THE LAST SHIP 7

ALL ABOUT SNUFF

"Snuff?" Mike asked disgusted.

"Snuff itself isn't porn," Hale answered back. "Snuff is a film that shows an actual real life homicide. You should know sir. I heard you used to be a homicide detective."

"Yes, I was. But this..." Mike shook his head in disbelieve. 

"This is only more extreme."

"And sadistic. How do you know so much about this stuff Hale?" Mike shook his head and dropped his gaze to the floor." She was just an innocent girl," Mike said with a defeated tone in his voice. "She did not deserve to die like that. Turn it off. I have seen enough." Mike immediately left the ward room upset and returned to his quarters.

**********

Mike was sitting on the couch in his quarters trying to process the video and the needless death of the innocent girl when there came a knock on the door. "Come in."

Kara opened the door and stepped inside. She closed the door behind her. "Sir."

"I don't know what to say."

"How long has it been going on?"

"God knows," Mike replied depressed.

"Did you inform President Chandler? I think he needs to know what is going on here."

"I first need to deal with that son of a bitch myself."

"Sir, with all due respect..."

"No Captain Green. I cannot stand for what I witnessed on that video. I just can't. She was 16 at the time. She was just a child for God's sake. And even so, if she wasn't, it still doesn't make it any better."

"Understood sir," Kara replied somberly. "Do whatever you need to do."

**********

Tom Chandler just got off the phone with Mike when Jolene knocked on his office door to alert him of her presence before she stepped inside. "Mr. President."

"Mrs. Slattery."

"I take it you already talked to my husband."

"Yes. He informed me of the human trafficking situation in Saudi Arabia."

"Sir, we need to get those people back home. I don't know how we are going to do it, but we need to take action now."

"I hear what you are saying Jolene." He frowned and shook his head before he looked at her like he did not quite get what Mike explained to him over sat phone. "Snuff porn?"

"Honestly I don't know what the hell that is either."

"The way Admiral Slattery explained it to me, that poor girl was literally tortured to death. And king Nasser Noorani is the owner of the production company that produces those films. Noorani Productions."

"My gosh..." Jolene replied shocked.

"I can't wrap my head around this. That a man from royal bloodlines leading a country could be involved the distributing adult films showing live homicides. Mike used to be a homicide detective before he joined the navy and even he was disturbed by this."

"There are really dark and disturbing things going on behind the scenes that we don't know of," Jolene replied with a somber tone in her voice. 

"You're telling me. But clearly he has never heard of something like this."

"Mike has been through a lot too Tom. I can understand where it is coming from. And he's conservative. Not really the kind of man who would be entertained by these kind of stuff. I'm worried about him. Do you think it was a good idea to send him to Saudi Arabia?"