Only Mine

Chapter 16

The slow purr of the Jeep was inaudible in the thickness of the thunder. It's matte black color made it inconspicuous in the shadows of the night and Lorenzo carefully parked it next to an abandoned terminal. Most of this area was uninhabited and devoid of any patrolling men in uniforms. The engine was switched off and the car blended with the darkness.

I slowly dragged the briefcase that was lying harmlessly in the seat beside me. The soft click of the lock thundered within the silence of the car. The sky replied with a deafening crack of lightning.

"There's a storm headed our way," I said, peering through the passenger side window, as I saw the evening sky bathed in dark clouds. Not a single star shone in the sky above me. There was no light capable of penetrating this darkness.

I opened the briefcase and saw the disassembled instrument. I grabbed the magazine and loaded it with twenty bullets. One by one they filled the metal slot. I reinserted the magazine briskly and firmly until I heard the audible click, locking the magazine into place, and engaged the manual safety.

I looked into the car's rearview mirror and saw Lorenzo's face reflecting in it.

"Ready?," I commanded him.

Lorenzo briskly nodded and stepped out of the car. I followed suit and we made our way towards the ramshackle of a building. The windows that had once glistened with the bustling activity of an orphanage for girls, were now broken and stained. The city had cut it's funding and all that remained within this enclosure was broken furniture and lost dreams of the unfortunate girls. Most of them had either ended up in foster homes, spread out all throughout France, or homeless. The very minority of them would end up having  normal lives. They'd be lucky if they didn't end up in a sex trafficking ring, given that white girls under the age of ten were the current flavor of the depraved. Huge markets existed all throughout Europe and Arab countries, with clients willing to pay six figures for one girl. I had been tempted to join the business, solely because it involved lesser risk and a huge return on investment. The government didn't particularly care about faceless and unknown girls getting lost within the system or disappearing. It would be an added bonus for them -- one less mouth to burden the taxpayers. The analytics made sense but the morality behind something so heinous would never allow me to stoop so low. The hypocrisy of this situation did not elude me. I was well aware that I supplied ammunition to some of the most deviant of minds that most definitely slaughtered innocents or terrorized civilians. Yet, even for me, sex trafficking was absolutely atrocious.

We entered the abandoned building and I found Lorenzo's contact person. A gangly fellow, in his late forties, was waiting for us with a duffel bag at his feet.

"You got what we asked for?" Lorenzo spoke in his usual gruff manner. The DGSE training had been heavily ingrained within him. His mannerism, from his walk to his talk, all exuded ex-military.

The gangly man spoke with a tremor in his voice. It was not uncommon for people to shit their pants when confronted with Lorenzo. I gave the man points for not stuttering under Lorenzo's intimidating presence. His eyes kept briefly flickering to me, but he was not courageous enough to hold it for more than a few seconds.

"Yes. I have everything you asked for. Uniforms, badges, security clearance. Everything is all there," he pointed to his duffel bag.

Lorenzo looked towards me and I gave him my nod. He looked at the skinny man and said, "Open it."

The man bent down and scrambled to get the zipper open. He opened to reveal the contents of the bag to the both of us.