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The Company
On August 25, 2009, we had a full house for the first time in a while: Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson"), Martin ("Zhu Zhang," a.k.a. "Harold Lee"), Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases), and Stéphane ("Jean-Baptiste Dieudonné," a.k.a. "Jimmy Matthieu").
Time: August 19, 2009 (wee hours).
Place: Somewhere in the Paris banlieues.
Last Event: Investigating a suspicious apartment building, and incidentally rescuing "Dovya."
With everybody in the car, including Zhang (returned from ambushing thugs) and Dovya (whom Zhang rescued from said gangsters), Vinnie drives back to the team's safe house in Le Marais. On the way, Anabel continues to speak with Dovya in Russian. In the course of doing so, she implies that the Agents are Interpol officers on a top-secret operation – a reasonably safe cover story – and asks for the girl's help with keeping the secret.
At the safe house, JB gives Dovya a quick medical examination. There are signs of cigarette burns, beatings, and so on, but fortunately no immediate evidence of any kind of STIs (although JB lacks the tools for full tests). Anabel holds Dovya's hand and translates between the girl's Russian and JB's French. Based on Dovya's words and body language, JB suspects that the psychological harm Dovya has suffered is greater than the physical damage. JB treats Dovya's injuries as well as he can, and then the team sets her up with a bath and a good meal.
While Dovya cleans up, Anabel, Vinnie, and Zhang plan a very casual, very "soft" interrogation. Anabel will do all the talking – and because Dovya is Ukrainian, Anabel will use her best Ukrainian accent, ostensibly speaking Russian "for the record," but in reality simply because she has no appreciable Ukrainian! Vinnie counsels Anabel on the criminal "programming" likely inflicted on Dovya, while Zhang provides more general advice on the ins and outs of interrogation. The others provide comforting food and music, but otherwise stay out of the way.
Over the next few hours, Anabel drops several questions into conversation and receives useful answers from Dovya. JB records it all. To paraphrase:
Q. Who is the cash courier for the local operation?Later, Wen calls Chaturvedi and asks for a Company technician who can crack the cell phones that Zhang took off the thugs he ambushed; for some surveillance hardware; and for pickup for Dovya, to get her out of Paris. Chaturvedi says that he can fill the order easily enough, but no sooner than Friday, August 21. Until then, the group will have to babysit Dovya and handle its own investigation.
A. A man named "Hristov," who shows up once a week, mid-afternoon on Friday. His ride is a high-end Mercedes-Benz; Dovya picks out the color and model from an online catalog. Dovya can't describe Hristov well, as she has only seen him enter and exit his vehicle in the street several stories below her window.
Q. Do you have names, descriptions, or other information on any other bosses?
A. Only some man whose name Dovya didn't hear very well: "Bogolov," "Bogdanov," something like that. She has only the overheard name; she didn't see this guy in person.
Q. What were the steps from Dovya's village in Ukraine to the Paris banlieue where the team found her?
A. Right up until Dovya arrived in Paris, she and some other girls from home thought they were coming to fill hotel jobs, as maids. They got one-way train tickets from the man who interviewed them, and made their way to the hotel: an establishment that proved to be in a red-light district. Dovya honestly can't recall the address; she was new to Paris and was only ever there once. However, she could identify it by sight, along with the operators who handed her off to the Russian gang the day she arrived.
Then it's time to rest. It's nearly noon on August 19 when everybody is up and active. With two days before Hristov's pickup and Chaturvedi's delivery, the squad decides to do some investigating. The first step is to drive Dovya around some of Paris' seedier areas in the hope that she'll be able to identify the hotel she mentioned.
In preparation for this, Anabel disguises Dovya with a wig, makeup, and more "French" clothing and sunglasses. JB uses the net to locate the Paris' red-light districts and plot an efficient driving route through them, and then prepares a good lunch for the investigators. Vinnie washes the car and swaps plates. Wen examines the two pistols captured by Zhang, identifies one as worth using, and cleans it up for Vinnie to carry . . . just in case.
The plan is for Vinnie to drive, Anabel to handle Dovya, and Zhang to accompany the three for extra security. JB and Wen will hold the fort at the safe house. Before leaving, Zhang – who was up earlier – warns JB and Wen that he caught an early morning crime report on TV. He has next to no French, but the gist of it seemed to be that a girl was killed within a few blocks of where the group grabbed Dovya. JB promises to look into this.
Anabel, Dovya, Vinnie, and Zhang then set out and drive around Paris' sex-trade districts, focusing on the regions consistent with Dovya's estimate of her travel time from the train station. Vinnie adjusts his route as Dovya spots landmarks. It takes nearly six hours – JB's lunch is much appreciated! – but Dovya eventually spots the place. Her companions note the hotel's address, and Vinnie manages to find routes around two sides of the building. He takes photographs of both. Then they head home, stopping only so that Zhang can purchase a wooden bat.
Meanwhile, back at the safe house, JB and Wen look into the TV report Zhang caught. By reading the papers, reviewing media and gossip sites, and keeping the TV and radio on, they manage to learn that a woman between 17 and 19 years of age was found murdered just two blocks from the apartment the Agents visited the previous evening. She was killed with an edged instrument – possibly an axe – and the body left where it would be easily found.
It's early evening when the team is reunited in Le Marais. They report their findings so far to Chaturvedi, and then plan the night's activities. After discussing whether it would be most profitable to stake out the apartment, the "nightclub" mentioned in the same report as that building, or the hotel that Dovya identified, the squad opts to take a look at the club, hiding nearby and checking out who comes and goes. Anabel will stay at the safe house with Dovya while the other four take care of this.
After dark, JB, Vinnie, Wen, and Zhang drive back out to the banlieues. They decide to take two-man watches over the so-called "nightclub." Vinnie and Zhang will lurk in the shadows and watch the place until midnight, while JB and Wen wait with the car and at nearby cafés. Then the two pairs will switch places for the midnight-to-closing shift.
The first shift proves uneventful. Zhang and Vinnie see a cavalcade of low-lifes engaged in all manner of deals, but there's no evidence of prostitutes and no appearance by anybody who fits the description of people they've seen or been asked to watch out for. The joint could be any criminal hangout anywhere, but petty crime isn't the Company's target.
JB and Wen, however, observe unexpected visitors: In the wee hours of August 20, a Mercedes-Benz pulls up. It's the exact model and color of Hristov's, as described by Dovya! Four not-so-subtly armed men get out and go inside the club. When they do, the club's "doormen" keep a very close eye on the Mercedes. The new arrivals are only inside for about 20 minutes, then exit the place and drive off.
From their location in a shadowy doorway, it's difficult for Wen and JB to get good photographs – especially since they don't have proper surveillance gear. Still, they manage to get snapshots of the car's occupants and plates, and the vehicle itself. For good measure, Wen also sketches what she sees, her keen eyes and memory being significantly better tools than the stock camera borrowed from Vinnie. Once it looks like activity has died down, JB telephones Vinnie, and the four investigators meet up and drive back to Le Marais.
The next morning, Wen tries to clean up the photographs using Photoshop but can't get very far with it. Without proper light-gathering lenses and tripods, night surveillance is tricky business. Her sketches prove to be clearer than the snapshots! Once Wen has done what she can, she hands off the images and drawings to Anabel, and asks her to have Dovya take a look at them.
Dovya is able to identify a couple of figures. First, she confirms that the "boss" – the person being guarded and chauffeured by the other three men in the vehicle – is indeed Hristov. Even in the blurry photo, she recognizes his hat and bearing. Second, she names the largest of the three other men as "Pavlo to me, Paul to you. Pavel." He's an ex-Spetsnaz operator turned bodyguard, reputed to have beaten some punk to death with a shovel for having touched his car.
As well, Dovya identifies the building in the photographs. It's indeed an underground nightclub. She claims to have been taken there a few times – along with other girls – to meet clients.
After that, Anabel thanks Dovya for all her help and tells her that the group has arranged to get her out of Paris and away from the gangsters. She explains that tomorrow – Friday – JB will accompany her to the train station and ride with her to Amsterdam, where "Interpol" people will be waiting to give her a new identity and, if she wishes, get her out of Europe.
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