Wedding
The plane landed in China and then Ms Wilson grabbed Faith's arm as she led her out the plane to the luggage carousel below. "Just shut up and do what I say."
Faith looked at her, nervous.
"What can I do? Nobody here speaks English." Ms Wilson grinned at her. "Just be good, little pest."
Then she had her passport and Faith's faked passport checked by customs, though how she got away with it Faith had no idea, before she walked down to the luggage carousel.
Chinese and tourists alike, after a satisfying holiday in Turkey, took the luggage as it came round. A tall Chinese man about thirty-five came up to Ms Wilson.
"这个女孩"the man asked. Ms Wilson nodded. Faith asked, "What did he mean?"
Ms Wilson rolled her eyes before saying, "He was asking 'is this the girl'?"
The man grinned an evil smile and asked, in English, "How old is she?"
"She is sixteen." Ms Wilson answered.
The man then clutched Faith. "Little lady, I am awful. Just remember, I have way."
He patted his coat pocket and Faith felt uncomfortable. But she looked behind her as Ms Wilson went back to the terminal and she was stuck with this man.
He introduced himself as they walked to a taxicab outside. "My name is Jinsong. And this is Beijing. Look around, girl. You'll get used to it."
As he lit a cigarette he offered one.
She asked, "Should I take that?"
Faith was really confused and had no idea what she should do. He smiled, putting it back. "What's your name?" he asked.
"Faith."
"Ideal name, girl. Because you have it."
Then he said, "The ceremony's tomorrow morning. Don't worry about anything, there are a few people here who can really sort you out. And you'll look pretty."
"Ceremony?" Faith quivered.
"Faith, you are going to be my wife."
Faith's eyes grew wide and she swallowed. "I'm just sixteen. And I haven't finished my education…"
He snarled at her. "Girl, you're mine. And be grateful I'm actually going to allow you to be outside the house because if you don't co-operate, there are a lot of things I could do."
At Ashdene Ridge, Johnny kept looking at the window in Frank's room. He and Harry had been locked up for over thirty-six hours and they were beginning to feel annoyed. All he knew was that Tee was somewhere else and he was going to be sold.
Like a pet. Like a slave. Was he a slave? They were ready to get him.
And he knew that unless the abductors had saved evidence, he'd never see Tee again.
He tried hard not to cry when he thought about it. But he was struggling to see how he could escape.
He knew that in a few hours, Mr McLaughlin would drug them and send them off to whatever country they had lined up.
Johnny imagined himself being brought by some Spanish or Chinese or African person, being dragged off to whatever they wanted them for, never seeing Tee again.
No. He couldn't! He had to be focused.
He looked over at Harry, curled up on the bed. Going over and kneeling down, he asked, "Harry, could you just hide in that cupboard for me a sec?"
The little boy asked, "Why?"
"Just do it, Harry. If you do, we might save the others."
In Japan, the plane began touching down as Tee quivered in her seat. Her friends had gone, she was the last one left, and she was scared about what Ms Wilson had said. She'd be a bride.
She was only fourteen! And even though Ms Wilson had told her girls could marry at thirteen in Japan, she still felt uncomfortable.
When the plane touched the ground, Mr Kelly was the one who took Tee out by the hand. After getting their faked passports checked by security, who Tee didn't think were really looking properly, Mr Kelly took her out to the luggage carousel.
Tee didn't know why, maybe Ms Wilson was a bit tired, but being with Mr Kelly was slightly scarier.
Looking round, she saw she was at the luggage carousel. She noticed a young Japanese man in a black suit waiting by the metal seats.
Mr Kelly went up and asked, "Are you Kaede?" the man nodded.
"How old is this girl?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Tee was surprised how he spoke with an English accent.
"Theresa is fourteen years, seven months." Mr Kelly rattled off.
Kaede briskly told her, "The car is outside, Theresa." He pronounced her name wrong. He said 'f-ree'.
In the car outside, even with things inside to try and calm her, like a small bunch of cherry blossom flowers and a pink cushion, Tee felt terrified.
She really didn't care much about what would happen to her. She just wanted Johnny.
Kaede then told Tee about himself. He was only twice her age, with a job as the manager of a company.
"In Japan, children are encouraged to work a lot. Even really young children get a lot of homework. We see hard-working children as a good thing. Of course, at fourteen, you need some schoolwork left to do, I could sort that out, but remember that I brought you for £15,000, or more accurately, over two and a half million yen, which is quite a bit, as a bride."
Tee murmured, "But I'm still a kid."
Kaede kindly told her, "You do understand that you have very bad problems here if you don't. Although a lot of Japanese people speak English, very few will know enough to understand your situation. And I won't throw you out on the streets; I'll just place you in the offices where everything is in Japanese. And you'll have to sleep in the building."
Tee seemed to think she hadn't a choice, so she sighed and answered tiredly, "When's the wedding?"
"A few days. I just have to get the right stuff. Some Japanese weddings are Shinto, but a number use churches. As you are British, although I don't know religion, we can have the church."
They arrived at a building with a tall brick wall and barbed wire round the top. The gates opened and then the car went past a few trees and benches on the drive, parking outside the stairs.
Kaede ushered Tee up the stairs and pressed a button in the door. He asked something quickly in Japanese and then the door opened.
Tee was amazed at inside. Aside from the sliding paper doors, it could have been in Britain. The carpets, pictures, the colours, it didn't look Asian.
It looked British. Some of the paintings were copies of English paintings.
Kaede told her, "I have a fascination with the British. It was from some Brits I heard about the smugglers, to be frank, from some British businessman doing an exchange. They said they'd heard from some East End criminals they'd met about this bride thing."
Tee then looked round. "Where's my room?"
Kaede slid a paper door open and Tee saw a very Japanese room. A mattress on wooden bed, colourful duvet, a small bedside cabinet with a Buddha statue and a few photographs of Japanese countryside.
Smoky glass wardrobe doors and a table next to the bed, a folding table.
Kaede asked, "Theresa, is there anything you would want?"
Tee paused. Aside from wanting Johnny, she couldn't think of anything. "Err, I prefer Tee." She looked him straight in the eye, hoping he'd do something.
He smiled, nodding. "I understand."
In Ashdene Ridge, Mr McLaughlin opened the door to Frank's room. He was going to drug the boys and get the bus drive to the airport, where Kelly and Wilson would take over.
Silly little kids, he thought. Kelly and Wilson (he was used to calling them fake names, it was Darren Robinson and Cathy Wilson) were just so childish. It was amazing to think they were already grown up. Cathy still looked about sixteen.
She didn't even wear make-up, one of the few good things about her. She constantly giggled and the two often kissed when they didn't think McLaughlin was around.
He was a bit relieved they were flying with £600,000 from the kidnappings to the Caribbean. Well, £579,080 after tickets. He'd also done their hard work for them, finding a visa and a hotel to work at. They could get their stupid wedding done on a garbage beach for all he cared.
Five years of putting up with their ideas, bunking at his house, watching DVDs and he let them in because they'd committed a crime.
And now, although he found the kidnappings fun, he'd had to buy every ticket himself.
When he opened the door, syringes in hand, he was ready to grab the two boys.
But when he opened the door, he saw the room was empty. His heart skipped a beat and then he waited, looking behind the door.
The boys would possibly still be in here. It was a trick. He'd check the wardrobe first.
When he opened the door he saw tiny Harry behind the clothes. "Gotcha!" he grimaced, leaning forward.
Johnny jumped from under the bed and grabbed the duvet, throwing it over McLaughlin. McLaughlin screamed words that a boy Harry's age should never hear, as Johnny shouted, wrenching the keys from McLaughlin's hand, "Get the police!"
Harry scrambled outside and pattered to where Rick and Mo were. Unlocking the door, Rick opened it, looking at Harry then back at Frank's room. "What's going on?"
"We're escaping." Harry plainly answered. Rick bounded, Mo in tow, out of the bedroom and ran down the stairs to the office.
As McLaughlin carried on screaming, Harry unlocked Carmen's room. As Jody and Floss came to the door, McLaughlin came out from Frank's room. He'd thrown Johnny to the floor and rushed out, red.
As Floss screamed, running downstairs, McLaughlin grabbed Harry by the arms and hauled him up, "You worthless piece of…" he began shouting, before Johnny came up behind him and hit him with the football.
Rick had seen Mike on the floor, still bleeding, but tried to ignore what he thought was a corpse, and ran into the office, locking it behind him.
He had no idea what to do, so he called first the police, stuttering through.
He didn't think they'd heard properly what he said, but McLaughlin's shouting and Harry and Jody screaming, as well as the football then flying through the hall and smashing the office window, probably made the operator think something awful was happening, so they told Rick a police car and ambulance would come straight away.
Then for no idea why, Rick called May-Li's number.
"Yes Rick?" she asked, when she heard his voice. "You do know this is Mike's phone?"
"I think Mike's dead." Rick gasped, as McLaughlin began pulling on the office door. "Dead?!"
"Let me in, you…" Rick tried blocking out what McLaughlin was screaming, "Stupid brat! I'll knock your…" May-Li asked, "Who is that?"
Rick swallowed, "I think he killed Mike."
When the police car and ambulance arrived, McLaughlin was already trying to get away in the minibus, with two very confused Poles who'd come for loading, and promptly arrested him.
They'd found Rick and Mo in the office, as well as Johnny, Jody and Harry in Carmen's room. Johnny had a red cheek and a black eye on his right side, where Jody said McLaughlin had slapped him. Floss was under the stairs.
The ambulance people said that Mike, although he'd been losing blood, had shut his body down, rendering him comatose for at least twenty-four hours. The ambulance people said that if he hadn't come when he had, he may have died.
But the police had a big problem. They had six missing kids on their hands.
The officer soon got the children and May-Li in the den, and after a few hours, had them ready.
They were exhausted, confused and bewildered.
"Children," the officer began, "over the last several months, forty children, in all care homes, have been kidnapped by unknown people, always two men and a woman. They'd pretend to be social workers, had all the documents, they also killed the care workers.
"Mr Milligan was very lucky. We had no idea where the children went and we feared the worst, but after confiscating airline tickets and a continent-crossing brochure, we believe that the children were taken to several different countries.
"The train starts in Paris and ends in Istanbul, in Turkey. The stops are Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Greece. Then we believe, as a booklet from McLaughlin says, they fly from an airport in Turkey to Africa and Asia. Airline tickets we found mean that they planned to take you six to Latin America and South America.
"We will check all the countries and the foreign airlines with ambassadors to see where the others could be, it may take some time, but I am certain that we can get them back."
As Mr Kelly and Ms Wilson landed at Gatwick, the police arrested them.
Within an hour they'd identified Kelly and Wilson, and noticed that 'Kelly's' mother had gone missing in 2009. They were certain if they searched a nearby area, they'd find her body.
They found evidence from the Turkish airport that over several months, the two had flown to Rwanda, South Africa, China, Thailand and Japan from that airport. Sometimes they'd also get off between stops and come back on.
Every time they had been accompanied by children.
Twenty-four hours after the arrest, the news was on television stations all over the world. Britain, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, China, Japan, Australia, America, Cuba, Peru. Everywhere.
Peter Mountney, 48, Darren Robinson, 27, and Cathy Wilson, 21, had their photos shown on every news site in the world, in thirty-nine different languages, with links to the forty-six missing children's pictures, when they disappeared, and which countries they may be in.
Johnny looked at the page with Tee, of her in school uniform, smiling, taken last Christmas. Below it read,
Theresa Taylor, 14, Ashdene Ridge, last seen 25th April. Believed to be in China or Japan. May have her hair cut and/or dyed.
He just stared at her. He wanted her home.
A/N: Thanks to judopixie for all your help.