Defending Hannah

calm her nerves.
Hannah didn’t relax but did as he told her.” Alejandro is one crazy over paranoid bastard. He sets up fake shipments to lure his enemies with an empty crate while the real shipment slips out." No one looked convinced by her theory. "Check the box if you don't believe me." She turned to Ben. "Please Ben, have the doctors do the x-ray on the women."
Ben looked at his team to see what they thought. They were skeptical. Who wouldn’t be? Ben didn’t know much about Alejandro but if he was an international arms dealer and making friends with ISIS the guy was bad news. Ben nodded at Sunshine to confirm her story.
Sunshine quietly got up and left, Hannah watching Ben the whole time. It hurt that Ben hadn’t taken her at her word but she understood why. He had a mission to do and people to protect. He couldn’t take people at their word, even people he knew. Or used to know she should say. “Whether you believe me or not will you have the women checked over?”
“What are they supposed to be looking for?” Ben wanted to believe her. She had never been a liar growing up. She avoided things she didn’t want to do but she had never lied. His plan to stay neutral with her and treat her like any other hostage was backfiring on him. He kept comparing this Hannah to the one he knew growing up. But people change. It had been thirteen years since he last saw her. She couldn’t the same girl, he wasn’t the same person.
“You remember I said the box wasn’t the shipment?” She asked.
Since she just told them a few seconds ago it was a moot point to answer but he nodded anyway.
“The women are the shipment.” Just as Hannah told them Sunshine walked back in with Cricket, Hound, Tiny and Hawk.
“The container was empty. Just like Hannah said it would be.” Sunshine confirmed.
Ben nodded and turned back to Hannah. “So he was selling women last night instead of drugs and weapons.” Ben was angry they had all been duped. The mission had been to save the women but he had hoped to find the weapons too. Maybe there would be something on the flash drive.
“You don’t understand.” Hannah placed her hand over his. He was mesmerized by the small daintiness of them. They were pale and black under her nails but somehow still feminine. “The women are the shipment. They are carrying the drugs.”
“Doctors would have found it on their person already,” Sunshine argued.
“It’s not on their person.” Hannah looked at Sunshine in the eye before taking a deep breath. “It’s in them.”

Chapter Four
“What do you mean inside them?” Ben couldn’t have been more stunned if she had pulled a weapon on him and threatened him.
“He's hidden drugs in five of the women. He was going to send them out through different airports to different locations last night. The others without the drugs were being sold via boats.”
“We can just look to see if the women have a recent mark on their skin,” Doc suggested.
“That would take to long. He always hides it in muscle since the airport machines have a harder time picking them up that way. He makes a small incision in the skin and places the drugs in a plastic bag and puts it in them and then and sews them back up. It won’t look like a typical scar. More like a burn.” Her stomach knotted just remembering hearing the screams and the scent of burning flesh. It would haunt her for the rest of her life.
“How big would the incision be?” Doc asked anxiously.
“It depends on the woman’s size and the drug needed. For smaller shipments it’s only about two inches long and can be on several parts of her body. For larger ones he cuts open her stomach. But the bags hold anything from cocaine to pills. They are for more of his smaller deals. For his bigger clients, the shipments go out via boat through his secret passage. I don’t know where they go from there. But there’s one more thing you need to know.” She rushed out feeling breathless.
Everyone sat a little closer to her. Tension and suspense high in the air.
“The drugs have a tracker with them. The sooner you get the drugs out of the women and disable the tracker the safer we'll all be.”
Everyone sat in stunned silence. “That's why you told me the women weren't safe," Ben said. "I thought it was because you didn't feel safe yet.”
“I don't know how long it will take him to assemble a team. No one has ever stolen from Alejandro before. At least not as long as I’ve been there.” The thought of being caught by the monster again made her shiver in fear. She would rather die then go back to him.
“How do you know so much about him?” Sunshine asked her.
“I've been a prisoner of his for a few weeks. At least I think I have. I've seen girls come and go. I've seen the marks on them and I've heard the guards talk. They don’t think women are very bright nor understand Spanish.”
“Let's let the doctors know what's going on and get the women prepped. I'll alert MP's, military police, and get our bird ready. The sooner we can get off this base the better. I still have the flash drive so we should be able to uncover something.”
Hannah stood up but didn't know what her next plan was. She had dreamed of escaping for so long that now that she was free she felt lost. “Thank you, Ben for saving me and for believing me.”
“That's sounding an awful lot like a goodbye, Goldilocks." He almost sounded hurt.
Hannah half smiled at the nickname he once gave her. She had been called many things over her capture but never Goldilocks. It was something special between them. It also reminded her of her mischief and what it had caused her.