One - Taste of Hell

The Approach

The Asia Pacific team was led by a Chinese woman named Wing. Most would called her, the diplomat, who took over the lead position in Asia from her sister, Biyu. Where Biyu was an in your face negotiator, her sister took the controlled law based approach.

The first meeting with the owner was one of posturing. With government officials and local law enforcement paid hush money, Fadhlan, the owner was very confident with his position. The People sent Wing and three other representatives to the meeting confronting the offenders where they operated deep in the forest.

The team demanded their friends and fellow countrymen to be released from their contracts. But the two women, two men team were held captive at an unknown location and left to die.

The Search

Jordan traveled to the heart of a heavily wooded forest in search of the negotiating team. There in a clearing was the five story factory, six poorly constructed buildings for the workers and two well maintained buildings for the iron fisted management.

The workers were under threat of imprisonment if they were to leave and break their contract. With the support of the local police and politicians the contracts between worker and business would be upheld. The real reason they built the factory where they did.

The team was held in the detention area known as "the pit" for out of line workers and disrupters. It was a thirty foot natural depression in the landscape modified so escape was virtually impossible. Three workers were in the pit with the four member team.

The trees around the pit were so dense that screams for help would never be heard. This was a place where they put people to die slowly collecting the bodies when they passed. Management was ruthless in their approach to quieting worker dissention.

Jordan arrived at the factory in the forest seven days after the team was not heard from. She traveled light with very little food, a change of clothes and a satellite phone in her backpack. With no contact from the team she would proceed with extreme caution.

Jordan concealed the motorcycle in heavy brush then watched the workers and their iron fisted managers. The workers seemed to be drained of energy, unhappy and without hope. The Unlikely Assassin hated to see humans in this state of being.

The shift changes were hectic with people having to eat and do laundry before they slept. Long exhausting shifts seemed to deplete life from the workers. The women simply pulled their hair back into a ponytail. Their clothes were simple and durable.

Jordan watched a huge truck drive in with cigarettes and food supplies for the factory workers. Huge bags of rice and a few bags of soup bones were unloaded by workers. There were no signs of gardening which seemed strange to Jordan.

The Unlikely Assassin messed her hair up then tied it back into a ponytail. She slipped into one of the housing units that were so packed with bodies it was difficult to move around.

She stood out for the cleanliness of her clothes. "Hey! You must be new here." A voice from inside a room called out to Jordan.

Jordan turned, "just off the truck."

"Right." The woman scoffed. "Planted by the owners to weed out any disruptors."

Jordan knew she had to speak to this woman and entered the room. "Well a few things are certain. I am not a worker, I am not planted by the owners and I am looking for my team."

"What team?" The woman was skeptical. "Where are you from?"

Jordan sat close to the Indonesian woman. "Two Indonesian men from Pontianak and two Chinese women. They were sent here to negotiate a new contract."

"Right. No one cares what happens to us. We are out here in the forest to make things we can not use. We are searched every day, beaten when we work slow and fed nothing but broth and rice. Not even allowed to grow vegetables." The woman was visibly upset and disbelieving of the young woman in front of her.

"I understand you do not believe what I am saying but a message made its way to me from this very factory!" Jordan felt time was of great importance to the team and to change the future of these workers. "Do you know a worker named, Suli?"

"There are many that go by Suli. I still think you are working for them!" The woman stood and pulled at Jordan's arm. "Get out of here!" She did not have the strength to pull the Unlikely Assassin from the bed.

"Save your strength for your future." Jordan was not moving until the woman believed her. "Tell me about your life here. Who are you? Where are you from?"

The woman could not believe the strength of Jordan. "You are not with them? They would not ask questions like this." The woman kicked at the door. It closed. "I am Diah from a village near Endia. I know this forest. The smells, the animals and the river."

"I am Weidan. How long has it been since you have seen your village?" Jordan's interest in her life looked to surprise the woman.

Diah looked away thinking of the home she missed. "Eight years. I was fourteen when they convinced my parents to sell me and ease their burden." She did not blame her parents as the woman shrugged. "They were poor."

"I call the person that bought you a trader. Buying children and selling them to companies like C3." Jordan explained further. "I hunt traders, my team negotiates better terms with these companies and I make the trader retire. Permanently." The look in the Unlikely Assassin's eyes told Diah she meant every word.

"My life must be a taste of hell. Can you see the emptiness in our eyes? We know we will die here. I have this rock in my stomach. I can not relax." There were no tears, just an anger directed at herself. "I am nothing." She pounded her fist into her thigh.

"Diah, those are the reasons I am here. Now I need to find my team. Who can help me?" Jordan looked at her new allie. "They have not been in contact with anyone for a week."

"Amanda is the only one I trust. She is the only one. Everyone else will sell us out for real food." Diah pressed her hand onto Jordan's knee. "Stay! I will bring her to you."

Jordan looked at the room with six triple bunk beds sleeping at least thirty women in shifts. No need for dressers or closets, only shelves for their meager possessions.

One women returned to her room with Jordan standing between the two rows of bunks. "You must be new." She pointed to a bunk. "That is the only open bed for a day shifter. All new women start on the day shift."

"Thank you. I am, Weidan." Jordan used her Chinese name and graciously sat. "You work the day shift?"

"I die on the day shift. You really are new here." The woman looked Jordan over. "My name is not important, but I go by Rara. You are old for a new worker. And skinny. You will not last long, Weidan."

"I don't plan on staying long." Jordan suggested.

"I said those very words ten years ago. And I was plump." She pulled her shirt up. Rara had no body fat and very little muscle remaining. She looked like a walking corpse.

Jordan sat quietly knowing that the time was now to find the team and make the badly needed changes here. Just then Amanda followed Diah into the room who was surprised at the presence of her roommate. "Rara, we need the room to talk." She just looked to the open door.

"She stays." Jordan stood. "We will need to trust others, Diah. She stays."

"Weidan, she may sell us out!" Diah looked at her roommate then demanded she sit. "Not a word from you to anyone!" She closed the door. "Weidan this is Amanda."

"Hey." Jordan was not wasting any time and began to speak to Amanda. "My team arrived about a week ago for a meeting with the owner. I fear it went badly and they were taken somewhere. Two Indonesian men. Two Chinese women."

The look on Amanda's face was grim. "I remember the four had a meeting in the house overlooking the valley. It was not a long meeting and they were taken south." She paused before painfully letting the location known to Jordan. "To the pit."

"Seven days in the pit will kill people." Diah shook her head. "They are dead!"

Jordan looked to Amanda, "where exactly is the pit?"

"They guard it. No one can get near to help. You will not save your friends!" Amanda held no hope for the team.

"Where?" Jordan pressed her again.

"South, about three miles. But they will kill you before you even get close." Amanda looked to the Unlikely Assassin.

Jordan could smell a distinct odor on Amanda. "Diah, keep this woman here. She will betray you and stop me from getting to the pit!"

"What? No!" Amanda protested.

"How do you know, Weidan?" Diah needed an explanation.

"She just had sex." Jordan was adamant. "Keep her here!" She turned to Amanda. "Betray me and I will put you in the pit!"

"I have to survive too!" Amanda was defiant.

"Should never be at the cost of those around you!" Jordan added. "Tie her up and gage her."

Jordan ran south, her mind focused, her senses heightened. Her pace was brisk, her breathing, composed. She chose a furtive final approach over speed.

Jordan stopped and collected information from her senses. She could smell at least three men on the air. She heard hear idle chatter and could see the small clearing fifty yards ahead.

With no weapons she waited for her moment to gain the advantage. As she edged ever closer to the clearing and to the voices there was a rustling in a bush. Jordan pressed her body against the nearest tree, listened and watched for the emerging life form.

A striped rabbit exited the brush followed by guard who rushed by Jordan fleeing from an oncoming Sumatran tiger. Shots were fired by other guards trying to protect their friend. Two more guards ran past not six feet away but their attention was clearly fixated elsewhere.

Jordan's final approach was still cautious knowing there could still be more company guards. She was at the small clearing and the pit. She crawled to the edge of the pit emitting the stench of death into the air.

She looked down into the darkness and with a suppressed voice called out. "Wing! Yue!" She repeated. "Wing! Yue!"

Jordan heard a man's voice. "I believe they are dead!"

Jordan slowly rolled onto her backpack to see a weapon pointed directly into her face. "Oh hey!" She smiled as she thought of her options.

A stone flew past the man's head, then another. Jordan grabbed the barrel of the weapon. With both hands he tried to aim the rifle at Jordan but was not successful. She hooked her left foot around his right knee pulling it towards her then drove her right heel into his left knee.

The man yelled as his knee dislocated with ligaments stretching then snapping. Jordan ripped the weapon from him slamming the metal butt into his jaw. He was dazed but he Unlikely Assassin rose to her feet and struck the man again with such force his orbital bone shattered. He fell to the ground and laid motionless at the edge of the pit.

Jordan spoke down into the abyss. "Wing?!" But had to find cover hearing the snapping of debris on the forest floor. She quickly made her way to far side of the pit anticipating the men returning to the screams of their friend.

She slipped behind a large tree and watched as the tiger swiped the trailing leg of the running guard tripping him up. The grip on his weapon was lost and the tiger pounced pressing its huge front paws on his shoulders.

As the tiger opened its jaws shots rang out sporadically from the other guard returning to help his friend. The tiger looked back over its shoulder to the approaching man.

Jordan took a single shot from 100 yards, shot the man in his throat and as he fell to his knees holding his bloody neck. The Unlikely Assassin fired once more and he expired before his face hit the dirt.

The tiger turned back to the guard laying face down, opened its jaw again this time crushing the man's skull. Jordan set the weapon down and walked to the huge animal.

The tiger released the guard and walked towards Jordan stepping on the crushed skull flattening it even further. It offered a huff to Jordan and brushed her with it body then its tail as if to say thank you.

Jordan watched the Sumatran tiger disappear into the heavy forest then ran back to the pit. "Wing! Yue!"

"We are here, Jordan! Hungry, but alive." Wing shouted.

"There will be more guards! We must get out of here now or our fate is sealed!" The young Indonesian woman yelled. "The ladder! Slide the ladder down!"

Jordan pulled the thirty five foot ladder to the edge and slid it down. Wing, Yue, the two men and three workers destined to die rose from the depths to see daylight again and freedom.