Chapter
2 – Digging Beyond the Bottom of the Barrel
A good thing about being an agent
for the Secret Intelligence Bureau is that I can choose who I work with on an
assignment and which assignments I take on. For the most part, the Bureau lets
us agents decide what we do and only asks us to work with certain people or on
certain assignments when the need arises. Since Bezalel, Garnet, and I
discovered this sex trafficking ring, we have to see it through to the end, and
because of our particular skills, we can simply work with one another like we
usually do without having to have anyone else help us on the aspects of the
investigation we choose to tackle. Given the list of targets and places we can
go, Bezalel and I chose to go to a child talent agency that’s done multiple
collaborations with the streamers who owned the apartment complex where this
all started.
Gathered around Garnet’s office, I
ask her, “What do you have on this child talent agency?”
“I’ve found that most parents who
use their services are from poor or middle-class backgrounds, and that every
child who enters the agency either gets a job in entertainment or leaves it
without a complaint. What’s weird is that some of the kids who did complain
about how they were treated either retracted their complaint or disappeared,”
Garnet explains.
“That should’ve been investigated
before this all started,” Bezalel says.
“They were, but nothing ever came
of the investigations. No detective got beyond the surface level or looked
deeper into the agency.”
“Maybe they were bought out.”
“Maybe, but they also never got
permission to be able to get into the agency’s deeper systems.”
“We could be dealing with an
internal issue as well.”
“That’s something else to look
into. For now, let’s head to their recruitment center and see what we can
find,” I say.
“I want to work in the field
today,” Garnet says.
“Why’s that? You have better access
to information here.”
“Given the fact that this sex
trafficking ring has now been exposed to the public, they’re more likely to
start erasing information from their servers and devices. If I’m there in the
field, I can use my personal laptop to stop them from doing so and prevent them
from wiping their systems.”
“I see your point. You can come
then.”
“This is going to be interesting
since you’ve only worked with us in the field to stretch your legs from being
in the office every day. How’s your shooting?” Bezalel asks.
“I practice a few times every week
and go to the gym every day. You won’t have to look after me if a fight
starts.”
“I like it. Get your stuff and
let’s head out. I want to personally beat these child traffickers into the
dirt.”
Garnet goes to the lockers to
change and get her stuff, and when she comes out, she isn’t wearing her usual
green sweater, red dress shirt, flower bow, red shirt, black stockings, and red
heels. Instead, she wears a green and red suit jacket, black dress pants, and
black combat boots, but she’s kept her red and gold agent glasses on that she
usually wears. We take an SIB agent car to the child talent agency office, park
a couple of blocks away so they don’t immediately see us coming, and walk into
the building. Despite the place being a popular place to send kids, it’s oddly
dirty and quiet at the same time, with seemingly no one around. Garnet,
Bezalel, and I walk around looking for someone until a fragile-looking woman
walks out wearing a name tag that says Sharon, casual pants and shoes, and a
shirt that has the child talent agency’s name on it.
Approaching her, I show her my
badge and say, “Hello, miss. I’m SIB agent Draco Jung, and these are my fellow
agents. We’re here to investigate your connection to the streamers who were
recently arrested.”
“Sir, we didn’t know what they were
up to outside of our collaborations. They just had their events here,
recommended our services, and that’s that,” Sharon says.
“That may be true. Please stay here
while we investigate the rest of the building. Where is everyone?”
“They’re off today. Given the drama
happening today, everyone associated with the arrested streamers has been
harassed, so my boss has given most people off. Today it’s just a few other
workers and me taking care of the building and some office work.”
“Hmm. Okay.”
As the three of us walk around,
looking through the rooms, it really looks like no one is here, so then we turn
our attention to the back. Bezalel sees someone duck into a hallway and calls
out to ask a question. Before he reaches them, something catches his attention
in a room ahead of it, and he ducks down and takes cover behind a wall as shots
ring out from it. I turn around just in time to see Sharon pull a small pistol
out of a nearby drawer, so I tackle her, cuff her, and tell her to stay in
place before joining Bezalel and Garnet in the gunfight.
“We can’t waste our time fighting
these guys! Put your earplugs in!” Garnet says before pulling out her phone and
activating a special function.
I manage to put my earplugs in just
as her phone makes a high-pitched noise that makes the shooters hold their ears
in pain and drop their guns. Using non-lethal rounds, we knock out the shooters
and quickly run through the rest of the building, encountering more armed men
and staff. I throw a flashbang into a particularly crowded room, and we put
down everyone in the room. The door leading into the next room is locked, but
as I’m about to lockpick it, Garnet tells me to move aside. She places a small
charge on the door handle and blows it open.
Inside the office room is a
colorfully dressed man in a suit, tie, and dress pants with all happy faces on
them. Something is burning in the trash next to him, and he holds up a pistol
at us.
“You won’t take me in alive! I
won’t let you!” the man says before putting the gun to his head.
Before he can pull the trigger, I
tackle the man to the ground and knock him out by hitting him in the head with
my pistol. Garnet rushes over to the man’s laptop, connects her phone to it,
and quickly types away at it.
“Can you save whatever is on
there?” Bezalel says.
“I’m on it! He was trying to erase
everything on the company’s internal databases! Ugh! Some of it is already
gone!” Garnet says.
“Save what you can then!” I say.
“I am! Alright, I got what I can.”
Garnet disconnects her phone from
her computer, and it blows up.
“The guy had a self-destruct
function on his computer? Next you’re going to tell me that the whole building
is going to explode,” Bezalel says.
“Call the cops to arrest everyone
here and secure everything else they can,” I say.
While we’re waiting for the cops,
the three of us wait at the entrance where we left Sharon, who thankfully is
still on the ground.
Suddenly she blurts out, “I did it
because I needed the money!”
“What are you talking about?” I
ask.
“I gave my kid to this talent
agency because I didn’t want to be poor anymore. I wanted to live like the rich
people in entertainment and business in the Golden State that they make
documentaries, shows, and movies about.”
“What did your kid want?”
“I taught them to want what I
wanted, and what’s wrong with that? A parent is supposed to teach their child
to care for their parents.”
“Did you know what they were
putting your kid through? Did you know about the sex trafficking ring that this
place was associated with?” Bezalel says.
“My kid told me about it, but I
said that it’s the price of fame and fortune, and I don’t regret a thing.”
“Why tell us this? Do you think
you’ll get sympathy or a lighter sentence for your crimes?” Garnet asks.
“I did what I had to do to get a
better life for my family. You can’t judge me for that!”
Bezalel slams Sharon’s head against
the floor, knocking her out.
“Bezalel! You can’t do that!” I
say.
“Piece of shit!” Bezalel says.
“That’s what she is! She doesn’t have the honor of even being considered a
mother! She’s the lowest of the low!”
“If she remembers that you did
that, she could get a lighter sentence, and you in trouble,” Garnet says.
“Whatever. I feel better after
giving her what she deserved. I need some air.”
The cops come, arrest everyone
associated with the child talent agency, and secure the area. While they’re
doing that, the three of us go back to the SIB office and wait for Garnet to
connect the information we got to get a new lead for the case.
As we wait, Bezalel says, “That was
really quick thinking, tackling that creep before he shot himself, Draco.”
“I got it during my time as a cop,
saving suicidal people. Being too late or not reacting fast enough imprints on
you the reaction to act first so that you don’t see someone take their own life
again,” I say. “You reacted pretty fast to being shot at.”
“Ah. It’s much the same for me. Getting
shot and blown up during the war gives you the instinct to recognize the
familiar danger. You got any special reactions that you got on the job, Garnet?”
“I can recognize patterns and make logical
leaps with the right information,” Garnet says. “I may not have experience
fighting people as you boys do, but my studies and work on many investigations
help me solve the puzzles we’re given.”
“Oh, that’s right. You know a lot
of higher-ups and given one of those expensive educations, right?” Bezalel asks.
“Yes. Doesn’t mean that I got a privileged
start to my job, though. I still had to work hard to get to where I am. Speaking
of my skills, I’ve found multiple connections between the many suspects we’ve
arrested and people in entertainment. This computer has a lot of dirt on them,
with pictures of celebrities and politicians with children and sex slaves.”
“Don’t show them to me, or I may break
their necks with my robotic hand.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I’m
putting these pictures and videos through a program to make sure they aren’t
fake. It looks like these people took in these child actors for a guaranteed role
or job in entertainment, on the screen or behind it, as long as they didn’t
complain about the abuse, and people in entertainment have criminal contacts
who don’t care about killing children or young people, in case they want to get
rid of them.”
“Is there enough in there to put
these people away?” I ask.
“Yes, there is, now that the program
has confirmed that everything in here is real. The last piece we need is just
finding what was deleted. The files on this computer are placed under different
tiers of importance, and the deletion program deletes the most important first.”
“So, should we wait to find what
the other investigators find to get our missing information?”
“There may be no need. I’ve
discovered that one of the docks is a place where they import and make bids on
sex slaves. If we go there and discover the location of this slave marketplace,
we may find what we need.”
“Let’s hurry then, if that’s where
people are being kept. Arrange a raid with the local police and agents.”
“On it.”
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