Chapter 15

The sunset that evening was particularly dramatic. The sky was painted in hundreds of colors. The men sat in the lawn chairs watching the sky as the colors changed while the sun dipped below the horizon. No one said a word until the sun had dipped completely below the horizon and the colors had faded.

Ed asked, “Can you imagine? Kelly is pregnant.”

John shook his head and said, “I’m just as surprised as you.”

“Are you as happy about it as I am?”

John laughed and said, “Yes, maybe more. It’s long past time for the pitter-patter of little feet to be heard around the house.”

The most excited person in the family was Ling. She was the one that was busy fixing up a nursery and searching for a nanny. If Ling was to have her way, this child was going to be a prodigy. Leroy smiled and said, “I’m surprised by how much Ling is enjoying this.”

Ed laughed as he agreed, “She’s definitely enthusiastic.”

Even Linda was getting into the action. She was busy making outfits for the child. She was also making clothes for Kelly. John understood why she would chose to make the clothes. Of everyone in the house, with the exception of Leroy, she was the poorest. John doubted that she could afford to buy a present. John said, “It’s fun watching Linda working on the clothes for Kelly.”

“I’ve been wondering what kind of present I could get for Kelly. I’m not really able to afford much,” Leroy said. He felt embarrassed by his financial situation. He only had enough money for school. It was a sad fact that working on a doctorate meant you were poor.

“It doesn’t matter what you get her, so long as it’s from the heart.”

From the heart, that phrase was used so often around this house that Leroy could hear it in his sleep. He had spent many hours looking at the gift from the tribe. John had told him that it was from created from the hearts of individuals from the tribe. Leroy knew that it was priceless.

John looked over at Leroy for a moment. He asked, “So, Leroy, have you given any thought about joining the family?”

The smile disappeared in a flash. The real question was if he was ready to have sex with John and Ed. He answered, “Do you want to know the truth?”

“Always.”

“I’ve given it a lot of thought, but I just don’t know if I can do it.”

The two men looked at each other. They decided it was time to give Leroy a little more experience with the ugly side of life. John said, “I have a trip to make in two days. Ed is going to come with me. I would like you to join us.”

Leroy was surprised by the request. “Where are you going?”

“Denver.”

“What’s in Denver?”

“We are going to arrest some people there. I have to warn you, it’s liable to be dangerous.”

Ed added, “These are really nasty people. We are going to be the last ones into the building, so the danger isn’t that great.”

Leroy thought about it for a moment. “Why do you want me along?”

John took a deep breath and said, “We want you to watch our backs. The people we are working with don’t know us. We want to make sure that when we yell charge, we aren’t the only ones running forward.”

Leroy shrugged his shoulders wondering what he was getting himself into and answered, “Sure.”

Three days later, John, Ed, and Leroy were crouched behind a van in front of a middle class suburban house. There were all kinds of cats in the area, some with collars while others were clearly feral. John watched the cats as they kept their distance, yet remained close enough to reach them within seconds.

All three men were wearing headsets with microphones. John checked his watch and waited until eleven o’clock. At that time, he whispered into the microphone, “Go!”

They stood up and walked around the van. Two men were already at the front door. One man shouted, “FBI, we have a warrant.”

The other man kicked the door. As it burst open, the men ran inside with weapons at the ready. John and Ed followed them with Leroy bringing up the rear. The room they had entered looked like any room in a middle class neighborhood. The couch and chairs faced a color television. It was a picture of complete normality.

John stopped at the center of a fabric-covered wall when he noticed a cat sitting there. It was a cat from outside. He waited there with Ed while the FBI searched the rest of the house. Leroy wandered around the living room looking at the décor. The agents came streaming into the living room. One turned angrily to John and said, “There’s no one here and nothing to suggest that anything wrong is going on.”

John pressed the center panel of the fabric covering the wall. Much to the other agent’s surprise, the panel swung open giving access to stairs down to a basement. Everyone stood looking at the stairs for a moment. John said, “If I’m not mistaken, it’s down there.”

The FBI agents ran down the stairs. As a shot rang out, Leroy stepped in front of John in an attempt to protect him. The shot was followed by an answering volley. When it had quieted down, the cat left the house. John softly spoke into his microphone, “We need the nurses now. Call in the ambulances.”

The three men went down the stairs. The sight that greeted them was sickening. The room was filthy and smelled. There was a bed with cameras surrounding it. Pictures of children engaged in various sexual acts were hung up on the wall. Some of the pictures showed kids with kids, but the majority of pictures were of adults abusing the kids. One very large picture showed a man with his cock in the ass of a four-year-old boy. The boy’s face was twisted in pain. The man in the picture was grinning excitedly.

John and Ed stared in horror as a naked little girl about eight years old begged one of the FBI agents to leave the man alone. She pleaded, “I’ll give you a real good blowjob if you are nice to my uncle. Would you rather fuck me? I’ve got a real tight ass, you can fuck it if you want.”

Leroy stared in horror as events unfolded around him. There was a naked boy about the same age making similar statements to one of the other agents. Leroy looked at the wounded man on the floor with handcuffs holding his arms behind his back. He was naked. Apparently, they had interrupted him while he was having sex with one of the kids. Next to him was a handcuffed woman crying about the treatment of her husband. She looked up at the people in the room and shouted, “Go on, fuck the kids. I know you want to. Just let us go.”

John looked at the woman in disgust. He walked around the room examining the walls. One region of wall looked suspicious. He tapped it. The wall swung open to reveal stacks of pictures and notebooks. John pointed to the notebooks. “Agent Mauz, the notebooks here should contain all of the records that you will need to bring down the rest of the ring.”

The agent went over to the shelves and glanced in it. Putting gloves on his hands, he picked up the notebook on the top of the stack. He opened it whistling as he read the contents. In awe, he said, “This logbook contains everything they’ve done. It looks like there are at least two hundred members in this gang and at least three hundred kids being abused.”

He picked up one of the photo albums and shook his head. Inside there was a picture of each kid and a description of the types of sex they had been trained to perform. He looked up at John and said, “This is a catalog of kids.”

Ed went to the women and knelt down. He asked, “Are there any other hidden panels here?”

She spat at Ed and answered, “No.”

He asked, “Is it along this wall?”

“No.”

Ed pointed to the wall and said, “Gentleman, there’s another secret panel here on this wall.”

One of the agents looked around the wall and found a seam. He hit the wall and the panel opened. The door led to another room with cells. Most of them were empty, but there were two with a child in each one. These kids were even younger than the two in the first room. All of them were naked. Each cell had a simple pot for them to use as a toilet. The stench in the room was overwhelming.

The nurses from social services came into the room and took charge of the children. One of the children in the cell was hungry. She looked at the nurse and said, “I’m hungry. Are you the one I’m supposed to fuck for supper?”

The nurse stared at the girl in shock at the revelation that these kids had to perform sex in order to get something to eat. Leroy heard the news with disgust and walked away. This perversion of all that he held dear sickened him. His dad had often preached about evil, but he doubted even his father had seen such evil as this. He swallowed trying to keep the bile from rising.

Even as the nurses were dealing with the kids, the kids in the main room were continuing to offer their sexual services. The little girl was lying back on the bed fingering herself and trying to look sexy. A nurse was trying to get her off the bed and into some clothes. Once the little girl understood that the nurse wanted her to get dressed, she said, “Oh, I get it. You want me to wear a costume while I eat your cunt.”

The nurse looked at the men in the room and then fled the room with tears in her eyes. John went over to the little girl. He smiled and said, “Put on the clothes. You are getting a special treat. You’ll get to eat without having to have sex with anyone. Today is a special day for you.”

The girl looked at John for a moment and asked, “You aren’t going to fuck me?”

“No,” John replied. “You don’t have to do that any more.”

She frowned as she tried to make sense of what he was saying. She asked, “Am I going to a new aunt and uncle today?”

“No, you are going to a safe place where you’ll have food when you want it. You will never again have to earn your food by having sex.” John handed her the simple gown. She took it and put it on.

When John turned around, he noticed a video camera aimed at the bed. He examined it and frowned. John turned to one of the FBI agents in the room. “He was taping what was going on here. The tape is still running.”

The agent went to the video camera and shut it down. He said, “Evidence.”

Leroy glared at the man on the floor. He wanted to hurt that man more than anything else in his life. The man on the floor saw his look. The man growled, “Hey, nigger, I bet you’d love to fuck that little white boys’ ass.”

If Leroy didn’t have his arm in a cast, he would have kicked the man in the face. As it was, he only replied, “You better buy some Vaseline before you get to prison. Talk like that will have a line of niggers waiting for their turn at your ass.”

John smiled at Leroy and gave him a thumbs up sign. He saw how angry the man had made Leroy. He had been afraid that Leroy was going to react violently. Instead, he had only stated a fact of prison life. John said, “An ambulance is on its way.”

Ed returned to the woman and asked, “Are there any other hidden panels?”

She glared at Ed and screamed, “No!”

Ed turned to agent Mauz and said, “You will have to take this house apart board by board. There are still more secret panels hidden around here.”

Agent Mauz looked at John and Ed in awe. He said, “You guys are as good as I was told you were.”

“It’s a shame that we have to deal with monsters like these two,” John replied looking over at the man and woman in disgust. He added, “Thank God we have men like yourself working hard to protect us from them.”

Somehow, Agent Mauz found himself thanking John for his praise, “Thank you.”

John asked, “Can you take it from here?”

“Yes, we can.”

“Good,” replied John. He added, “I’m going to the hotel to take a shower, and try to wash this filth off me. We’ll be at the Federal Building later this afternoon.”