Nikolai was returning home after a business trip. He had attended an important meeting with investors, which played a significant role for his company. The travel time dragged on. Bulky clouds gathered overhead, and the sun was setting beyond the horizon.
On the road, he saw a girl standing in the middle of the highway. Cars passed here about once or twice an hour, yet here was a person sitting on the shoulder. Nikolai decided to stop and ask if she needed help.
«Quick, please, get out of here. I’ll explain everything now,» the girl said, holding her breath.
She slammed the door and started looking for the door lock but couldn’t find it because the car was one of the latest models and very expensive. She had never encountered such cars before.
«Please lock the doors, I beg you,» she asked the man, constantly looking around.
Nikolai understood that something serious had happened. He silently continued driving, and the car automatically locked the doors as soon as he moved off.
About 5 minutes later, a black SUV appeared in the rearview mirror.
«Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve seen any cars on the road,» the man said, trying to lighten the mood and start a conversation with the girl.
The girl, turning around, began to panic:
«They are them, they. Drive faster, don’t hand me over to them, I beg you. I have money at home, I’ll give you everything, just drive.»
Her voice became very soft, as if from disarray and the feeling that she would return to where she had managed to escape… She pressed herself into the seat, lowered herself in the hope that they wouldn’t be noticed if the SUV caught up with them.
Seeing the girl’s reaction, Nikolai pressed the gas pedal «to the floor.» The car was modern, new, and powerful. It was no trouble for him to accelerate to over 200 km/h within seconds and pull away from the old SUV.
Realizing that the pursuers’ car was behind and definitely wouldn’t catch up, Nikolai slowed down and started the conversation.
«Who are they? What happened? Why are you running? And what’s your name?» he asked, looking at the girl sinking into the chair with a pale, tired face.
«They… They held me against my will…» said the girl, barely gathering herself. «I’m Darina,» she added.
Nikolai sped up to reach the city faster.
«Can I know what happened? Who are they? Where were you?» he asked, trying to get any information.
The girl exhaled, and her look, full of fear and pain, seemed to pierce Nikolai through.
«I was invited to work as a nanny,» her voice trembled, «and then… It turned out it wasn’t a job. It was a trap. They took me to an abandoned village, to a plantation. There were other people working there, just like me. We were like slaves, forced to pick tomatoes in the fields, we couldn’t get out. And then, when I managed to escape, I just ran. I ran to the highway hoping someone would notice me. But everyone just drove past… Until you stopped.»
Nikolai listened to the girl in silence and tried not to interrupt her.
«Do you… Do you really think they’ll look for you in the city? And where are you from, anyway?» he asked with concern in his voice.
«I’m sure, in my hometown, where they took me from. They will definitely look for me until they calm down. I can’t go back there. I live in a small town in the Rostov region,» said the girl.
«Wow, that’s far,» thought Nikolai to himself, who had picked up the girl on a Siberian road, heading to Novosibirsk.
Nikolai sped up again to reach the nearest town or village to report everything to the police or a local officer, who could call for backup. The girl dozed off in the meantime.
Turning off the highway onto a dirt road, the girl woke up.
«Please, take me further. Don’t call the police here and don’t talk to anyone. They’ve bought everyone, I saw how they brought new people with blindfolded eyes in a car with flashing lights,» she said.
Nikolai couldn’t wrap his head around the thought that even the police could be involved in this. But the girl had no reason to lie, so he continued driving.
Having reached the city, Nikolai took Darina straight to the hospital. It was late, but a doctor was on duty. He examined the girl and gave her several injections, after which the girl began to fall asleep.
«It’s a sedative, she needs it now, don’t worry. She’ll be as fresh as a cucumber in the morning,» said the on-duty doctor.
When Darina came to, Nikolai was already waiting in the hospital with investigators. Nikolai had a serious scale business, so he had connections everywhere.. He turned to his friend to help organize a quiet dispatch of operatives to Darina.
«Don’t be afraid, Darin, these are good people. They are my friends. Tell them what you remember about the place where they held you,» said Kolya, addressing the girl.
«There were about 15-20 of us, we took turns, so to speak. While some picked tomatoes, others sorted and packed them. There were a lot of greenhouses, just a huge number. I didn’t even see a fence, everything was in the greenhouses. But yesterday they sent me to the far end, which was out of sight of the people guarding us, so I chose the right moment and ran away. I didn’t run very long, there was a forest right away. I wandered through it for some time and came out onto the road,» the girl recounted, remembering small details.
«Okay, Serega, look, here’s about where I picked her up,» Nikolai addressed his friend, the operative. «So, their plantation is somewhere nearby.»
«Let’s take a look,» replied Sergey.
They opened a map app on their phone, choosing a display type that allowed them to see the entire landscape from the satellite. Even though the photos were old, they could narrow down the search area this way.
Two plots fit the size and description. They decided to go there in a civilian car to visually check each of them. Chapter 5. The First Clue
Nikolai took a work car, Sergey dressed in a tracksuit, and they drove to the coordinates.
The first place was immediately dismissed, as there was a stable and a huge area for horse grazing there. Darina would have mentioned the smell that spread from a large number of animals.
But suspicions arose immediately about the second place. The men decided not to rush in and returned to the city, where Sergey began preparing an operation to detain the suspects. He needed grounds for this, and then Darina wrote a statement, the police couldn’t start working without publicity.
Arriving at the scene, Sergey found nothing suspicious. There were only tracks from cars that had clearly been there not too long ago. They called in dog handlers and waited.
The dogs discovered people by scent, who were locked in a dug-out hut. But none of the organizers were found. They rescued about 12 people from there who clearly needed medical help.
Half a year later, none of the kidnappers were found.
Nikolai, who had once saved Darina’s life, now took on changing her life. He hired her at his company as a manager for selling bottled water in large volumes.
