“I’ve never worn pants before or boots, either,” Patricia said, looking down at her legs a little self-consciously. “Women in The Family aren’t allowed.”
Wearing pants and boots aren’t the only things you weren’t allowed to do, Ali thought. She said, “Are you ready to do this?”
Patricia nodded. “Do you think people will even recognize us?”
“They will,” Ali assured her. “They may also be more than a little envious. Come on.”
Patricia and Agnes donned a pair of down-filled ski jackets and followed Ali out to the car, where they had to be reminded and helped to put on their seat belts. When Ali pulled into the parking lot at the DPS headquarters on the dot of six, the place was full to the brim with unmarked patrol cars from any number of jurisdictions. That made sense. The thinking was that having an army of readily recognizable marked cars heading north would be far too noticeable. Parked on the street were two immense chartered tour buses along with the converted school bus, complete with barred windows and a Department of Corrections logo, that would be used to transport prisoners.
What Ali found most surprising was the total lack of any media presence. She wondered how an operation of this size and complexity had been organized and thus far operated completely under the media’s radar. She guessed that Governor Dunham had held more than a few feet to the fire to make that happen.
Inside, the spacious lobby was packed. Cops in and out of uniform chatted amiably, making the room look like the site of a mini-law-enforcement convention. No doubt the officers’ emergency response team gear was stowed in the vehicles parked outside. Faced with the crowd, Agnes and Patricia hesitated in the doorway. Ali scanned the room, recognizing a few familiar faces before finally spotting B. He stood head and shoulders above most everyone else, talking with her friend Dave Holman, a homicide detective from Yavapai County.
“This way,” Ali said, urging the Brought Back girls forward and into the crowd. “I want to introduce you to my husband.”
Before she had a chance, however, Virginia Dunham’s voice came over a loudspeaker. “May I have your attention, please.”
Looking up, Ali saw that a lectern had been set up on the landing of the marble stairway that led to the building’s second story. Virginia Dunham, clad in boots, jeans, and a fringed leather jacket, took her place behind the microphone.
“For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Governor Dunham,” she continued, donning glasses and reading from a prepared text. “Thank you all for being here on such short notice. You’re about to participate in an important operation that will take most of the night and maybe part of the morning as well. That means it’ll be a long haul. As you leave here, you’ll find a supply of boxed lunches next to the door. We’re going to Colorado City, where I’m not expecting a welcome mat or any open restaurants. Feel free to take two boxes with you, one for now and one for breakfast. I’ve got a taco truck that will be on-site later, but it isn’t scheduled to arrive until after the main event, which is planned for midnight.
“We have credible evidence that offenders from a group called The Family have been running a human trafficking organization. Earlier today, there were some doubters and naysayers when I began putting this operation together and telling people that we needed to act quickly to prevent another group of girls from being shipped off into the sex trade. I want you to know that we now have intel that corroborates my concern. The FAA has informed my office that a charter company has filed a flight plan for a Citation X that’s due to land on The Family’s private airstrip at one A.M. for a scheduled two A.M. departure.
“By the way, the final destination on the flight plan is listed as Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuela happens to be a country with which the United States has no extradition treaty. If either the victims or perpetrators make it that far, they’ll be completely beyond our reach. That’s why I’ve put this together in such a hurry—to make sure that doesn’t happen. An FBI team is being assembled to handle the airstrip aspect of the operation. The suspect aircraft will be allowed to land, but it won’t be taking off again.
“Throwing the plane’s scheduled arrival and departure times into the mix means that we must hold to our midnight timetable. No delays. It’s a four-hour drive from here to there. The FBI is overseeing the entire operation. Their command and control vehicle is on the way already and should be in position well before the rest of you arrive. Teams one, two, and three will depart ten minutes after the conclusion of this briefing. Other higher-numbered teams will launch off in groups of three at ten-minute intervals. We can’t afford to have a northbound traffic jam. Stick to the speed limits. Don’t attract undue attention. Maintain radio silence in case someone is monitoring police channels. The tour buses and my Sprinter will be the last ones to depart and head north.”
Ali was struck by the new information that a plane was scheduled to arrive at The Family’s landing strip—a charter capable of long-distance flying. Her gut told her that was more than a coincidence. If The Family had scheduled a flight out for sometime tonight, wasn’t it likely that they knew something was up and suspected that a raid was coming?
While Governor Dunham continued to lay out team assignments, Ali broke away from B. and Dave and wandered through the crush of cops, searching in vain for Sheriff Alvarado.
“The FBI has called down satellite surveillance of the area,” Governor Dunham continued. “So far it appears that no one is behaving as though they’ve had any advance notice of our intended arrival. Each three-man team has been assigned a number that corresponds with the operations number assigned to each of the targeted residences. At the back of the room, just before the box-lunch table, you’ll find an additional table where team captains will collect their assignments, complete with addresses, GPS coordinates, and communications routings to the C and C vehicle. Most of you will be parking outside The Family’s property and hiking in to your target, so plan on using GPS technology. Teams with the greatest distances to cover on foot have been scheduled to depart first. Fortunately, preliminary surveys of the area show no sign of anti-intrusion devices. Is everyone clear on that?”
There were nods all around. When no one raised a hand to ask a question, she went on.
“As I said, every team should be in position and prepared to take action at the stroke of midnight. Launching all the raids simultaneously allows our targets the least opportunity for organized resistance, and that is something we want to avoid if at all possible. Authorization for carrying out this operation has been more flexible than it would have been otherwise due to the fact that we strongly suspect that another group of girls is in immediate danger of being transported out of the country.
“The search warrants you’ll be carrying specify two things—the first authorizes the collection of family Bibles from each of the residences. The Bibles are thought to contain the names and birth dates of suspected trafficking victims. The second specifies that the men named on the warrants are required to undergo cheek swabbing for DNA testing. If they refuse or put up any resistance, they’re to be taken into custody and individually transported to this location for questioning. By the time they arrive back here, we should have people from the FBI on hand to conduct the interrogations.
“You’ll find that the adult women in the community aren’t named on the warrants primarily because we don’t have legal names on the vast majority of them. The women are welcome to provide DNA samples but cannot be compelled to do so. However, any who interfere with the execution of the warrants are to be taken into custody.
“Each family unit may have its own collection of what are commonly referred to as Brought Back girls. These are women who have attempted to run away and who have been returned to their families. These girls—women really—are kept as virtual prisoners. If any of them or any of the other women express a desire to leave the community, let them know that they will be allowed and helped to do so. We’ll have transportation available to bring them back here to Flagstaff, where we’re making arrangements with a local shelter to locate temporary housing.