IRINA RAN AWAY from the safe house, through back alleys and dark side streets until she was out of breath and panting and lost, the house and the U.S. Marshals far behind her.
She walked to a busy roadway, passed hotels and restaurants and hundreds of cars, all of them filled with happy Americans with no cares, no fears, nothing at all to worry about. Nobody stopped to threaten her, but nobody offered to help, either. They kept driving along to their cheerful restaurants and their big houses, and all the while, she kept running.
She was foolish, she realized, when she stopped at a railroad crossing to catch her breath. She was alone in America, didn’t speak much English. She had no money and no idea how to get to Pennsylvania, even if she could pay for a ticket. It was dangerous to be out here, in this big, foreign city, surrounded by strange men and utterly alone.
But the traffickers still had Catalina. Was she supposed to sit in that safe house and do nothing?
No.
Irina ducked down the railroad tracks, away from the main road. Took shelter in a ditch and tried to form a plan. If she could find Maria, the translator, she could at least make a start. Maybe Maria would know how to get to Clearfield, Pennsylvania.
And if she couldn’t find Maria?
She would need money. She could steal a car, maybe. She was a pretty girl in a country full of lonely, hungry men. Someone would stop for her. She would outwit him. She would hijack his car and take his money and then she would drive to Pennsylvania and find Catalina. This is what she would do.
It was a dumb plan. Any man who stopped for her was a man who wanted something from her. A predator. He would expect her to do things, and he would be stronger than her.
Still, it was a better plan than sitting in that safe house, waiting for Catalina to die. She would just have to be careful. Cautious. Smart. Irina looked up and down the railroad tracks. In the distance were the skyscrapers of downtown Minneapolis. She pulled herself out of the ditch and began to walk, searching for a man and a car and an opportunity.