Broken | Lucas North - Spooks/MI5 Story [Featured]

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of Kudos and BBC. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Found Hope's offices were located about ten minutes from Thames House, in a small nondescript office building located just behind the main thoroughfare. As Alexa entered the office, two women looked up and waved at her. She made her way through the row of shelves that contained brochures and pamphlets detailing resources available to victims of human trafficking, as well as a box of donated clothing that overflowed with thick coats and hand knitted scarves.

She slipped into her office and closed the door behind her. Except for the requisite office furniture that included a table, some chairs and a shelf of books, her office was bare. Since establishing the foundation a year before and obtaining funding through her father's contacts as well as the good samaritans she attracted through her interviews and talks, Alexa had shifted to a less visible role, preferring to be a non-voting board member thus distancing herself from the machinations of running and maintaining a foundation.

She was proud of Found Hope. Though it was small and so unlike the large foundations that dominated the charity circles, Found Hope was more rooted to something much simpler. Much of the foundation's funds went to the workers, usually former victims themselves, who visited the shelters and institutions, performing outreach and awareness. They provided referrals to traditional and alternative healing professionals who donated their services for free one day a month at a local gymnasium owned by a local private school, as well as psychological counseling.

It had grown into something Alexa herself could no longer keep up with, and she was grateful to be able to simply work behind the scenes, talking to individuals about the foundation and quietly raising money for her cause.

She usually spent a few hours at the office making and returning phone calls that involved fundraising, awareness and the usual small talk that organization and institutional leaders often made when it came to making sure that their organizations or businesses got ample return on their investments when they partnered with Found Hope. Like them, Alexa had perfected the art of negotiation.

Alexa was returning the last of the phone calls listed on her message book when someone tapped on the door and Nadia poked her head in.

"It's almost six, Miss George," she said in her heavily accented English. "We're leaving. Do you want us to lock the door for you?"

Alexa nodded. "Yes, Nadia. Please do."

Nadia had begun working at Found Hope two months earlier. She came from the small town of Kashin, located five hours from Moscow. She'd been offered a job in England as a singer but found out too late that there had been no such job available for her other than that of a prostitute who serviced clients in a five-bedroom house in a South London neighborhood she had never been able to explore on her own.

The traffickers had confiscated her passport, forcing her to work for eight months as a prostitute, before the the police raided the club four months earlier. Since then, she'd gone through rehab for drug dependency as a result of her imprisonment and two months ago, after meeting her at a women's shelter, Alexa had hired her and helped her get her immigration issues settled by sponsoring her as an employee.

As much as Alexa detested her father's influence, she was not above using it for her own ends. It had taken a quick luncheon with one of her father's old friends, and within two weeks, Nadia Ravin's paperwork was underway. In less than six weeks, she was a legal resident.