Chapter 27: Smuggler's Blues

Harlow

"Get the poor girl outta there!" Stitch instructed.

The woman in the crate was shaking and scared. Red lifted her out and gently sat her down to remove the restraints. The rest of us pulled the smaller boxes off of the other crates and began opening them. Each crate held a person bound, gagged, and blindfolded. There were twenty in total. Men, women, and children.

It hit me then what the list I'd helped Madoc attach to his email meant. In each row was a town name, an M or an F indicating male or female, and a number. Their age. It was an inventory of human beings. I felt sick.

I pulled out my switchblade and helped cut the frightened, weak people free of their restraints. Some were barely conscious as if they'd been drugged. These people weren't immigrants trying to get into the States. They'd been taken against their will.

"What the hell is this?" I asked.

"Human trafficking," Stitch said in disgust.

"Like sex trafficking?"

"Don't know," Stitch responded. "There are som