The Darkest Web (7)
The abandoned former Capital Steel building, Shijingshan, South-West Beijing
If the girls had been transported immediately following the auction, they would have been lost forever. But they weren’t and upon such fine margins does the world turn.
“I need the girls ready in twenty-four hours. We will take them to the arranged place and meet the couriers as agreed. From there they will be shipped to their new owners providing we get the payment transferred to us today.” Kang Li was issuing instructions to his team.
“How will we transport them?”
“A van allocated to each girl. The girl will be naked, chained and held inside a cage.”
The man nodded. Li’s instructions were clear and fool-proof … if only they had been executed twenty-four hours earlier.
But that dialogue took place the day before this one, immediately following the auction. The payments had been received and now the girls were being readied for transportation.
MI6 SIS Building, Lambeth, London, UK
“Lieutenant, what’s the progress?” Moore and his aides were once again sitting round a satellite phone in his London Office.
Underhill paused, and then sighed. The Head of MI6 could sense the emotion in his Officer’s voice when he spoke. “We had car problems Sir, but we ‘fixed’ them …”
“You ‘fixed” them,” Roger Moore repeated, picking up on the intonation of his Special Ops Lieutenant. “Do I need to know how?”
“No, Sir, best not to ask.”
“Okay, and so now …?”
“Now we’re pretty much there. Maybe fifty klicks to go. The girls?”
“Can’t be sure Lieutenant, but the GPS tracker shows them as still being at the abandoned former Capital Steel building. It’s just that we have no pictures or video, so it …”
“… so it could be that Kat is gone and it’s just the ring that is left behind.” Underhill almost choked as he finished off his boss’s sentence.
The abandoned former Capital Steel building, Shijingshan, South-West Beijing
"Get her in the back, we have already wasted time and should have left by now."
The order was handed down from Kang Li.
As Kat was paraded from the main building into the glare of the sun and the waiting vans, she was manacled and surrounded by goons, her scarred nudity exposed for all to ogle, and ogle they did.
She assumed that Grace had already been ‘packaged’ away in the other stationary van … the girls were separated following their cum-kiss-show and Kat had not seen her friend and colleague since.
The blonde MI6 Agent knew that all hope was now gone. She had no idea what had happened to the Special Ops team – maybe the Tracker hadn’t worked. Maybe they had been intercepted … she glanced down at the ring which was still on her finger. “Jase …” she whispered quietly to herself.
As she thought about her lover, and then her mother and Sister, Kat was forced to choke back a sob. She had been very close to death before, but this time, somehow it seemed worse. She hadn’t really been beaten or tortured to a point where death seemed like a blessing. She had simply been humiliated, used and then … sold! Thoughts of her family and Jase were more lucid than ever, and that caused her much greater pain …
"You heard him, Blondie."
Moving slowly, her feet still bare, the gravel was cutting into her toes forcing her to walk with care. Shivering and trembling by the time she reached the van; the rear door was wide open and the dog cage with its bare floor and no warmth to protect her was waiting.
She saw a man kneeling by her side and felt the manacles around her ankles temporarily removed.
“Step up slut.”
Kat stared at the cage. If she climbed in there right now, she would be giving up. She cannot ever give up, can she? Kat was aching and sore, humiliated and shamed, but if she gives up now ...
Special Agent Novikova was pushed hard from behind. She gasped as if she had run out of energy and strength, at least that was the impression she wished to give. Getting one leg to the front of the cage, leaning her knee into the metal grid for leverage, Kat groaned when she tried to lift her other leg up to join it.
The man to her rear sighed, "What is taking so fucking long, Blondie?"
"Sorry," Kat whispered and she was almost inside when the closest goon took a step back. It was a small step, and he was still too close, but this was going to be Special Agent Novikova’s only chance. Leaning harder into her arms, before pushing back, Kat experienced a sudden burst of energy. Throwing herself backwards she butted the man with the back of her head, and he tumbled over yelling out loud, leaving his prostrate body gasping on the ground.
Squealing when she too fell onto the floor, loose chipping and gravel digging into her elbow and hip, the pain causing her stomach to flip, Kat looked up to see Kang Li. He was standing over her, grinning.
"On your feet, Blondie."
Nodding her head and rolling onto her hands and knees, crawling away from the van, Kat kept her head down until the last second.
Scrambling to her feet and with no destination in mind, just not into the van, Kat was suddenly running towards the open fence and the trees beyond. If she could escape than there’s always a chance that she can return for Grace, somehow …
"Little whore," Li roared after her.
Having taken everyone by surprise Kat stole a running march. She reached the fence and headed for the gap to the trees beyond. Tall and thin there are plenty of them to hide behind and upon reaching the treeline, finding strength from somewhere, her last reserve, Kat pushed on, fighting her way through low hanging branches that tugged and tore at her arms as she attempted to cover her face.
"Stop her." Struggling through the first line of trees, reaching a small clearing, Special Agent Novikova was panting and gasping, her lungs burning and her vision swimming. Behind her, Kat could hear Kang Li crashing and smashing along the same path that she had taken.
"There's nowhere to go, Blondie. And when I find you, I'm going to..."
Hearing the rest of his threat, not that she needed any help imagining what he's doing to do when he finally catches up with her, Kat pushed onwards, running blindly without any real path in front of her.
"Blondie!” The shouts were getting closer. Squeezing and fighting through more trees, Kat screamed and stumbled forwards at a point where the trees abruptly end, and she stopped dead in her tracks. Sharp branches had ripped and torn at her arms and hair, her sides, the backs of her legs and feet …
“Kat … Get down!” She heard the shout, and, acting entirely on instinct, she fell flat to the grass beneath her.
A shot rang out, and she heard the bullet thud, finding its mark.
******
More shots. Shouting. Then more gun fire. Kat did not move one inch until finally an eerie quiet seemed to overtake the scene. She dared to glance up and saw the swirls of smoke around her …
As she raised her head further, she saw a man in a green, camouflage uniform running towards her. Pressing her hands, with wrists still manacled, to the ground, Kat forced herself up onto her knees, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. And then the man was on her, hugging her, kissing her unashamedly, and she was kissing him back …
To Be Continued …
! Yeah, Jeffrey's dead. Well, I'm sure Bill G. has a private jet even after the divorce!
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