Wendy picked up her baby and went upstairs, leaving Elizabeth alone with the other woman.
“How can I help you?” she asked.
Sabrina licked her lips and spoke haltingly in heavily accented English. “Pardon me if I don’t speak too good.”
“You’re doing fine.”
“I thought to come to this country because there is nothing for me back home.” She stopped and swallowed hard. “I had some money saved. I paid it to a man who said he could get me into America—and get me a good job.”
When she stopped talking, Elizabeth prompted her. “And what happened?”
“He got me here. Me and other women. We traveled in a big shipping container.”
“My Lord.”
“It wasn’t so bad. We had light in there, and food and toilets. But then we got to Baltimore, and I found it was all a big lie. Men were here to meet us. They took us to a house where they forced us...” She stopped then started again. “Forced us to be prostitutes.”
Elizabeth sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m sorry.”
“They had us under guard, at a house way out in the country, but I was able to escape.”
“How?”
“A man wanted to take me home for the weekend. He paid a lot of money for that, and I hit him over the head, stole some of his money and got away. I know that attacking him and stealing from him was wrong, but I had to do it.”
“What he was doing was wrong.”
Sabrina nodded. “Yes.”
“But why is this happening in Baltimore?”
“Some of the girls had relatives in the city. That’s why they came here. We had talked about this area, and I knew the part of the city where people from my country lived. I found this neighborhood. I was starving on the street, and Wendy helped me.” She gave Elizabeth a pleading look. “I need to hide out from the man who is in charge of this shameful business. And I need to get the other girls out of that house.”
Elizabeth was shuddering as she came back to the present. Tears leaked from her eyes as she looked down at Matt.
He rolled to his side, cradling her against himself. “You were investigating the smuggling ring.”
“Yes.”
“And it led you to Derek Lang.”
“Yes. Sabrina had picked up his name at the bordello.”
“Why didn’t you turn him over to the cops?”
“Because I went to a fancy reception where he was. I saw him with a man who’s high up in the police department, and I knew he was paying the guy off to look the other way. I was afraid that if I just turned him in, I’d end up dead.”
“Which looks like it was the plan anyway.”
“Obviously Lang found out I was poking into his business. I was staying in a motel room near home, while I figured out what to do.” She made a low sound. “I left some of my stuff there.”
“Like what?”
“Clothing. Toilet articles.” She thought for a moment. “I guess nothing that would help them find me now.”
“Right.”
“When you didn’t come back, the management probably went in and cleared it out.”
“Did they save it, do you think?”
“Is there something important in your stuff?”
She laughed. “I did have some money.”
“We’ll have to think about whether it’s worth trying to retrieve it—and paying your back rent.”
“If we explain that I lost my memory, maybe they’ll be...charitable.”
“Maybe, but we’ve got more important issues.”
“Yes. Like my car crash.” She shook her head. “It’s not my car. Susan, one of my coworkers, lent it to me because she was going out of the country and wouldn’t need it.”
“When this is over, we’ll figure out what to do about that.”
“I suddenly remember a lot more stuff.”
“Good.”
She gave him a direct look. “Well, it’s not exactly coming at a convenient time. I mean I want to explore what I know about myself, but we can’t while we’re stuck in this mess.”
“You remember something specific that you think is important?”
“Yes. You said your mother went to a fertility clinic in Houma, Louisiana.”
“Yes.”
“Would you believe, I remember
my
mother talking about it?”
“You do?”
She nodded. “That’s the link we’ve been looking for between us. It can’t be a coincidence. It has to have something to do with our abilities.”
“But first we have to deal with Lang and his thugs.”
“Yes. I know they would have gotten me when I crashed the car, but I think there were too many people around.” She dragged in a breath and let it out. “And now what are we going to do—about us and the women?”
* * *
D
EREK
L
ANG
RARELY
permitted himself to be worried. He was a visionary, but he was also a cautious man, with a firm handle on any situation into which he ventured. But this thing with Elizabeth Forester was getting out of hand.
Lang had investigated Dr. Delano and found out he’d done several years as a medic in Africa—during which he’d had a number of hair-raising escapes from death. Apparently those experiences had taught him how to defend himself.
He looked at Patterson, the man who’d been tasked with guarding Forester’s back door.
“How did they get past you?” he asked.
“They zapped me with something.”
“Zapped?”
“Something like a Taser.”
Derek’s brow wrinkled. A Taser wasn’t exactly a long-distance weapon.
He asked for an account of the rest of the screwed-up mission, listening as Southwell related finding Patterson and then they both went into the house after the fugitives, one from the front and one from the back.
“And how did they get out of that?”
“The doctor opened a window while they were in the office.”
Lang thought of saying that every exit should have been covered, but of course, there had only been two guys on the scene. Even so, he wanted to lash out at these men who had come back to him with bad news, but he wasn’t going to waste the energy. And he’d better start looking for a replacement for Southwell. The man was simply making too many mistakes.
“Double the guard on The Mansion,” he said.
“Yes, sir.”
“And tell Susanna to come in here,” he ordered.
She would do what she could to calm his frayed nerves.
Chapter Ten
“I’m thinking,” Matt answered.
He didn’t have to say more, because he knew Elizabeth was tapping in to his mental processes.
She went very still, when she realized what he had in mind. “Find the house?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
She pressed her hand to her mouth, her face a study in concentration. “I...don’t know where it is.” Panic bloomed on her features. “Oh, Lord, Matt. What if all this has been for nothing?”
He wasn’t going to simply give up. When he held out his arms, she hesitated for a moment, then came into them. He could feel her panic subsiding as she leaned into him.
Is the house in the city?
I don’t think so.
But you saw it?
Yes. I’m pretty sure I snuck up on it.
Let’s go back there.
They both closed their eyes, and he pressed his cheek to hers, flooding power into her the way he had learned to do. For long moments he felt her frustration, until a picture of a large dwelling formed in her mind.
It was a Victorian mansion with three floors, a wide front porch and a newer wing on either side. It was painted a tasteful beige with darker trim. At one side he saw a paved lot where several high-end cars were parked. A brick path led from the lot to the front door. And the grounds around the house were nicely landscaped with azaleas, dogwoods and other typical local greenery.
That’s it?
Yes. You’d never dream it was anything but a pretty rural residence.
She gave a harsh laugh.
Or maybe an upscale bed-and-breakfast.
How did you get close?
I waited until it was getting dark, then parked down the road and came through the woods.
You didn’t get inside?
No. But I looked in the windows.
She stayed with the scene, and he got more than visual effects. From inside the house he heard soft jazz drifting toward him. It was accompanied by another picture that came to him of young pretty women wearing dressing gowns. Some were standing, others sitting in a nicely furnished room where men in sport shirts and slacks relaxed with drinks.
One of the men stood and held out his hand to a blond woman. She swallowed hard, then got up and walked ahead of him out of the room. He saw the man caress her bottom through her gown, saw her wince, then caught a glimpse of the couple climbing the stairs before they disappeared from sight.
He picked up the disgust in Elizabeth’s memory as she backed away from the house and hurried across the neatly trimmed lawn. Turning around, she looked at the building again and froze. For the first time, she spotted a security camera she hadn’t seen earlier. With a little gasp, she ran for the woods at the side of the house. But knew it was already too late.
“They must have seen you,” he said aloud.
“Yes. I wasn’t thinking about cameras. I only wanted to make sure that Sabrina was telling the truth.” She made a soft moaning sound. “Oh, Lord, and I thought I was being so careful.”
“Go back to the scene,” he said.
He felt her resistance. She didn’t want to go anywhere near the upscale prison where young women were being forced to service men who were willing to pay for the pleasure, but she did it because they were trying to save the women. Her head lay on his shoulder, but her mind flashed back to the memory, and he saw from her point of view as she ran frantically into the darkened woods. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the gloom, and she stepped into a patch of brambles that tore at her clothing.
She wrenched herself away and veered to the left as she kept running, madly fleeing the house. And now he heard the sounds of heavy footsteps crashing through the underbrush after her.
“There she is.”
“Don’t let her get away.”
Fear leaped inside her and kept her running as fast as she could. When a tree root snagged her foot, she almost crashed to the ground but caught herself against a tree and kept moving. She was breathing hard when she reached her car, opened the door with the remote and threw herself inside.
She gunned the engine and sped out of the woods, skidding as she turned right, then hurtled down the road, but Matt and she both knew she hadn’t been in the clear.
When he felt her trembling, he soothed her. “It’s okay.”
“I made a mess of that.”
“No. You got a look at the bordello—at what was going on in there.”
Silently he asked her to return to the vision once again. She shook her head, hating to revisit the scene.
I think we can get information we need.
How?
Try it again. Get back into the car—when you were speeding away just now.
She put herself back into the vehicle. When she was sure she’d lost the pursuers, she slowed. Coming to a street sign, she saw she was on Sparks Road, and the cross street was York Road.
He squeezed her shoulder. “I think you’ve got it.”
“Yes.”
When she caught what was in his mind, she went rigid. “No.”
“Yes. We have to make sure it’s still business as usual out there.”
“Then what?”
“I think I know what will work, but we have to make sure about the place.”
He held her for a few moments longer, pulling her closer.
They’d both wanted to make love, yet now that she remembered the fate of the women Lang had forced into sexual slavery, neither one of them was in the mood for lovemaking.
And again they didn’t have to discuss anything out loud. They each knew what the other was thinking.
Finally he slipped away from her and sat up. “Come on.” He felt her terror and also her determination. “You won’t be alone.”
“After everything that’s happened, it’s the only reason I can do it, I think.”
Matt went to his computer and looked up the roads he’d seen in her mind.
They were in Harford County, and he mapped a route to the York and Sparks Roads.
He knew she didn’t want to go back there, but he also understood she had steeled herself to do what was necessary to bring down Derek Lang.
They drove north, and he followed her previous route in reverse. The farther they got up York Road, the more he could feel her tension. But she said nothing as he drove past the entrance to the house, which was on a two-lane rural road off Overbrook.
They came to a long drive with a small sign that said The Mansion. The house itself was up a long driveway, and you could barely see the house through the trees.
“Nice and private for the men who like to get their jollies here,” he said.
“And hard for the girls to escape. They probably don’t even know how close they are to the city.” She shuddered. “I can’t imagine how it is for them. They pay money to get out of their countries, and they’re full of hope, thinking they’re coming to something better. Then they end up
here.
”
“You’re going to get them out of the mess they’re in.”
“But Lang didn’t just start with this shipment. He’s been bringing in women for years. How many others did he lure here? And what happened to them?”
Knowing she was having trouble coping with the pain of the revelations, Matt reached over and covered her hand. “We can only deal with the situation that exists now.”
“I know.”
Getting back to practicalities, he said, “Last time, you parked on the other side of the property.”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s go in from this side.”
“Do you think they’ll be looking for us?”
“Hard to say. Since you returned to your house, you could have your memory back. But they smashed your computer, so they may assume you can’t find this location again.”
“Let’s hope that’s what they think.”
He pulled onto a dirt track and under some low-hanging trees that hid the car, then turned to Elizabeth.
“We need to make sure it’s business as usual there. And we need to make sure nobody sees us, because if they do, they may well move the women.”
“Yes.”
It was getting dark, as it had been the first time Elizabeth had come here. This time they walked cautiously through the woods, being careful to make as little noise as possible.
Matt looked back the way they’d come, thinking that they might be in a hurry on the return trip.
When they got to the edge of the trees, he squeezed Elizabeth’s hand.
“How far is the range of the cameras?” she asked.
“Probably not far, since they want to concentrate on the grounds near the house.”
They were about fifty yards away, and they both stayed in the shadows under the trees as they looked toward the well-maintained structure.
“Quite a setup,” Matt murmured.
“Nothing but the best for Lang’s guests. Do you think he’s actually here?” she asked.
“Probably not. He may steer clear of this place. I’m going to have a look. You stay here.”
“Okay.”
He caught the ambivalence in her mind. She hated sending him closer, yet she didn’t want to get near the house herself.
Lamps were on all over the first floor. As in Elizabeth’s earlier memory, light jazz drifted toward them. As he moved toward the house, he looked up and saw the nearest camera. Focusing on it, he sent a burst of energy toward it. When he heard a zapping sound, he knew he’d taken care of that problem.
Still he waited for any sign that he’d been spotted. Like on Elizabeth’s previous trip, he had a good view in through the windows. He saw casually dressed men looking like they were at a party, a well-dressed older woman who must be the hostess, and women in nightwear who looked out of place in the expensively furnished rooms.
Having confirmed that this was the right location, he was about to turn around and head back to the woods when he heard Elizabeth crying out a warning inside his mind.
Watch out.
But it was already too late. In the next moment, a rough voice ordered, “Hold it right there and raise your hands above your head.”
With a silent curse, Matt stopped in his tracks, upbraiding himself for being too focused on the view inside the building.
“Turn around,” the rough voice ordered.
There was no real choice, since running for it would only get him a bullet in the back. He turned and found himself facing a bald man dressed in a dark shirt and slacks. It wasn’t anyone he recognized from his previous brushes with Lang’s thugs.
“We’re going inside,” Baldy said.
Matt eyed him, thinking that he could send a bolt of power at the guy, but that was dangerous with the man’s finger on the trigger of a gun pointed at Matt.
And then he heard Elizabeth’s voice in his head, telling him what he’d told her back at Polly Kramer’s house.
Drop to the ground.
She was fifteen yards away, and he didn’t know if she could reach the guy from there. But he did what she said, watching the man with the gun gasp and topple over. And luckily, he didn’t alert anyone else by pulling the trigger as he went down.
Elizabeth sprinted out of the woods. Matt clicked the safety on the gun and set it on the man’s abdomen. Together they dragged the guy across the lawn and under the trees.
Matt turned to look back the way they’d come. As far as he could see, no one else had noticed the capture.
Thanks,
he said to Elizabeth.
I should have seen him sooner, but I was focused on you.
She looked down at the guy, who was about Matt’s height, with bulging muscles and a swarthy complexion.
What are we going to do? You said that if anyone saw us, they might shut down the operation out here.
Yeah. I’m thinking.
Can we...zap his brain or something?
It might do him permanent damage.
Do you care?
He considered the question. He was a doctor, dedicated to treating illness and injury. But in Africa he’d gotten used to the truth that if someone was trying to do you harm, you might have to beat him to the punch.
No,
he answered.
How do we do it?
Aim a blast at his head,
he said, then considered the answer more carefully.
“We don’t want him to come out of this like a vegetable.”
“Why not?”
“Better if he just has a memory gap. If it looks like he had a stroke, they might take him to the hospital and find something...off.”
“Then what do we do instead?”
“Blast his hippocampus.”
“Which is?”
“One of the areas of the brain that governs short-term memory. The other is the subiculum, which is next to it, but that’s only for
very
short term.”
He knew that they didn’t have time for a medical-school lecture, but he sent her a picture of the brain, showing her the hippocampi, which were actually two horseshoe-shaped structures, one in the left-brain hemisphere and the other in the right.
“It takes in memories and sends them out to the appropriate part of the cerebral hemisphere where they are retrieved when necessary.”
He knew she was studying the picture he’d sent.
The hippocampus. It’s kind of at the bottom.
Yeah.
He pulled at the limp body of the unconscious man, arranging him so that his knees were under him, his butt was in the air, and the back of his head was facing upward at an angle.
He didn’t have to tell Elizabeth to give him power. She simply did it, and he felt it gathering inside himself—before he directed a thin stream of lightning at the back of the man’s head. The guy’s body jerked, and he fell over on his side.
Did that do it?
Elizabeth asked.
Let’s hope so. And there’s one more thing we’d better do.
He picked up the gun, wiped it off with his shirttail, and put it into the man’s hand.
Elizabeth tugged at Matt’s arm.
Come on. Let’s make tracks.
Right.
They both headed back the way they’d come, making a wide circle around the man they’d left lying on the ground.
When they reached their car, he wanted to stop and pull her close, but he knew that the first thing they had to do was get away—before more of Lang’s thugs came after them.