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Karina sat quietly on Monica’s couch sipping coffee. Her makeup now gone revealing a clean canvas of skin. She appeared to be in her early twenties. Dark long hair reached her shoulders. She was reluctant at first to talk about her talent managers.
“Do you know Alex of Vladi Razin?”
She shook her head no.
“Listen, you are safe here. No one is going to hurt you again.”
Monica sat down next to her on the couch. She poured another cup of coffee.
“The other two that showed up after Hugo.”
“They are all together, all the time.”
“Are the Razin brothers involved in this in any way?”
“No, I have never met them.”
“How did you end up in this city?”
She sat for a moment staring at the table.
“It was after invasion into Ukraine. The fighting got so close. Men come to our town saying they had way to get us to the United States for better life. Father gave them one month’s salary to take my sister and me. The promised us good paying job and citizenship after 6 months.”
“So just you and your sister.”
“Not exactly. Some men in Spetznaz uniforms took some girls away the week before we left. They were on the same ship as us.”
“We were taken to New York City and then split up. My sister I think went to Minnesota and the others to Miami.”
“Did they go willingly or were they forced?”
“Both I guess. They told us we would you know go on dates with nice American men while we waited for our work visas. Things soon changed when we were forced to do things. We had no choice with nowhere to go and no one to help us.”
“The tattoos?”
“We are Hugo’s girls for now unless he decides otherwise.”
Monica followed me into the kitchen.
“You need to call your brother. See if he has any connections with the State Department. We need to get her somewhere. This sounds like a Global Trafficking operation maybe involving part of the Russian military. Until we locate her sister and get them asylum there is going to be serious heat. The Russians are very territorial and aggressive when it comes to taking their so-called property.”
She was looking through her phone.
“Can I see?”
She handed me her phone. I removed the sim card handing her back the lifeless device.
“But I need numbers in phone.”
“The only thing you need right now is to use the opportunity to leave this life.”
“I have no one. I am all alone. Where am I to go?”
I handed her my card with an address on the back.
“The address on the card goes to a safe house that we use for high profile cases. The key sits under an artificial rock next to the clothesline in the back yard. Clothes, food and cable included in your stay. Go into the bedroom and taped under the nightstand is a burner phone. Call me and only me if something doesn’t seem right. Do not contact anyone and stay off the Internet. They will not be able to track or find you. We will try locating your sister. A driver will pick you up shortly.”
We watched as Katrina looked out at us through the back window of the Udrive vehicle that picked her up.
“Think she will follow your instructions?”
“One can only hope.”