Page 36 of Wed
"Morning." Carter smiled. "I hear you're sending Beau and the kids back home."
"It's safer for them there and Beau needs his equipment. I'm sending Faith and Becca back too, and will have Trenton and Ben go. We need someone there on our computers if we need information."
"Do we have plans yet? Any idea what we're going to be doing here?"
"Not yet. It will depend on the information you guys have gathered. Do we have names? Anything to work with?"
"We do. Several of them. Matt's gathering it all together for you as we speak." Carter pulled up a chair while Archer leaned against the edge of the desk. "I think we could go after a few of them safely. We've figured out two CPS workers who are involved and we have the name of the officer who transferred Lenora to the Diaz group."
"How much information do we have? It has to be solid."
"I have text messages from the foster father that Xander took out. His name was Jerome Benton. His phone had everything. He communicated with all of them and kept everything on his phone. Looks like this has been going on for at least three years. Maybe longer, but that's as far back as the chat history went. It sounds like the officer might be taking advantage of having access to the children as well. It appears he would borrow the girls for overnight trips to his home from time to time. Even talk of him keeping one he particularly liked for a month or two." Carter sighed. "She was six."
"Fuck." Bryon ran his fingers through his hair. "Let's have a meeting with everyone staying here and talk about what we want to do. I stick to our team rules of if we don't have solid evidence, we don't go in. We have to have proof. Without facts, we don't even consider moving in. I need physical evidence. Something we can leave behind or get to the authorities we trust. I can't just accept text messages."
"We are working on that now. Matt's managed to get into the officer's home computer and is going to be working on the CPS worker's computers next. We have more than enough to go after the police officer and enough to go after Jason Wagstaff. The trouble with Jason is he's rich enough to have security and cameras everywhere," Archer informed him.
"That doesn't make it impossible, just harder." Bryon smiled. "But we have to be careful. Unlike back home, we don't have access to all the traffic cameras and information. There are more cameras in Vegas than in any federal prison. I won't put the team at risk if there's a chance one of us will be seen on camera."
"Let me go gather the troops." Archer pushed off the desk. "Back in a few."
"Thanks." Bryon looked up at Carter once Archer was gone. "Am I crazy for even considering acting on any of this?"
"I don't think so. If we have solid evidence that they're continually abusing children, they have to be stopped. I don't like the fact we don't have equipment though. What are we going to do, go in and kill them?"
"You won't see me shed a tear if they all die." Bryon shrugged. "But you're right. We aren't killers. There are times it's necessary, but only in extreme circumstances. Xander was right to kill the other night, but it's not something we're in the habit of doing. I don't want to leave a trail of bodies behind. That will draw more attention than anything. Castrating them will make others in the business more scared than death would."
"Which brings us to the next problem. We don't have equipment. I was thinking about having Archer and me ride back with Beau. We'll gather the stuff we need and head straight back. If things go right, we can be back by tomorrow morning."
"You'll need some sleep," Bryon argued.
"One of us can sleep while the other drives there, and the other can sleep as the other drives back. Archer and I are used to long hours without rest. We'll be okay. It's only a four-hour drive each way. We could catch a few hours before we head back if we wanted to. You won't be doing anything until tomorrow night at the earliest anyway." Carter rubbed his chin. "I can get everything we need including guns, medication, clothing, and other equipment."
"Archer is up for the trip?" Bryon asked.
"It was his idea." Carter grinned. "The Denver team is also working to collect evidence for us. There is a list of names connected to Wagstaff and his all-night parties. Many of the men are local. They've found images of the parties shared on the dark web. We may have enough to take down several big names in the area if you want to go that far. There are rumors of girls being kept at Wagstaff's place, but I can't confirm that. The chatter is that he invites guests over to meet his girls almost nightly. He's the one I want to take down the most. There are rumors he also has girls being held at a location near Niagara Falls. If we find evidence of that, we'll leave it for the authorities to deal with."
"That area sure seems to be coming up a lot recently. Didn't we have something not long ago around the Finger Lakes?"
"Yep, that was a large trafficking group that was holding kids there and running actions. It's always been a hot trafficking area, but it's getting even more popular as of late. Maybe we need to set up a new team in Ontario."
Bryon laughed. "If only we had the teams to do that. I hate to say it, but we aren't getting any younger. Most of us are ready to retire. The Denver team is doing great, but I don't see us setting up another any time soon." He reached for his now cold cup of coffee. "Okay, go back with Beau. Get what we need. Talk to Xander and Kacey and have them give you a list of what they'll need."
Archer nodded.
"You called a meeting, Boss?" Kacey walked into the room, followed by Noam, Xander, and Matt.
"I did. Take a seat." He gestured to the chairs surrounding the large desk he sat behind. "The others coming?"
"We're here." Trenton walked in followed by Ben. "Beau and Parson aren't coming. He didn't want to leave Eric."
"That's fine." Bryon quickly pulled out a notepad so he could keep everything straight.
"Here are the files we have currently. Dyson and Jeremy are collecting more as we speak and will be sending it over once they've got everything in order." Matt handed Bryon several file folders.
"Thanks. We'll get to these in a minute." He set the files on the desk. Trying to think of everything they had to talk about, he stared out over the group. "First, thanks for sticking around and helping us follow up on this. I know it's not the vacation you planned on. Things are still fluid as we get more information in, but as of now, there is a strong chance we are going to at least try and take down a few of the players in the area. We will not be going after Diaz and his group. They're too large and we're too outnumbered. It would be a suicide mission. We'll leave that up to the big boys who have the manpower and military-grade equipment behind them. Beau has requested to return home with Eric. He needs care that Beau isn't able to provide here and getting him to a hospital here will cause questions we can't answer and just have the boy thrown back into the system once he heals." Bryon leaned back in his chair. "I'm sending Faith and Becca back with him, along with Lenora and Andy. Parson will work on finding out if they have any friends or family in Michigan who might take them in. Trenton and Ben, I want you to go back with them. I need someone on our computers and need someone we trust to secure the members at the team house."
Ben nodded. "I can handle that."
