Page 66 of Dichotomy

The freight train screeched loudly to a halt, the engines huffing in the quiet. Like a spell had been broken over the rail yard, the cab doors to the box truck opened.

“Confirmation of Director Keller.” One of the SID agents crackled over the comms. “One other unknown.”

From Adrian’s shadowed position under one of the rail cars, I watched the director step out of the cab of the box truck. He wore a navy-blue suit and looked out of place in the dingy rail yard. He buttoned his suit jacket as he walked around to the back of the truck. He looked confident and unbothered about the whole thing, like he was going out for a drink instead of trafficking women. My stomach twisted as I realized his confidence probably came with years of doing this. How many women had suffered at the hands of this man before anyone realized what was happening?

The driver joined him. He stood six inches shorter than the director but had a broad frame. A dusty orange baseball cap covered his head, and a scowl twisted his face. The director motioned to the box truck’s door, and the driver produced a key from his pocket and unlocked it. He rolled the door up, and a muffled curse sounded over the comms.

“I’m counting at least eight girls inside and a guy with an AR-15,” Marcus whispered.

Fuck. That was a lot of firepower. If I were there, I would aim to take him out first. Neither the driver nor the director held a weapon as they motioned the girls forward, but I didn’t doubt they were packing.

“Two more men approaching from the east,” an agent said. “They came from one of the cars on the train.”

“Five hostiles total,” Agent Mercer said. “Everyone, hold your positions.”

“When do we move in?” Dominic asked quietly.

There was a long pause while we waited for Agent Mercer’s answer. The men were forcing the girls out of the truck and gathering them in a small group. The approaching men from the train shook Director Keller’s hand before leering at the girls.

“Ethan, when do we move in?” Dominic repeated as the man inside the truck jumped out and shut the truck door.

“We need to make sure the case is airtight,” Agent Mercer finally said. “We wait until the girls are on the train.”

“And what if the train leaves?” Marcus hissed.

“We have agents tracking the train. We’ll intercept the girls along the route.”

No, no, no. That wasn’t part of the plan. If those girls got on that train, who knew where they would end up?

“That wasn’t the plan,” Dominic hissed as one of the men shoved one of the girls forward.

“Plans change,” Agent Mercer shot back. “We have to gather as much evidence as we can. We have one shot at this.”

One of the men from the train started back in that direction, while the truck driver and the other man from the truck started shoving the girls in the direction he was leading.

“Fuck!” I tore off my comms so I wouldn’t distract the guys.

“What do we do?” Liam asked, his eyes wide.

“I don’t know. I—” I watched in horror as one of the girls tried to make a run for it.

She broke from the group, darting sideways, and thedirectortackled her to the ground. I winced as she went down hard. He dragged her to her knees, a sneer on his face as he yelled at her. I couldn’t hear him over the sound of the train starting back up. I could only watch in frozen silence as he unbuckled his pants. The girl sobbed at his feet. I couldn’t just stand there and watch this. I had to do something.

“Freeze!” Dominic shouted, stepping out from his hidden position behind a rail yard. “Release her!”

“Hayes! What the hell are you doing?” Agent Mercer demanded, but Dominic ignored him.

I watched the monitors as all my guys unveiled their positions. It took a beat for the SID agents to catch up, but they did, their cover blown from the moment Dominic yelled.

The guy with the AR-15 lifted his weapon and started firing. I heard a pained grunt, then the guy’s head snapped back, a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead. I watched through Alexander’s body cam as one of the other guys lifted his gun, but Adrian materialized behind him, placing his gun to the base of the guy’s skull.

“Drop your weapons,” Agent Mercer demanded as they closed in on the group.

Director Keller threw the girl he was holding to the ground and ran for the north exit of the rail yard. Neither Liam nor I had a chance to say anything before Marcus was there, tackling him to the ground like he had tackled that poor girl.

Director Keller thrashed in Marcus’s hold before Marcus was able to grab both of his arms and cuff him. He rolled him over and onto his feet, and the director froze.

“Wait, I know—” He looked past Marcus to someone else. Marcus turned, and I saw on his body camera that Dominic was approaching. Blood ran down Dominic’s arm, but he didn’t seem to notice.