After sitting for several minutes, still absently picking up and dropping leaves, Steed decided to leave. He stood up and dropped the last handful of leaves he held on to the ground, looking down quickly as he heard a dull thud against the root of the tree. Bending down he shuffled through the leaves he had just dropped. He saw nothing at first and started to give up when out of the corner of his eye, he saw something glint slightly in the sunlight coming through the canopy of leaves overhead. He brushed away the leaves that covered the object and saw it was a ring. A man's ring, very large and very ornate, almost to the point of being garish. He examined first the large ruby in the center and the smaller diamonds surrounding it. Two of the diamonds were missing. Turning the ring over in his hand, he tried to see if there was an inscription of any kind on the inside. It was hard to see because of the dirt accumulated on it. Taking a jeweler's glass out of his pocket, Steed fixed on to his eye to take a closer look. There were letters there, but he didn't dare clean away the brownish red substance that covered them, because while the outside of the ring was caked with dirt, the inside was caked with blood. Steed pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped the ring in it carefully. He then removed the jeweler's glass and headed off to Mother's.
"GAB 1949" Mother said looking over the notes forensics had handed him.
"George Arthur Brownwell. Imprisoned in 1965 for uranium smuggling, by yours truly." Steed said matter of factly as he read the notes over Mother's shoulder.
"And escaped in 1966. Moved to an island where we can't touch him. Conveniently formed his own little government, protected by none other then the Chinese Government, who refuse to extradite him back to us. Suspected in smuggling uranium to the Russians, Chinese, and Japanese underworlds who will do everything they can to protect him. Certainly he wouldn't be stupid enough to return here." Mother looked up at Steed.
"No, I don't think so. I think he's sent someone else though to act for him or as him to throw us off their trail if we were to stumble on it. If this is the case, and if forensics is correct that the blood on the ring belongs to Mirabelle, then we are facing much bigger problems then we realized."
"So you think the baby selling is more of a cover up for uranium smuggling?"
"No, I think it's all a part of it and if Tara finds out, and she probably will, she's going to be in more trouble then she realized going in."
"We will have to wait for more evidence Steed. The ring means nothing except that Mirabelle was telling the truth in saying someone hurt her. It proves nothing else at all, just raises suspicions." Mother said, guessing correctly that Steed was hinting at moving in now instead of waiting.
"Mother, they are going to rape her, and probably kill her if she raises any type of suspicion at all. She's in there completely alone! We need to at least send someone else in there to help her!" Steed said furiously.
"We have no one else Steed! The few other women who work for us are not in the right age group! Now we've gone over this a hundred times. Don't you trust her to take care of herself?"
"Of course I trust her! She's a very capable, intelligent woman. But she's up against we don't know how many people and we do know what they do to these women who suddenly appear amongst them! Tara is a survivor. She'll only be able to take so much before she starts fighting back. And when she starts, they will kill her. You know it and I know it!"
"They didn't manage to kill Mirabelle Broadneck, and I think Tara is much better equipped then she was. Now don't be angry at her, but Tara herself insisted that we wait until Friday night to give her enough time to get some hard evidence. Of course, we didn't know about the possibility of smuggling either." Mother muttered the last words as if to himself. Both men sat lost in thought. After several minutes of contemplation, Mother looked up to see Rhonda coming over to them with a large bottle of brandy. Before she could reach them, Mother smiled slightly.
"Put that down and get ready. You are going in to help Tara. And both of you had better damn well come back alive and well or you both will be reprimanded severely!"