Lee Weeks - The Trafficked

‘You don’t need to. Nobody else knows about this but me, Shrimp, Ng and you. They are too fond of you to see you put inside for it. By way of penance I have volunteered you to help Father Finn in his fight against the western paedophiles. It will mean flying out to the Philippines every few months, and quite a lot of hard work in-between. It takes him a long time to set up strong cases against these men.’

‘Hard work is what I need, Mann.’

‘Are you ready to trap Blanco?’

‘Did you manage to do that thing I asked you to?’

‘Yes, I did, sitting at a beach bar in Puerto Galera.’

A phone call came from Father Finn. ‘Mercy had a baby boy. Two weeks early. They’re calling him Johnny.’

‘Ha! That’s great. How is Becky?’

‘She is doing fine. She’s missing you already, I think. They are all helping each other through the process of healing. It will be a long route for some, but we will get there, no? I have heard from your friend-David White. He is coming out here in the next few weeks and we are going to start the clean-up all over again.’

‘It’s a thankless task, Father.’

‘We are all going to have our work cut out to make a difference. Someone has got to put their hand up and say it’s wrong. The world cannot just sit by and allow its children to live off rubbish dumps and be sold as sex slaves. Otherwise what happens when these children become adults? But, you know what, Johnny? Maya smiled today-so it’s never thankless, Johnny, not in a million years.’

Mann smiled as he said goodbye to Father Finn and headed off to the Cantina-he had a question for Miriam.

Amy had finished her interviews with the police and was allowed to go back to her room to sort out her things. It was good to be back. She unpacked her bag and put her new macramé equipment in the box with all the others. She would go downstairs and find her friends in the common room in a minute. She might have a game of pool or watch the television. There were only sports matches on that afternoon, and Amy was never in those. She wasn’t good at sport, but she was good at other things-like macramé.

Terry sat in the Tequila Station. The place was quiet. Angeles was recovering from the death of the Colonel, whose body had been dumped outside Lolita’s, in bits. All the Colonel’s clubs had been temporarily shut down. The other bar owners had tried to take over his patch, but Terry had asserted his claim very quickly. The Colonel had signed everything over to him a long time ago, because Terry had a Filipina wife, so all the Colonel’s clubs were in her name and therefore it all belonged to Terry.

Terry would give it a day, then he would open them up again. It wasn’t up to Terry to settle everyone’s nerves down. Sophia waited patiently for her father to finish his beer. She was playing with the pink pony he had given her. She combed its hair and held it in her small coffee-coloured hand as she trotted it along the surface of the bar.

Terry closed his laptop and drained the last of his beer.

‘Come on, Sophia.’

‘Okay.’ Sophia clicked her tongue as she slipped off the stool and rode Princess Pony over the side of the bar, across the stool and into the air. She followed her father as he checked his watch and walked down the stairs past the toilets, past the dance floor, and into a back room.

It was Terry’s office. It was a light, white-walled room with just a desk and a chair in the corner. It had a single bed in the centre and on the cover of the bed were pictures of Princess Ponies, like the one Sophia held in her hand, all jumping over a rainbow. Opposite the bed was a shelf with a webcam on it. Terry closed the door behind them. Sophia was still playing with her pony.

Terry sat at the desk. He opened his laptop and waited for it to fire up.

Mann sat in the Cantina enjoying a seahorse or two. He was checking his emails on his phone. He got one from David White.

You ready?Yes.

‘La La La…Love Love Love…Kiss Kiss Kiss Me’ Sophia was singing as Princess Pony galloped in the air.

‘Okay, we’re ready, Sophia.’

She gave him that ‘Do I have to?’ face.

Terry clicked away on the keys of the laptop. It was slow today.

Sophia walked over to the shelf opposite the bed and stared up into the webcam. She put Princess Pony down next to the camera and turned its back to her, then she started unbuttoning the front of her school dress.

At the other end of cyber world, David White was waiting. The Trojan was searching.

‘La La La…Love Love Love… ’ Sophia was singing as she made faces into the webcam.

Mann finished his drink just as Miriam appeared with a fresh one for him. She looked beautiful-she was pleased to see him.

‘You doing anything later, Miriam?’

She shook her head and smiled. ‘What have you got in mind?’

‘You know the fancy dress party you had?’

She nodded. ‘The one you never made it to, you mean?’

‘That’s the one. Do you still have the outfits?’

‘Oh yes…’

Terry punched in the password. The Trojan lit up…‘Dance for Daddy, honey,’ Terry said. ‘Look at the nice man and smile.’

‘Nothing’s happening, Daddy.’

Terry waited. The connection was slow but the laptop was working on it. He was through. Terry stared at the screen. It had one thing written on it.

PRESS-

Hello Blanco…your time’s up.

Mann smiled to himself and closed his phone.