Human trafficking was a profitable business
Bolan watched as the slides showed girls and women being led from seedy rooms by uniformed police. Stretchers were used to carry out the ones who couldnât walk, either because they had been drugged or their abused bodies had rebelled.
âKurti answers to this man, back home,â Brognola said as the next slide revealed an older man.
âRahim Berisha,â the big Fed said. âThink of him as Albaniaâs Teflon Don. Heâs got the best friends money can buy on both sides of the law. Heâs been indicted seven times, but something always goes off track at the Ministry of Justiceâpaperwork misfiled, warrants thrown out on technicalities, witnesses disappear. You get the picture.â
Bolan wished he could study that face through a sniper scope. âSo the job would beâ¦â
âShut them down,â Brognola stated grimly. âWipe them off the face of the earth.â
Off Cape May Point, New Jersey
âCould be a fishing trawler, sir,â Ensign Jared Decker said.
âCould be trouble,â Lieutenant Commander Julio Martinez replied as he tracked the target with his AN/PVS-14 monocular night-vision goggle.
Martinez and Decker occupied the bridge of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Thresher, one of the eighty-seven-foot Marine Protector class vessels that were always named for aquatic predators.
The Thresher and its ten-member crew were on routine patrol from the Coast Guardâs Cape May Training Center, merging education with some practical experience. Their main targets were drug smugglers, but in the new world forged by 9/11âs flames they also had to watch for terrorists seeking a beachhead on American soil.
Three hours out from home, this might-be fishing trawler was their first suspicious contact.
âI canât make out the name from here,â Martinez said.
âI couldnât, either,â Decker answered.
âBetter hail them, then, and see whatâs up.â
âYes, sir.â
He passed the order to the Thresherâs radio officer, seated no more than fifteen feet from their lieutenant commander. Decker had no doubt that Ensign Rachel Wells had copied the instruction, but Martinez demanded adherence to chain of command.
Wells gave him an âAye, ayeâ and did her thing, trying to raise the trawlerâs captain on a range of frequencies. No answer from the nameless target vessel, but they did get a response.
âItâs turning,â Martinez said, âand increasing speed.â
âYes, sir!â Decker had trouble reining in his natural excitement.
âAll hands to their duty stations,â the lieutenant commander ordered. âRun them down.â
âTHEYâRE AFTER US,â Gjergj Cana observed.
âOf course. Are you surprised?â Masiela Dovolani asked.
âNo. I justââ
âSee to the cattle,â Dovolani ordered. âKeep them calm for now.â
Cana made no reply. There was no military discipline aboard the stolen boat, once known as the Adeline before its owner had been killed and dumped at sea, its name and registration numbers falsified and weathered artificial for maximum obscurity. But Cana didnât hesitate when Dovolani told him what to do.
An act of insubordination could be fatal on this run-down pirateâs boat.
The âcattleâ Dovolani spoke of was a group of twenty-seven frightened, hopeful men, women and children crammed belowdecks in a space that would have crowded half as many. Cana guessed they had fouled the head by now, as peasants will, but that was not his worry at the moment.
He was more concerned about survival.
Staying out of jail.
He scuttled to the hatch, a hunched shadow figure until he was pinned by the glare of a spotlight. Raising an arm to shield his eyes, Cana proceeded, wincing as a manâs amplified voice reached out for him across the water.
âUnknown vessel, stop your engines! This is the United States Coast Guard! Heave to and stand by for boarding!â
Not likely, he thought, and ran to the hatch. It opened easily enough, faint light below revealing troubled faces. Some of the women and children were crying.
âWhatâs wrong?â one of the grim-faced men called up to him.
Good question, Cana thought.
âThe police are after us,â he told them, keeping it simple and watching their faces convulse. They didnât have to know it was the armed forces chasing them.
âKeep quiet,â he added.
He had no real hope that any of them would be quiet, but Cana slammed the hatch shut before he faced any more questions.