Road to Darkness Read online

  “Holy shit!” He screamed. This time the man didn’t disappear. He was standing just a few feet from Tony. Tony was surprised the man was shorter than he looked from a distance. The man was Hispanic with a gray mustache.

  “Hello, Anthony,” the man said.

  “Who are you?”

  “My name is Domingo. I’ve been watching you for a long time.”

  “So I’ve noticed. Why have you been following me? What do you want?”

  “I want to make you a business proposition. Something much more lucrative than this place, and you can be your own boss.”

  “Why would I do business with some weirdo like you?” Tony asked.

  Domingo reached into his jacket and took out a stack of hundred dollar bills.

  “This is for you. You just need to complete a simple task, but half of this is yours right now if you say yes.”

  Chapter 4

  Slade Schrader stepped out of the house and into his car. As he drove off, he took a big sigh of relief. His meeting with the boss had gone much better than expected. The boss had seen what he did with Spider and thought it was funny. He was upset about the money, but gave Slade two weeks to double the shipment. It would take some doing to round up that many girls, but it could be done.

  He had men out looking for new drivers and prospects. He’d have it covered for sure. As he sat at a light, his phone rang. It was Domingo.

  “Yeah,” Slade said.

  “Yes sir. He went for it, just like I knew he would.”

  “Good. He know what he’s driving?”

  “Nope, no idea. I told him it wasn’t his concern. Better that way. He won’t be acting all crazy while crossing the border.”

  “Good to hear. Set him up for a trial run this weekend. See how he does. If he works out, then we’ll keep him on board for however long.”

  “Great boss. He’s a smart guy and not a tweaker like Spider.”

  “Ok. Set up that trial run and keep me posted,” Slade said and hung up. That was one less headache. He arrived at the warehouse and parked in his usual spot. The big sign out front read “Ramos Medical Supplies.” It wasn’t a fake. The boss did own Ramos Medical supplies.

  They produced things like neck braces, knee braces, wheelchairs, crutches and the like. They made their real money from their other shipments. In the years Slade had worked for Ramos, they had tried different products. In the early days, it was drugs. Back then he’d pick them up in Mexico and bring them back. It started with cocaine, but they had switched to crystal meth. It wasn’t long, though, before it got harder and harder to cross the border with a truckload of meth.

  After they’d lost too many shipments and too much money, they tried out human trafficking. That turned out to be much more profitable. The Mexicans would pay top dollar for young American girls. Sneaking them into Mexico was incredibly easy. The only hard part was rounding up enough girls without causing a big stir. Runaways were always a good start, and picking up girls in different states ensured they didn’t bring attention to one area in a short time. It was a very efficient and lucrative operation.

  Slade grew up on the south side of town and spent most his childhood on the street. Now he owned a huge home in a gated community and drove a BMW. He climbed out of the car and walked into the warehouse. Several trucks were lined up getting ready for shipments. There’d be no girls going out today. There were a few girls in the cage, though. The cage was behind the main office through a hidden door. Three girls sat there staring back at him. One was asleep. The other two just stared into space. They’d only been there a couple days, but it never took long to break them. They were still kids, easy to break.

  “What brings you here boss man?” A man said to him. It was Jose, the warehouse manager.

  “Hey Jose. Just met with the big guy. Getting things in order for this month. Got a new driver doing a test drive tomorrow.”

  “Oh sweet. He got experience?”

  “Not sure. Domingo says he’s good though, so I’ll go with that. I need to just listen to him from now on. Will save me a lot of headaches,” Slade said.

  “I know what you mean. Speaking of headaches, Spider hasn’t been in today or yesterday.”

  “He won’t be coming back,” Slade said flatly.

  “Right.”

  It was easy to forget sometimes that this wasn’t a real job. You work for Wal-Mart and your truck gets stolen or you wreck and destroy a bunch of merchandise, worse that happens is they fire you. Here there were no firings. Usually it was a body bag, but Slade figured he’d try something new with Spider. One of his friends in the Cartel had told him about it. He’d never seen it done first hand, but it worked pretty well. No body to hide, and made the guy a retard. Toss him to the street and he looked like any other homeless burnout.

  “What’s the word with these girls?” Slade asked.

  “They’re all fourteen or fifteen. They answered a Craigslist ad for Bieber tickets. Was like shooting fish in a barrel. Hector and his guys brought them in.

  “Nice. Need to be careful with Craigslist though. Cops skim those ads too and do stings.”

  “Yeah, I heard.”

  “Oh well. We need about twenty more in the next couple of weeks, so I don’t care how he does it.”

  “Shit. Twenty?” Jose asked.

  “After Spider’s fuck up, we have to make up the cash. If not, there will be hell to pay, from the top down.”

  He saw the color flush out of Jose’s face. Jose had been with them for a while. He’d gone with Slade on some “disciplinary actions” so he knew exactly what Slade was talking about.

  “Well, we’ll get the girls. I can tell you that. No more fuck ups from here. What’s the new guy’s name?”

  “I don’t know yet. Domingo will call you later with details.”

  Slade turned and got back into his car. Within a few minutes, he was pulling up to the gate to his driveway. The gate was embossed with a large, red “S” on the front. It swung open as he pulled up the driveway and into his three car garage. He wasn’t sure why he got the three car garage as he only had the one car. Perhaps it was because he could. Either way, it was late and time for a beer and some TV. Life was good.

  Chapter 5

  Tony returned to his desk, still not fully believing the business deal he’d just made in the men’s room. It was probably too good to be true, but when you hate your current job enough, you’ll believe anything that sounds better. He remembered his meeting with Teresa. The tone of the meeting would be much different now. He had ten thousand in cash in his pocket. Nothing she said to him would matter. It was hard to keep from smiling as he sat down at her desk.

  “Oh, hi Tony. You’re just in time,” Teresa said.

  “Wow, that’s new.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Nothing. So what’s going on?”

  “I need to talk to you about your attitude. You’ve never been a happy employee, not since you’ve worked for me. But you’ve been at least acceptable. Recently a few coworkers have expressed concerns and discomfort over your behaviors,” she explained.

  “Concerns or discomforts? Like what?”

  “Well, a few have mentioned on the way into work in the morning you scowl at them.”

  “I scowl?” He asked. “Like frowning?”

  “Not just frowning, but they’ve said they feel intimidated with how you look at them.”

  “I’m not understanding.” Tony said. “Intimidated how? I’m a forty-five year old fat guy. How intimidating can I be?”

  “Look. I’m just telling you what was said. Then there are a couple of female employees who have said you’ve made them uncomfortable with some of your statements.”

  This was starting to get ridiculous now.

  “What kind of statements?”

  “One girl said you told her you liked her top. She said she felt you were making unwanted sexual advances to her.”

  “What? That was Jenny. She had this tie-dye looking
Spurs shirt on, I told her it looked cool.”

  “Well unfortunately she didn’t take it that way. Then there was another girl who said you made unwanted comments about her hair.”

  “Jesus Christ.” Tony stood.

  “Look, calm down. You’re not being fired. I just need you to sign some paperwork and attend a few sensitivity classes. We can’t have you scaring and harassing our female employees. Please sit down.”

  “Scaring and harassing? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “Tony!”

  “Shut the fuck up. I have been working here for years putting up with your shit. Your stupid side glances and your snide comments. I’m sick of you and this fucking place.”

  “You want me to call security?”

  “Fuck security. I don’t need you or this place.” He walked away from her desk and through the call center. As he walked by some of his co-workers’ desks. Including Jenny’s and the other girl’s, he began shouting.

  “Attention everyone! Fuck every last one of you! Thank you! And Jenny, your top is uglier than your fat fucking face. You feel sexually harassed? I wouldn’t fuck you if I had a gun at my head.” Everyone was staring at him as he walked out. By the time he reached his car he was smiling. It was only eleven. He just might treat himself to a nice lunch. Tomorrow would be the first day in his new life.

  He stopped at a Thai place he usually couldn’t afford and ate too much. There were a few hours to kill, since he didn’t yet want to tell Kim what had happened. May as well keep it to himself for a bit. But if he made twenty thousand a month, that would take care of the bulk of their problems.

  ***

  Saturday morning arrived quickly. He told Kim he was working overtime, which wasn’t a total lie. Just not at United P and C. When he arrived at Ramos Medical Supply, he was greeted by Jose, the warehouse manager. Jose took him to his truck, which was a fourteen foot box truck and explained to him the route.

  “So what am I hauling?”

  “Medical supplies.” Jose answered.

  “That’s it?”

  “Yeah. What else would you be hauling?”

  “I don’t know. I figured for what you all are paying me...” Tony said.

  “Hey, I’m not in charge of payroll. We load the truck, you drive it to the destination and you’ll drop the truck off and pick up an empty truck to bring back. Easy enough?”

  “Yeah sounds easy.”

  “Just a couple of simple rules. You are not to stop for anything other than bathroom, meals, and such. No stopping at your girlfriend’s, no detours or sightseeing.”

  “Got it.” Tony said, though he was still sure he’d be hauling something illegal. Maybe it was a plausible deniability thing or something. Now that the moment had arrived for his first run, he was getting a bit nervous. Though he wasn’t going to let cold feet stop him now. He just had to make this twelve hour run, and he’d get another ten grand. Domingo told him if it worked out, he’d do one load per week.

  Jose handed him the route, keys and GPS unit.

  “There’s a gas card in the glove box, and a satellite phone with my direct number. Any questions, don’t hesitate to call me. If the police stop you for any reason, do not consent to a search under any circumstances, no matter how much they threaten you. All the tags and logs are up to date, so no reason for them to have any cause to search. Got it?”

  “I think so.”

  “Good. So off you go. See you in about twelve hours.”

  Tony climbed in and started the truck. As he backed out and headed onto the road, he felt both nervous and exhilarated. This job will be much nicer than answering phones and listening to people bitch all day. He could enjoy some freedom and the open road. He hadn’t felt this excited since his twenties. Still, he wondered what his cargo actually was. They’d never give him that speech about police and searches if it was all on the up and up. Was it drugs? Stolen goods perhaps? Didn’t matter. The rule was not to look and he had no intention of doing so. No point in messing up a good thing. Besides, nothing said this had to be a permanent job. Maybe after six months or so he could just retire. He’ll have made plenty of money by then.

  As he headed down the highway, he turned the radio up and kicked back on his drive, totally unaware of what awaited him in Mexico.

  Chapter 6

  Within about three hours, Tony was driving up to the border crossing in Laredo. The line was long, being a Friday night. Seemed a lot of folks liked to head south to get their drink on for the weekend. Tony had only been to Mexico one other time when he was younger. That was before the cartels down there had completely taken over. Now going into Mexico was almost asking to be kidnapped or killed. Yet, people still did it every day.

  After almost an hour, it was his turn. The Border patrol agent looked his truck over, he handed him back his manifest, and was on his way. It was that simple. He’d seen men walking around with drug dogs, but didn’t want to think too hard about what he might be carrying. From the border, it was another few hours to Monterrey, but he made it without incident. As he pulled into the lot, a man at the gate waved him inside.

  He pulled up to the warehouse, and several men with rifles came running out screaming at him in Spanish.

  “Salir! Salir!” They screamed. He knew enough Spanish to know it meant “Get out!”

  He climbed out of the truck with his hands in the air. One of the men ran up and struck him in the stomach with the butt of the rifle. He hadn’t been hit in the stomach since he was a teenager. The blow almost made him throw up as the pain shot through his stomach, doubling him over to his knees. This was not the greeting he was expecting.

  Another man walked up to him, but Tony could only see his feet as he tried to catch his breath.

  “Who the fuck are you?” The man asked.

  “I’m Tony.” He grunted. “Jose sent me.”

  “Where is Spider?”

  “Who?”

  One of the other men kicked him in the stomach again, this time lying him out flat on his face. He caught a mouthful of dirt as his face hit the ground.

  “Spider, dumbfuck. The driver. Spider is the one bringing loads here.”

  “I don’t know any Spider. This is my test run they said. For my first day.” Tony coughed as he got back to his knees. He finally looked up and saw two men pointing AK-47s at him. The one in the middle had a short beard and sunglasses. “Honest. Call Jose.” Tony couldn’t believe Jose hadn’t let them know, unless this was part of some kind of initiation.

  “We’ll know in a second,” the man said as he snapped his fingers. One of the men put his rifle over his shoulder and ran to the back of the truck. Tony heard the tailgate slide open. Another man on a forklift unloaded several crates from the truck. There were two with a red line painted on the side. Another man took a crowbar and popped the lid off each crate to reveal two young girls in each crate.

  All four girls were white and none of them looked older than fourteen or fifteen. All of them were crying. Tony’s eyes went wide as he fell back into a sitting position at the realization of what he’d been carrying.

  “Something wrong esse?”

  “Those are children.” Tony said.

  “You’re pretty smart. They’re kids, merchandise. They make us a lot of money.”

  “Human trafficking.”

  “Give the man a medal!”

  Tony thought for a minute, trying to keep his wits. For some reason, the idea of transporting drugs or stolen goods or even weapons didn’t bother him. But teenage girls? His little Taylor was only four. What if she got grabbed by these guys? What about their dads and their families? He couldn’t hold back as the bile rose in his throat until he leaned forward and threw up.

  “Jesus man, you fucking puked on my shoe. Fucking gringo.”

  “I’m sorry.” Tony gasped. “I’m sorry. I just wasn’t expecting…”

  “Yeah yeah. So this is kind of a tricky spot for us. Are you ok to drive for us? I’m not sure how much Jos
e explained to you. This trial run was a trial for us, not you. You get me?”

  Tony looked at them for a second before it registered. Trial run for them. In other words, if he didn’t work out, they’d kill him. There was no quitting.

  “I get it.” Tony said.

  “I know you won’t go to the cops either. We were fucking with you earlier. Jose did tell us about you. You live in San Antonio. You got a wife named Kim and a daughter named Taylor right? Your ex lives in Dallas and her name is Judy and your son’s name is Chad, but you haven’t seen him in a while.”

  Jesus Christ.

  “Yeah that’s right,” the man said. “We do our homework. You decide not to show up next week, or try to be a hero and free the girls on a run, or go to the cops? We skin your family alive while you watch.”

  Tony just looked at them and nodded.

  “So, your truck to drive back is just over there. Take it back to the Ramos building in San Antonio and you’ll get the rest of your money. You’ll make this run once a week. It’s a good gig. All you do is drive, get paid and keep your fucking mouth shut. Beats a day job any day of the week. Now go.”

  The two men helped Tony to his feet as he slowly made his way to the truck. He looked at the four girls he was leaving behind. Their eyes looked sad and distant, but one of them made sure to stare him down until he was out of site. That sad, hurt look on her face would haunt him for a while. He had just delivered her to a life of physical and sexual slavery and abuse. She’d probably be dead before her eighteenth birthday. He climbed into the truck and started the engine. As he began his journey back to San Antonio, he started thinking maybe his old job wasn’t so bad after all.

  Chapter 7

  It was well after midnight by the time Tony arrived back at the Ramos building. He’d shut his phone off when Kim started calling repeatedly. He didn’t even know what to think himself about this new gig, he sure as hell couldn’t come up with a convincing enough lie for Kim just yet. He would have to before he went home, though.