Chapter 36: Operation Strategy
"You're not going to give this piece of crap Federal immunity?" DA Cutter looked at Alex enquiringly over his desk, then saw her face. "Oh my God, you are."
"It's the only way I can see that we're going to get the information we need to go and rescue the US Army soldier who disappeared. He's in, he's been 'in' the trade for a while now and so he'll be recognized and his credentials accepted. We have to move, and quickly—we're coming up on the end of the fourth week this soldier has been missing and we all know that people who fight tend not to make a good slave. It's only a matter of time before whoever has her decides she isn't worth the time and trouble and just kills her."
"If they haven't already."
Alex took a deep breath. "I'm willing to take that chance and so is the soldier who is going undercover to find her."
Cutter's head snapped up sharply, as she'd known it would; she hadn't mentioned Cam yet during this conversation. "A soldier is going undercover? What the hell is going on here, Alexandra?"
"She's the one who gave us the ledger with Yu's name in it. She was the child who Yu made arrangements for all these clients to come and rape."
"Jesus." Cutter stared at the ledger. "You would think she would be the last one to offer to go back in."
"Cam Arlington, despite her past and the horrific abuse she suffered as a child, has grown into an incredibly confident, selfless, caring individual. The soldier who disappeared is her best friend, the first female best friend she's ever had in 25 years of life. Cam is also the only person who could successfully pull this off; she knows how to act, how to behave, what to say and what to do. It is a miracle that she's even offering, and at this point we're all so desperate to get Shana back that we're willing to consider this wild plan."
Cutter sighed. "I'm not going to say that I approve of this, but at the same time, I can't see any flaws. Whichever way her rescue operation goes, we have a lynchpin to a ring of pedophiles in our hands and the possibility of many more thanks to the ledger and the suspect's files." He sighed. "Go ahead."
"Thank you."Alex let out the breath she was holding and turned toward the door.
"…Alex?" Cutter stopped hr in mid-stride and she turned to him. He smiled at her and said, "Please tell this soldier, Cam Arlington—thank you, from my office, for being willing to share this and being willing to testify. Tell her I personally wish her luck and I hope that she's successful and comes back. Not just for purposes of prosecuting the case but also because I admire her courage and conviction."
"I'll tell her that, thank you." Alex left.
"What's this?" Rollins looked up from the cup of coffee she was nursing at her desk as Alex put the blue warrant form on top of it. Signed, of course, by Judge Petrovsky, who had harangued Alex for 'going on a fishing expedition' but had signed the warrant once Alex explained that while the real reason for seizing the travel agents' files was to match the client names to the names in the ledger. They could legally claim they were trying to get a feel for how big his client file actually was so that he could be charged with tax evasion. She grudgingly admitted the legality of this and signed the warrant.
"It's a search-and-seizure warrant for Leo Yu's client files. I can't explain why I need them now, but if you could keep a particular eye out for names that match the ones in Cam's ledger…"
Rollins's eyes lit up. "You want to prove that Leo Yu did indeed procure these clients for Cam's relatives. So if they're in Yu's files AND they're listed in the ledger, you can arrest them for pedophilia and you can get him on procurement."
Alex had to smile at how quickly the blond detective had picked up on that. She hadn't been quite sure when Rollins and Amaro had come on, after Elliot's abrupt departure, how they were going to work out, but she had come to admit that while Rollins didn't have the same empathy for the victims that Liv did, she was quick-thinking and intelligent and an asset to the SVU team. "Once you have the client files that match the names in Cam's ledger, start investigating each one. If there are as many as I think there are going to be, we might have a huge pedophilia ring and that's going to be a high profile case, so make sure the chain of custody and every single scrap of evidence you get is completely inarguable and irreproachable."
"And what are you going to be doing?"
"Giving Yu the deal he wants for federal immunity."
Charlie and Cam met Alex at Riker's.
She told them only that she was going to give Yu the deal he wanted for federal immunity; she said nothing about her eventual plans, which right now would be confined to Etienne and the squad. Although they were military, and thus good at keeping secrets, she felt a perverse little imp urging her to keep silent. She had only been 'military' for a half year, and already it felt like forever. She was entitled to a few secrets with the SVU!
"Thank you," Cam said quietly, but Alex felt the heartfelt sincerity in her remark, and she again wondered at the turn of events that had taken an ordinary young woman through hell and spit her out on the other side as such a selfless, giving person. She had to have known there was a chance she wouldn't come back from it but it wasn't making a difference to her determination to go.
Yu looked up, and Alex's face must have been transparent because he smiled at her. "You got me my immunity."
Smug bastard. "Yes, I did. You have immunity and so you'll only be charged now with possession of child porn, which carries a maximum sentence of four years. Which you know very well."
"Yes, I did." He grinned and she again had to resist the urge to slap that smug grin off his face. The only thing that kept her was the knowledge of the little trap she was constructing for him.
"Well now that you have what I want, you give us what we want." Cam placed her hands flat on the table, stared at him penetratingly. "How do I get into the Amsterdam market?"
"You'll have to have someone take you there." Yu relaxed, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. "You know perfectly well a slave can't just walk in. Someone has to take you. You'll be dressed, as all slaves are, in nothing once you get inside. Except your collar and leash." He leaned forward. "You do remember what that felt like, right? That leather wrapped around your throat…"
Alex gritted her teeth; Cam had winced, albeit imperceptibly. "Get on with it. Can you provide a cover identity?"
"Hmm." Yu sat back, his eyes going briefly unfocused. "There's a client who used to operate in the New York area, owned several house slaves. One was an Asian sex slave—he had a thing for Asians. Most of the slaves sold to him came back a few years later perfectly trained." He cocked his head, looked at Cam. "Are you scarred or damaged in any way? Did any of the clients scar you? The last time I was at the cabin you were skinny but no noticeable scars except the ones the last client put on you –the cigarette burns on —"
"Yes I remember that very well." Cam spoke over him harshly, drowning out the rest of his words. "Yes, I'm scarred. The fire that burned the cabin took…" she took a deep breath, and her hands curled into white-knuckled fists on the table. "It took a breast and scarred me from my chest to my knees." Alex winced—that had to be hard, telling her molester what had happened to her.
Yu grimaced—actually grimaced. "You must look horrible under your clothes. And you're actually married?" He'd noticed the thin gold band around her finger. "Your husband must have a pretty strong stomach."
Alex's mouth dropped open as tears filled Cam's eyes. The calculated rudeness stunned and angered her, but before she could say anything, the door to the interrogation room flew open and Charlie stepped in.
His face was dark with rage as he took two huge steps across the room, grabbed the front of Yu's jumpsuit and hauled him bodily out of the chair. What he growled at the man wasn't a language Alex recognized, but the anger, and the threat under the syllables, was clear.
"Charlie." Cam had gotten control of herself. "Let him go."
He said something to her in the same language. She said something back. He let Yu go, almost slamming the man down in the chair, and stomped from the room.
Cam steeled herself, lacing her fingers tightly under the table; Alex saw her hands shaking. "Tell me who this former client was."
"You met him. He came because he wanted to see you, get a feel for you so he could buy you when you got old enough." Alex had to fight not to curl her hands into fists. This was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do, sit here and listen to horrible details that should never be made public; it should have stayed in the past so Cam could live a normal life. "He came with Ritchie Curry, you know, the one who liked—"
"Keep your language clean, Mr. Yu," Alex snapped harshly, her voice raspy with anger. "What was his name?"
"Alan Singletary." Yu evidently figured if he kept needling Cam about her past the interview could end right there. And he was obviously enjoying seeing her reactions to his comments, the sadistic son of a bitch. Alex was keeping hold of her temper by a tenuous thread.
Cam's face was expressionless, a sure sign that she was keeping hold of her emotions by a thread too. "So I'll go in as a slave that's been used up by Singletary, and the handlers that will go in with me will be his staff. Is there any documentation needed as proof that he owns me or that the handlers are really his?"
Yu laughed. "Alan Singletary is so well-known in slave trade circles that just the mention of his name will inspire respect. Trust me, you and your handlers won't have any problems—as long as the handlers are white. Alan thinks minorities are inferior species—he just tolerates me because I arrange his trips to Amsterdam so he can get what he wants."
"Are there any details that the handler needs to know about him, his estate, his persuasions and leanings?"
"He likes Asian women. He likes pain. His slaves are usually perfectly trained but when he decides he's tired of them, when he sends them to be sold he'll scar them so severely that they only thing they're good for is meat afterwards." He smirked. "Not like you're going to have a problem with that, if your scarring is extensive as you said. Can I look?"
Alex had it. There was no way she was going to let that happen. "This conversation's over. Guard!" She knocked on the door, and the guard opened it. Cam followed her out wordlessly.
Charlie was waiting just outside, and he wrapped his arms around her as she melted into his embrace. He spoke to her softly, too softly for Alex to hear, but she didn't really want to; she stepped a bit away from them to give them privacy as Cam cried into Charlie's shoulder.
But not for long. Soon she sniffed, rubbed her eyes, and turned to Alex. "Thank you, Alex. I mean it. If or when I get back, if I can testify against him I will. So you can close the case."
"I'll hold you to that." Alex smiled as she watched them walk off down the hallway toward the door together.
"All right. So far this has worked according to Polaris' plan. White Queen used the ledger to track him down, you got what you needed to successfully infiltrate the slave market, and he's now sitting in jail. And, also as you predicted, there has been no word through any official channels on Shana's whereabouts, not even a sighting."
Hawk sat at the head of the conference table, looking at his assembled personnel. Liv had been having false contractions and Doc ordered her to stay in bed, so she wasn't here at the moment; but Lady Jaye, Duke, Flint, Hawk, Polaris, and Spirit were here. Snake Eyes was here too, at least physically, but he'd come in, sat down silently, hadn't signed a single word. He hardly blinked. His body might have been there but the rest of him was somewhere else entirely; Hawk wasn't even sure the man had left Shana's room at all the last few days. Was he eating? Sleeping? Even breathing?
"I've been doing a lot of thinking about this plan, and while I don't see any better options for getting Shana back, and as much as I want her back, I am not willing to sacrifice another soldier to do so. So I am going along with this up to a point. Polaris."
Polaris snapped to attention halfwa6y down the table. "How were you going to signal to us that you found her?"
"I'm going to keep moving through the circles until I do. It doesn't take that long for one slave to figure out who the slaves are in the owner's particular circle; the owners like showing off new acquisitions. So whoever buys me in the market will want to make the rounds and show me off and I will know within a week whether Shana's in the particular circle I'm in. When I do find her I'll stick to her—anyone who owns a slave who looks like her is going to need to keep damaged meat around. If she's fighting him he can't beat her to relieve his frustration so he needs to have meat around to beat and hurt and damage." Her voice was even. "So when my tracer stops moving for two weeks, I am either going to be dead or I will be alive and with her. I won't stop until I find her."
"The tracer that Alex wore had a transponder signal—since the receiving wire was so close to one of the major arteries in her inner ear, it could pick up her pulse. I'm sure our techs can rework that chip to send one kind of steady signal if she's alive and a different signal if she—if her heart stops." Lady Jaye winced at the thought.
"Excellent idea. Good. All right, Polaris, we'll come and get you once your tracer stops for two weeks and you're still alive. If you die, we'll come and get you too…wherever you are. I promise it." His tone was fiercely determined. "If we get word that Shana's been found through official channels, we're coming to get you no matter where you are and what you're doing." She nodded. "I'm also going to put a time limit on this mission. If your tracker says you're alive but you still haven't found her at the end of a month, no matter where you are in the world you're coming back."
She started to protest, and he held up a hand. "No. I know it's your plan and it looks like it's the only one that's going to work as regards bringing Shana home, I am not going to sacrifice both of you in order to do it. If you haven't found her at the end of a month you're coming home." His voice broke as he said quietly, "Jesus, Cam, this is going to be hard enough on you already. I don't think even you really know how difficult this is going to be and I do NOT want you to go through any more hell than you have already. And you're forgetting something—you have a husband who needs you."
"Snake Eyes needs Shana." All eyes turned involuntarily to the black-clad monolith sitting at the end of the table, and Hawk nodded in sympathy.
"I know that. But I am not going to sacrifice two soldiers. One is enough." He stood with an air of finality. "Make whatever arrangements you need to and let me know when you want to fly out to Amsterdam ."
"Two days," Cam said firmly, and all eyes turned to her. "Two days. It'll be a quick trip for whoever comes with me, just drop me off and go home."
"Who's going to be going with you as your 'handlers'?"
Lady Jaye strapped some steel to her spine and squared her shoulders. "I'm an expert in languages. I'll be able to understand a great deal of what is said at the Amsterdam market, I'll be in a position to overhear a great deal, and maybe this whole thing will be a moot point, if we hear someone talking about her we won't have to leave Cam there and we can all go home."
"I'm going," Duke said firmly. "After Allie I know the most about languages and I know a few that she doesn't. And maybe a male presence will keep anyone from thinking they can take…liberties." Flint's scowl got even deeper at that thought.
"Okay. Duke, Lady Jaye, and Polaris. You all will be leaving on a flight out in two days. Pack your bags and make whatever arrangements you need to make."
The conference room started to empty, but Cam gave Charlie a quick smile and then walked over to Duke and Allie. "Before we leave I have to make sure you know how to treat me," she said. "So I guess I'll meet you in the Girls Only workout room in an hour?"
"What do you mean, make sure we know how to treat you?" Duke asked her suspiciously.
Cam sighed. "If you're going to pass for slave handlers then you have to act the part. You have to look at me and see property, not a friend and a fellow soldier. You have to treat me as property, a doll, a thing to be used and discarded. Not as a person, a living breathing being with feelings. You don't talk to me, you talk at me. You have to talk about me like I'm not even there when I'm standing next to you.
"They're going to ask for a display of the merchandise before they buy me away from you. So I'm either going to have to demonstrate my skills on one of you—"
"No. No!" Allie shook her head vehemently. "I can't do that."
"Me either." Conrad winced. "Is all of that really going to be necessary?"
"Yes it is because we have to be convincing. You have to be convincing. I can play my part—I've been there before, after all…but if you two aren't convincing none of us is going to make it out of there alive. You'll be killed, and if they don't kill me right away, well…" She swallowed, and Allie detected fear in the back of her eyes. "I will never see an owner. I'll never see the light of day again. They'll kill me slowly, just use me up until there's nothing left. I'll never even be able to start looking for Shana." She looked at them pleadingly. "This part of the operation is going to depend on your acting skills."
"Fine." Allie gritted her teeth. "Meet us in the workout room in an hour."
"Thank you, Allie," Cam said quietly, and was gone.
Conrad watched her hurry to where Snake Eyes was trudging slowly out of the conference room, after having had a quick word with Hawk; Cam intercepted him by the door, stopped him, said something; he looked dully at her for a moment, then gave her a simple nod, a quick jerk of the head, and she left the room with him; Charlie, Allie and Conrad watched them go.
"Snake Eyes hasn't been the same without Shana. I just…never realized just how much he depends on her. I don't think he realized how much he depended on her until this happened. If this plan doesn't work, Conrad, and we don't find Shana…Snake Eyes is going to go rogue and he'll go find her himself."
"I was in the infirmary yesterday when Snake Eyes came in. His wrists had red lines around them and Doc thought he'd tried to cut his wrists. I didn't catch all of his signing, but apparently he said he had a nightmare about Shana wearing shackles that made her wrists bleed and when he woke up his wrists were bleeding too. Doc looked skeptical." Allie sighed. "All right, let's get going. I have some paperwork I have to finish up before we meet Cam in the workout room." They both left.
Neither Allie nor Conrad saw the startled look Charlie gave them, then the thoughtful gaze he gave toward the hallway down which Cam and Snake Eyes had disappeared. When he finally moved, it was with long purposeful strides toward his own quarters.