Sam

Everyone had finally arrived for the meeting with the Council of Nations. Earth King Luk the day after my friends did. Xinche arrived about a week later. Our meeting would be held today. Zuko and I got dressed into our official regalia. This morning Zuko and I saw Izumi off to school. For Izumi, this was a big deal that Zuko was there to see her off to school. It was a rare occasion. He usually had already started his day and I was the one who sent her to school. Izumi insisted her father carry her on his shoulders, which he happily obliged.

"Now we will probably be in an important meeting when you get home so we won't be there to greet you." I explained. She looked sad. "But we will see you afterwards and we will spend the evening with you." I added. She smiled.

"Ok, Mommy." Zuko lifted her off his shoulders and set her down on her feet. He knelt down so he could be at her eye level.

"Now you be a good girl at school today. And remember, ignore the bullies." Zuko said tapping her nose with his finger. She giggled and hugged him around his neck.

"I will, Daddy. I love you."

"I love you too, Turtleduck. Now don't forget your mother." Zuko said amorously patting her cheek. She looked over at me and gave me a hug.

"Love you, Mommy."

"Love you too, Zoom." Zuko and I watched Izumi and Geshna until they were out of sight. Once they were gone, Zuko and I turned around and headed for the meeting.

Everyone gathered into the chamber. Zuko was at the head of the table and Hakoda was at his right, where I usually sat. I wanted him to sit there so everyone could see my presentation. This was going to be a long and taxing meeting. But it had to be done. Everyone was ready to go and I got up and walked to the front of the room.

"Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming on such short notice. By the end of this meeting, you will understand the urgency of this matter. Also, this is going to be a difficult meeting and there will be some disturbing details so if you need a break just let Zuko or myself know. We need to educate ourselves to help protect our people. Let me start with how this all came to light. And let me be clear, boys are not exempt of this. It is predominantly girls and women, but males can fall victim too. But because it is mostly women and girls, that is who I will be referring to." I said. I gave them a recap of the girl's body that was found, the condition it was in and the likely cause of death. Then I began explaining why I felt this was trafficking.

"This girl, I believe was trafficked here from outside the Bending Nations." I then showed them the sketch of the girl. They gasped and some looked sick. "I know it's hard to look at. What I have gathered from the scene of the incident is that she is not only an outsider, but she comes from a neighboring country to my own. Her tattoo on her neck says "Living hope" which is the orphanage she is from and her name: Steyad. Her clothes are definitely outsider clothes but are generally worn by prostitutes. If you notice on the sketch, there are marks on her forearms. These are call track marks which you get when you inject drugs. In her case, heroine - a highly addictive and dangerous drug which kills a lot of people. We will come back to this. Based on this and other evidence, it was determined she killed herself. Probably was tired of living the life of a sex slave." Everyone gasped at this phrase.

"Yes, when I say she was trafficked, this is why."

"What is trafficking, Fire Lady Samyah?" Luk asked.

"Good question, Earth King Luk. Trafficking is the illegal buying and selling of goods. Human trafficking, which is what we have here, is the illegal buying and selling of humans."

"How does one end up a….sex slave?" Aang asked, clearly having trouble saying the words.

"Actually, that is next." I said giving him a small smile but then realized that probably wasn't appropriate considering the subject matter.. "When I worked in Las Estrellas, many of you know I worked with law enforcement as a psychologist. I worked with these victims almost regularly and the stories they told…" I trailed off lost in the memory. Zuko cleared his throat, bringing me back to reality. I shook my head, clearing it and continued. "These girls are taken from their homeland usually to another country. Before taking them, the traffickers will follow them and learn about them to use it against them later. They don't give them medical help which, as you know, the activities they are forced to partake in oftentimes leave them sick or dying. They oftentimes get them hooked on heavy drugs like our girl here, so they need their next fix. All of this is used to trap the victim. As stated before, they are taken to another country. They don't know the land, so they can't run. They don't speak the language, so they can't ask for help. They get them hooked on drugs as I said before. And they will oftentimes use their loved ones as a weapon against them. Threatening to kill their daughter, son, brother, sister, parents - anyone they can use as leverage. And if they don't fall in line, they are told that their loved ones will be killed. And I can assure you, they will do it."

I looked around the room and everyone's eyes were wide and they looked terrified. This was something that was never a problem in the Bending Nations before. But it is a problem now and no one knows how to process it.

"How do they…select their victims?" Sokka asked.

"There are lots of ways. Our girl here was taken from an orphanage. No family to miss her or wonder where she is. Runaways are also a frequent target. Sometimes the victim will start to talk to someone who they think is a loving and caring person only to turn around and sell the woman to the traffickers. They can also post a fake job that they have to leave the country for and then are taken and sold. Sometimes they target families who are living in poverty and actually buy the child from the family." Everyone blanched at this.

"You mean to tell me parents will sell their own children?!" Katara asked, appalled.

"Yes, they will. But try to understand. They are victims too. Let me give you an example that I actually witnessed. The parents were living in poverty. Not able to feed all of their children of which they had eight. Living in squalor. Then these people offer them hundreds or thousands of dollars. I figure one gold coin is about $50. Do the math. It's a lot of money. They prey on their desperation." I then took on the persona of a trafficker, "It looks something like this: 'Look, I know that you are struggling right now and I want to help. If you give me one of your daughters I'll give you 100 gold pieces. Sure, you'll miss your daughter, but you'll have the others and you can always have more children. But think of how much this money could help you. You could take care of the children you have left.' And people accept it, just trying to survive. The families of these girls are also victims. This particular family came to report it to us. Unfortunately, once someone is taken, it is almost impossible to track them down so, sadly, they never saw their daughter again." I explained.

"Now, to the truly disturbing part. What happens to these girls. Let me explain how this business works. The girls are owned by what is called the pimp. The pimp is the one who is making the money. The men (again, these can be women too but it is predominantly men who are the assailants), who are called johns, pay the pimp to so the john can, in essence, rape one of the girls. No matter what the man looks like. No matter how he treats her. No matter what he wants her to do. No matter what he wants to do to her - no matter how vile. She has to do it. If she doesn't, they will threaten her loved ones. Or she will be beaten. So she has no choice. These businesses are lucrative and bring in a lot of money and a lot of johns. In my experience, many of these girls will 'service' up to forty men…a day." Everyone gasped at this. I paused to allow everyone to recover. Then I continued.

"Many of these girls will not live out of their 20s or even teens. With as many men as they service, they can get diseases that are transmitted through intercourse. Many of them will be sick. They will die. If they get too sick to work they are killed. Once they get too 'old' they are killed. These businesses keep the girls moving around from house to house so it's harder to track them." I stopped and looked around the room, "Well, that is the gist of it. Does anyone have any questions?"

Katara spoke, "hold old are these girls?"

"Good question. Our girl looked to be around 14 or 15. But when I worked in Las Estrellas, I saw victims as young as four." For the first time, I heard Zuko gasp. Our daughter was only one year older than that and obviously within the target range. "Yes, many of our children would meet their…criteria."

"How do we stop it?" Hakoda asked.

"Another good question. That is the hard part. And that is why Zuko and I wanted to meet with everyone right away. The best way to stop it is to get ahead of it before it gets big. Once the business gets large, it's almost impossible to stop."

"What can I tell the officers to look out for?" Toph asked.

"Children or women going in and out of a business that they shouldn't be. For instance, young girls constantly going in and out of a bar or saloon. Even businesses that it seems like it could be legit - it never hurts to check it out. Always err on the side of caution with this. Worst case scenario, you inconvenience a business owner. It's also good to educate your citizens. They can also be your eyes and ears. People generally want to help. Especially when it comes to children."

Katara spoke again, "What happens if one of the women or girls gets pregnant?" I hesitated to answer this. I stole a look at Zuko and he nodded, urging me on. He was right. They had to know.

"Depends on the pimp. Maybe the mother is killed when they find out she is pregnant. Or believe it or not, there are johns who will pay extra to escort a pregnant woman. In these cases, the woman will carry the baby to term. At that point, the merciful outcome is they kill the child. The less merciful outcome is the child is raised in the life and eventually sold as well." I could tell Katara regretted asking.

"Any other questions?"

No one spoke up or signaled they wanted to ask anything.

"I know this is a lot to take in. I prepared some documentation for you to take with you which covers what we talked about today. Of course, if you have any questions send a messenger hawk or ask me before you leave." I looked at Zuko, "Do you have anything to add?"

"No, you covered it very thoroughly." despite the dour nature of our meeting, Zuko puffed his chest out, proudly. It always warmed my heart that he not only respected me and valued my opinion but he also took pride in me.

"Now, the next step is to discuss our course of action. How do we want to handle this? So far it is obviously here in the Fire Nation. It could have already spread to the other Bending Nations. If it didn't, then we need to prevent it. If it did, then we need to stop it before it gets out of control." We sat and discussed options and plans of attack for hours. When we finished, I spoke.

"Ok, if we don't have anything else then I guess we can call this meeting adjourned." I said. "It is time for dinner. That is if anyone still has an appetite."