“Where is she?” Frick snapped, scanning the dark streets. “She could blow the whole operation!”

“Relax,” Oz tried to calm his partner as he maneuvered the van around the urban landscape. “She was secured to the chair about an hour ago when I checked on her, so she hasn’t gone far after escaping the house.”

She was the tenth victim they “processed” from government raids. With all of the arrests, detentions and deportations, the women slipped through the cracks and into Manny’s house, where the third agent in their scheme ran a pleasure palace for well-paying clients.

Frick insisted Alejandra was trouble, but Oz liked her feistiness. She’d break, he promised the other agents. Now all she did was break free.

The driver nearly plowed into a parked car as Frick shouted. “I see her! That’s her!”

“Hang on!” Oz made the van creep behind her. She had long dark wavy hair, business suit, long skirt, tights and heels. After her second glance back, she quickened her pace down the sidewalk.

Frick screamed “She made us, you idiot! Get her!”

As Oz increased the van’s speed, Alejandra tried to run. Half a block away, she ducked around the corner.

Oz mused that she made a big error, heading down a blind alley. She wouldn’t get away this time. He used the van to block her sole escape route.

“You ready?” he asked his fellow agent riding shotgun.

Frick held up Zip-Ties and a scarf.

“We have to move fast, so she can’t call for help.”

He nodded. As Oz departed the side door, his partner came through the sliding door.

Alejandra turned around to face them. Both were stunned to see her smile.

“Agents Frick and Osborn, you are under arrest!” she announced.

“Under whose authority?” Frick laughed.

The dark alley became bathed in light. Dark-clad figures from above slid down on ropes from fire escapes. Others in black sweatsuits ran past their van. Frick and Osborn were tackled to the ground, arms pinned behind their backs, handcuffed, and thrown into their van.

A gruff male voice under the hood declared “You jerks are charged with kidnapping an undercover federal investigator, Alejandra here, as well as human trafficking, conspiracy, and about fifty other crimes I don’t have time to read. You’ll hear them all at your arraignment, though.”

Frick spluttered as the van drove on. “But…we’re….”

“You’re right,” Alejandra announced. “You were federal agents. And you have the right to remain silent.”

A male investigator added “Our department is raiding 221 Parker Avenue arresting Agent Manny and rescuing those girls you abducted from Federal custody.”

Oz played his final card. “We’ll never plead. We’ve got friends in government who will ensure we’ll avoid jail.”

The van pulled up to a familiar looking building. Two male investigators hustled Frick and Osborn down the stairs to the lower level. When they reached the iron door, one investigator wrenched it open while another shoved the two handcuffed men inside.

A dim bulb hanging from the center revealed there were at least seventeen men stuck in that makeshift dungeon for detainees. Some had tattoos on their muscles. One cracked his knuckles as he made out the familiar white acronym on Frick and Osborn’s sweatshirts.

Both investigators and Alejandra ducked out of the room and slammed the door. “Check on them in five?” one investigator asked.

She shook her head. “I’d give them ten. They can now see for themselves what being a detainee feels like from now on.”