The Protector Read Online Free PDF

broken English.
    “To help my friend.”
    She shook her head. “Oh, he in big trouble. I tell Interpol people he give me money and say he want room. I sign papers. Interpol agents also sign papers, tell what they see in room.”
    “Okay, that makes sense. Have you ever been told not to sign any papers?”
    She smiled slyly. “Of course,” she replied. Hell, if she had to release the guy, she might as well have some fun. “Old woman smart. Never give things for free.”
    “How much?”
    She leaned close and whispered sotto voce , “I always ask for kiss. Some GI, no problem. Some GI, they rather go to jail.” She cackled.
    Hawk laughed aloud. “That’s the price?” he asked, his eyes thoughtful.
    “That’s only for all GI number ten. For all GI number one, I have special offer,” she told him airily, enjoying herself now, wondering how far she dared to push this. She wanted to test these two grunts who were so important that their leader had managed to contact her operations chief.
    “And what is that?”
    “You have to give time. Old woman thinks slow.”
    “No problem, but I have a favor to ask.”
    “What?”
    “You find me that girl Rose, the one Jazz took to the back room. I want to give her more cash to help her out.”
    Now that was unexpected. She was intrigued. These two men seemed genuinely concerned about Rose.
    Later that day, after getting out of her disguise, Vivi went to the Interpol office to start the usual paperwork. As Hawk had said, everything was done in clockwork fashion, down to the part where many of the prisoners would be released without being punished. Their commanding officers always assured that the men would face punishment in their respective military courts but Vivi knew very little was done.
    She felt disgusted at the system, and helpless. But her employer was satisfied for now—the crimes were stopped andthey had data for evidence, important facts that would help them get the UN recognition and funding they desperately needed. The big picture was more important, they’d told her.
    Not today. She had new orders from her own agency.
    Pushing the authorization papers aside, Vivi gestured to the girl waiting patiently on the nearby sofa. She pressed the intercom. “Send the comptroller in,” she said. “Rose, come with me to the window.”
    Rose obediently got off the sofa and followed her. The “detainees” were given a little time in the small courtyard for fresh air. As usual, the UN had special terms—the men weren’t “prisoners” because they hadn’t broken any local law. Only their own countries could charge and bring them to trial.
    Vivi could recite the UN directive by heart, all ten paragraphs of weaving passages that had nothing to do with the crime. Instead, the whole process was slowed down by paperwork that didn’t do a thing to end the purpose of the directive—to curtail the encouragement of prostitution of minor children in Third World countries by citizens from developed countries. As far as she was concerned, people who traveled to poor countries to prey on children should be the targets. Instead, she had these men down there in the courtyard, most of them young and stupid, like kids driving drunk for the first time.
    It didn’t excuse what they did or had planned to do. She understood the corruption that went along with the business of war. Someone who started walking down a tainted path would most likely continue, and soldiers who treated children like pieces of meat should be punished.
    But she also knew they weren’t. Not by their governments, anyhow. They would be whisked away as soon as their superiors found out what had happened, with no one the wiser. Unless there was a major fuck-up, like the couple of soldiers raping a teenager in Japan, there wouldn’t be any black marks in these men’s records. In the Japanese case, alleyes had been watching and the soldiers were taken through the system.
    Vivi studied the men from behind the