “Okay.”

Ed hung up. John was left with Rover in the office. He could hear the activity outside his office, yet no one disturbed him. He felt bad about having all of the agents locked up for the next few days. A knock on the door to his office interrupted his musings. He said, “Come in.”

One of the newer agents came into the room struggling with a cot. He said, “Here’s your cot sir.”

John looked at the cot and then at the agent for a minute. He asked, “Did they put you in charge of sleeping arrangements?”

“Yes, sir.”

John reached into his wallet and pulled out a platinum card. He handed it to the agent. “Go to the nearest hotel and request a block of rooms equal to the number of agents here. Take this and have them charge it to my card. When you get the keys to the rooms hand them out to the agents. Maybe their families can join them there.”

The agent stepped back in surprise. He said, “You can’t be serious. That’ll cost a fortune and our budget can’t handle it.”

John said, “I’m a very rich man. My budget can afford it. Happy holidays.”

“That is most generous of you, sir.”

John was about to reply and then added. “Do the same for the other offices involved in this. Contact the hotels and arrange the rooms. Use the card. If they need verification, then I’ll talk to them. Ask the hotel to deliver the keys to the offices and then let the receptionist hand them out to the agents.”

“How many days should I request the rooms?”

“Make it five. At least that way the families can make plans.”

The young agent stared at John. He cleared his throat and said, “You do realize that there may be three hundred agents involved. You’re paying for fifteen hundred nights of hotel rooms.”

John nodded his head. He had already thought of that. He said, “Yes. So long as the bill is less than half a million, do it.”

“Half a million?”

“Yeah. You might authorize each room for fifty dollars worth of extra charges a night.”

The agent looked at the card in his hand. He looked at John and said, “Yes, sir. I’ll get right to work on it.”

When the agent had left the room, John sat back feeling a little better. Maybe he hadn’t ruined so many holidays. He called Jack and let him know what he had done in case the credit card company called. Jack squawked when he heard the amount he was authorizing, but he didn’t say anything else. He knew John very well, at least well enough to know that there was no way to get him to change his mind.

Ann came into the office. She sat down and asked, “What do you think needs to be done now?”

John smiled at the question and said, “I don’t know. You’re in charge of this case.”

“Me? It’s your case.”

“Okay, I just turned it over to you. You’re doing quite a good job so far. I’m just here to help out.”

Ann snorted. She said, “You are impossible. Do you know the headaches you’re giving to me?”

John laughed and said, “Yes. You’ll have to deal with the press, the other enforcement offices, and transportation services. I don’t envy you at all.”