Chapter 22 Rooting out the Mole
I was astonished as he showed me the text and it was a forwarded Instagram of Oshanna and Julio with Homer Simpson standing in front of the Krusty Burger. He also showed me a Twitter feed of 'ThreadLady214' he was following that at 12:27 said she was at Krusty Berger having lunch with her whole family. As I read, a burning desire to strangle my sister began to build when it became obvious that she was posting her way through her 'vacation' leading the bad guys straight to us.
I started scrolling through all the tweets Oshanna had been posting this week. I wanted to yell and throw this phone as far as I could. I wanted to grab each end and break the damn thing in half. I wanted to strangle this kid that had so much information. I clamped down tightly on my emotions, focusing on the goal of getting as many of the facts as possible and not splintering the phone I held into tiny pieces. Anger, I reminded myself was not a productive emotion.
As I looked back at the Twitter feed this week there was a constant stream of posts including one on Monday that proclaimed we were heading to California and later that night that the whole family was going to Universal Studios on Thursday. Then there were posts and pictures all day from the L.A. Star tour, multiple posts from the fashion trip, and several posts from our night at the comedy club and dance club.
I was honestly surprised that we weren't assaulted sooner on this trip. Of course, they knew we were all going to be at Universal Studios on Thursday. They wanted to get as many women as possible and knew that it was the one-time Julie and Stephanie were going to be at the same place and would become somewhat attainable targets.
This morning, probably during the drive, she posted 'Excited…on our way to Universal Studios Theme Park.' At 11:34 and 11:38 she got tweets from two different 'friends' asking where she was and what she was doing. At 12:18 she posted the Instagram and at 12:27 tweeted that they were taking a break splitting a Clogger burger at Krusty Burger with her sister and whole family. We were going to have to scrub these accounts and find out who was playing her.
I went back in time to the beginning of this mess, skimming through her tweets, and saw where she had been posting the whole trip. Starting last Wednesday that her life was in danger so the whole family was going away to some place safe. Thursday where she posted a picture of the Concorde and that we were headed to Miami. Friday when she posted we were at the zoo. Then later that we were leaving to go on a cruise.
Sunday where she posted pictures of us and the cabanas on the island. Monday when she posted that we had been attacked on the island and had to leave but that we were going to California. Monday night when she posted that she had boring tours the beginning of the week but Thursday she was going with the family to Universal Studios. Shockingly, when they asked where she was staying, she had answered right on the beach with a pretty picture of the ocean but no mention or pictures of the houses.
More than half her tweets were responses to several different women that were especially active. Every day asking her what she was doing and where she was at. I wanted to beat her black, blue and bloody. I wanted to go back into that warehouse and swing a two by four until there was nothing left of these 'men'. I wanted to strangle each man, one at a time with my bare hands.
As hard as I was working to keep our location a secret, Oshanna was working just as hard posting our location as soon as we arrived, many times before we had even left. It was no wonder that they were right behind us, finding us every step of the way.
I was going to send her away. Far away from the family. Lock her up in a safe house in Trenton and let her rot with no phone, computer or TV. No communication and no contact with anyone, just some books or magazines for her to read. Order one of her bodyguards to stay in the room with her at all times but not talk to her at all. It would drive her nuts and within days she would be going almost as crazy as she has driven me.
Finally, I pulled myself enough together to ask him some more questions. "So, let's say we give you all the women. How were they to be delivered and how are you communicating with the money man?" I continued to question the boy.
"I don't know nothin' 'bout dat. Snapps' doin' all da communicatin'."
"When and where are the women to be delivered?" I tried again.
"Tonights when wes were suppos'd to get our money 'sall I know."
"Which is Snapps phone, gun and ID?" I asked him dumping the IDs where he could reach and laying out the guns along the side of the van out of his reach.
"Snapps is Julio Rodriguez. His's da black phone with da skull. I don't knows whats he was carryin' today. His piece's usually a black gripp'd .45 but I don't see it here."
"Thank you for all your help. FunIKey. You get to keep your Coke." I told him as I tied his hands in front of him, cut the tape around his ankles and walked him back in with his drink, sitting him on the floor against the wall.
I didn't expect to get anything easily out of Snapps. I used my fists instead of a two by four to tenderize him and his lead men. Really I was just working off my anger and stopped when Tiger got my attention and nodded to the guy that looked barely conscious. I offered Snapps a deal to talk. He nodded his assent and we carried him out to the van. We tied his hands in front of him and handed him a Coke. He took it and began to drink pretending not to know any English till I told him FunIKey already sold him out and I knew he understood me.
"When and where are the women to be delivered?" I asked him.
"I don't know nothin' 'bout no bitches. I was just hangin' outside waitin' fur my homies to gets back."
"What were your 'homies' doing inside wearing costumes and carrying police stun batons?"
"I don't know whats' dey be doin'. I was just drivin' the van n' dey tolds me wheres to go n' to wait fur dem."
"Will you unlock your phone for me?" I asked holding his phone out to him.
"Dats ain't my phone." He declared. I socked him right in the nuts and he bent forward holding on to himself.
"What is the code to unlock your phone?" After waiting a few moments I asked again.
"I lefts my phone at home." He defiantly said and I hit him again in his groin and he rocked forward to cover himself, dropping the Coke. I picked the Coke back up off the ground and sat it next to him. Then I nodded to Tiger who grabbed his hands and pinned them at the top of the van.
"We can do this all day." I told him. "How many times of me hitting you before your equipment won't work right anymore?" I asked and then I hit him again. A few more well place love taps to his personal club and balls, or in his case a stubby pencil and erasers and I got his phone code out of him.
"4322 unlocks da phone." He told me. I started going through all the phone calls and texts he had received in the past several days. I noticed an out of state number that had called four times in the last three days and sent several texts.
"Is this the number of the guy that offered you the deal for the women?"
"I don't knows nuttin 'bout no deals over some bitches."
"Snapps, let's get real. You threatened my women. I am happy hitting you all day long. In fact, every time I hit you I feel a little bit better." I popped him in the eye. "If I have to I will string you back up, break both your legs and keep hitting you until most of your ribs are broken as well and it hurts so bad to breathe you will be thankful when I fill you full of lead from your own gun." I hit him in the gut. "Before we get that far, I strip you naked, tape your legs up with two-by-fours so you can stand on your broken ass legs. Then we work you over with a rope tied to your dick and yank on it repeatedly until you tell me what I want to know. It's that or you accept that I'm going to get my answers now and start cooperating." Then I grabbed his nuts and pulled and twisted till he screamed in pain.
"Yes," his voice was a horse whisper. "Dat's da number. He saids his name was Ricardo Carlos Manoso. He saids dere's a big rewards fur da women. Two n' a half mills fur all ten. Dat da women were all goings to be at da theme park on Thursda' n' we had two days to prepares."
"Where were you to take the women once you got them?"
"We was to text him whos we gots n' meet him at ten t'night at a old abandon'd airstrip outside of da town."
I took his phone and he had all the same information that Funikey had but he had the actual Instagram account open. Threadlovr214 posted lots of pictures. Over 35 pictures of LA from the first day's tour, over 50 outfits the second day when they went on the fashion tour. Oshanna was more active here than on Twitter as a picture of an outfit makes more sense than trying to describe it on Twitter. I signaled to Tiger that we were done here and walked off, leaving my men to have the pleasure of finishing this paint job.
While I waited I called Hector to put a trace on the unknown phone number. He did some research and came back on the line to tell me it was an untraceable satellite phone. Then I made a few calls to my associates to see if they would play gangstar with us tonight and pretend to have kidnapped and sell the women. Once they agreed I texted the number, from Snapps' phone saying we got six of the women and wanted to make the drop. The number responded with the address for the airport.
I texted Skylar to put a hold on the plane, that we would be staying the night because I found the leak and the houses were still safe. Then I called Marc.
"Collect everyone's phones, tablets and computers. Start with Oshanna, Angelia and Julio. Make sure they have nothing electronic that can connect to the outside world between them. Oshanna is the leak. On her phone you will find she has been posting every move we've made on her Twitter and Instagram. Contact Hector and have him sanitize her accounts. She has some questionable friends that have been closely following her this past week. Repeatedly asking her for information on where she is and what she and her family are doing."
"Check all accounts for any profiles that may have South American origins. Tell everyone to pack to leave tomorrow. We are not leaving tonight. The houses have not been compromised so for now they are safe. The drop for the women is to be at 22:00 at an airstrip south of the city. I'm thinking of getting some decoys and trying to pull it off to see if we can't get Boris out of his hidey hole. We're on our way back. ETA forty-five."
Five minutes later we were on our way with all the tape, rope and the two by fours in the back. While we drove, I discussed the plan with Tiger.
"We could get some hookers, dress them in the clothes the women were wearing today. Dress up the men that will fit in these tan outfits and hire a few guys I know to pose with us as gangbangers. Meet up at the airport with assault rifles and take them down."
"If they knew we were at Universal Studios today what would have stopped someone from following the women back to the houses?" Tiger questioned me.
"The men were watching for a tail. Anyone following that long, especially through the gated neighborhood, would have been spotted. There was nothing in any of her posts that said anything about where we were staying in California."
One quick stop to a dumpster fifteen minutes away and we got rid of all the evidence, IDs, phones and guns. A fast bathroom break to clean up and we were on our way. The next twenty-five minutes were quiet as we drove in our respective zones. Me planning out the attack tonight, as well as how I was going to bring up Oshanna's betrayal to the family. She was the baby and Mama and Papa spoiled her more than the rest of us. They will try to minimize what she has done and make excuses for her so this will be an exercise in stealthy manipulation that I am looking forward to.
When I arrived at the houses I met with Marc and Tiger to find out what Hector had determined about the accounts.
"I have six men going through everyone's phones making sure they are all clean and Hector has scrubbed both the Twitter and Instagram accounts. So far Hector has found four fake accounts following her Twitter account and three her Instagram, all using different names and profiles, most with Colombian IP addresses and phone numbers. Three of them are from the same IP address. A little more time and Hector will have specific street addresses but he thinks the three are Sergio's southern compound. He told me that the untraceable satellite number you gave him is one of her friends on both accounts and is very active asking her everyday where she is and what she is doing on her trip." Marc brought me up to speed.
"How long ago did they start targeting her?" I asked.
"The oldest two started talking to her over three months ago and she started following them and having them follow her two months ago. The most recent one, is that phone number and she just accepted it last week." He told me.
"Damn!" I exclaimed. They were using her and she was letting them in, giving them direct access and telling them everything they wanted to know.
"You're not going to like this but you have to cancel any plans for tonight. Your cover is blown and it is probably going to be an ambush. When I found Oshanna and went to confiscate her phone she was answering a Tweet asking what she did the rest of her day at the park. She had just tweeted about the attempted kidnapping, the rescue and was on to bitching that you were so mean you made everyone leave the park." He explained.
"Fuck!" I was pissed as I paced away from him several feet and then walked back. It was the one hope I had for finding the guy, possibly named Boris, who was here in the US leading the assault to get my women.
"Thanks Marc. And thanks for getting everyone back home. Any chance that either caravan was followed from the park?" I knew my men would have been on high alert but I had to ask.
"No. Everyone was watching for a tail. If we got followed it would have been from the park to the highway. No one followed us after we got on the highway, the men made sure of it."
I nodded my head at him. "Once all the electronics are checked I want them all downstairs on the kitchen table so anyone who is clean can pick theirs back up. Let me know immediately if any of the other phones or electronics come up tainted." I told him. He nodded and went back to the middle house where the men were dissecting everyone's electronics again.
I woke five of the night crew up early for coverage so all my day shift men could be at the meeting. Chester, Chet, and Gino were assigned to the fronts of the houses, Billy and Cade were assigned to the beaches, all of them carrying LSATs for greatest range and firepower. Then I texted all the adults and the rest of my men that we were having an emergency meeting in fifteen minutes in the first house and for all the children to be brought to the den to watch a movie while the parents had a conversation.
Then I went upstairs to find Stephanie who was busy packing her suitcase.
"Babe" I took her in my arms and just held her for a few minutes. She hugged me back and I breathed in her scent, strawberry citrus surprise. I found that having her in my arms was really helping to calm me down even as I started reacting to her physically.
"How did the interrogation go?" she asked me, pulling away.
"Extremely productive." I cryptically answered as I pulled her down on the bed to sit on my lap, wrapping my arms loosely around her.
"So, you figured out who is after us and why?"
"We know that Sergio is behind the whole mess. But today was very enlightening."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that now we know how they have been tracking and finding us. More importantly we now know who's leaking the information to the bad guys." I explained in more detail. She pulled out of my arms to face me holding my hands in hers.
"So, who's leaking the information?"
"If I tell you now, can you pretend in front of the group that you don't know?" I asked her.
"Of course. I'll be just as shocked as everyone else."
"Babe, you understand that this person has personally cost me over $150,000? By the time it is all said and done it will be over $225,000. That this person has put not only yours and Julie's lives in danger but the lives of all the women and all my men who would sacrifice themselves and take a bullet to save each of you."
"Okay."
"You understand that instead of us relaxing on a tropical island; we keep having to pack up and run for our lives? That my men had to risk getting shot to catch the attackers that came to the island with machine guns intent on killing as many people as possible and kidnapping you and Julie. Which would have ended with your deaths."
"So, who is it?" She pleaded.
"I'm getting there. You understand that today, if they were supposed to kill you instead of kidnap you; five of my men would have died as well as you, Julie, three of my sisters, Rachel and all of the kids that were in that bathroom?" I continued then I paused. "So I need your opinion… what kind of punishment should this person get who is knowingly posting our family's whereabouts and activities publicly for the bad guys to read and follow?" I asked her.
"Posting? Like on Facebook?"
"Yes, actually on Twitter. Where some of the people they have friended are fake profiles and are really the bad guys probing for information."
"They are posting where we are and what we are doing?" She questioned.
"Yes, with pictures." I told her.
"And they know they aren't supposed to be telling anyone where we are?"
"Directly and specifically they were told not to tell anyone outside of this group where we are going. Not friends, coworkers, spouses, boyfriends, or girlfriends. Not over the phone, by text, email, Facebook or any other social media. They were not to tell anyone outside of my parents' house. Not directly or even little hints. No matter what they were supposed to keep it a secret, just like everybody on this trip." I clarified.
"I don't know? Take them out back and shoot them? Seriously though if they are telling the bad guys where we are or are going then they have to be kept out of the loop."
"…and if they are on the trip with us how do I do that? Lie to everyone what state and city we are in? Shouldn't I send them back home and put them under guard in a safehouse for the safety of you, my men and my entire family?"
"Is it Julie?" She asked earnestly. "Or Becky? or Maggie?"
"You would think that it would have to be someone like that. Too young to know better."
"Oh Carlos, I don't know just tell me." She said huffily.
"It's Oshanna."
"Oshanna?"
"Yes, she has been posting to her friends on Twitter and Instagram where we are and what we are doing every single day. Today she posted a picture of herself with Julio at Universal Studios. Then tweeted about where the whole family was having lunch. That's after she posted several days ago on Twitter that on Thursday the whole family was going to Universal Studios. It gave them days to prepare."
"To go to the theme park and do recon." I continued. "Time to figure out the best way to get you out of the park, and find the back roads that only the garbage trucks drive on. To put together a crew, get the janitorial costumes and the stun batons. They had two whole days to prepare and then once they were in the park this morning they spread out looking for us." I was practically shaking in rage again.
"When they didn't find us right away; they had someone tweet her and ask her where she was and what she was doing. She ices the Fuck Carlos Cake by telling them exactly where in the park the whole family was having lunch." My hands were tight fists again in my lap, aching with the need to hit something and I knew I had to have better control in front of my family and men. Stephanie put her hands on my fists and cried out, lifting each fist to inspect them more closely.
"Your hands are all torn up and bleeding. Is this how you did your persuading today?" She asked dragging me over to the bathroom sink to wash my hands again.
"Actually, I only punched the guy a couple of times before he spilled everything. The problem was after I found out what has been going on I lost it and beat the crap out of several of them." I sighed. "They deserved it and more for what they were going to do to you, Julie, my sisters and Rachel. But honestly when I found out about the leak I wanted to come back here and tear her a new one, take her apart piece by piece. Babe, I wanted to beat the living shit out of her."
"Now you have to know I would never hit any woman, at any time, ever. And never a woman in my family. But I wanted to come back here and take her apart." I took a deep breath. I dried my hands knowing they were still bleeding from several knuckles and that, besides removing the dried blood, washing them didn't make them look any better than before. Still red, raw, swollen and bleeding.
"Where are some Band-Aids? Do I need to get Bobby?" She asked me.
I went to my bag in the closet and got out three Band-Aids. She quickly took them from me and put them on my bleeding knuckles. Now these were just regular cloth Band-Aids so I knew they wouldn't stay on my hands very long but hopefully they would stay long enough to stop the bleeding.
"Come on we have a party to go to downstairs and everybody is invited." I took her hand and led her out the door and down the stairs. I was pleased to note that most of my family was already in the great room and I wondered if this was the right way to handle this. Outing her in front of the family instead of just whisking her away and locking her up somewhere. That might work for the short term but Mama wouldn't understand why she couldn't call her and she would get mad at me and get Papa involved and they would both disapprove. No, this was the only way it could work; to have a group discussion and group agreement about the punishment.
I walked in and addressed everyone. "Good evening. I see everyone is here but Angelia." (as usual) "Rachel and Ron, Leyla and Richard this is a very important discussion that I think Julie, Becky and Maggie should be a part of. Do you mind if I go get them?" They all nodded their consent and as I walked into the den I found Angelia was there trying to get her little ones settled.
"Julie, Becky, Maggie, we are going to have a very adult conversation about the cell phones and since you each have one I would like you to be involved. Would you come out to the living room and join us?" All three of them nodded and I waved my arm to let them pass in front of me as I followed them back into the living room.
The room was packed with twenty-four of my men lining all the walls in rows of two and three. My abuelas, parents, and half of my siblings filled up the extra-large sectional. Rachel, Ron, Richard, Diego and Isabella were at the dining room table, where Angelia joined them. Julie and the girls opened the back patio and brought in three of the patio chairs that they lined up in a row in front of my men.
"Everyone please get comfortable. Pull up a dining room chair, pull up a patio chair, pull up some rug. These floors are pretty clean and we haven't gotten them very dirty while we have been here." I paused looking around the room. "We are here tonight to discuss a very important topic. Our safety." I started.
"This whole trip has been about the threat against all the women in my life, including Julie, Rachel and Stephanie. Julie, Becky and Maggie I asked you to join us because this is an important discussion, but we are going to be talking about some very uncomfortable and not nice things that happen in the world to innocent people so if you want to leave please feel free." All the girls shook their heads at me.
"We started this trip watching a video that was left for me. A video where they tied a woman up, beat her, tortured her and stabbed her. She died from her wounds. That video was left for me, telling me specifically that this and worse would happen to all the women in my life." I paused for dramatic effect and looked around the room making direct eye contact with my mother and each of my sisters.
"To keep this from happening we decided the best course of action was to get everyone together and go away. Somewhere safe, somewhere no one knows where we are. To keep us safe each member of my family was told in no uncertain terms that they were not to tell anyone where we were going. That only people going on the trip were to know. Not Angelia's husband, not boyfriends, girlfriends, work friends, or friend friends. Not your Facebook buddies, women in your play group or yoga class. No one outside of this room was to know where we were going."
"Yet everywhere we have gone the bad guys kept showing up. Within hours of us leaving for Miami the known bad guys, that we had tracked down, left on a rented airplane that was later found in Miami. I planned for us to be hidden away on an unknown island for two weeks. Trust me, paying for forty-seven people to go on a cruise and then spend two weeks in a tropical paradise was not cheap. But to me it was worth it. I would pay whatever amount of money I needed to pay to make sure my family was safe from these animals."
"We were on an island with no trace of how we got there. If the bad guys figured out we were on the cruise, it would take a week for the boat to get back before they knew we were no longer on it. We should have been good and safe. Able to relax and have fun for a while before we had to worry about hired guns getting a whiff about where we were."
"But surprisingly not two whole days after being on the island three attackers armed with machine guns showed up in the middle of the night and tried to kill my men. Their orders were to kill as many people in my family and my men as they could and kidnap Julie and Stephanie."
"Now what were they planning on doing to Julie and Stephanie? Throw them a party? No, they have promised to do to them what they did to that woman but worse and this story ends with them being very dead. So, we all get back on a plane and fly here to California. Where again nobody knows where we are so we should be safe. But somehow the bad guys knew right where to find us. They had forewarning of our trip to the theme park so instead of chasing us all week, they sat back and spent several days planning today's attack."
"Now that everyone is safe and uninjured, you may think it doesn't matter. But what if their orders had been different and instead of stun batons they showed up with knives or guns? At least five of my men would be dead. Lester, Woody, Hal, Sport and Junior come up here." The men slowly got out from behind the men standing around them and made their way to stand behind me.
"These men, these hard-working loyal men would all be dead. Does everyone here understand that each of my men are totally dedicated to this job and to you?" I paused, taking a deep breath. "They will do everything they physically can do to keep you safe including laying down their lives to protect yours. There is nothing that any of my men wouldn't do for each of you." I saw Angelia roll her eyes.
"Nothing that they won't do to protect you, Angelia. For this job, babysitting is not one of their job descriptions. Their job is to keep you safe so you can watch your own babies. For today and all the years to come. Most of us expect to watch our children grow up. We expect to be around to raise our children and eventually our grandchildren and if we are really lucky our great-grandchildren."
"Today could have been devastating for everyone in this room. If your attackers were told to kill instead of stun and kidnap we would be having very different and difficult discussions right now. Ron and Richard would be planning funerals for their wives and at least one child each. All while figuring out how they were suddenly going to raise the rest of their kids as single parents. And it could have been worse, both of them had at least one more child in that room that could have been hurt or killed. Thankfully today they were left alone. But if they had come in with guns there's no telling who they would have shot."
"Jordan, Angelia's husband would be trying to arrange for his wife's funeral and possibly both of his kids long distance. If these dangerous men had come in to kill the women they attacked, six of you would be dead. You wouldn't be here to raise your kids, take care of your husbands. Get your kids through school and college. See them get married, have careers and eventually children of their own."
"Mama would have lost three of her daughters and at least two grandchildren. If the bad guys had come in with guns and fired indiscriminately, she could have lost five grandchildren. Our abuelas would lose three granddaughters, two great granddaughters and up to five great grandchildren."
"I would have lost my fiancé, my only child, three sisters and Rachel who has been a wonderful woman in my life and a wonderful mother to my daughter, and if you don't think that wounds me," my voice got really husky and thick as I fought my overwhelming emotions, "you don't know me or understand how much I love each of you and how much I would give to keep everyone here safe."
"To keep everyone here safe I offered to take you all away. Pay for round the clock protection. Double bodyguards anytime you leave the safety of these houses. Fly you around in a private jet. Take you to undisclosed locations. Provide everyone with secure credit cards and fake IDs. Provide secure untraceable internet so you and your kids can use your electronics. Provide everyone with secured phones that you can use to contact each other. If this threat had been against anyone else I would have simply sent them to a safe house and been done with it. I wouldn't care if they were entertained or happy. You are my family so I chose not to just lock you all away. I chose to keep you safe and entertained at the same time."
I took a deep breath. "Those phones that I provided have come in real handy for us to keep track of each other while we are out. Like today, getting everybody hooked back up so we could have lunch together."
"But we have a severe problem. Even though I specifically told everyone in my family that they can't contact anyone outside of this room, somebody has been doing it. I need to know what should be done with someone who not only has been contacting people outside of this room. They are telling them exactly what we are doing and where we are hiding. They have not just been telling friends but the direct enemy, the men who are trying to hurt, torture and kill you. And not just once or twice but on a daily basis since this started last Wednesday. Worse yet they are having conversations with the enemy so if perchance on a particular day they have not given up our location all the enemy has to do is contact them, ask where they are and they happily tell them."
"Marc what do I do to traitors on the job?"
"Beat the hell out of them, fire their asses and ruin their careers. That's all if they are lucky."
"I'll also take them for every penny that they are worth, because most of the time when someone sells out it is for money. But this traitor is not doing it for money, even though every time they do it, it costs me a hell of a lot of money. So far, this person has cost me over $200,000. That's not nearly the total amount of money I'm spending, that's the extra amount that it is costing me to keep this party moving one step ahead of the bad guys."
"That is just the money that's been spent since having to leave the island. Where we only got to stay two days, and can't get any of that money back. It is a rough estimate of everything I have had to spend since Monday till we get back home next week. I paid for our accommodations here for a full week even though we're only here a few days. All of it completely non-refundable for sixty different people."
"So, what should we do to this person who is callously breaking the rules and threatening the lives of everyone in this room?"
"Mama?"
"Kick them out, send them home. Don't let them know where we are?"
"Ron and Rachel?"
"Leave them behind so if the bad guys want someone they can take them." Ron said. "I'm not trying to be mean but this is my family on the line too and it's my job to protect them."
"Good point." I responded.
"Richard, you had a lot to lose today, what should we do with this person?"
"It's kinda over reacting but I feel like it's us or them. I want to take them deep into the woods and come back without them."
"Oshanna, you were kidnapped today. Your life is on the line here. What do you think we should do to this person?"
"I don't know." She whispered as she looked at the ground.
"How can you not know? This person put your life in danger. You were kidnapped today so you could be tortured and killed. Doesn't that bother you at all? Doesn't that make you angry at this person that keeps putting everyone's life in jeopardy?
She just looked miserably at me and didn't respond.
"I haven't mentioned it, but we caught eight of the gang members today. As it turns out there were thirteen in the park looking for us. If we had stayed today, there would have been more attempts to kidnap you again. Julio, you could have lost three sisters today because someone had to tell exactly where the whole family was. What should we do to this person?"
"You said it's somebody in this room?"
"Yes"
"Well maybe they don't know that they are doing it? Maybe they think they are just having fun."
"What part of 'don't tell anyone outside this family' is too hard for anyone here to understand?"
"Becky, you understand, right?" She shook her head yes.
"Maggie, you understand correct?" She nodded and slid down in her chair.
"Julie, I wasn't even that specific with you and yet you understand that your life is in danger and you wouldn't dare tell anyone where we are? Correct?"
"Correct" she answered clearly.
"Maggie, Becky, and Julie are the youngest people in the room. Everyone else is at least twice as old as they are and yet they understand that this situation is dangerous and wouldn't tell anyone where we are or what we are doing."
"Let's get down to it. This person has been constantly posting to Twitter where we are going and updating her Instagram account with photos of where we are and what we are doing. The only reason it took till today for the gang bangers to strike is because they knew ahead of time where the whole family would be. On Monday when I discussed going to Universal Studios with the family she posted it on Twitter."
"Instead of chasing us randomly around all week they spent several days planning the attack at Universal, where they could get the most women at one time. Then this morning when they got their crew to Universal they couldn't find us so they tweeted their 'friend' and asked where we were and she told them. That's how they were able to do such a precise attack against my men and kidnap six women in one shot." I paused for effect.
"So, Oshanna, what do you have to say for yourself?"
"I don't know, I didn't know. There are no bad guys on my account. You must be mistaken."
I pulled out her phone. "On last Thursday as we were leaving Trenton you tweeted you are on a big adventure going to Miami. Hours later the bad guys took a plane to Miami. On Friday you tweeted what cruise line we were on, but it is pretty hard to get to people that are on a cruise. It's not like you can rent a boat and go wave them down or hijack a cruise ship."
"On Saturday you tweeted about us being on the island but the whole ship was there so that didn't tell them anything they couldn't have figured out. But on Sunday you tweeted about the island and put a picture of you in front of your cabana on Instagram. Sunday night the bad guys stole a boat and invaded the island with machine guns and orders to kill everyone but Stephanie and Julie. My men saved everyone with no casualties. I could keep going because you tweeted about your whole week but the proof is not on your phone. The proof is on the bad guy's phone."
"This phone was taken off the leader of the gang." I held up the phone with the skull case on it. "These guys were promised $100,000 a head to kidnap each woman and half a million dollars each for Stephanie and Julie. He was using his Twitter to follow your Twitter feed and this morning you tweeted that we were going to Universal Studio's again."
"After half an hour of looking for us around the park, they had their contact in Colombia; the one that set up the fake profiles you accepted to follow you, ask you where you were this morning about 11:30. At 12:27 you answered and thirty minutes later when everyone went to the bathroom they struck. They also have texts of your Instagram posts. Whoever in Colombia that is following you was forwarding them on."
"But I can't help it if people make fake profiles-"
"'Don't tell ANYONE outside of the family or this room where we are or where we are going'. Julie, Becky and Maggie understand that (I waved my arm at them) I don't understand how you can't comprehend that."
"But those accounts are anonymous. None of my information is used on them, there is no way for anyone to know it is me."
"Obviously there is a way because they knew it was you and used fake profiles to friend you and continued to tweet you for information about this trip. To which you happily responded telling them everywhere you and the family were going all week."
"But I didn't know anyone was reading them."
"Obviously you did because you kept responding to them when they would ask you where you were and what is going on. This plan has been in the works for a long time. Sergio – the depraved guy trying to get you – started planning this at least six months ago because he applied for visas for the men he sent over and they take months to get. He probably searched out all of you on social media in one way or another. But no one else is using their social media or telling ANYONE on ANY platform, by text, phone or email where we are or where we are going."
I slipped my gun out of the holster and put it in her hands. Then I knelt down in front of her, as tears started streaming down her face. I held the gun up to my forehead and looked directly in her eyes.
"Let's just end it now. Solve everybody's problem. You shoot me in the head and the problem goes away for everyone. Everyone can just go back home and you don't have to worry about anybody ever coming after you to get to me again."
"Carlos." My mother gasped.
"But that's not what I want." She cried through her tears and her hands went limp on the gun. But I held her hands and the gun firm to my head. She has put everyone's life in jeopardy, I wasn't going to let her off that easy. I needed to make sure she understood the implications of her actions.
"But what do you want Oshanna? You obviously don't want to stop posting and every time you tweet or post an Instagram or send an email telling everyone where we are and what we are doing you are shooting me. I have so many holes I can't plug them. I'm bleeding out here and I can't stop it."
"But I didn't mean to. I didn't know that anyone was reading them." She whined.
"Then why were you posting them? If the account was anonymous and you don't know anyone who is on your account, why are you so hooked on posting that you put your entire family and all my men in danger to do it?" I finally let her drop her arms and stood up, holstering my gun as she watched me through her tears.
"It was fun. It was my way to get away, to escape. To make it seem like we are having fun and aren't running for our lives."
"Oshanna half the reason we are running for our lives is because every time I find someplace safe to hide you blow it wide open blabbing to the whole world about where we are and what is going on."
"I didn't do it on purpose, I was just passing the time." She cried.
"Your way of passing the time is going to get someone here killed. So tomorrow you and four guards are going back to Trenton. You will be locked up in a safe house where the most electronic thing around will be the digital clock on the stove. No TV, No phone, No Internet. You will be allowed to bring some books and magazines. There will be someone with you at all times making sure you are unable to contact anyone from the outside world. As of right now you are incommunicado." She was sobbing loudly now but this was not going to get a response from me, not after the week from hell she has put me through.
"Carlos, don't you think you are being too hard on her? Can't she just promise to stop? She did not know she was communicating with the bad guys." Mama said.
"Mama – 'no one outside of the family'! That is not the same thing as 'post it on social media for the whole world to read'. Next thing we know she will be calling her friends and telling them where we are going, excusing it by saying she didn't know the lines were tapped. Then emailing the girls from work saying she didn't know someone was hacking the accounts and reading them."
"She has no sense of privacy or how dangerous this situation is. She knew what she was doing was wrong and was breaking the rules but she kept doing it more and more every day. Twelve people, including her, could have been killed today and I can't justify allowing her anywhere near the family again. I can't live with myself if she endangers Julie or Stephanie, or my nieces and nephews. This has to stop now and the only way is to remove her from the group."
"That's not fair. I didn't know they were watching my Twitter feeds." She demanded.
"And your emails. 'No one outside of the family.' Why is that so hard for you to understand?"
"My emails? I never told anyone where we were going in my emails!" She claimed.
"You told Kathryn and Shatrice that you were leaving a tropical island to go to another tropical beach location. Where you would be staying on a beach, and hopefully get to see the sights and maybe go to a theme park. In this country there are two locations known for beaches and theme parks. You basically admitted we were going to Florida or California. Honestly, I haven't made a big deal out of your emails, because on Twitter you were telling them exactly where we were and what we were doing."
"But I didn't knowingly do it..." She said.
"But you knowingly sent emails to several of the women at work telling them about your 'flight from danger' in great detail. These guys can easily hack into a few emails."
"But I would never do anything to hurt my family." She insisted.
"Yet you did and you have over and over. Day after day you have been putting yourself and your family at risk."
"I would never knowingly do anything to hurt my family." She cried.
"and yourself. You are the biggest danger to yourself. I am just trying to protect you from yourself."
"This is not right!" She stood up screaming,
"No, it's not right that one person should continually break the rules and put everyone else in danger."
"I didn't do it on purpose." She pouted sitting down again.
"No, worse, you did it for entertainment. You put your life and your families lives in danger for a few kicks and giggles."
"If you knew, why didn't you tell me sooner?" She questioned me as if it was somehow my fault.
"I didn't know till this afternoon. If anyone had asked me if someone in our group was purposefully telling the world where we were I would have told them they were crazy. No one in the group would do that. But here you are."
"This is not fair. You can't do this to me!" She yelled.
"I didn't do this to you, you did this to you."
"But I didn't know, now that I know I won't do it anymore." She insisted.
"Why? Oshanna, Why? Stand up and explain to everyone here why you have been selfishly putting everyone in danger by emailing, tweeting and Instagraming our secret location and telling the whole world where we are and putting all of our lives in danger and why any of that behavior would stop now."
She stood up and turned to face everyone in the room. "IIII'm so sooorrrrryyy. I…I…I…I…." She paused and took a deep shaky breath, wiping at the streams of tears that just kept falling from her eyes. "I didn't know that bad guys were monitoring my accounts and acting like they were my friends. It's just… It's just…" she paused and my mother handed her a Kleenex and she mopped at her face and blew her nose. "It's just that this is the first vacation I have ever taken as an adult since I moved away from home. And I wanted to brag about it and my friends on Twitter seemed very interested so I kept telling them more and more about where we were and what we were doing. It just made me feel good to have something special to talk about in my life and feel like I was special and people were interested in me. But I guess it was really just the bad guys pretending to be my friends to get information out of me."
She started crying loudly again. "I'm really sorry I put everyone in danger and I promise not to tell anyone else where we are going. Just don't send me away and lock me up. I know that I kinda deserve it, but it would be hell to be locked away from everybody and not have anyone to talk to for weeks, so please don't send me away. I double, I triple promise I won't tell anyone where we are or where we are going ever again. I won't tweet anything or post any pictures. I just can't get locked away. Please, just let me stay with the family."
I stood stone faced. If she had her way today I would be paying for twelve funerals and death benefits to five of my men's families. Then I would be paying to support three grieving husbands and seven children until they went off to college. And none of that even holds a candle to how devastated I would be losing my Babe, Stephanie, and my baby Jewels. I am just beginning to become part of their lives now and the thought of losing them wounds me in ways I can't even fully comprehend and qualify. The torture and rape they would have to endure before they were killed made my stomach turn and took away every ounce of pity Oshanna was begging me to feel for her.
My father stood up and took Oshanna into his arms. She burst out into a new pool of tears on his shoulder. "Well we are in a bad, rock has hit a life threateningly hard place situation. Oshanna thought she was bragging to some nameless, faceless friends who didn't know who she was or her situation and as a result was tricked into putting her family into danger." He addressed everybody.
"However, we all know, or should know by now, that we can't tell anyone outside of these walls where we are or where we are going, not for the week, not for the day, not for an hour. We have to believe that any phone we call is tapped, any email sent can be read and anything we post online the bad guys have access to. I have the only compromise I can offer to everyone here…" He released Oshanna and turned to look at everyone before continuing.
Damn, even in my very controlled world my Father's word is law and whatever he says now in this meeting is what everyone will agree with. I was frustrated and angry that I was losing control of this situation. I had been the commanding officer of my team in the Rangers. My word was respected and my orders were followed, creating more successful missions for the government than I could count and now I was going to have to bow to his suggestions. It was nearly impossible to keep my mouth shut and maintain my composure.
In my world my orders were never questioned and needed no explanation. The people I am responsible for rely on me to make the decisions that will keep everyone safe and achieve the goal. However, there was some small part of me that knew papa would be more rational and fair than I could even conceive of being at the moment. I also knew my family would abide by his calm and well-spoken solution rather than any order I give.
TBC…
A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! What should he do to Oshanna and what is his father going to say? Please read and review.
As always big THANK YOU to my beta Sassysaint
Second Big THANK YOU to my sister, Jonelle. Who is giving my stories a thorough technical analysis (ie deep proof reading) Thank you for fixing all my many little mistakes.
Ranger's Family Album
Mother's Mother – Abuela Rosa, Father's Mother – Abuela Sanja Manoso
Mother – Maria Father – Javier
Siblings and family in age order
Leyla (35) & Richard Gonzales– Rebecca (Becky) 12, Margaret (Maggie) 10, Richard (Ricky) 7, Michael (Mikie) 5
Angelia (34) & Jordan White – Shanna 5 – Kendrick (Ricky) 3
Ricardo Carlos Manoso (32)– Ranger
Julio Manoso (30) Ex Allysa – Jacob 2
Isabella (27) & Diego Diaz – Chris 8, Shylia 6, Parker 3
Oshanna Manoso (22)
Rachel & Ron – Julie 12, Fredrico (Freddie) 9, Cassandra (Cassie) 6
Trenton & Miami Merry Men Assignments (33 Men)
Abuela Sanja – Vince, Ian
Abuela Rosa – Manuel, Gavin
Maria – Erik, Francis
Leyla – Hal, Tony
Angelia – Woody, Dillion
Isabella – Cal, Red
Oshanna – Lester, Sport
Rachel – Eddie, Pace
Julie – Junior, Scott
Stephanie – Ranger, Marc, Tiger
Extra's – Bobby, Ram, Zero, Zip
Night's – Chet, Chester, Gino, Mario, Ryan, Ramon, Billy, Cade, Simon