Price of Life (Sue Thomas FBEye)

Chapter Eleven

Three weeks later. Early afternoon.

Bobby drove Jack's car to the airport. He arrived with Levi as Jack and Sue crossed the gate, tanned, rested and smiling. Bobby gave his best friend a handshake, but had to wait after Levi to hug Sue.

"Nice to have you back."

"Same here, and thanks for bringing Levi, Bobby," Sue said, patting her dog.

"Good to come home, Bobby," added Jack.

"More than you think, mate," As he gave him his cell and all his keys back, he winked at Jack. Then he tapped Sue's shoulder. "Your blackberry, Mrs. Hudson."

Jack instructed her to wait while he and Bobby got the luggage from the carousel.

"Thank you, Bobby, for everything," said Jack, hidden by the crowd from his wife.

"No problem. How's Sue doing?"

"The flight was turbulent over the ocean. She was sick. After the meal, she felt better."

They picked the luggage and exited the airport.

On Bobby's request, Jack drove to the Bureau first, Garrett wanting to see them as soon as they got back.

***

In the bullpen.

As soon as they entered, Garrett gathered everyone in the conference room. A man was already inside waiting.

"Sorry to cut your welcoming reunion short," apologized Garrett. "This is Agent Sarandi from the CIA, special ops. No need to remind any of you that this briefing is classified."

"Actually," corrected Sarandi. "As far as anyone is concerned, this meeting is not taking place, but since you're the team that broke the ring, I decided to give you an outline of the last few weeks. We've had Sheik Abdul Fassamahout under surveillance for quite some time, but human trafficking wasn't on the list of felonies we attributed to him. I guess you can say we had bad Intel on that one, because the only thing the Sheik was involved in was human trafficking. Our operatives in Kuwait paid the Sheik, his known associates and his friends an overnight, not so friendly, visit. They were able to retrieve thirty-four girls held against their will. Those girls are being evacuated as we speak. They also made contact with thirty-seven more that wouldn't leave, but the young women gave their names so their families could know they are alive."

"Why would they stay?" inquired Bobby.

"You may not believe it, but we try to break as few laws as possible in those kinds of operations. Our mandate is to extract foreign subject only, we cannot touch Kuwaiti resident. My men saw lots of fair hair, fair skin children in those harems that we couldn't take."

"Those women couldn't leave without their children, so they stayed," expressed sadly Sue, her stomach somersaulting again.

"That seems to have been the consensus, and there wasn't a damn thing my men could do."

"Well, it does feel like a hollow victory, but—"

Sue excused herself.

Bobby exchanged a glance with Jack before continuing. "Thanks for sharing it with us, Agent Sarandi."

"You may feel that way, but for those girls' families, this was a successful operation." The CIA agent pointed after Sue. "Will that young woman be fine?"

"My wife," explained Jack. "We just flew back, a long and bumpy flight. She'll be fine," he promised, wanting nothing more than being by her side right now.