CHAPTER 3 — The Girl Everyone Thought Was Worthless
Emergency lights bathed the hallway in red.
Security guards ran in every direction.
Someone pounded on the conference-room door.
"Police! Open up!"
The detective hesitated.
The voice sounded wrong.
Too calm.
Too rehearsed.
She refused to unlock it.
Seconds later...
The pounding stopped.
Then came silence.
Complete silence.
Adrian slowly approached the window.
Below...
He saw the real police still trapped outside the gates.
Someone had locked them out.
The people inside...
Were impostors.
Dana suddenly stood.
Her face had changed.
She wasn't panicking anymore.
She was remembering.
"I know the leader."
Everyone stared.
"You've seen him?"
She nodded.
"He comes every Friday."
"To the landfill."
"What does he do?"
"He buys children."
The room turned ice cold.
Detective Brooks slowly lowered her notebook.
"What did you say?"
Dana looked at the sleeping baby.
"They take babies..."
"They disappear."
"No one ever comes back."
The detective immediately radioed headquarters.
"Notify Human Trafficking Division."
Adrian felt sick.
This had never been about protecting a wealthy family's reputation.
It was an entire trafficking network.
Just then...
One of the fake officers kicked open the conference-room door.
Gun raised.
Face covered.
He looked directly at Dana.
"Bring me the girl."
Adrian stepped in front of her without hesitation.
"Over my dead body."
The masked man smiled.
"You still don't know who she is."
Adrian frowned.
"What?"
The man laughed.
"You think she rescued one abandoned baby?"
He slowly removed a photograph from his pocket.
It showed Dana...
Standing beside twelve rescued infants over the past three years.
Each one later reported missing.
Each one officially listed as "never found."
The man looked directly into Adrian's eyes.
"That little girl..."
"...is the only witness who can destroy an international child-trafficking empire worth hundreds of millions of dollars."
Before anyone could react...
A gunshot shattered the silence.
The lights went out again.
And when the emergency lights flickered back on...
Dana...
May you like
And the baby...
Were gone.
