Chapter 32: New Horizons

"Alexandra, this is highly irregular. Court hasn't even officially started for the day and here you are already asking me to give you a warrant."

Alex had gone to one of her favorite Judges, Lena Petrovsky, to get an arrest warrant for Leo Yu signed. They had a long enough history together that she was reasonably certain the older woman would grant it.

"If it wasn't so time sensitive I would have waited until court opened, but this is a matter of some urgency and is also confidential, I also wanted to bring this to you before it got busy in case you had any questions."

"Not another public figure."

"No, Your Honor, but it involves a member of the Army."

"You're kidding." Petrovsky walked over to her desk and put on her glasses, then picked up the warrant request paperwork Alex had filled out the night before and looked at it critically. "This is for a travel agent suspected of tax evasion. This isn't even your unit, Alexandra."

"The evidence pointing to Mr. Yu came up during an investigation into allegations of child porn and human trafficking, Your Honor." Alex pushed the ledger across the table to Petrovsky.

Petrovsky opened it, looked inside, looked up at Alex. "This is written in Chinese."

"It's in Korean, actually, Your Honor. Some translations are written in colored pen beside the original."

"Can you vouch for the fact that the translations are correct?"

"With a reasonable degree of certainty, though I will be giving it to the translators the DA's office uses to fully translate. The notations in colored pen were done by a currently-serving US Army officer who was born in Korea to a US Air Force Captainand grew up at Osan Air Force base."

"And how do you know this officer? Is this related to your sudden stretches of absence lately? I heard that you came back from the Congo with a reserve commission for the US Army and I have to say I never pegged you for the type."

"I never pegged me for the type either." Alex smiled ruefully. "I'm sorry I can't explain how it happened, Lena, it's classified information."

Petrovsky looked like she was about to say something else, then shrugged and focused on the ledger. "Give me a quick explanation of what I'm seeing, Alexandra, I see a list of names, a descriptor of hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, special services, extended stay, and dollar amounts. Nothing out of the ordinary for a travel agent."

"This ledger was not kept by the travel agent, but the caretakers for the property Mr. Yu owns upstate. It burned in a fire about eight years ago, but this is what it looked like until then." Alex passed over the travel brochure.

"So he used his agency to get renters for the vacation home he owned upstate. A little questionable, ethically, but nothing I would be concerned about."

"Until you understand that the 'hunter' in question was using darts tipped with a paralytic agent to hunt a young fifteen year old girl held captive at that cabin by the property caretakers. 'Fishing' involved tying up said young girl and throwing her off a pier on the lake at the property, then fishing her out and repeating the process. The outdoor hiking involved forcing that same young girl through the woods bordering the property with weights attached to her body. The dollar amounts you see there are funds paid to that young girl's guardians for the privilege of abusing her."

Petrovsky looked horrified. "Alex, that's sick. Can you verify this story?"

"The fifteen-year-old victim of those atrocities is the same one who did the translation and is a current serving member of the US Army. If you look at the travel brochure, it specified 'right amenities' for the 'discerning traveler'. She is willing to testify if absolutely necessary."

Petrovsky thought about that for a minute. "So why the emergency? If this Army officer is currently serving she isn't in any danger—and I assume she's no longer fifteen."

"Her name is Cameron Arlington, and she's twenty-six now. She isn't the emergency." Alex took a deep breath. "During my last trip to the Congo a group of these soldiers went out with me to provide protection when the UN requested my assistance with finding some of the children that I'd been helping who went missing when their village was raided. One of the soldiers, a Master Sergeant, was swept downstream when a bridge collapsed due to the monsoon-swollen river and was captured by the rogue soldiers, who then subsequently sold her to human traffickers. She is out there somewhere in the world right now headed for the international slave market in Amsterdam. Our purpose in going after Mr. Yu is not only to finally get him for human trafficking but also to get his help in getting Cam undercover into the slave trading underworld so she can go find the missing soldier—who is also her best friend. It's not actually that simple but there are a lot of details I can't give you about this because the soldier, as well as the base, is classified."

"Alexandra, the police are not a branch of the military. We don't go around arresting citizens because the military wants to cut a deal with them."

"On a normal basis I would agree, Lena, but I'm finding it hard to be objective on this one. The soldier who disappeared in the Congo is a personal friend of mine, and she's now been missing for three weeks. If we don't find her soon, I'm worried that we may never find her—the underground slave trade is tricky and vast and as much as I personally don't like this plan, I can't figure out any other way for us to get her back."

"Will the soldier be able to testify?"

Alex blew out a breath. "That's why we want to go after him for the tax fraud. There is a chance that Cam might not come back from this, and neither might Sha—the soldier she is looking for—so if that happens we can still put him in jail for the tax fraud. If they do come back she'll be able to testify to the human trafficking charges and we can get him for both. No matter what happens to her we'll still be able to jail the man for something."

Petrovsky picked up the pen and signed the paper. "Go get him. And, Alex…I wish this soldier luck. And you too."

"Thanks, Lena."

By the time the judge's office door closed behind her she had her cellphone out. "I have the warrant signed by Judge Petrovsky, Fin. Go!"

"And that will be it. I'm sure you'll enjoy your trip, I've arranged for your choice of conveniences to be waiting for you when you get to Singapore; you'll be able to choose one right away and begin your vacation immediately." Leo Yu oozed sincerity and congeniality as he closed the travel folder and passed it across the table to the client behind it.

Maxwell Stuart smiled as he took the folder with one hand and opened it. What happened next was almost too quick for anyone but a discerning person to see, but his hand slipped an envelope out of his pocket into the folder, then he passed the folder back to Mr. Yu. "If you could please slip a card there so I can recommend your excellent services to others?"

Yu slipped the envelope out of the folder and into a desk drawer, then took out a business card and put it in the folder. "Thank you for your business, I hope you have a wonderful trip, and of course, recommendations would be welcome and appreciated."

Maxwell Stuart smiled and stepped out of Leo Yu's cubicle at the travel agency, then out into the lobby and out the door. As he did so, a man stepped in; tall, thin, ascetic, with silvering hair and a look that could only be described as 'sarcastic'. "Mr. Leo Yu?"

"Yes, that's me," Leo was all smiles. "Can I help you?"

"Yes. I was told by a mutual acquaintance that you were the one to talk to about arranging vacations and trips for 'discerning' travelers, with all the best 'conveniences'?"

"Ah, yes, that's right, that's me! Could I ask which client referred you to me? I like to keep track of referrals so that clients who make referrals can benefit from my special Referral Incentives program."

"Certainly. Mr. Steven Jackson?" John Munch kept a poker face as he said the man's name. Alex had allowed them to photocopy some of the pages of the ledger and the name "Steven Jackson' had come up several times as being a regular customer at the upstate New York cabin; he'd also been busted three years ago by Brooklyn Special Victims for the rape of an immigrant child; as the community had been widely supposed to be 'full of illegals' he had raped the child thinking that the 'illegal' parents would not file a report. Only after he had been arrested did he find out that the child was not illegal, was in fact only waiting on a scheduled date to take the oath, and the parents were most certainly filing charges.

"Ah, yes. Mr. Jackson. Such a regrettable incident."

"Well, if he'd been a little more careful about the child he picked, it would have ended the way he wanted it to; the parents would either never have filed charges or if they did, they would find themselves under scrutiny for being illegal and he wouldn't have been charged. Now he'll do jail time and be registered as a sex offender." John tried to smile, although the words were sour in his mouth. "You have to think like a wolf and not foul your own den."

"Exactly!" Leo smiled and rubbed his hands. "Come on in, have a seat. Now, what are you looking for?"

"I like visiting the Asians, their culture is quite delightful." It wasn't the first time they'd arrested a travel agent/procurer, and he doubted it would be the last. "The food is the best. Have you ever had lamb cooked in Thai style? The youth of the lamb makes the dish taste better, I think."

"Absolutely," Leo hunted in his desk drawer and came up with a brochure for a resort in Thailand.

Using the coded phrases which meant something entirely different than a casual observer would have thought, the deal was soon finished and Mr. Yu finally signed on the last line, then asked John for payment—and started stupidly in shock at the metal handcuff that appeared around his wrist. "Mr. Leo Yu, you are under arrest for facilitating an overseas travel-for-sex trip, and you are also under arrest for

tax evasion and fraudulently reporting your income."

"Normally I would point out that I don't like being the military's stooge," John said to Fin as he watched Yu squirm in his seat in the interrogation room. "In this case, though. I'll make an exception. He really is a piece of work."

"Who is this?" Don Cragen had been walking by and saw Leo Yu sitting in the interrogation room. "And what's this I hear about being a military stooge?"

Fin shot John a 'see-what-you-just-did' look, but spoke up. "Picked him up trying to arrange a trip for a client out of the country for sex tourism with underage children."

"And this is part of a different investigation? How did we know?"

"We found a ledger with his name in it and payments to him for procuring clients for child prostitution. It was in connection with one of the children in the victims' drawer." John handed the folder to Don, hoping Don wouldn't pay too much attention to the dates on those photos.

Vain hope. "All right, John, I remember Liv pulling this out of that drawer earlier this year and she told you this child, who isn't a child anymore, has been found. Are you only getting to this guy now or is something going on that I don't know about?"

"They were acting on my behalf," said a clear voice at his elbow, and he turned and looked at the petite Asian woman standing in an 'attention' stance just behind him. Flanking her was Alex and two other soldiers, one of who Don recognized. "Gunnery Sergeant LaFitte?"

"Yes, Sir." The big Marine saluted, in deference to the fact that Don Cragen was also ex-military himself. "This is Charlie Ironknife, he's married to Cam."

Cragen took a second look at the short young woman. "You look familiar."

"I was the child in those photos." Disbelievingly, Cragen looked down at the folder in his hands, where the picture at the top of the pile showed a young girl, about fifteen, pinned under a light-skinned male body.

"Oh my God." He was at a loss as to what to say.

"Captain Cragen, Liv and Alex told me you're former military yourself, so I'm sure you understand the need for discretion." Her voice was just loud enough for Don, John, Fin, Alex, Ettienne and Charlie to hear, but not loud enough to carry to the rest of the squadroom, who were trying very, very hard not to look too interested in the three uniformed Army soldiers standing by the interrogation room door. "I was a victim of this man's human trafficking, and now a very close friend of mine, also an Army soldier, has been caught, captured after a disastrous mission in the Congo." Don's eyes flicked up to Alex's face, and saw guilt written there.

So, all of these people knew each other and Alex. And he trusted Alex.

"This man is guilty of trafficking, of procuring customers like the man in that picture to come to the cabin where I was held captive, to molest me. There was an accident, and a fire burned the cabin, and I don't know if he knows I'm alive. I'm hoping the shock of seeing me will prompt him into giving me the information I need to pull off a deepcover mission into the trafficking underworld so I can get my friend out. Alex and Olivia and your officers," she nodded to John and Fin, "offered to help us already but I will understand completely if you ask them not to pursue this." She took a deep breath. "However, if you can see your way clear to helping me get my friend out of the traffickers hands, I will testify in open court to what this man did to me, what he arranged for others to come to the cabin and do to me, and I will cooperate with you and do whatever I need to in order for Alex to build a case against him and successfully prosecute him."

"Do you know for sure that he has the information you need?"

"Yes," she said with absolute certainty. "Alex told me that there was enough evidence—the ledger I gave her, among other things, for her to be successfully able to prosecute him even if I don't return from the operation." She seemed to sense his next question even before he asked it. "Yes, there's a chance that I won't come back. But you'll still be able to prosecute him without me, although the case will be easier if I am here. So whether I succeed in finding my friend and come back or if I don't, it'll be a win-win situation for you either way."

Don thought for a quick second, then made up his mind. "Go on," he said, motioning to Leo Yu in the interrogation room. "After you all are done," he pinned Alex with a look as well, "I want to talk to all of you. Do you understand?"

"Yes Sir," came from John, Fin, Alex, and the three military officers at once. Don nodded brusquely and headed for his office to look over the folder, ledgers, and wonder at the strangeness of the world.

Outside the interrogation room, Alex faced Cam. "Are you ready for this?"

Cam sighed and squared her shoulders. "I'm not fifteen anymore. And this is a police station, and Charlie's here. And you guys. You won't let anything happen to me." She took a deep breath and pushed the door to the interrogation room, walking in, closely followed by Alex.