The Trade

Small candles nestled in a silver candelabrum are ceremoniously lit to announce the start of a medieval auction. Sadly, however, we are not in the middle ages but in the first decade of this century. The auction is a nightly event somewhere in Eastern Europe. On the block are naked teenage girls, the latest casualties of the global flesh market. These sex slaves are not fiction: "Natasha girls" already number over a million, an atrocity that has joined weapons smuggling and drug trafficking as one of the largest and most lucrative criminal activities on earth.Krist羸na Sondheim, at age 16, was among the first Natasha girls, but managed to break free of her captor and begin a new life in the States. That life turns ugly when she is sentenced to 25 years for the murders of her husband and young daughter ��murders she did not commit. The novel opens with Krist羸na�� breathtaking escape from Abbyville, a women�� prison built on land adjacent to Sing Sing. All we know at this point is that there is some link between the prologue and this remarkable woman; and that she knows her daughter, who witnessed Arthur Sondheim�� murder, is alive somewhere in Eastern Europe.Krist羸na becomes the focus of both the public and the FBI because of her escape. What is not known is that she and her little girl are also the focus of Stepan Obruchev, the man from whose sexual servitude she had escaped, the man responsible for her husband�� murder, her daughter�� kidnapping and the set-up that landed her in prison. Obruchev, one of the Trade's major players, has contacts everywhere. He must find the girl, Teresa, who knows too much. He must find Krist羸na before she is hunted down by Interpol. She will lead him to the child; he will have his revenge while eliminating the threat that he will be revealed ��both as a killer and a kingpin in the Trade. Thus begins an international race across continents, a frantic attempt by Krist羸na to evade both Obruchev and the law in order to rescue her daughter. Her heart-stopping quest takes her and the FBI on a terrifying journey into the bowels of the Natasha Trade. In Genoa, Special Agent Connor and his international team have her cornered. Krist羸na again escapes; her courage and cunning evoke the most suspenseful scenes in The Fugitive. With the help of Natasha rescue groups throughout Europe, she spots her ragged daughter traveling with a tribe of Gypsies. Connor becomes convinced he is dealing with more than an escaped convict. His attention shifts to the Russian Mafia, the seedy criminal element calling the shots in the former East Bloc. He learns who Obruchev is, learns that he is looking for Krist羸na. Together with the Austrian police he carries out a sting to penetrate Obruchev's operation in Slovenia. Posing as an insatiable buyer of teenage girls, he picks up the evil man's trail. What has been kept from the reader to this point is that Obruchev's auctioneer, Rasputin, a fake priest and castrato, seeks to dominate his inferiors - those driven by lust. What better way to do this than to set up Obruchev for the cops and take over his business? Rasputin kidnaps Teresa before her mother can free her. In a note tied to Teresa's dog, Krist羸na learns of a farm in Slovenia where she must go to find her daughter. Rasputin sends the same message to Obruchev, knowing the FBI will follow. All roads lead to the farm, desolate and enveloped in fog, for a nail-biting yet ultimately exhilarating denouement.