Author's Note

Some more things come to light in this chapter

Chapter Two

“Oh my God. My baby. My poor baby” Gail was shocked beyond words.

Agent Smith explained the basics of what had happened to her son.

“That’s all I was briefed on, Ma’am. There’s more. A lot more, but you need to be in LA to learn everything. I must ask that you not release any information to the press or anyone else at this time. This is for your protection. There are plane tickets waiting for you at the airport if you need them, so you need to get going as soon as you can. The flight leaves at nine. That gives you five hours to put things together. I’m truly sorry I don’t have more information to give you, but this is a rather unusual situation. Here’s my card if you need anything, Mrs. Phillips. We’ll be on our way now, as I’m sure you have a lot to get prepared in a short amount of time”

The two agents left quietly, letting themselves out.

Tears were streaming down Gail’s face. After three years, after nearly giving up hope on ever finding Cody alive, their nightmare was nearly over. There were so many things to do. She got on the phone to her husband, who was at his job as Executive Vice President of Engineering at Globe Oil. He was normally on the road or overseas during the week, and had been since shortly after Cody went missing. It was his method of coping, but it was driving a wedge between himself and his family.

He didn’t answer the first call, so Gail dialed again. The second time he picked up. “What is it Gail, I’m terribly busy right now”

“Greg, the FBI found Cody! He’s alive!”

The phone was silent. Gail thought the connection had been broken, but she looked at the display on her cell and saw that they were still connected. “Greg, honey? Are you there?”

“I’m here” His voice was choked, full of emotion. Gail knew he was weeping. “Thank the Lord. How is he? Where is he?”

“They found him in Los Angeles. I don’t know too much right now, but there has been some abuse, apparently. We have plane tickets waiting for us at the airport. I need to call Justin and Cassie and give them the good news!”

“We won’t need those tickets, Hon. I’m calling Harold Jenkins. I’ll have the corporate jet gassed and ready in three hours. Just be at the field by four thirty”

“The corporate jet? How can you do that?”

“Harold said anytime anything came up, it was mine. This qualifies. I’m getting my son back! Call Justin and Cassie and tell them to move it”

Greg disconnected and Gail called Justin, a senior at Midwestern State, and Cassie, a sophomore. Both were on athletic scholarships. Justin for football and Cassie for volleyball. The seasons were in full swing, but when they told their respective coaches the news; they were excused from further commitments until they returned.

As Greg had promised, the jet was fueled and ready when Gail and the kids got there. It was a Bombardier Challenger 600, and was a lot bigger than they needed, but Greg carried a big stick in the company, and the CEO was an old college buddy.
They got their luggage stowed and were wheels up fifteen minutes after that.

Justin and Cassie were full of questions that no one could answer yet, but were excited to be seeing their brother again. There were a lot of tears, and a lot of laughter.

They landed in LA three hours later, where they were met by Agent Rodgers. Gail had called Agent Smith, telling him they were taking the private jet and he let Agent Rodgers know where to meet them.

The family disembarked from the jet and Janine met them at the bottom of the stairs.

“Welcome to Los Angeles!” she shouted. “I’m Agent Janine Rogers, with the Internet Crimes Division of the FBI. I’ll have someone take care of your luggage. Come with me to the car, and we can get you to the hospital, where the team assigned to your child will fully brief you on the situation”

Team? Gail and Greg looked at each other. What weren’t they being told? Their two children looked concerned as well.

Once they had gotten into the SUV that was to transport them to the hospital, Greg spoke up with the question on all their minds. “Ok, Agent Rogers. Just what in the heck is up? Did you say a team was working with Cody?”

“Yes. Your child is very sick right now, and we’re doing everything humanly possible to make sure everything is okay with your child. And I mean everything. I have been on the trail of the man that kidnapped Cody for seven years now, and he finally screwed the pooch. I was able to track him down. I had no idea he had your son. I found her-I mean him quite by accident”
Gail looked at her husband, concerned about what she had just learned. She missed the slip up regarding gender. “Agent Smith said there was a question of abuse?”

“Not a question. There was severe abuse, but I would rather the attending physicians go into that with you” she paused, collecting her thoughts. “You need to prepare yourselves. You won’t be allowed to speak to Cody just yet. He’s changed quite a bit since you saw him last. I’d rather leave it at that until you speak to the team, because it is quite outside my area of expertise”

Greg was getting frustrated. He wasn’t used to being kept in the dark like this, and after three years, he wanted answers. “Just what in the hell is going on here, Agent Rodgers?”

“Mr. Phillips, I don’t really know myself. I’m not going to muddy things up by telling you something that isn’t true out of ignorance. You deserve better. Your child has been brutalized in the most horrific ways possible, and he is going to need every ounce of support he can get to survive this. So getting mad at me isn’t going to make you feel any better, and it isn’t going to help your child”

Greg’s face turned red. He knew he was out of line. The Agent couldn’t, or wouldn’t tell him anything until her ass was covered. He could understand that. “Sorry, Agent Rodgers. I guess I’m a little on edge”

“Please call me Janine. And you have every right to be. But circumstances in this case are so crazy that we have two of the finest physicians in the country working on Cody right now. Drs. Franks and Davis are taking care of the physical and mental needs of Cody right now. Believe me when I say that Cody’s case is almost without precedent. You’ll understand when the briefing is over”

Twenty quiet minutes later, the family was in a staff meeting room of the hospital. Agent Rodgers was there, as was Dr. Franks. Dr. Davis was not in the meeting yet.

After the introductions were made, Dr. Franks began. “Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, let me first say that I am doing everything possible to return your child to health. The patient is malnourished, and blood chemistry is off. Cody was forcibly addicted to a combination of opiates to ensure compliance…”
“Oh my God” whispered Gail.
“I am currently keeping Cody under a medically induced coma to stave off what would be a potentially fatal withdrawal from this addiction. We are administering various medications to manage the withdrawal and I feel we are making good progress in this. But this is not the worst of the problems facing Cody. I’m not good with putting things mildly, so here it is. He has been manipulated via chemical and surgical means into the appearance of a female”

“WHAT?” Greg exploded. “What in the fuck are you saying?”

Dr. Franks’ countenance never altered. “Mr. Phillips! I’m going to have to ask you to hold your temper or leave. Cody is a ward of the State right now. You have no rights whatsoever to make any decisions regarding his or her care pending my approval"

"Why, you ask? I’ll tell you why. Because you are too emotional right now to make critical decisions regarding your child. So calm down right now, or this meeting will be adjourned until you are calm. Is that understood?”

Greg was taken aback by the doctor’s attitude. He was serious. Greg took a deep breath and calmed down, if only to wait for the right time to smack the piss out of the smug doctor.

“Good. Now, if I may continue. MRI’s indicate that the patient has fully formed breasts, and the skeletal structure of a female. Testes are undescended, and penile growth is severely stunted. MRI also reveals a fully formed vaginal canal, covered and sealed by a flap of skin”

“What are you saying, Doctor?” asked Gail. Cody is a girl?

“Not genetically. Sequencing indicates Cody is a genetic male. I suspect Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, or PAIS. Basically, Cody’s body responds poorly to testosterone, almost not at all. It’s pretty easy to miss if you’re not looking for it. You would have found it when Cody didn’t develop male characteristics normally. His kidnappers didn’t know this either, giving him way more estrogen than he could use. There is some liver damage, but it’s slight. I don’t know how he avoided more damage”

“Can it be reversed?” Asked Greg.

“No. His body simply won’t respond to testosterone. And, the testes have been damaged. They need to be removed to avoid the possibility of cancer. I’m doing this procedure as soon as possible”

Justin and Cassie were stunned. Cassie thought back to what Cody used to say, that he wanted to be like her. It suddenly clicked. Tears rolled down her face, but she said nothing. Justin just listened, taking it all in.

Agent Rodgers spoke up. ‘Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, I obtained a log of the chats that lured Cody to the perp. He spoke of feeling wrong, like he was in the wrong body. He was confused but didn’t want to disappoint the family. He just wanted someone to talk to. Someone who he thought would understand what he was going through”

“But…” Gail started.

“It’s not your fault. No one knows what could have happened. Based on what I know now, your son could have been transgendered. I don’t know. But he was curious, and was preyed upon. The fault lies with the bastard who did this”

The door opened, and a tall woman strode in. She was shapely, with dark hair and piercing green eyes. She looked about fifty, but with a weariness that said she wasn’t that old. “Bastard indeed. I’m Doctor Francine Davis, and I’m the one who is going to see to the unseen side of this case. Cody’s mind. But please, Dr. Franks, forgive my interruption. Please continue.”

Dr. Franks smiled. He liked and respected Dr. Davis. “Very well. In conclusion. The physical side of this case will be resolved within the week. In 48 hours, I’ll bring the patient out of the coma. Then Dr. Davis will be on. Any questions?”

“So Cody will be okay?” asked Cassie.

“Physically weak for now but yes, okay. I could give you a lot of other medical mumbo jumbo, but suffice it to say, I’ve given you the pertinent facts. And now, I need to get back to my patients. Dr. Davis?”

“Thank you, Dr. Franks. She stood from her chair and walked over to the window. "Now, down to business. I’ve spent the last four days reviewing the facts of this case. The perpetrator videotaped everything, which made my job both easier and a lot harder. I’m operating on about three hours of sleep, and am not going to pull any punches. I know how you all must feel right now and…”

“You have no idea how I feel” said Greg with as much venom as he could muster. He was tired of being pushed around by doctors.

Francine’s gaze fixed on Greg. “So I don’t know how you feel, huh?”

“April third, 1992, Mr. Phillips. A pair of twin girls, named Zoe and Kallie. MY five year old twin girls. Stolen from my house while I was on a date with my husband. My 15 year old niece Alison was babysitting. She was raped and murdered then decapitated. Her head was placed on the kitchen table” She paused, her eyes narrowing to slits. ”Kallie was found floating in a nearby river three weeks later. They had to identify her by dental records. Zoe was never found. The people, if you can call them that, that committed the crime, were never caught”

She sighed, the sigh of someone who has seen too much hate and death in her life. She continued.

“I’d give everything I own, my very life to get my little girls and my niece back. I lost my husband to suicide a year later to the day. So, yeah, I kinda know how you feel, Mr. Phillips. Do you know how I feel? You found your child,so don’t think you have the market cornered on grief”

Cassie moved next to her mother, and the two of them hugged each other and wept. Justin wiped his eyes and looked out the window. Greg hung his head. “I’m so sorry, Doctor. I’m just a little crazy right now”

“I told you I’m not pulling any punches. Your child has been manipulated by a master of psychological warfare. Someone who regularly broke hardened terrorists for a living. A thirteen year old gender confused young child was nothing for him. The person you knew as Cody effectively died within two weeks of captivity, never to return. The best we can do now is to forge a new child from to ashes of the destroyed one, and help your entire family to heal”

She sat down, pulling out an electronic cigarette. “I have spent the last three days reviewing every second of video that Steele shot. I puked four times. I watched your child break, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips. I watched your child suffer. No matter how professional I try to be, nothing prepares me to watch another human being suffer”

Justin’s head dropped. He was a very reserved person ever since Cody’s disappearance. This was hard on him. Cassie was leaning her head on her mother’s shoulder, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.

“What will happen to my baby, Doctor?” asked Gail, almost whispering.

“I’m going to use everything I have in my bag of tricks to see that your daughter grows into a healthy woman”

“But he’s a boy. My boy” said a chastened Greg.

“That ship has sailed, Mr. Phillips. Cody is dead, replaced by a girl who thinks her name is ‘Slut’. I’m sorry, folks, but I’m too tired to be diplomatic. I’m calling her Amber for now, but that is just the stage name they gave her for the videos they shot to sell, mostly custom videos that are being tracked right now to the buyers”

“Guys, she doesn’t appear to remember you, from what I’ve been able to glean from the training videos. Oh, the memories are still there, buried deep, but the things she was made to do and the shame she feels for doing them has made her feel like a leper, so to speak. I’m going to try to bring those good memories back, and hopefully get her to deal with all the crap she has endured to this point”

She drummed her fingers on the conference table. “I’m going to be honest here. I’ve seen this kind of abuse just three times previously. You all have a long road to recovery. I’ll do the best I can, but I’ll need your help”

Greg looked at his wife, who nodded. It was the wordless communication that only people who have shared everything for a long time had.

“Okay, Doc. We’re in”

“We’re doing all that can be done right now” added Janine. “Why don’t you get settled in at the hotel, and we can start fresh tomorrow”

“I want to see Cody” said Gail. “We all do”

“I’ll take you up to her room, and Dr. Franks can handle it from there”

The family went with Janine and Dr. Davis to the ninth floor ICU where Cody was. Dr. Franks was there to meet them. They could see a figure with long dark hair on the hospital bed there were several IV lines hooked up to the girl on the bed.

“Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, I’ve got to go for another round of interrogation with Steele. I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Dr. Davis”

“Can I go in?” asked Gail.

“Sure. Not too long though, okay?”

Gail and Greg crept into the room. Cody looked like he was sleeping peacefully.

Gail couldn’t get over how much he had changed, but she still recognized him. Or was it him? Cody was beautiful…but thin. She needed to eat. Wait…did she just think of her son as a girl?

“Greg, I’m so confused. He’s so pretty. What are we going to do?” Gail whispered.

“I don’t know hon. I don’t know. I’m just as confused as you are. Seeing Cody lying there, that way, I don’t know. Part of me wants to cut his hair and get my boy back” He sighed. “I guess that isn’t going to happen, is it? It's not that simple any more” Tears started down his face.
Gail leaned on her husband. “We’ll figure it out, Greg. We’ve got our child back, and that’s all that matters”

Cassie and Justin got to see Cody for a few minutes and came out shaken, but also amazed at the change.

Cassie was shaking. “I can’t believe it. Cody’s so pretty. I don’t understand any of this. Why would someone do this?”

Francine was staring through the window at the child on the bed. “Who knows? There are a lot of bad people in this world. I wonder sometimes if there’s something like that in all of us. But we’ll get your sibling back” She added, almost to herself, “We have to”

County Jail

Janine came in to the interrogation room, and Steele was already there, in his orange jail jumpsuit. His attorney was present, Mr. Dan English, who should have been way outside Steele’s price range, and quite frankly, Janine thought, should have known better.

“I’ve advised my client not to say anything” English announced to start things off right.

“Wonderful, counselor. Already earning your fee, I see” replied Agent Dubois. “However, given the amount of evidence we already have on your client, I don’t think that is the best course in this case”

“I’ve already filed a Motion to Suppress on all of the video evidence collected”

Dubois rolled his eyes. “Outstanding, counselor. On what grounds, may I ask?”

“That they were illegally obtained, of course”

Janine acted as if she wanted to say something, but Marcus raised his hand. “Good luck with that, Mr. English. Now, Mr. Steele, I have several pictures I want you to look at. All children missing since 2003. All identified as being from videos that were shot at your ranch in Texas. I’d like to ask you to do the right thing here, for a change. Give their families some closure”

Steele smirked. “What’s in it for me, Agent Dubois? A larger cell? More of the shitty institutional food I’ll receive?”

Janine had had enough of this jackass. “The satisfaction of knowing that you did something that made us think you aren’t a complete and total waste of humanity”

Steele smiled thinly. “Ahhhh, Janine. I knew you couldn’t keep your big mouth shut for long. Tell you what; I’ll look at your pictures. Maybe something will come to mind. After all, what you think of me is sooo important”

Marcus slid the first picture over to Steele. “Juan Herrera. Disappeared 2003”

Marcus slid the pictures over in rapid succession, giving the names of each child. Fourteen children, the oldest, thirteen at the time of disappearance. “Where are they, Steele?”

John Steele looked at the pictures carefully and smiled, clearly remembering with fondness the hell he put each one of them through.

“You’re wasting your time, Agent Dubois. My client won’t incriminate himself”

Then without warning, Steele started sliding the photos back to Marcus in rapid fire succession.
“Land fill, land fill, land fill, dumped in the Rio Grande, fed to buzzards, fed to dogs, land fill, land fill, burned, burned, land fill, fed to coyotes, land fill”

“Mr. Steele! I told you not to say anything!” exclaimed English.

Steele dismissed English with a wave of his hand. “Shut up, Dan. You work for me, remember?”

Marcus could barely contain his smile. “What about the last one?”

Steele was still looking at the picture of the one he called “Slut”

“Ahhh, yes. Slut. So perfect. It was my greatest triumph. My Eliza Doolittle, so to speak. It was so flexible, so yielding”
He paused, as if remembering a pleasant memory. “Best one I ever had. I could tie it into a pretzel and it would still be ready for more. I don’t think I ever broke it completely. Slut was always trying to please, to avoid more punishment, but that was what I wanted. It always had something in the eyes…that little flower of hope that all of it would be over someday”

He chuckled evilly. “But of course, the torment would never be over. Not for it”

Steele sighed wistfully. “I couldn’t have killed it. I sold it to a Sheik from Bahrain. He paid eight hundred thousand in gold for it”

Marcus was listening intently. “Eight hundred thousand in gold? When were you due to deliver her?”

“Yesterday. And he doesn’t take to losing very well especially when the payment has already been made. I’d watch Slut if I were you, or it’s liable to end up in a harem getting fucked in the ass by a closeted homo smelly Ahab the Arab” he laughed at that, though no one in the room found it the least bit funny.

His lawyer was just shaking his head, wondering why he took the nutcase as a client. “Mr. Steele, I must advise you to stop talking at this point”

“Why? I’ll never spend a minute in prison. I wasn’t joking about my organization. We help each other out, and plans are already in place for my release from custody”

“You’re not going anywhere, Steele” replied Janine.

“Maybe, maybe not. But you had better watch your new little flower closely. You know what they say? ‘Money talks’? A lot of money and misplaced pride say that a certain little slut better watch her step. And you had better watch them too” He leaned back in his chair, obviously proud of himself.

“I’m done now” He added with a note of finality.

“This interview is over, folks” said English, who was obviously furious with his client.

“Fine with me” added Marcus. “I’ve got all I need for now”

Steele was led out of the room by two uniformed police officers.

“Janine, I want a guard on that kid, 24/7 until I say different. Got it? Steele may be full of shit, but I’m not taking any chances”

Janine was already on her phone. “Yes sir, I’m on it now. I’m heading back to the hospital to get the security detail in order”

The two men got their disguises in order. They had obtained their credentials to the ICU unit from their contact inside the hospital. Prince Farouk was paying them well and wanted the girl out of the hospital and in his palace within 48 hours.

Somewhere in the city

“Amin? What is so important about this girl?” asked Hamid.

“I neither know nor care. The little faggot is probably getting another little love slave to make his father happy. Let’s get going and get this over with”

To Be Continued