Heavy Traffic

"Would you like me to roll up the bottom of the pants for you?" He asked her in the most soothing voice he could muster. "It might make it easier for you to walk until I can find you something else to wear."

She looked into his eyes and saw a noticeable change from the earlier "beast", so she nodded in response.

"Good," he said. "Why don't you sit back on the bed for a minute and we'll make quick work of this for you."

When she saw that his intentions were just to correct the length of her pant legs, she eased back until she was seated once more on the edge of the bed. She had picked the knife up and again held it in her lap as she watched his movements. She didn't hold the knife out of fear, she held it simply to keep track of where it was.

Sean began with one leg, rolling the fleecy material up until it reached the bottom of her ankle. When he released the material, he noticed that it almost immediately started to unroll itself. Considering the lightweight nature of the pants, he was going to need to secure the rolled-up section with something to keep it in place.

After a few seconds of thought, he reached into his fishing vest and pulled out a pre-strung fish hook. Using the fish hook and short strand of the line much like a needle and thread, he ran a couple of loops of the line through the front and back of the rolled material, tying each off with a simple Uni-knot. Satisfied with the results, he repeated the same process with the other pant leg.

"You obviously speak English, right?" It wasn't really a question.

She gave her first small smile as she said, "I speak Australian English, and so I would be more concerned with you understanding me."

The smile she blessed him with had been designed in heaven for angels to wear. He knew at that instant that he would strive to see her smile as often as possible.

Sean returned her smile and said, "I have spent a lot of time with the Australian Special Air Service Regiment but none of them spoke in such a sweet accent as yours. Are you okay physically or do you require further medical treatment?"

"I'm fine, thanks to you," she said. "Where did you come from?"

Sean stood and walked over to the open door. After looking outside for a minute, he motioned her to join him on the porch before he responded quietly. "I have a cabin about a mile from here. I was returning from checking my traps when I saw the van heading down the dirt road leading here and knowing that Gideon James, who owns this cabin, was on a business trip, I decided to investigate."

"I'm glad you did," she said. Glancing back in at the three men on the floor she added, "Did you hear what they intended to do?"

Sean also glanced down at the three Tangos on the floor. Their initial pain had rendered them virtually unconscious but an occasional moan could still be heard. Two of the men had visibly evacuated their bladders and from the smell, at least one had also released his bowels.

He nodded at the woman in response and said, "I suspect that you would have eventually saved yourself, but I'm glad to have been able to assist."

"Did you just break their spines?" she asked.

Sean studied her face and saw that simple curiosity was the only evident expression present.

"Yes, I did. I promised them that they would leave this cabin alive, but I couldn't live with myself if I left them capable of ever doing what they had planned for you to some other woman in the future."

She nodded, walked across the porch to the open door and stuck the knife into the wood planks next to the door jam, looked Sean directly in the eyes and said, "Thank you."

"Where did you come from?" Sean asked her. "I mean I assume you're originally from Australia, but how did you come to meet up with this group?"

"I was working as a nurse for an all-girl orphanage in East Timor. On a trip from the orphanage in the Manufahi District to the capital in Dili, our bus was captured by slave traders. Originally, the traders were going to kill me, but they decided to keep me with the girls to help care for them until they could be sold into slavery. I later learned that they decided that I had a market value of my own, so once the ship we were on reached its destination, I was separated from the girls and sold to those men."

"Why would they consider you 'untraceable'?" he asked. "Wouldn't somebody miss you?"

"Right after we were captured, I was asked who I was and if I had any family who would pay a ransom for my release. When I told them that I had no family, they stopped asking questions and I was never able to tell them that I had others who would pay for my return."

"How long had these men held you?" Sean asked.

"They bought me this morning," she said, looking out into the early morning darkness in front of the cabin. "We had been on the ship for more than a month by my count of the days. I didn't realize I was in the United States until you mentioned to those men that they were not citizens of this country. Where exactly am I in your country?"

"What?" Sean asked in amazement. "You mean the ship that you were on came here? You're in the State of Georgia - the very southwest corner. Do you know where that is?"

He had assumed that the men had picked her up along the coast and driven her here.

"Not really, but it doesn't matter right now. I know approximately where Atlanta, Georgia is because of the Olympics being held there, but that's the extent of my geographic knowledge. The ship didn't dock as far as I know. I was placed into a small motorboat and brought to shore where these men were waiting for us, signaling the men in the boat with flashlights. We only drove for what seemed to be an hour or less before arriving here so we couldn't have come too far. It was dark and I was on the floor in the back of the van so I don't know the route they took or anything."

Sean considered this information. He knew that Lake Seminole was part of the Apalachicola waterway, providing deep-water port access as far inland as Columbus, Georgia. The marshy coves and inlets north of Recovery, Georgia is where he had been setting his traps and would be a likely location for the transaction the woman and Tango Two had mentioned.

"Were the orphan girls still on the ship when you were taken off?"

"Yes, they were and they were very frightened to see me being taken from them."

"Do you happen to know the name of the ship you were on, or can you describe it?" Sean prodded.

"I think it was called the 'Costa Verde' because I saw that name painted on the lifeboats hanging from the side of the ship when the motorboat that had come out to meet us pulled away from the side of the ship as it brought me to land. I do know it flew a Portuguese flag."

"That's a good start," Sean said. "Now we need to decide on what to do with you. I assume that you don't want to wait here with these men until I can send someone back to pick them up?"

"That would not be my first choice," she admitted. "Can't you use the cell phone in the van to call for help?"

"There is no cellular service out here," he informed her. "I have a landline at my cabin, but it's a mile walk through the woods and your footwear wouldn't handle that trip."

"Why can't we drive there in the van?"

"There are several reasons. First of all, my treatment of those men could be viewed as criminal by the local authorities, so the less my involvement is known, the better. Secondly, the van is stolen and is technically part of the crime scene here now. Plus, by the time we drove back up Gideon's drive to the road, and then took it to the drive leading to my cabin, we could already be most of the way there following the path through the woods."

She considered his explanation and then looked at the feet of each of her three former captors. She walked over to Tango Three and ignoring the stench in the room, pulled off one of his shoes and held the sole against the bottom of her foot. Appearing satisfied, she proceeded to pull off the other shoe, along with his socks from both feet.

Sean simply watched her with interest. He sensed that spending time with her would be an adventure.

"Were there any socks in the chest where you found these items?" she asked, indicating the garments that Sean had found for her.

She walked out the door and onto the front porch.

"There were some, but you have the socks from him," Sean said as he pointed to Tango Three.

"I'll use those to take up space inside the shoes because they're too big for me, but I would prefer that my skin didn't have to touch them."

Sean continued to admire her spirit as she seemed to be recovering from her ordeal. "Let me see what I can find for you."

Holding his hair out of his face again as he looked down, he searched through the cedar chest until he found a pair of white crew socks, joined her on the porch and handed them to her.

"Thank you. What is your name by the way?"

Sean made sure that the Tangos were not able to hear their conversation before responding, "I guess that might help. My name is Sean Wallace, but my friends call me 'Recon'."

Sean didn't hear her gasp, but he did see her raise her eyebrows and smile as she sat on the front steps of the cabin and began to pull the crew socks onto her feet.

"I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to meet you, Sean Wallace. My name is Amanda, but I also answer to 'Mandy' if I like the person using the name. By the way, I like you. I like you heaps, so call me anything you want."

"I think I'll start with Amanda and see how it rolls off my tongue for a while if that's okay with you."

She finished with the socks and began preparing the shoes, "Try it. Let me hear how my name rolls off your tongue. I've never heard my name spoken with an American accent."

Sean appeased her and said, "Amanda is a beautiful name and I'm certain it sounds wonderful with any accent."

"Thank you. It sounds strange, but not unpleasant. I could get used to you using it."

"How do the shoes feel?" Sean asked as she finished tying them and stood.

"Good enough for now. I wouldn't want to have to run far in them, but they should be able to get me to your cabin without any blisters, turned ankles, or much tripping. So, do you plan to just leave these men here for now?"

"Sure," Sean said as he pushed the door of the cabin closed and stuck the knife into the door jamb to hold it shut. He wiped his fingerprints from the handle and continued, "They're not going anywhere and the local Sheriff should be able to get people out to collect them before any of the wildlife around here become brave enough to enter the cabin. Are you ready?"

Amanda walked over and took his hand. "Ready, Sean."

Chapter Two

"A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live."

- Lao Tzu

***

When she took his hand, they both felt something different.

It was like a switch had been thrown with her touch. Sean suddenly felt like he had more blood in his body than he had had just a minute ago, and he could almost swear that he felt it warming as it rose up his arm, through his shoulder, and further into his body and soul. He didn't understand it, but he took notice of it and enjoyed brief thoughts of what it foretold.

Amanda felt strength in Sean's touch such as she had never experienced before. While she had held the hands of a few station workers and other men who had tough, strong, calloused hands; in Sean's, she felt what she could only describe as the strength of a warrior rather than just a man. Feeling tender pressure from him against her skin, she knew that this hand held enough power to literally crush her own hand if he chose to. It felt like she was holding warm leather covered steel, but she knew she was safe; safer than she had ever been in her life as long as she held this hand.

After leaving Gideon James' cabin, Sean had led her to the tree where he had left his trapped Muskrats, and then to the partially beaten path that led to his cabin. Sean noted that she had not reacted to the carcasses, and merely accepted them with indifference as if she had some familiarity with dead game. The sun had started rising so there was adequate light for their hike.

They had only been walking for about ten minutes when her need for conversation could no longer be quelled. The path was too narrow for them to walk side by side, so she was slightly behind Sean as she maintained a hold on his hand and let him lead her through the low tree branches, bushes, and fallen logs littering the ground.

"Where did you get the nickname 'Recon'?"

"It's short for 'reconnaissance'," he told her as he continued to fuss with attempts to keep his hair out of his face.

"I have always been good at tracking animals while hunting, and sneaking up on them without being detected. That combined with my patience waiting for my target to be in the right position for a single-shot kill earned me the nickname. A lot of people think it's because I was part of the Marine Corps Force Recon, but I had the nickname years before joining the Corps."

Sean had spent six years in the Marines after college. After boot camp, he had gone directly into Officer Candidate School where one of his instructors learned about Sean's training in Hsing-I, one of the famed Chinese internal martial arts, and got him involved in the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. He rose quickly through the degrees of the Marine Corps program, introducing several new techniques that were adopted and integrated into the regimen, becoming one of only ten Instructor Trainer Qualified Black Belts even before graduating from OCS.

After a tour in Afghanistan, Sean was assigned as an instructor in close-quarter combat for the Marine Corps' Embassy Security Group, traveling around the world evaluating and upgrading the capabilities of Marines assigned to protect American Embassies and diplomats in foreign lands.

"Were you raised near here in the wilderness?" Amanda asked.

The sun was starting to rise so that Amanda could now see more than dark shadows in the shapes of trees and shrubs.

Sean laughed, "No, I was raised in two different places. With my mom, we lived in a suburb of Atlanta called Johns Creek. It was a pretty basic middle-class neighborhood and upbringing. With my dad, I lived in a mansion on a two-hundred-year-old estate along the Cumberland River that has been in his family for generations. It's located outside of Nashville, Tennessee and my time there was all high-society and pampered materialism at its finest."

"So, your parents were divorced?"

"Actually, no. My mom and dad had a kind of 'serial' relationship. They loved each other till their dying day, but their differing views on what constituted 'the good life' made it impossible for them to live together. While they couldn't seem to live together for long periods of time, my parents remained married and neither of them ever strayed outside their vows to each other. I think they actually spent more quality time together as a couple than most married people who live together and see each other every day of the week. We took all of our family vacations together, spent every holiday together, they both were equally active in raising me and as long as we weren't in either's 'home turf', you would never guess that they were not the perfect couple."

"Any brothers or sisters?"

"No, just me."

"You said 'till their dying day'. I'll understand if you don't want to talk about it, but did they both die?"

Sean nodded, "Yeah, about three years ago. I was in the Corps at the time. They were taking an around-the-world sailing vacation on a yacht with some friends. Their yacht was captured by pirates; ironically, near East Timor, and even though the ransom was paid, they were all executed."

"Oh, Sean, how awful. Were the pirates ever brought to justice?"

Sean simply looked down at her and nodded. The look in his eyes as he confirmed that justice had been served left no doubt in her mind who had meted out the justice for his parents.

"You told my captors that you were no longer in the Marines. What do you do now?"

"Right now? Well until I stumbled upon you, I have been sort of hibernating. For the last ten months or so I have been soul searching and building my resolve to face the responsibilities that await me."

"What sort of responsibilities do you face?"

"Running the family business," Sean said, and the tone of his voice told Amanda that this was not a subject that she should pursue right at that time.

"I understand," is all Amanda said.

Sean continued walking and looked over his shoulder at her. He was feeling an almost visceral connection to this woman. When she didn't question him further on his revelation, he realized that maybe she really did understand.

Although she felt that she knew the answer already, Amanda caressed his hand with her thumb and asked the question anyway, "Do you have anyone that you can share your responsibilities with, someone who you can trust, like other rellies or friends?"

"Rellies?

"Sorry," Amanda giggled. "Relatives."

Sean squeezed her hand in return but didn't otherwise reply to her question.

Simultaneously, he thought to himself, "I might have just found someone."

She started to ask him another question, but he stopped her. "Amanda, surprising as it is to me, I don't mind discussing my life with you, but we need to do it some other time. Right now, we should focus on you telling me as much as you can remember about the ship, its layout, the number of girls onboard, the number of captors, and any weapons that they may have."

"Of course, I'm sorry," she said. "I told you all I know about the possible name of the ship. It was an intermodal container carrier vessel with the deck covered in loaded carrier trailers. I don't know how large the crew is for the ship, or if they even knew about the girls and I being transported on the ship. Our only contact was with the six traders that originally took us from the bus. They had placed us into a container in, I assume Dili, which was then loaded onto the ship with a crane. The interior of the container had straw mats for us to lie on and two buckets for us to use as a dunnie, or toilet."

"There were twenty-five girls with me, ranging in age from six to fifteen. Once a day, two of the traders would partially open the door to the container. The combination of traders varied from day to day, but I never saw more than six different faces. One would point a rifle at us while the other one came in and swapped out the buckets with clean ones. After that, they would bring us a big bowl of boiled rice and a gallon jug of water for us to share. Occasionally they would toss in some raw fish, and I tried to share the meager protein among the girls, but there wasn't always enough for each of them to have some."

"Only one of them had a rifle when they came to the container?" Sean asked.

"Yes," she confirmed. "And now that you mention it, even when they were commandeering our bus, only two of the traders that day had guns. The rest had machetes or knives only."

"Did you notice anything else about the container, such as any name or identifying markings on it that would allow us to find it amongst all the others on the ship?"

"It was dark when I was taken out and put into the motorboat, but I did notice that the container was sort of a rust orange or red color and we were pretty close to the back of the ship because they didn't have to walk me far on the deck before making me climb down a ladder hung over the side. Also, the containers are stacked three high and ours was on the bottom, sitting right on the deck."

"Great info, Amanda, This will all be helpful once we locate the ship. You said that you didn't know if the crew was even aware of you and the girls being on the ship. Why do you think that?"