Click Bait Ch. 01

Sitting at the conference table was a big man in a dark suit who would have been incredibly handsome except for the scar that started across his left eyebrow and drooped along the side of his face. The scar was thin and silvery against the man's tanned skin. Some women would likely find the scar exotic... dangerous... sexy.

Even without the scar the man looked dangerous. He had a shock of greying shoulder-length hair and his shoulders were broad and muscular; he seemed like he was about to burst out of his tight fitting suit that looked to be very expensive. He had a Slavic appearance that was reinforced by the squint caused by the tobacco smoke drifting past his icy-blue eyes from the cigarette between his lips. There was a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka opened on the table and a full glass in front of the man.

Jennifer knew that smoking and drinking were prohibited in government buildings but this man seemed to have some sort of immunity. He studied Jennifer carefully as she took off her red wool coat, helped by Chase who took it and hung it on a walnut coat stand on which was hanging a black Valentino longcoat. Chase hung his own car-coat on the stand.

"Ah... little red riding hood," the man had a distinctive Eastern European accent.

Jennifer fought hard to suppress a smile as she imagined the man wearing his longcoat and a snapback hat saying: 'Natasha... where is moose and squirrel?'

The smile completely disappeared as the man's eyes crawled over her body.

Jennifer was wearing a black taffeta skater skirt, a mauve cotton-lycra body-shaper top, mauve opaque tights and black Mary Jane's. She had toned down her makeup and wore pink glossy lipstick but still wore lots of mascara. Her hair was brushed out and she was wearing too much costume jewellery. Pretty and young... as instructed.

"This is the one Chase?" the man took his cigarette from his mouth and turned to Donald Chase, completely ignoring Jennifer except to fuck her with his eyes.

"This is the one Uri. What do you think?" Chase put his laptop on the table and pulled up a seat indicating for Jennifer to sit next to him.

Jennifer didn't find Chase particularly appealing but she was glad to be seated next to him with the menacing hulk sitting across from her.

"I think Dmitriy Tanas Yakovich will fuck her until she is paralysed, then cut prices off her and feed them to his pet shark, starting with her dick," Uri laughed and took a gulp of vodka.

Jennifer felt a shiver run down her spine but she glared at the man she now knew as Uri with her glacial-green eyes.

"Don't scare her Uri," Donald reached across the table and snatched up Uri's Marlboro Reds and his gold lighter.

"She doesn't look scared to me; she looks pissed. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe that's bad thing," Uri leaned back in his chair, never breaking eye contact with Jennifer.

"You two fuckwads want to keep talking about me like I'm not in the room or are you going to include me in the conversation?" Jennifer barked.

Donald Chase and Uri Orlov both burst out laughing.

"So she does have balls," Uri coughed around his cigarette.

Jennifer didn't know that Chase smoked but why should she? She took the preferred cigarette and drew the smoke deep in her lungs. She wished she'd had it last night after Jorge had left, leaving her with an aching ass, a tingling dick and three hundred dollars lighter after she'd tipped him. That was after she had already paid two thousand dollars on the card to the escort agency.

"Ok, let's get down to business," Chase opened the laptop and positioned it on the table so they could all see it.

Jennifer wanted to ask who the fuck Dmitriy Tanas Yakovich was but she knew better than to ask. All would be revealed in good time.

Chase put a dongle into one of the laptop ports and then took a random code generator off his key ring, pressed the button to get the code and punched it into the laptop which appeared to be rather large and clunky which was probably due to all the encryption hardware and other IT stuff that Jennifer knew nothing about.

After navigating the dark web and entering in various passwords and passcodes he brought up the same webpage as yesterday. Once again there were thumbnails of six pretty girls but the girl they had studied yesterday was gone; the clock had timed out and she was sold. Her place had been taken by a stunning Asian girl of indeterminate age. Her clock still had a little over twenty-four hours to run.

"The Asian girls don't sell so well. The market is flooded with them out of Bangkok, Manila and Jakarta. Highest prices always reserved for white girls, speak English, better if educated and maybe fight a little. Virgin get best price," Uri stubbed out his cigarette in a crystal ashtray and immediately lit another.

"You talk about them as if they are a commodity," Jennifer's anger flared and Chase put a steadying hand on her wrist.

"They are commodity. Dmitriy Tanas Yakovich deal in drugs, stolen luxury cars, cigarettes and booze, gold and precious gems, slave labour but his passion is pretty girls," Uri squinted through the smoke.

"Two hundred thousand girls under 21 go missing each year in US of A. Most nobody give a fuck about... blacks, Hispanics, runaways, poor families, ugly duck... you know. Pretty white girls raise a lot of fuss... but only for little while. Good return on investment," Uri spread his hands as if he was discussing sheep sales.

"Dmitriy move people all around the world every day. Workers, prostitutes, illegal immigrants, skilled labour... whatever sells or whoever can pay. Some are paying for the privilege, most have no say... especially women. Girl in Ukraine apply for nanny job in USA at agency in Kiev. Good job, nice family, good wage, get to live in land of milk and honey right?"

"Girl get picked up at train station, get fucked a bit. Put on boat, get fucked a bit more. Arrive in USA, get fucked some more. End up working as prostitute... get fucked a lot more. Behave maybe she make a little money. Not behave she still get fucked a lot but get slapped around, mistreated, and maybe not go home after," Uri shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't need a lesson in people smuggling," Jennifer bristled and Chase squeezed her wrist again.

"But not these girls," Uri pointed at the screen.

"They might not like at first, but they get to live luxury lifestyle. Treated like princesses. Some of them rub shoulders with glitterati. Not bad deal. Better than alternative," Uri shrugged his shoulders again.

"Ok. Let's move on," Chase clicked a link on the webpage which opened another page.

"What is this?" Jennifer leaned in closer to look.

Blonde white girl ≤ eighteen. Pretty, chubby ok but not fat. Must be English speaker, no light-skin browns or Latinos. No need to be virgin but no street kids or hookers - educated and eloquent. $100 to $120.

Jennifer read a series of what appeared to be goods wanted ads: girls, boys, mainly white but some wanting mix-race or exotic ethnicity, others wanted special characteristics such as amputees, deformities, dwarfs or other specific bodily features.

"Is place for special orders. Dmitriy is happy to fill them and he have his own spotters who find them but anyone with access to site can find them. Hit link, make report, if deal work out, get spotter fee," Uri took another sip of vodka.

"You're telling me that this guy abducts people to order?" Jennifer was aghast.

"Look. People want they want and if they can pay they usually get. Dmitriy just in the supply and demand business," Uri said.

Jennifer was no longer amused by his 'moose and squirrel' accent.

"Ok Uri, I think Jennifer gets it. Let's move on," Chase interrupted.

"This one," Uri pointed to a text box on the screen.

Attractive transgender female ≤ 20, white, English first language, well-spoken, educated preferred. Top surgery ok but no bottom surgery- this not negotiable. No hookers, porn actresses or professionals. No exotics... sweet white-bread femme only. Top dollar. POA.

"This one been up for four days. Very hard to fill. How many girls you know fill this bill? I have Katya dangle bait; waiting for fish to bite," Uri chuckled.

Chase looked at Jennifer who swallowed and then returned his stare.

"I told you this would be dangerous," Chase said levelly.

"I'm going to fill the order. What happens next?" Jennifer set her resolve.

"You go into a safe house for a little while and we prepare you. You'll take on a new identity and background. These guys aren't the IRS but they are careful. They will run background checks on you and you need to have your story down pat," Chase nodded at Uri to continue.

"We set you up in fake life. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated. Katya sells you to Dmitriy through third party. They come get. Dmitry is hands on guy. He's going to want to see you for himself. We trap him. You hero. Chase hero. Bureau hero. I come out of WITSEC and go to Las Vegas to gamble and fuck showgirls," Uri chuckled.

"Last part is joke ok?" Uri's expression actually softened for a millisecond.

"Where is this safe house? Who is Katya? Who am I to become? How do I make contact after these guys take me?" Jennifer swivelled her head between Chase and Uri.

Uri spread his hands and looked earnestly at Donald Chase.

"You crossed the Rubicon when you agreed to take on this assignment Jones. There are some things you are better off not knowing and some things that will be explained later or become self-explanatory. You said you're in... Are you still in? You signed that waiver already," Chase poured himself a shot of vodka and swallowed it.

"One last thing... why can't Uri and this Katya woman just testify against this Dmitriy Tanas Yakovich?" Jennifer asked.

"Oh they will but they can't be the main witnesses, they can only be corroborative. You're a lawyer; you tell me why," Chase steepled his fingers.

Jennifer thought about if briefly.

"Because Uri and Katya are immersed or have been immersed in organised crime. Dmitriy Yakovich's lawyers would tear them apart stating that they were manufacturing evidence to save their own skins and that they were guilty of the same crimes as Dmitriy," Jennifer explained.

"And?" Chase encouraged her to go on.

"You need to find his current locale so you can arrest him and you need an impeccably, unchallengeable witness to testify that they have observed what Uri and Katya will testify to," Jennifer concluded.

"Ok. Now... are you still in?" Chase asked again.

"Yeah; I'm still in," Jennifer said, admitting to herself that she was scared.

But she was also excited.

Uri poured three glasses of vodka and held up his glass.

"Na Zdorovie," he chinked his glass on Jennifer's and Chase's and downed his drink in one gulp.

Jennifer and Chase followed suit.

"Phone, charge card and ID," Chase held out his hand and wiggled his fingers.

Jennifer handed over her cell phone and the American Express Centurion card and took the Bureau ID from around her neck and handed that over. All three left the building together but Uri got into a different car; a black SUV.

Chase followed Uri to a car park in Congress Heights and parked beside Uri's SUV.

"This is it kid. Good luck Jennifer Edwards," Chase held out his hand and Jennifer shook it.

She climbed out of the government sedan, took her suitcase from the trunk and tossed it on the back seat of Uri's SUV. She climbed into the passenger seat. The car reeked of cigarette smoke. She'd watched him drive the short distance from Bolling and was amazed that he could drive so well considering the amount of vodka he had consumed.

"Don't look so worried. What could possibly go wrong?" Uri burst into guttural laughter which grated on Jennifer's nerves.

Chase watched Uri Orlov drive away and then punched up a number on his cell phone.

"Do it," he said into the phone and broke the connection.

Inside a secure building in Quantico a technician hit the return key on a line of code and Jennifer Jones's existence was wiped from the FBI database. He accessed three other government databases and Jennifer Jones officially ceased to exist anywhere in the USA.

He spent another thirty minutes uploading Jennifer Edwards' information into a number of databases but not the Bureau's. Jennifer didn't know it but she was done with the Bureau.

To be continued