Trapped in the Mayan Tattoo (33 page)

Abbi gave her name
as Miss Abigail Kowalski and then repeated what she had said before about NM.

“And Miss Shoe was
pulled off that operation. Is that correct?” the thin man asked.

She felt that she
was being cross-examined.

“Yes, it’s a
matter of record.”

“Does the record
state why?”

“That’s
classified, but basically, their threat to us was not a national concern, not
nearly as severe as another group. What Miss Shoe uncovered in her research and
her involvement with NM was a much more sinister and dangerous group, a faction
that split from the original group. NM2 is the organization that holds her now.
It’s a big cannon with a short fuse, transnational and infiltrating a number of
cities in the United States.”

“Wait!” the woman
at the keyboard said. “We’re dealing with NM, just what we said before. Right?
You lost me. They’re the ones who made the double-botched suicide bomber
attempt. I don’t know what this NM2 shit is about.”

“Whoa,” Abbi said.
She didn’t expect to be talked to this way.

“Then, what is it
you’re driving at, Miss Kowalski? I’ve heard about your lofty theory before,” the
woman said.

“Hear her out,
Mrs. Polter, and it will make sense. In the meantime, let’s retain an air of
civility. Miss Kowalski provides us with the answers you want,” the thin man
said.

“Yes, sir,” the
woman said. “I was merely seeking clarification.” Mrs. Polter’s tone changed abruptly
from haughty to meek.

Abbi stood up so
that everyone would hear clearly. She was tired of misconceptions.

“The evidence is here
in the reports I brought. NM isn’t out to bomb buildings in Washington, D.C.
Their cause is human rights, the same as The Organization of American States.
They believe in peaceful resolution. If what I have learned is true, a few members
of this group get a little overzealous but these are not people who would
consider using suicide bombers. They might do some things that are unlawful but
they are actually against such forms of violence.”

“So you’re saying
it’s a different group of people who did the bombings,” Mrs. Polter said,
seeking clarification.

“Exactly. NM2
started out under the umbrella of NM but has broken away. Try to separate the
two in your mind. I’m pretty sure NM doesn’t have a problem with The
Organization of American States or the building it’s housed in. They know the
member states are seeking diplomatic ways to help get necessary food and
supplies into the poor outlying areas of their country. That’s their big cause.
They’d be shooting themselves in the foot to disrupt diplomacy. And they don’t
want to create a problem with the U.S.”

 To explain more
about NM to others in the room who may not know, Abbi pulled out the folders
from the briefcase, folders holding her mother’s drawings, notes and reports.
These items would show valuable information her mother had uncovered.

A multimedia
projector had been placed on a small table in front of her. The bare end wall
of the conference room served as a screen. Abbi placed selected pages under a
document projector and shined the contents on the bare white wall for all to
read.

“As you can see,
when new recruits came NM, the revolutionary leadership didn’t tell new
recruits that the organization would also be training them to do unlawful acts
for the good of the organization.”

She explained that
the girls’ roles were usually different than the boys’ roles. Girls were
required to do the menial domestic chores and were called domestic servants. NM
liked to think of it as indentured servitude except that, once in, there was no
escape. In her mother’s report, her mother said it was a form of contemporary
slavery.

“Are we talking
sex slavery?” the thin man asked. Abbi wanted to know his name.

“With NM, no, not
really. Some girls were encouraged to have children for the organization, to
increase numbers.”

Abbi read from her
mother’s notes:

“The
leaders of the main group [that’s NM] want what everyone wants. All people have
the same basic needs. They want to be assured of these things. Some people call
their movement ‘anarchy’. Some call it ‘revolution’. Some call it
‘anti-government activity’. And, to some, becoming a part of NM is their only
way to survive, the only way to have food security. That’s how most children,
even American children in poor Latino communities, get caught in this trap.”

Abbi explained
that under this system, boys were trained to do manual labor. “Some would be in
agriculture, such as the coffee industry. Others would work to gain memberships
for NM,” she said. “This meant they would occasionally kidnap children who fit
the profile of the ‘unhappy’ or ‘at-risk’ child. Those children could be lured
by the promise of food and a bed and would eventually become workers for the
organization.”

“So far, you’re
talking about NM. Right?” the thin man asked.

“Right. Then NM2,
made up of some young radicals, took this business plan a few steps farther. In
order to raise more money, this faction became violent and involved in drug
trafficking. Miss Shoe said, ‘Violence begets violence.’ In addition to the
drug trafficking, NM2 moved into a different kind of trafficking. Recruitment
practices were markedly different. NM2 found that pretty girls could be lured,
sometimes kidnapped, and would be used to raise money through the sex trade, a
quick way to turn a lot more money.”

“In addition,”
Abbi explained, “although the organizational leaders of Nuestra Madre did not
want violence, most of the male children were trained to be soldiers regardless
of what job they were given in order to protect themselves. Again, NM2 carried
this out differently, with emphasis on aggression rather than self-defense.”

“So these are now
very different groups. Different leadership?” Mrs. Polter asked.

“This is critical
to understand,” said a different voice. “Please proceed, Miss Kowalski.”

Abbi turned to see
the U.S. Attorney she had met at the law complex in Virginia.

“Thank you. Yes,
these groups are under different leadership. There’s only a very loose
connection, based on Miss Shoe’s exhaustive research. And she basically watched
as the small faction NM2 grew very quickly and spread rapidly over just a few
short years. Suddenly, it has become a threat to the world community. Think of
it as a radically dangerous street gang that grew exponentially and is now throughout
the Western Hemisphere.”

"Could they
be the ones who made the suicide attempts to bomb the OAS?” the U. S. Attorney
asked.

Abbi hesitated.
She took a deep breath and continued, realizing they were treading on shaky
ground.

“I couldn’t say.
Although it’s possible, it seems unlikely. Until there are more answers, we
should proceed cautiously and not assume that it was either NM or NM2. My
biggest concern, and the reason I’m here, is the rescue of Miss Shoe. My belief
is that negotiations will run more smoothly if we don’t rush to place blame.
The bombings could have been the result of some maniac with a grudge who should
have been in an institution instead of making bombs in his apartment. Let’s
just be very careful here.”

“What is Miss Shoe’s
theory on how NM2 spread so rapidly?”

“She thought the new
members who came into it from outside the base country may have been arrested or
forced to leave the country for their illicit acts of crime. When some of them were
sent back home to their own countries, the local judicial systems did not know
who had authority over their cases. The criminals were sometimes slapped on the
hand and then returned to the streets. Sometimes they were just ignored.”

“That’s true, Miss
Kowalski. But a few ended up in federal court and are now in prison,” said the
U. S. Attorney, “and, yes, they tie directly to the newly-formed NM2. They
started as a loose radical affiliation with NM and then rapidly evolved into
NM2.  Even in prison, they have profound influence on their people on the
outside.  The fact of their imprisonment added fuel to the fire, and their
influence spread very quickly around the U.S. and moved this loosey-goosey group
into the international arena, with only a very loose tie to Nuestra Madre.”

“Thank you! One
major difference between NM and NM2 is shown in Miss Shoe’s notes,” Abbi said.
“NM2 uses initiation rights that have a violent nature.”

She selected a few
pieces to show on the wall, harrowing stories of initiation into NM2 and the
club’s sometimes-deadly membership drive.

“So, do you have a
theory as to who did the bombings?” the thin man asked.

“No idea, but if
it was one of those groups behind the OAS bombing attempts, NM2 is more likely
to be the one. They were in the area for the, can I say this, botched drop
attempts. Still, I seriously doubt they would bomb the OAS. The only connection
to the Organization of American States that I see is that there was an
ambassador who was working on the recent extraction of the young girl in that
Mexican cantina. Maybe somehow they knew that and held a grudge.”

Big Sam stood up
and said, “It is worth mentioning that Miss Kowalski was within feet of the
second suicide bomber at The Organization of American States. She is speaking
with a fair amount of authority on what transpired that day.”

“Did you actually see
the bomber?” the thin man asked.

“I did,” Abbi said,
trying not to react from the memory. “Not the first one, who has been arrested,
but the second one. He looked right into my eyes. Strange, but it struck me
that he seemed to have no soul. He had a look of sheer hate in his eyes. My
impression is that he was forced to carry out the suicide attack.”

“Do we have
analysts who are talking to the first bomber?” the thin man asked.

The unmistakable voice
of Shoe Clerk spoke up, “We’re on that, sir. He is still in critical condition.
We believe there may be a direct tie-in with one of these groups, even though
he may very likely have been forced into it. Again, as Miss Kowalski said, it
is good to proceed cautiously and withhold judgment.”

Abbi directed her
eyes on the person speaking, knowing that the man speaking was wearing a
hoodie. She gave him a huge grin.

“Miss Kowalski, may
I take a closer look at these reports you talk about?” the thin man asked.

“If it can help
secure Miss Shoe’s release, absolutely!”Abbi said.

She flipped to the
files that held the information regarding NM’s cause, basically a mission
statement with a few goals related to fulfilling human needs. Then she compared
NM’s cause with the extreme greed and more deadly practices of NM2.

Abbi related that
recently, according to her mother’s reports, the main body of Nuestra Madre had
been successful in gaining rapid increases in the memberships of young men,
boys actually as young as twelve, but NM2 had been especially good at enticing
young girls who have little hope of a good life, using seductive measures such
as the promise of getting nice clothes or an education or, in some cases, the
motivation to join was based on religion. For NM2, many of the targeted girls
had been between the ages of 11 and 14, according to Miss Shoe.

Abbi handed a
report to the thin man.

“Thank you,” he
said. “I’ll get these right back to you.”

Abbi said, “The
girl named Maria, mentioned in some of the reports, was lured in by not only
gifts from her ‘boyfriend’ but by religion, based on the ‘boyfriend’s’ claims
that this organization was a religious cult that went back to Mayan principles.
She made the connection of Nuestra Madre to the translation Our Mother,
thinking it was a branch of the Catholic Church. Her ‘boyfriend’ once lived in
the NM commune, changed over to NM2 and had been given a fair amount of
personal freedom in order to recruit other members,” Abbi said. She noticed the
thin man was reading a report. “Sir, you will want to see this.”

She laid the evidence
out before them. There it was—case studies of child exploitation, sex
trafficking of minors, and use of the Internet with the intention of promoting
the sexual exploitation of children and selling children for slavery.

For those just now
becoming familiar with NM2, Abbi revealed that the worst tattoo of all was the
flaming leopard with the trapped girl in its mouth. She put its image on the
wall. That tattoo denoted a number of things--dominance, ownership, entrapment,
and sex trafficking. The young girls who were entrapped and sold into this
group became sex slaves for various locations of NM2 members, and they were the
primary source of money to run NM2. The grooming, advertising, selling,
entrapment, and branding of young girls were key points in the sex trafficking
business model.

The thin man went
pale and immediately got on the phone.

“This is bigger
than anyone knew,” he said.

Suddenly a flurry
of activity began. Big Sam and the thin man began talking on phones. Mrs.
Polter started downloading images that Mrs. Hightower sent simultaneously from
her computer.

Abbi had revealed
what she had read in her mother’s reports, repeating names and locations when
necessary. For awhile, she felt like a human encyclopedia. She connected the
puzzle pieces for the key players in Operation Missing Shoe.

In turn, the other
key players revealed the pieces they had. For example, the analysts knew the
meanings of the various tattoos. The flying NM denoted membership. The teardrop
denoted a killing. Other tattoos on the knuckles revealed
v
arious
operations. The bird in the hand denoted entrapment.

Abbi thought the
reports needed to go back into her briefcase. She quietly gathered them up for
safe-keeping, while other people were sharing their knowledge.

With the help of
the U.S. Attorney, analysts and negotiators would use all of this information
to work on a plan for the final secret drop attempt that would secure her
mother’s release. Whether or not Abbi and Louise could be involved would be
revealed later, after they examined all the materials and performed a
risk-assessment.