Human Traffickers Dark Web Auction

By Frederic Roux

Appointed by the UN Security Council as a general in the UN Peacekeeping Forces, Rian Schröder is ordered to find who hijacked the satellite used by UN and AU troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in their battle against rebels. But US President José D’Amato sends his company’s executive jet ‘DC to DC’ to the DRC to pick up Rian and to fly him to Washington D.C. to help solve a serious problem with his daughter, Tamara.
A few weeks ago, Tamara together with her mother Maria, on a visit to Africa, were abducted in two separate operations. Rian rescued both of them and at the time he assumed that Tamara was abducted on the Cape Flats as a distraction in order for Maria to be sneaked out of her hotel in the guise of an invalid.
But now he discovers that Tamara had been the victim of a bid at an auction on the dark web. Someone had bid one-hundred-and-ten million dollars in Bitcoin for her and an international crime syndicate had attempted to carry out the abduction.
He discovers that the system works as follows: A wealthy man who had grown tired of all the beautiful women that run after him creates an IP address on the dark web; he then contacts other wealthy men all over the world via the dark web who feel the same and invites them to put in a bid for any woman that they care to possess but cannot have (invariably a beautiful and famous woman); the bidder must put down a deposit in Bitcoin of twenty per cent of the bid price; if the price that is bid is worthwhile the auctioneer then contracts an international crime syndicate to abduct the woman and to deliver her to the bidder; the contractor is paid thirty per cent of the price that is bid; in other words in order to protect his identity the contractor is paid enough to use third parties to handle the final delivery; when the bidder tires of the woman he can give her back to the contractor who can sell her on the open market, thereby making a second profit. The bidder or contractor does not necessarily know who the auctioneer is. All the transactions are handled via dark web,
Dark web is a free and open-source software that allows for anonymous communication since a user’s location and usage is effectively concealed.
Can Rian get to the IP source and catch the auctioneer, contractor and the bidder?
The case starts in Washington D.C. in the USA where he escapes an assassination attempt on his life, and the investigation will take him to New York; then to Dubai; on to Bollywood in Mumbai, India; to Old Delhi where he witnesses a public cremation along the Yamuna River, a tributary of the Ganges, and escapes a second assassination attempt; he has a shoot-out in Old Delhi followed by another in Mumbai; and finally he goes to Bahrain Island where he is taken captive and taken by yacht out to sea. Will the Persian Gulf become his grave?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Frederic Roux
• Release date: Dec 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463795248

Book preview

When Rian Schröder stepped off the steps of the ‘DC to DC’ Gulfstream G650 Executive jet at Andrews AFB southeast of Washington D.C. he had no clothes other than the battle uniform on his back. His other uniform was bloodied and full of holes and he had left it in the DRC. He would have to wait for Susie Coeries to arrive from Cape Town with a suitcase of his clothes.

He was met by Braden Kulikosky, Deputy Director of the Secret Service and head of the division that provided protection for the president and vice-president, candidates for these posts, past presidents, and their families. The division also included the uniformed staff at the White House.

Thank you for coming so quickly, Braden said when he greeted Rian. Admittedly being kidnapped is a traumatic experience but Tamara seemed to be fine when she came back from South Africa. In recent weeks, however, she has been showing signs of increased anxiety. Dr. Mariah Calvecchia, the psychiatrist who is treating Tamara, finds this inexplicable. It started to get worse and nothing Dr. Calvecchia does seems to help. This is why she suggested that perhaps you can help Tamara overcome her anxiety.

I’ll be glad to help, if I can. And thanks for clearing the situation concerning my weapon.

A bit unusual to carry it on your ankle.

It just means I can’t wear stovepipe jeans, Rian said with a chuckle.

It’s not every day that we allow foreigners to carry weapons but you seem to have a guardian angel somewhere. At the same time, I must be frank with you, both the Director of Homeland Security and the Director of the FBI are not too happy with you being called in …, He chuckled. … never mind you carrying.

Mm. To come back to Tamara, has anything happened in her life recently that could have caused an increase in her anxiety.

Nothing that Dr. Calvecchia could establish.

And from your side? Anything that you guys might have picked up? I know you are often aware of incidents that the individual might not be conscious of.

Nothing. Or not that has been brought to my notice.

When they arrived at a parked SUV Braden introduced Rian to Petra Zemanek. Petra is your driver and she will be at your disposal while you are in Washington. She is one of the agents assigned to the D’Amato family and will be at your beck and call.

Petra looked anything like what Rian imagined a secret service agent should look like. Fair-haired and with eyes as blue as Rian’s, the tall and slender and beautiful Petra looked more like a model.

Nice to meet you Petra, Rian said shaking hands.

Travelling along Branch Avenue that eventually links up with Pennsylvania Avenue, Braden told Rian that he would drop him off at the Hay-Adams Hotel where a suite was booked in his name. Petra would fetch him later that evening in time for dinner at the White House. In the meantime, Rian probably wanted to rest. Dr. Calvecchia would call him to make an appointment for later that afternoon during which the two of them could discuss the situation.

Just as well, Rian said. I’ve come directly from a war in the jungle and the only clothes I have is what I have on. This will give me time to take a bath and go out and buy something appropriate to wear tonight. A young lady is bringing my other clothes and hopefully she’ll be here tomorrow.

Ms Coeries?

Yes.

She is expected at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport about noon tomorrow. A room has been reserved for her.

I would like to be there to meet her at the airport.

Talk to Petra.

Please ask a medic to come and dress my injuries after I’ve taken a shower, Rian asked.

I’ll see to it, Petra said.

I saw there is a spot on blood on your shoulder-blade, Braden said. Is it bad?

Not too bad. But two of them are bit painful.

Rian’s hotel window looked down on the White House.

***

Chapter 2

FBI Special Agent Alex Josefovicz was disappointed and Mariechen Thiart felt like crying when he told her the call he had just received from FBI Special Agent Carter Langfitt in Pretoria was to tell him he had been ordered back to New York and had to be at Cape Town International Airport that afternoon.

Mariechen was showing Alex the Cape’s famous wine route and the two of them were enjoying wine under huge oaks at a winery in the picturesque Franschhoek Valley. The thing is, having to go via Stellenbosch to collect his clothes from her father’s house, they would barely make it in time for him to catch his plane. This meant after one terrific night of love with Rian’s fiancé, now he would barely have time to give her a kiss.

In what he deemed taking sweet revenge on Rian because his kochanie, FBI Special Agent Livia Galcyzynski was running after Rian, this had been cut short.

A dejected Mariechen was watching Alex disappear down the passage after going through the control point at the airport when a voice called her name. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes and turned around. She was surprised to see Rian’s aide, Colonel Jenna-Wade.

Good evening Ms Thiart, Jenna-Wade said.

Hello, Mariechen responded.

I have some good news. You can go home tomorrow. The people who were responsible for kidnapping you have been arrested. They will be deported to the Netherlands where they will stand trial at the International Criminal Court.

Was … was Rian responsible?

Yes.

I’m glad. When will I see him?

I’m afraid I can’t say. He is on his way to America.

America? He’s not coming home?

I’m afraid not. At least not immediately.

Am I not important enough?

It … ah … it’s not that. He had no say in the matter.

He could have called.

I’m sorry. He has been rather busy.

Mm. So you say. Tell me, is Larisa taking him?

No.

Thank you.

And where does that leave me, Mariechen thought? The answer is simple, Bollywood here I come.

***

Chapter 3

First voice: Why are you calling?

Second voice: You won’t believe this, Rian Schröder is in Washington.

First voice: What’n’th’hell is he doing in Washington? I thought he is fighting some bloody war in the DRC?

Second voice: The ‘DC to DC’ jet of Digital Cybernetics, picked him up.

First voice: What? That’s the president’s company plane. Why?

Second voice: He’s staying at the Hay-Adams and Digital Cybernetics is picking up the tab.

A brief silence.

First voice: Is he onto something?

Second voice: I don’t know.

First voice: What do you know?

Second voice: Just what I told you.

First voice: Is Rian alone? Or is that Ukrainian bitch with him?

Second voice: He’s alone. But a woman from South Africa will be joining him tomorrow.

First voice: Who is she?

Second voice: I don’t know.

First voice: What do I pay you for?

Second voice: I’m telling you what I know.

First voice: What is that bloody cop from never-land doing here? Does he suspect something?

Second voice: I don’t know.

First voice: Just as well Mamokgethi Magomola is dead. She is the only one who could have led him to us.

Second voice: Do you think she blabbed before she was taken out?

First voice: Not La Nagrita Ruah. But what is he doing here? I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all.

Second voice: Don’t you think you should take a hit out on Rian?

First voice: Funny that you say that, the same thought was going through my mind. But it would have to be secure. One that does not leave a trail back to us.

Second voice: What about using someone from Yuzovka? You know, the Ukrainian crime syndicate.

First voice: You mean to make it look as if someone in Yuzovka is jealous of Rian banging its boss … the Ukrainian bitch Larisa Kovrizhkna?

Second voice: Yes.

First voice: Good thinking. Now you’re earning the money I pay you.

Second voice: Shall I …?

First voice: Forget it. I’ll handle it. In the meantime, keep tabs on what’s going on. And find out what Rian is up to. Also what his movements are. Oh yes, this woman who is arriving tomorrow, is she worth anything? Find out. And let me know who she is.

***

Chapter 4

Looking down on the White House across Lafayette Square Rian recalled the last time he had seen Tamara. This was in Cape Town. And not so long ago either. President D’Amato’s wife and daughter had been on a visit to Africa. And while Maria was spirited out of the country by US Senator Domenico Di Biaggio in his executive jet, Tamara who was attending a prayer meeting in a black township was kidnapped by Cecil Coeries, leader of one of the powerful gangs on the Cape Flats. Forty murders are committed on many a weekend in suburbs on the Cape Flats. He, Rian, had walked unarmed into a drug dealer’s cesspool and with Susie holding a knife on his neck he had negotiated Tamara’s release. Rian was head of the National Operational Unit, NOU, a special unit of the South African Police Services that handle sensitive political cases and only reports to the Police Commissioner or Cabinet Minister. And he had been called in to investigate the two high-profile abductions.

At the time he had assumed that Tamara had been abducted as a distraction in order for the Senator to sneak Maria out of her hotel in the guise of his invalid wife. Now he wondered if perhaps there was not more behind the double simultaneous abductions?

Admittedly, to be kidnapped and held captive in a foreign country by gangsters was a traumatic experience. But Tamara had not been hurt in any way and according to her psychiatrist she had made a good recovery. So why should Tamara experience a sudden relapse? Something must have happened that triggered the previous traumatic experience. Yet according to Braden the psychiatrist could not find any tangible reason.

Before he meets with Tamara, Rian mused, he will talk to Dr. Calvecchia this afternoon and hear what she says.

Then a thought made him smile. FBI Special Agent Livia Galcyzynski had flown with him from Kinshasa in the DRC to Washington. With the exception of a brief stop-over at Schiphol International Airport, Amsterdam, to hand over Ch’en Xue to officials of the International Criminal Court, both of them had slept most of the way. Before they disembarked she had given him a kiss. When they descended Braden had pointed out the FBI executive jet that was waiting for her. Livia had probably waved to him before boarding the plane that was whisking her off to Los Angeles, but the beautiful Petra had been too much of a distraction and he had not thought of looking that way. Would he ever see her again?

The same thought was going through Livia’s troubled mind. Would she ever see Rian again? When she reached the steps of the FBI executive jet and turned to wave to Rian he was shaking hands with a beautiful woman. Echoing her grandfather Woody’s warning that if she wanted Rian she would have to keep this bone between her teeth, she immediately thought now there was another bloody dog after my bone.

***

Chapter 5

Rian was lounging in a hot bath when there was a knock on the door. Yes? he said.

Petra put her head in the door. The medic is waiting. She would like to see your wounds before you dry yourself.

Tell her to come in, Rian said.

Petra opened the door wide. Dr. Hilary Nilsmark, Petra announced as a woman entered.

Rian slowly stood up in the bath. Thanks for coming.

It is a pleasure meeting you Rian Schröder, Hilary said. I checked out Maria and Tamara after you rescued them and I wondered about the man who had the guts to venture into a viper’s nest like that. Not one, but two nests. Facing killer gangs on the Cape Flats and the murderous New York Mob. While talking she gently touched his back in a few places.

I was lucky.

No one is just lucky who walks in unarmed. Both Maria and Tamara told me you were unarmed. Mm, whoever saw to your wounds in the DRC did a good job.

Dr. Wangui Odhiambo. She’s Congolese but she studied in London.

Ah yes, the London School of Medicine for Women. She opened her bag and indicated to Petra to help by taking the ointment and plasters that she was retrieving.

Yes. Do you know it?

I know of it. I studied at Harvard. But like her I gained experience on the battlefield, in my case Iraq.

You look younger than that.

Are you always this complementary? She dug a finger into his side that made him wince and chuckle. That was in 2003?

I stand by what I said.

Petra, you had better watch out for this hunk. He is too much of a smooth-talker. But now I know why the captors gave up their victims to him so easily.

Rian gave Petra a glance. She was grinning.

These two, Hilary said touching the injury on his shoulder blade and bum, need attention. I’ll have to check on them again the day after tomorrow. The last thing you want is for them to become infected. Come and lie down on the bed so that I can put something on.

They walked through to the bedroom where Rian climbed onto the bed and lay down on his stomach. They were silent while she dressed his wounds.

There, that should do for the moment, Hilary said as she shut her bag.

Thank you doctor, Rian said.

Don’t try and soft-soap me now, Hilary said with a grin. My name is Hilary.

Thank you Hilary, he said.

It’s a pleasure Rian.

I’ll see Dr. Nilsmark out. Put on your underpants. The tailor is waiting outside, Petra said.

***

Chapter 6

First voice: What did you find out?

Second voice: Dr. Hilary Nilsmark is with him this minute. He must have sustained wounds in the DRC.

First voice: How bad is it?

Second voice: I have no idea.

First voice: What else?

Second voice: He is having dinner with the Family tonight.

First voice: There has to be a good reason for that. The Pres sends his private plane to fetch the cop from never-land and now he is having dinner with them. What gives?

Second voice: Is it not possible that Tamara could have remembered something?

First voice: What?

Second voice: Something that she may have overhead.

First voice: What could she have overheard?

Second voice: I don’t …!

First voice: That’s a lot of horse-shit. Mamo, or to call her by her real name, La Nagrita Ruah, would never have talked in front of a witness … or victim. She was too much of a professional.

Second voice: What about the gangsters from the Cape Flats who snatched Tamara? Couldn’t one of them have talked?

First voice: What did they know? All they knew was that they were being paid in kind … in this case cocaine … to snatch her. What’s more, they were paid but …!

Second voice: She was not delivered.

First voice: Exactly. They got cold feet when that bloody cop walked in on them.

Second voice: Unarmed.

First voice: He walked unarmed in on Vinicio Giovannoni, the Don, and talked him into shooting himself and two others while he walked out unscathed with Maria.

Second voice: Yeah. Have you come up with anything?

First voice: We can’t use anybody who works for Yuzovka. That’s for sure. Most of Yuzovka’s operations are run by Ukrainian women and he’s probably banged all of them. But I did come up with the perfect candidate. Bertrand Tremblay, the billionaire leader of Order of Bertrand et Raton. The Order ran a militia supporting operation in the southwestern States. You may recall he tried to blow up the Oscar presentations in LA earlier this year with a mini-nuke, but the cop got the better of him. He managed to get away and then joined up with the fascists who tried to blow up the UN offices in New York. Once more he got away before the cop arrested this lot. Now Bertrand is on the run and thanks to this cop from never-land he lost his ranch near Raton in New Mexico, his coal mines, as well as a chain of newspapers. The loss of the newspapers was a big blow to the militia in the southwest. If anyone hates the cop from never-land it is this guy.

Second voice: He sounds the perfect choice.

First voice: Exactly. No one will think twice if this bobo takes the cop out.

Second voice: Have you been in touch with him?

First voice: He’s on the run, but I have put out a call for him to get in touch with me.

Second voice: Isn’t that risky? What if the FBI intercepts your message?

First voice: Do you think I’m stupid? The contact will be through a third party. However, it is essential that I know all the cop’s movements.

Second voice: I’ll keep you informed.

***

Chapter 7

Rian got up and put on his last clean underpants. Thank goodness Susie was bringing clean clothing tomorrow, he thought. He had barely finished when Petra opened the door and put her head in.

Come through, she said.

Rian walked through to the living room where two men were waiting. As the man Rian’s age approached him Rian noticed that the other man’s head was barely visible behind a stack of clothing.

What a magnificent physique, the man said.

Rian meet Yves Albiez and Teets Lavoie, Petra said.

Nice to meet you Yves, Rian said as the man stopped in front of him and took his time studying Rian’s physique.

Yves …? the voice behind the clothes hesitantly asked.

Put it down … put it down, Yves ordered with a wave of his hand and without taking his eyes off Rian.

As he raised an arm Rian noticed he had a measuring tape in his hand and he promptly started to take measurements.

Raise your arm, Yves said as he measured neck, length of an arm, distance from under the arm to the hip, the chest, the waist and the inside of Rian’s leg, Spot-on … spot-on, he said giving Petra a glance. Your judgment is certainly good. Then he turned back to Rian. You can try on what Teets put down but most should fit. This woman has an eye for size. If you need anything else I’ve now got your measurements.

Thank you, Rian said. He walked to the clothes that Teets had deposited on the couch and selected a shirt and put it on. Then he put on a pair of jeans. Thereafter he tried on another shirt and pants. Everything was a perfect fit.

Tell me Rian, Yves asked while Rian tried on various garments, are you transgender?

Rian gave him a quick glance. No. Why?

Most men flinch when I touch them like I have just touched you.

My best friend is gay.

"Have you made love