Slave Trade

By J Anthony Sisto

If a person condones the sale of one human being to another, there is no limit to the evil they are capable of. Who will stop them? Who will they hurt?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889606918

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Slave Trade

J. Anthony Sisto

Copyright © 2023 J. Anthony Sisto

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2023

ISBN 979-8-88960-677-2 (pbk)

ISBN 979-8-88960-691-8 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Part 2

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Part 3

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Conclusion

About the Author

To my wife, Annette, thank you for your patience, encouragement, and guidance.

To my children, you are my inspiration, and as always, AMDG!

The United States outlawed slave trading in 1808. It never went away. It eventually switched places with the Underground Railroad and remains underground to this day.

—Unknown

Introduction

The snow is blowing across the street and parking lot as the school lets out for the day. Soon children are running about the schoolyard, ignoring the frigid temperatures. The school buses begin to fill with their routine occupants.

A young girl walks away from the school with her blond hair bouncing all the way. She is thirteen and eagerly looking forward to leaving this place and starting high school next year. A van follows her. No one pays attention to it.

She walks down the street and turns right on the first cross street she comes to, just like every day before this one. The van remains close behind. The girl does not notice as the van increases its speed behind her. The side door slides open, and an average, nondescript type of man jumps out. He approaches the girl quickly. He is behind her; he extends his hand holding a chloroform-loaded rag over her nose and mouth. Her body goes limp. He jerks her head back and carries her into the van. The door closes, and the van leisurely pulls away.

*****

The young girl awakens. Her body is sweating and clammy. She is on a bed in a room, and it is ridiculously hot. There is a window that is covered with a thin gunnysack covering that lets light through. Through the makeshift window shade, she sees what looks like a cactus, like the ones she has seen on TV, big and tall with arms projecting from it. She tries to rise from the bed and realizes she is attached to the bed pole with some type of chain connected to her ankle.

A different man enters the room. He is short, his belly hanging out over his pants. He is a fat man. His shirt is a dirty white tank top riding up over the belly. The slang term wifebeater for a tank top shirt would be appropriate. As he approaches her, she can vividly smell his presence. He stands at the bedside. His soiled hands reach for her face, and he squeezes her cheeks. He releases her face; he smiles at her with his tobacco-stained teeth. He bends over and unlocks the ankle lock, exposing his plumber's crack. The man walks over to a dresser at the other end of the room. He opens a drawer and pulls out a gown. He throws it at her and says, Put on. He leaves the room.

The young girl, scared, confused, stretches out across the bed and begins to cry. Her mother is certainly going to kill her for not coming home on time. She is going to be in so much trouble when she does get home. She is worried about upsetting her mother, not realizing the danger she is in. Why is this happening to her? She lifts her body up and changes into the one-piece dirty white gown the man had left.

She sits and waits for something to happen. The door opens slowly, and a younger version of the previous man enters the room. He looks over his shoulder nervously and enters the room, closing the door quietly. He holds his finger up to his mouth, indicating for her to be quiet. He walks over to her; he verifies she is not locked up with the ankle bracelet and motions her to follow him. They walk to the door. Slowly opening it, he is stunned to see the short, fat man and two guards standing there. The short, fat man grabs the girl, and the two guards grab the would-be rescuer. They are led out of the room and down the hall. They are pushed through a door out into a courtyard. The sun is very bright, and the young girl squints and tries to look around but cannot see clearly. She is put into a line with other people wearing similar dirty white gowns. The would-be rescuer is placed in front of the line of people.

They all stand and wait. The sun is beating down on them, and soon, they are all sweating.

A tall, dark-skinned man wearing a fine Italian suit and dark sunglasses enters the courtyard. He looks over to the fat man and nods. The fat man points to one of the guards; the guard walks over to the would-be rescuer. The guard grabs his head, pulls it back, and with his other hand, he takes his knife and slices the would-be rescuer's throat. The young man drops. The line of people gasps and watches in horror as the young man bleeds to death right before their eyes.

The man in the Italian suit says with a Hispanic accent, Let this be a lesson. Do not cross us. He then nods to the fat man.

The fat man yells, Strip right now.

The line of people looks confused. A few of the older people start to remove their gowns. The younger ones follow suit. Soon the line of people is standing in line in the nude.

The man in the Italian suit starts to walk down the line like a general inspecting the troops. At the first person, a young male, he says, Stays. The next young boy is about eight. Goes. After a few minutes, he comes to the young girl. He reaches out and grabs her hair, analyzing the blond strands. He looks down between her legs. She is starting to develop, seeing the blond hair. He says with excitement, This one definitely goes.

Part 1

Chapter 1

Rick McKenna is sitting at his desk in his office at Cube Intel Control, where he is the owner and CEO. It has been a difficult day with the board of directors; he is exhausted. Although Rick is the sole owner, the company is about to initiate an initial public offering (IPO). The board has been established as a necessary step in that process. Rick started the company twelve years before and had moderate success, but now the business is really taking off with the proposed United States Air Force (USAF) contract. The timing is exquisite with the IPO about to happen.

He looks out the window and sips on the glass with two fingers of whiskey in it. His exhaustion gets the better of him. He drifts off to sleep.

*****

Suddenly, he is back at Saint Louis University (SLU). Just like eighteen years ago, he is walking into the school of business lounge area, which is designed for collaboration among students. He walks over to his friends and starts talking to them.

His friend lets out a wow!

Rick turns around and sees a stunning woman with wavy shoulder-length blond hair. Rick, normally a suave operator, has a dry mouth and cannot get any words out. The woman turns and leaves. Rick is in high pursuit following her.

The woman walks down the stairs, and two men move in behind her. Rick pauses and stays back. Is the woman in danger? Should he follow her? Should he get involved?

The woman moves to the parking lot, walking and digging through her purse at the same time. The pursuers rush toward the woman.

Rick moves his stocky, five-eight frame as fast as he can to the scene.

One of the men grabs the woman by the arm and turns her around. She screams for help.

Rick hits the grabbing man low with his shoulder square on the man's hip and drives him into a nearby car. The man drops to the ground. Rick kicks him in the face. The other man turns and runs away. Rick turns to the man on the ground, and the man picks himself up and runs away. Rick moves his attention to the woman.

Hi, I am Rick.

I am Annika.

*****

The phone on his desk rings and brings him back to the current day.

Hello.

Rick, it's James. We have fulfilled the last transportation request on today's schedule. Everything is good to go.

Thanks, James, I appreciate all your efforts. See you in a few minutes. Rick hangs up and turns his attention to his to-do list.

Cube Intel Control produces a storage cube in many sizes that can be sealed electronically with an algorithmic code that will open it. If a fifth number is entered, the tracking department will be notified and alert the authorities. Their market is industry or people who need to ship valuables. There is a GPS interface app that reads each cube, allowing for easy real-time tracking of each cube. The company also provides each customer with real-time updates either by an email or cell phone app.

The company has done well, being profitable in most years. Two months ago, Rick was approached by the USAF with a proposal to create cubes that would move satellite technology between the defense contractor and the desired USAF location. This proposal is the event Rick has been hoping for. This will propel the company to become very profitable as it reaches the point where he could go public, and since he had been generous giving employees' substantial amounts of company stock, his employees could also share in the company's success.

Rick is excited as he looks over at the clock on the bookcase in his office—fifteen minutes until he addresses the entire company. Rick runs through the agenda of the IPO events again, in case a question arises. Rick looks over his notes one last time. The time is now near. He gets up and walks toward the door of his office. As he reaches for the door, it starts to open. Annika, his wife, is standing there with their daughter, Olivia. Rick leans in and kisses his wife on her cheek. Smiling, he offers an arm to each one of them, and they start walking toward the cafeteria.

Rick at five eight is three inches taller than Annika. Annika's hair is still blond as her Norwegian ancestry has dictated. Olivia has inherited her mother's beauty, for which Rick is continually grateful. Rick's brownish-blond hair clearly was not passed on to Olivia. He knows his daughter is growing into a beautiful woman, and he is sure he is not ready for all that will bring.

They walk into the cafeteria, which also acts as an auditorium for company meetings.

Rick leans over, kisses Annika on the cheek, and walks to the makeshift podium.

Good afternoon.

Cheers greet Rick.

Thank you all for taking the time to meet with us today. Over the last several years, in lieu of cash bonuses, we have issued you shares of company stock. We understand that at times you were disappointed or frustrated that there were no cash bonuses, believe me we do understand. We appreciate your continuing to work hard, and our hope has always been to give you a really big payday one day when the company goes public. Well, I am happy to tell you, your faith in us is about to become a reality. That day is now very near.

The group begins applauding and cheering. Rick holds out his hands to quiet the crowd.

Within the next month, the process of taking the company public will begin. It is an involved process. It is a rapid process from this point on. Things will move very quickly. I ask you to be discreet on this point, and if you are approached by a reporter, simply say ‘No comment.' During the initial days of the IPO, we will have financial advisers on hand to assist you with your decisions.

Again, the crowd applauds.

I would like to take a moment to thank each one of you for your faith in us, your faith in our mission, and your faith in yourselves. You are about to reap the rewards of that faith.

The crowd erupts with cheers.

Thank you.

Rick turns and walks out into the group, shaking hands and hugging people as he begins to mingle with his employees. Rick is in his glory. He genuinely loves and cares for his employees. They know it too. This is why his employees love working for him. This is the happiest moment in his life.

People gather around as Annika cuts the cake and begins serving up pieces to the employees. Rick stands back and looks at Annika and Olivia helping her mom; he revels in the familiar, warm feeling of love that he has for his family. He is such a lucky man. He is a happy man; he loves helping all these people who have worked so hard for him and the company.

His joy is interrupted when the vice president of operations, Sandra Howard, approaches him.

We have just received a certified letter at the front desk.

I am on my way, answers Rick.

Sandra starts to say she will go, but Rick waves her off.

Rick grabs a piece of cake and heads for the door and goes to the front desk. He enters the front office area that houses the entry to the building and where the front desk resides. The area has the company logo on the wall separating the area from the rest of the building with the glass door Rick just entered through. The logo wall is connected to a long wall that the reception desk backs up to, the other side that leads to the front door. The fourth wall is all glass allowing the receptionist to watch any events going on out-front. The area has a couple of terrariums and a couple of sofas for guests to use.

Rick walks across the area. He approaches the reception desk, and the receptionist is on the phone. Mikayla Smyth has worked for him since the beginning. She is now in her early thirties but still looks like she is twenty-five. She is attractive and has a steady flow of beaus. Rick has stopped keeping track of them, too many to count.

The woman completes the call and greets Rick.

Good afternoon, Mr. McKenna.

Mikayla, again, please call me Rick. Sorry you missed the announcement, but here is a piece of the cake. Rick hands the cake to the woman. Did a certified letter arrive?

Yes, thank you for the cake, Mr. McKenna. The woman hands the envelope to Rick.

Rick takes the envelope and retreats inside the main building. He looks at the address and does not recognize it. It is not one of the documents from the brokerage house that he is expecting. Rick enters his office and finds the pocketknife he uses as a letter opener; he opens the envelope.

Dear Mr. McKenna,

This is an offer for your company to be sold entirely to the Judean Corporation. We will pay you and the company officers fifty cents on each dollar of stock that you own and thirty-five cents to your employees that own stock. We suggest that you take up this offer because it will only be issued this one time. Refusal to our offer will be met with pain to you and your family. We will know if this offer is shown to anybody outside the required circle of vice presidents.

Sincerely,

Erik von Diabolos

President and CEO

Judean Corporation

Rick stares at the letter with disbelief. He scans the letter and emails it to his lawyer. Rick returns to the cafeteria and grabs Sandra Howard and the chief financial officer (CFO), Stanley Rogers. They return to Rick's office; Rick shows them the letter.

Then Rogers says, We should contact the lawyers right now.

I agree, says Rick.

The three of them huddle around Rick's desk as he places the call.

Taylor, Johnson, and Jones, may I help you? inquires a female voice.

Jack Taylor, please, requests Rick.

One moment.

Jack Taylor!

Jack, Rick McKenna. I just emailed you a copy of a letter we received about twenty minutes ago. Can you read it quickly?

Sure, give me a minute.

Everyone sits in silence waiting for the lawyer to finish.

I think we view it as a threat and turn it over to the SEC, announces Taylor.

What about my family's safety?

Hire a security company to protect them.

Rick thinks about it for a minute. I do not want Annika or Olivia to know anything about this, so let's just stay status quo for now.

I would not recommend that approach, Rick.

Let's return to the party, and nobody say anything. Thanks, Jack.

The phone call ends, and the trio look at each other with fearful glares. The three of them return to the cafeteria. Upon entering, Annika approaches Rick and asks, What's wrong?

Rick shakes his head with a negative action and says, Nothing.

Rick struggles to get back into the festive mood but tries as best he can. Employees continue to thank Rick, and he just smiles and nods. Just when Rick thinks the party is ending, two of the shop supervisors step up to the makeshift podium. Attention, attention please. Rick is unaware of this, but since we have been waiting for this day for a while now, all of us in the shop got together and bought this for you and Annika. We hope you enjoy it.

Annika and Rick approach the podium, and Rick grabs the envelope handing it to Annika. Annika opens it and smiles.

We will definitely enjoy this—thank you, Annika says, smiling. She looks back at Rick. It is a weekend getaway at Great Timberline Resorts.

Rick smiles and mouths, Thank you to the crowd. Again, the crowd cheers. Rick looks out at their smiling faces and wonders if it is all about to implode.

The crowd disperses, and Rick kisses Annika and Olivia goodbye and tells them he will be right behind them. Rick returns to his office, shuts down his computer, and puts all the files away. Rick leaves his office and heads to the parking lot. He has gone from euphoria to agony in a single moment. Depression is beginning to set in.

Rick gets into his late-model Corvette and starts the drive home. His thoughts are on Annika and Olivia and their safety. The road to home has several sharp curves that Rick likes to take at high speed when he has had a dreadful day. The first set of curves is just a mile from the office. Nobody is in front of him, and he accelerates as the curve approaches. He hugs the corner taking his foot off the accelerator in the beginning of the turn. Halfway through it, he accelerates again, moving his steering wheel in the opposite direction, hugging the middle line.

Rick pulls into the driveway minutes after Annika and Olivia, even though he left fifteen minutes after them.

Annika gets dinner ready. Olivia works on schoolwork, and Rick grabs a beer and turns on the television. He selects Fox News and sits back in his chair.

Breaking News—Sam Vicente is missing. The son of Carl Vicente, CEO of the Grant Abbott Corporation, has disappeared. Details are still coming in.

Rick looks around and sees Annika standing there in shock. Rick grabs his cell phone and calls Carl. Rick and Carl had been friends since college, both attending SLU. Annika and Carl's wife, Traci, had become friends too.

Rick calls Carl's phone, and it goes straight to voice mail. Annika tries calling Traci.

Hello.

Traci, it's Annika. We just heard. What can we do to help?

Nothing right now. I will let you know—what? Annika, Carl's phone is being used by the FBI, so Carl wants to talk to Rick. Is he there?

Yes, hold on. Annika hands the phone to Rick. Carl wants to talk to you.

Rick answers, Hello.

Rick, it is Carl. Can you go somewhere private?

Rick walks into the bedroom. Okay, I am in the bedroom by myself.

Last week, I received a letter from the Judean Corporation, and they wanted to buy my company. They threatened me if I do not comply. And now my son is missing. It is all my fault.

Carl, it is not your fault. You will see your son again. Rick searching for words is unsure what to say. His thoughts go to the letter he received that day.

Carl asks, Have you ever heard of the Judean Corporation?

No, I have not.

I did research on them. They seem to have absorbed a few companies, but I could not find out anything else. I should have sold everything. Sam would have been safe now.

Rick tries to comfort Carl, but he feels inadequate. The call ends, and Rick returns to his family.

Chapter 2

The office of the Judean Company is in Deerfield, Illinois. Its appearance from the street is like all the corporate headquarters in the surrounding area. The headquarters takes up the entire three-floor building in the Corporate 1,000 office park. The entire top floor houses the executive gymnasium and locker room (even though there are only two executives in the building) and the office of Erik von Diabolos. The executive office is completely soundproof. The elevator bay is on the far side of the executive office. Turn left and you will go into the locker room and gym. There is a wall that separates the elevator lobby and the office; it has a large opening that allows a person in the office to observe who is getting off the elevator. The lighting in the office is always very dim. The dim lighting has two purposes—first, to hide the elevator against the interior wall that goes directly to the parking garage for a quick escape; the second is to prevent anyone from getting a clear look at von Diabolos's face. His anonymity is a valued commodity. His desk is at the far corner of the floor, and the windows have blackout shades in the area around his desk, creating an even darker atmosphere around it. There is an aquarium along the exterior wall and makes the black shades fade from focus.

The second floor is the accounting group. The staff accountants have no idea that their work is laundering money from the Judean Corporation's actual business operations. The Judean Corporation is a slave-trading and prostitution company. The employees have no idea that evil exists throughout the building, with their leaders, or that the money they earn is tainted.

The Judean Corporation has purchased several smaller companies that are used in current business activities. For example, a small trucking company was purchased a few years ago, and some of the trucks are used occasionally on return trips hauling inventory from the abduction point to a processing site.

The ground floor is a multitude of departments like shipping, security, transportation, and human resources. Entrance into the building is handled through one set of doors, and a security guard is always at the entrance point. The security guards are mercenaries who understand the entire operation. Security also has cameras in all locations except the executive office and the executive assistant's office on the second floor. There are two banks with security camera monitor panels—one is in the security office on the first floor; the second is behind a fake wall next to the escape elevator in the executive office. The security group has standing orders to always inhibit law enforcement's entrance into the building.

To a passerby, it looks like any other corporate office; no one would think about the evil and despicable transitions that occur there.

The Judean Corporation thrives in three areas of the slave-trade operation. After acquiring a unit of inventory, the unit is evaluated. Upon evaluation, the unit is either sent to the European office in Rome, Italy, where the unit is sold for private ownership, or the unit is determined to stay. It is used in several prostitution centers in liberal states. It is always liberal states that have stronger gun-control laws. Less chance of the angry father shooting up a place to get his little kid back if he cannot get a gun. If a female unit becomes pregnant during this time, she is used solely for customers that might have a pregnancy fetish. The baby upon birth will be sold on the black market. After the unit has been used to fulfillment, it is terminated, and body organs are sold on the black market. All revenues from these avenues are laundered through the second floor. Only the CFO, besides Dysert and von Diabolos, truly knows what is really going on. They do not hire CPAs or senior accountants.

Erik von Diabolos has become a rich man through these despicable and barbaric activities of the Judean Corporation. He was recruited to the Judean shortly before he graduated college; he joined as a recruiter whose role was to obtain assets. His first recruitment went poorly, but every attempt after that was successful. As a requirement, he had to find another career job with his real name, then create this alter-ego life to eventually replace his real life. Almost like a fraternity, he was given a name, and that is the only name he is known by at the Judean Corporation. He was given a false social security number and a new life when he started. The people in his other life had no idea about this existence. It was a practice at the Judean Corporation to select a potential young executive and groom him this way. All the time he worked his way up the ladder at Judean. Soon he will be able to leave his other life only to have his life in the Judean Corporation, an important milestone in his career, and what he is looking forward to is the simplicity of only being Eric von Diabolos.

Under his leadership, the Judean Corporation has experienced unparalleled growth. He would target a company he thought that Judean could benefit from. He would send a letter of acquisition and then attack the owner of the company with a lethal action. It has worked every time. The latest acquisition is the Grant Abbott company. Their contribution will be to provide safe houses since they purchase homes and flip them to sell. He will have to move some of his own men into the company management hierarchy soon.

Dysert is von Diabolos's assistant, and his office is on the second floor. It is close to the executive elevator, and his door is always closed. When von Diabolos calls for his assistant, it always takes a few minutes to get up to his office. This occasion is no different.

Dysert enters the room. Good morning, sir!

Good morning.

The men you wanted to see are here.

Send them in.

Dysert goes to the elevator and calls it. Shortly, three men exit it. Two of the men are told to wait by the elevator, and a third is brought forward to von Diabolos's desk. The area is dark. The third man is told to stand in front of the desk. The man is now close to the desk, trying to get focus on the man behind the desk. He could not clearly see the man behind the desk's head.

Dysert interrupts and says, Sir, here is the courier. The man is standing to the left of Dysert and in front of von Diabolos.

The darken figure turns around in the chair and lifts something up from the credenza behind him. He spins back around and places it on his desk. Nobody could see it clearly.

Dysert, please.

Dysert moves toward the courier and pats down his chest. He pulls out a microphone and an attachment connected by a wire. Dysert hands it to von Diabolos.

Erik takes the device and drops it into a large glass of water