The Princess of the Desert

By Melodie Thomas

Edited by Holly Hart

Chapter 6

Sunday, February 1, 2009
The weekly conference calls on the trafficking cases have continued regardless of the lack of new information coming to light. Occasionally a new something will be added from Washington from a source that is described as ‘victim memory’ but those memories have not added much value so far.

This morning, I was sitting in my home office catching up on personal emails, bills and other various activities that accumulate over the week. Since last October, I have maintained fairly consistent email correspondence with my sister. Yes, it is still a challenge for me to write or say that. However, I have enjoyed having her back in my life, and many things in our relationship have not changed, regardless of her change.

I was surprised to find an email from my boss, Mike Holiday, in my personal account inbox. The email contained four words ‘This is for you’ along with an embedded message. I clicked open the embedded message.

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Dear Dan

I pretty much had to throw a fit to before I was allowed to send this email, and finally needed the help of your boss, Mike. I have been told that you will not be able to write back to me and that is okay. I have been thinking about you, and I wanted to let you know that I am doing fine. The doctors say I am improving, and I feel that I am as well. This has not been an easy process for me but I am finding every day easier to deal with.

Yes, I am still Stephanie, and I am learning more and more about what that means. No, that does not mean I have made any final decisions. As the doctors here tell me, we have bigger issues to solve then what my gender is. I think I can say I am actually starting to get comfortable in my own skin and just being me. I hope you are doing well and please say ‘Hi’ to Tina for me. I told you when I left that I would miss you and I do. Please take care of yourself.

Stephanie

I leaned back in my chair with a smile. Glancing to my right I saw Stephanie’s picture, still sitting on my desk.

Friday, February 20, 2009
The trafficking case has taken a sudden turn over the last 3 weeks, with Washington getting positive identification on two more videos. The tracing of these videos lead to a common IP address in Arizona that was also used by the two previous videos. The crossing point for all of the videos was a spot in the middle of nowhere about 20 miles west of Swift Trail Junction, or about 60 miles east of Tucson. Aerial reconnaissance revealed a remote ranch nestled against national forest land. Review of the reconnaissance photos showed a private airstrip, a house with two large satellite dishes and various outbuildings. The pictures also showed there had been no active ranching or farming in the area for quite a while.

Public records showed the property is owned by a corporation called Seltex Incorporated, chartered out of California. Research showed that another corporation called Earth Mining, which is owned by Global Resources, which is owned Mei Tan Inc. in Thailand, owns Seltex. The ownership records continue from there, with dummy corporations scattered around five countries. The accountants working the problem claimed it could take years to finally sort out who wrote the check to buy the place in Arizona.

The video trail, along with the financial trail and the circumstantial evidence from the photographs was enough for a Federal Judge in Arizona to issue a search warrant. Because of the violent nature of the organization we were looking for, one of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Teams and the Pima county SWAT unit would serve the search warrant. Ten Arizona State Police officers and fifteen Pima county Sheriff’s Deputies, along with a half a dozen FBI agents would support the tactical groups. The operation commander would be Mike Holiday.

Tina and I took seats against the wall in one of the conference rooms at City Hall where a meeting would be held with the team leaders prior to serving the warrant. Mike Holiday was there along with Gus Davis, the Pima county Sheriff and Bob Mitchell, Arizona State Police. We were waiting the arrival of Carson Billings, the HRT commander and Joe Martinez, Pima county SWAT leader.

“Hi guys!” Looking up, I saw Paula Reinfelt walk in.

“Hi, Paula,” Tina relied, “Have a seat.”

Just as Paula sat down, Billings and Martinez entered the room and took seats at the table.

“Okay, everyone,” Mike Holiday spoke up. “Let’s do a quick review of the plan so we can get moving.”

A projector sitting on the table was turned on, displaying a map of the target area on the wall behind Mike. The map was marked with the location of the target, as well as the roads in the area. The difficulty would come in gaining access to the property without alerting the occupants. There was only a single access road to the house, which was about 2 miles from the nearest public road. If they had any kind of warning systems set up on the road, they would know we were coming long before we got there.

“We are going to serve the warrant tomorrow morning at 5:45am, and I want to do a final review of the plan so everyone is clear.” Mike announced to the room.

“Because of the remoteness of the compound, the HRT and SWAT units are planning to use helicopters for insertion, as this would give them the fastest deployment with the maximum level of surprise. The helicopters will immediately take off again and monitor for any attempted escape through the mountains or across road-less areas. The Arizona State Police will set up road blocks two miles in both directions from the access road to the property. The sheriff’s deputies, along with the FBI, will be waiting on the main road until an ‘all clear’ signal is sent from the HRT commander. Once the all clear signal is received, the support group will drive to the property and assist with any arrests, property search, and questioning of suspects. Because we are expecting the possibility of finding more victims, two medical evacuation helicopters have been borrowed from the Arizona National Guard and will be staged 10 miles from the suspect property.”

After the briefing, we broke up into smaller groups to work on the transportation logistics of getting to the site. Over twenty cars that would be involved, and we didn’t want to look like a parade driving out there. Many of the State Police and Sheriffs cars were moved into random positions in the area during the day today. Tina and I would be taking our car, and Paula would be riding with us. Our plan was to be at the staging site at 4am and take turns napping in the car during the drive and the wait after we arrived.

The concept of taking naps was good, but all three of us were so keyed up that a concept is all it turned out to be. As the digital readout on the dash clock showed 5:35am, we were sitting in the car, fourth in line, sipping on hot coffee and watching the clock.

“I wish we would hear something about Stephanie.” Paula commented from the backseat.

“Dan got an email from her a few weeks ago.” Tina responded.

“Really? Dan, why didn’t you tell me?”

“I haven’t seen you in the last three weeks, Paula.”

“Well, what did it say?”

“She basically just wanted to get word out to us that she was improving. They won’t let me write back to her for some reason.”

“Probably, trying to control outside influences.” Paula sighed.

The radio on the dash sparked to life, “All units, all units, operational engagement in 5 minutes.”

All conversation stopped as we watched the clock and listened for the radio. The announcement on the radio told us the engagement started at 5:46am and ended at 5:54am. The compound was empty.

The property was completely vacant. The search teams spent the day scouring every inch of all the building and walking a grid around the outside, looking for any evidence of the previous inhabitants. In the basement of the main house, we found five very small rooms that contained four 2X4 framed beds. These rooms seemed to match the descriptions that we previously got from Stephanie. One of the bedrooms on the main floor appeared to have been used as a computer or television center, as there were many cables coming through the walls that were connected to the satellite dishes on the roof. All of the cables have been cut at the wall, like whoever was moving out was in too big of a hurry to unhook things.

There were three main outbuildings on the property, and all three had been stripped clean, like the main house. There was a room in one of the outbuildings that also had a large number of cables feeding it that had also been cut off at the wall. That room had the definite feel of a ‘stage’ to it, but that was still an assumption, as there was no evidence left to prove it. The circumstantial evidence we found indicated we were in the right place, but too late to meet the occupants. The entire property was marked off as a crime scene, the Sheriff’s department took the role of keeping guards posted, and the rest of us went home.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The crime scene investigation units from the FBI and the State of Arizona spent two full days collecting every piece of information from the property after the failed raid. In the Monday afternoon conference call, the supervisors of the crime scene teams reported that they had collected well over one thousand individual fingerprints and found over two hundred traces of human fluids between all of the buildings. Some of the critical areas of interest, the ‘rooms’ in the basement and ‘stage’ in the outbuilding were reported to have been contaminated with large amounts of bleach. Efforts were ongoing in a number of labs to identify the owners of the finger prints, as well as attempting any DNA extraction from the remaining fluids.

The FBI Profilers reported a theory in this week’s conference call. When looking back on the locations of the previous body finds, all of the bodies had been scattered all over the world with the exception of Stephanie’s. The think tank was now putting forth a discussion that it is possible that Stephanie’s case was the result of a mistake on someone’s part that needed to be dealt with quickly, resulting in her being dumped within the same state as Robert Mellon. The organization had apparently recognized this was a mistake and would result in a focused search by authorities. Basically, they knew we would figure it out eventually, so they had packed up and moved long before we got there.

Tuesday afternoon I was sitting at my desk catching up some paper work when the phone rang.

“McNeil.”

“Hope you have a clean shirt, and your bathrooms are clean. You have company coming.”

“Hi Mike, I am doing well, how are you? What do you mean?”

“The folks in Washington want to have another look at the compound with someone that has been there. They are sending Stephanie back to you for a couple of days.”

I instantly felt butterflies in my stomach and minor shaking in my hand. “Come again?”

“She will be arriving in Tucson tomorrow afternoon, and will be accompanied by two of her doctors, Vivian and Ivan Vasnev.”

“Okay, what does this have to do with my bathrooms?”

“Well,” Mike chuckled, “that is where I am asking for a favor. We are trying to do this on the quiet and would prefer not to deal with hotels and things like that. I would like for you to put them up at your place.”

“My place?”

“We are not sending a protective detail, as it would draw too much attention. You and Tina can cover that. Your place is out of town, private, and fairly large. The doctors are husband and wife, and will only need one room. They will spend two nights. You pick them up at the airport and take them to your place. Next day, tour the compound and then return them to the airport for the flight back. Can you make that work?”

“I guess I can, Mike. Sorry if I acted surprised, but this is kind of out of left field.”

“I understand and appreciate it. Besides, I figured you would not mind seeing Atkins again. Give me a call if there are issues.”

“Okay, will do. I will need to call Sheriff Davis and let him know we will be on the site.”

“Okay, but let’s try to keep it as quite as we can.”

Mike was right about one thing, my place would be perfect for this. I own a ten acre ranch just outside of town and the house sits in the middle of the acreage. I have four bedrooms and the neighbors are far enough away we cannot see what each other are doing. Tina was out working some leads on another case, so I gave her a call and briefed her on what was happening the next afternoon. I then called Davis and let him know what was going on.

With the calls finished, I needed to head home to get some things ready for the visit. I am not a bad housekeeper but, come on, I am a guy.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
I hate starting my days off being pissed off at the world, but that is how today started. Actually, the day started with nerves and excitement of seeing Stephanie again, but quickly changed when I opened the morning newspaper. In big, black, bold letters the headlines read.

Reading the article, the plan was to have the Mayor meet Stephanie at the airport and offer her the ‘Key to the City’ in front of a gang of reporters and television cameras. Mayor Harlem Bridgler had been pretty upset with me six months ago when we shipped Stephanie to Washington without consulting him and allowing him to get his photo op. It appeared he was not going to let that happen twice.

I called Mike and listened to him scream in my ear for five to ten minutes. The message was really clear that I was not to allow, Stephanie to get on that stage or in front of those cameras under any circumstances, and he didn’t care if I had to start shooting people to get the point across. Okay, that last part was temper flowing, but I understood what he meant. I called Tina. We discussed our options and came up with a plan.

I drove out to the airport alone, went through vehicle security and on to the tarmac where the plane was scheduled to stop. There must have been fifty reporters and four or five television cameras already set up around a make shift stage. I turned the car around so it was pointed at the exit, standard procedure, then got out and waited. A few minutes later, the Mayor’s car arrived and parked just behind the stand. The Mayor got out of the car and waved to the reporters and then walked in my direction.

“Good afternoon, Agent McNeil. Such a beautiful day,” Bridgler said with a large smile.

“Good afternoon, Sir. I really don’t think this is a good plan.”

“Oh nonsense, Agent McNeil, the girl deserves her spot in the sun, don’t you think?” Mayor Bridgler did not wait for my answer as he turned back towards the reporters.

Ten minutes later the white Lear Jet with an American flag on the tail touched down and started its landing rollout. At the end of the runway, the jet turned onto the taxiway and started moving towards us. About 500 yards before the jet reached our location; it suddenly stopped as a black SUV raced out from behind a building and approached the jet. The jet door opened and the stairway was lowered as the SUV pulled to as stop at the base of the stairs. Three people were hustled down the stairs and into the waiting SUV. As soon as the door closed on the SUV, it started moving, and I jumped into my car.

I could hear people yelling from the stage as I pulled into the gate leaving the tarmac and stopped. Reporters were running in all directions trying to get to the SUV, which had used a different exit to leave the Tarmac. The mayor’s car was right behind me, a constant blast coming from its horn. I was having a hearing problem at that time and did not realize someone else wanted through the gate.

It took over a half hour before the Mayor stopped screaming at me that he was going to have my job, and then screaming at Mike on the phone that he would have Mike’s job, too. I don’t think the Mayor is adding me to his Christmas list. I drove back through town to the FBI office and called Tina. They had made a clean getaway and were currently at my house. She had called the airport, and their airport courier service would deliver my guest’s luggage to the FBI office in a couple of hours. I stayed in the office until their luggage was delivered, taking it home with me.

As I entered my house from the garage I saw Stephanie sitting out on the patio talking to Tina. I stopped for a minute just to look at her. Her hair was different, shorter, but fashionably styled and about shoulder length. She was wearing a light turtle neck sweater and blue jeans. She looked like the ‘girl next door’. As I stood there and watched her I heard someone clear their throat, turning to find an older couple sitting in my living room. The man looked to be in his late 60’s or early 70’s, gray hair and gray moustache. The lady appeared to be early 60’s with short gray hair styled on top of her head.

“Agent McNeil,” the man spoke, “I am Doctor Ivan Vasnev and this is my wife, Doctor Vivian Vasnev.”

I stepped to them as they stood to shake hands. I noticed that Ivan was using a cane to support himself.

“I did not see you using the cane to get out of the plane Doctor, you seemed pretty agile.”

“I think gravity was a great assistance in exiting the plane,” Ivan chuckled, “but my landing in the car was anything but graceful.”

“Agent McNeil,” Vivian spoke for the first time, “we were wondering if we could have a minute of your time before you meet with your friend out there?”

“Certainly,” I answered, “Let’s go to my office.”

I led them into my home office and closed the door. Ivan lowered himself into one of my chairs, while Vivian walked to the windows to look out. As she turned away from the windows, she spotted the pictures of Stephanie that were on my desk. She smiled.

“How is she?” I spoke before either had a chance too.

Vivian walked over to my desk and picked up one of Stephanie’s pictures. “She is better, but a long way from good. These are nice pictures. May I call you Dan?”

I nodded.

“We have seen the techniques that were used on your friend before,” Vivian continued, “and we have had fairly good success reversing them over time.”

“What techniques?” I asked.

“That is something we would prefer not to discuss, Dan.” Ivan spoke up, “Suffice it to say that the people using these techniques have been trained somewhere on their use, most likely a military background. Using the proper combination of hallucinogenic drugs, combined with physical torture you can turn the most hardened warrior into a mindless servant that will do anything you ask without regard to their own safety.”

“But,” Vivian stepped in, “What we really want to talk to you about is her,” turning one of Stephanie’s pictures to face me.

“As you can see,” Ivan took over. These guys are a hell of a tag team. “Stephanie still identifies as a girl. To be honest, we have spent little to no time addressing the gender issue with her. We have had much bigger issues to deal with. We will get to the gender question eventually, but not now.”

“Stephanie,” Vivian again, “seems to have a strong, how do I say, fascination with you. That fascination could be romantic or it could be platonic, we don’t know for sure. Based on your collection, I would say the feelings are probably mutual to some degree.”

“Okay, I don’t know where you are going here.” I was starting to feel pretty nervous.

Ivan smiled, “It is nothing for you to worry about, young man. We are not going to ask you to do anything. We just want to make sure you understand that she is still very fragile and should be handled with much care. We want you to act or react as you feel or see fit. But understand that her frailty will magnify any signals you send her. If you pull away, it will hurt her deeply, and that is a reaction we don’t want. If you pull her to you, that may influence any future decisions she needs to make, which is another reaction we don’t want.

“So, what am I supposed to do?” ‘Talk about being confused.’

Vivian laughed, “We kind of dumped that one on you, didn’t we. Just be her friend, Dan, just be her friend. If you have weaker or stronger emotions, hide them for a while for us. Let’s give her a chance to decide for herself where she wants to go.”

I just stood there nodding my head. I didn’t have a clue what say.

“Now, young man,” Ivan said, standing, “since we have totally confused you, let’s go see our girl. She has been climbing the walls to see you since that plane took off.”

We left my office and went out on the patio. As soon as Stephanie saw me she jumped to her feet with that same smile I remember. She acted like she was going to run to me, and then stopped, like she didn’t know what to do. I opened my arms and that was all it took.

Later in the evening Stephanie and I were sitting out on my patio. Tina had gone home and the Vasnev’s had retired for the evening. It was the first time we had been alone since the day I’d taken the video to her apartment.

“Steph,” I started, “How are you really doing?”

Stephanie gave a slight smile. “I think I am getting better, a little anyway. I can now sleep for about four hours without needing drugs, which I could not do six months ago. The demons coming out from under my bed seem a little smaller, and sometimes I can even convince myself they are not real. The bed itself does not scare me as badly anymore; sometimes I can even sleep on it. I know how sick I am, which, is something new for me too.”

“Your doctors seem like good people.”

“They are good to me. They spend a lot of time talking to me. They seem to be able to focus me on what I really need to worry about, and not letting me get so wrapped up in everything that I become overwhelmed.”

We were quiet for a minute. “So,” Stephanie started, “Did they give you the lecture about how fragile I am, and how you need to be careful how you act around me?”

“How did you know about that?” a little surprised.

Stephanie smiled, “Because I am not stupid, and when I can think for myself I can figure a few things out. I know they are worried about how I feel about you.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t ask this question, but …”

“I like you Dan. I am attracted to you, plain and simple. However, there is a huge problem with that. Before all of this happened, I had never felt an attraction towards any man. Now, I feel a very strong attraction for you. So is that attraction really me, or a residual of the programming I was subjected to? I don’t know the answer to that, and until I do know that answer, I can’t let it go any further.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just sat there, watching her.

“Besides, you would never want me, and I know that too.”

“Why do you say that?”

Stephanie laughed, “Dan, you are so straight you make an arrow jealous. The only way you would want a woman like me is if I were a complete and full woman, and that is a decision that I am a long, long way from making. I won’t lie to you, there are days I wish I were a full woman, and there are days I wish I could go back to who I was. I don’t know the answer right now.”

I just reached my left and over and took her right hand. Stephanie slid her fingers between mine and we just sat there and watched the stars.

Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tina brought one of the company SUVs to pick everyone up early this morning for the drive to the compound. The Vasnevs want to return to Washington as soon as possible, so the flight has been rescheduled for this evening, as soon as we get back from the compound.

Last night felt pretty short to me as I had a hard time sleeping after my conversation with Stephanie. She did seem like a different person now, and that was good. I sensed the same level of intellect coming back that I had seen after the first hypnosis session.

The drive to the compound took two hours, and the conversation during the trip was light and various. As we entered the access road to the house, I could sense Stephanie becoming a little anxious. Pulling up to the main house, Stephanie was studying everything and did not seem bothered by being here.

Soon she was standing on the front porch waiting for us to go in. “You doing okay?” I asked her.

“I am fine. If this is the place, I was never on the outside without a hood on, so none of this looks familiar to me.”

As we had discussed during the drive, I was going to start off touring Stephanie through areas that she had described to me in various memories. We started by going into the basement to look at the little rooms. As soon as we started down the stairs, Stephanie wrapped her arms around my left arm and held on tight.

“Still doing okay?” I asked

“No, I am feeling this, I have been here,” she replied

“Do you want to stop?”

“No, let’s keep going.”

As soon as we reached the bottom and entered the area with all of the small rooms, Stephanie suddenly turned into me and buried her face in my chest.

“This is it, this is it. This is where I was kept.” I could feel her start shaking, “Dan, I can’t be here, I can’t be here, take me out, please.”

“Okay, okay, stay with me Steph, we’re going up now.” I slowly started walking her up the stairs while keeping her eyes covered.

Once we reached the top of the stairs, her breathing and shaking were more under control but she would not let go of my arm.

“Do you want me to take you back to the car?” I asked her.

“No, no, we need to look around a little more. Just stay close to me, please.”

I glanced at the Vasnevs, who were nodding their agreement that I was doing the right thing. As we toured the rest of the compound, Stephanie started relaxing more. She explained that whenever she was outside of the room, she had usually been drugged, so the rest of the property was either very vague or totally unfamiliar. We did get a pretty strong reaction from her when we entered what we thought was the stage area. Stephanie confirmed the stage was where either the videos were shot or she would be taken to ‘entertain’ a client.

Later in the afternoon we started the drive back to the airport. Stephanie had confirmed that we had the right place and now we just had to see if anything would come from the fingerprints or other trace evidence at the scene.

When we arrived at the airport, the jet was fueled and ready. Stephanie gave Tina a hug while I shook hands with the Vasnevs, asking them to please stay in touch with me. They actually said they would.

Stephanie walked up to me. “I don’t want to say ‘goodbye’, Dan.”

“I know.” I responded.

“No, you don’t. I have to leave, and I know that. But ‘goodbye’ is too final. I will say I will see you later. Dan, I don’t know where my life is going, but I always want to be able to call you my friend.” I could see tears in her eyes.

I pulled her into my arms for a hug. “You don’t have to worry about that. I will always be your friend.”

Saturday February 28, 2009
Mayor Bridgler not only wrote, or had written, an editorial in the newspaper about the federal government exceeding their authority; he also called the governor of the state of Arizona and two Congressman. Since politicians love getting their names in the paper. Both Congressmen immediately came out with press releases that they were going to ask for a review of how the FBI was handling the case. I am not sure where in the political wheel some level of sanity came into the discussion, but someone obviously pointed out that Stephanie was a federal witness in an ongoing federal investigation and the Honorable Mayor Bridgler could just ‘stick it’.

All of the political rambling did not bother me very much. What did was the picture that came out in yesterday’s newspaper. While our plan for keeping Stephanie away from the main body of the press had worked well, it seems someone else with a camera was looking for a different angle. On the front page of the paper were two very clear pictures of Stephanie getting off of the plane and getting into Tina’s SUV. The pictures were taken from the opposite direction that I was in, and appeared to be taken with a very powerful lens.

I also received a call from Paula that she was disappointed that she did not get to see Stephanie while she was here. I explained that this was a very fast trip and why. To try to make it up to her, I offered to buy her dinner and tell her everything I’d learned.

We met at a local restaurant and I explained everything to her that I had learned from the Vasnevs, including the part of their concern with my involvement.

“What did you think of all of that, Dan?” Paula asked me.

I smiled, “All of this stuff has me so confused I don’t know what to think about any of it.”

“How about the part between you and Stephanie?”

“I don’t think there is anything there to worry about right now. I think Stephanie has a pretty good idea of the choices and decisions she still has to make. I am not an expert in any of this, Paula, but I sensed a definite difference in her this time from that last time I saw her.”

“How so?”

“Her looks for one. She is still Stephanie, but she’s tamed it down a long way. She reduced the makeup, lip gloss instead of lipstick. Dress was much more casual. She is still playing the role, but I think she now knows it is a role, and that is a difference.”

“What about your feelings for her?” Paula quizzed.

I laughed, “Everyone tries to get me to answer that question, and I won’t do it. I promised her I would always be her friend, regardless of what direction she chooses to take. But I think she still has a long ways to go, before she is ready to face her own choices.”