"Alright, what can I do for you?" Chin asked, as they dropped into chairs.
Steve dug his phone out, flipping to the picture of the girl, shattered and shaken looking, even in the pressed stillness of the single picture, and holding it out toward Chin. "Her name is Chen Chi."
"Where'd you find her?"
Steve pulled his phone back, looking at it even as he was tuning it off. "Locked in a house." That wasn't even a house. It was a cupboard. A detail that mattered even if he didn't say it, setting the phone down on the table under her hands. "She came here to start a new life. They drugged her and turned her into a prostitute."
Chin leaned back, a huff of sudden awareness of what Steve was getting at, but it only made him pushed harder. More facts and as much as he could before there could be anything like an excuse or a no. He had to have the whole thing out there before there was any chance of it getting off the table. "The guy we're looking for is high profile. Victor Hesse. CIA. FBI. Interpol. He's on everyone's radar. Which means he didn't land here and get his passport stamped. He back-channeled in."
"Right," Chin was nodding, but he wasn't maintaining eye contact anymore. His shoulders drawing in and his gaze sliding to the sides and back. "So you think the same network that brought this girl to the island, smuggled Hesse in."
"Well, he made a fortune trafficking kids out of Malaysia." It's blank, bland and true. The numbers are horrorfic, and it wouldn't surprise Steve to find him up to anything he'd done before, here in Hawaii. Especially just the convenience of proving a point, trying to blackmail him into freeing Anton, killing Steve's dad as payback.
"You're looking for a snakehead, then," Chin supplied, not looking all that optimistic, even as Steve suddenly felt it. Finally getting toward looking in the direction of Danny, again. Like it was something Steve probably could have gotten even without asking him, given his friend there. "Local Chinese gangs the specialize in human smuggling."
no subject
Steve dug his phone out, flipping to the picture of the girl, shattered and shaken looking, even in the pressed stillness of the single picture, and holding it out toward Chin. "Her name is Chen Chi."
"Where'd you find her?"
Steve pulled his phone back, looking at it even as he was tuning it off. "Locked in a house." That wasn't even a house. It was a cupboard. A detail that mattered even if he didn't say it, setting the phone down on the table under her hands. "She came here to start a new life. They drugged her and turned her into a prostitute."
Chin leaned back, a huff of sudden awareness of what Steve was getting at, but it only made him pushed harder. More facts and as much as he could before there could be anything like an excuse or a no. He had to have the whole thing out there before there was any chance of it getting off the table. "The guy we're looking for is high profile. Victor Hesse. CIA. FBI. Interpol. He's on everyone's radar. Which means he didn't land here and get his passport stamped. He back-channeled in."
"Right," Chin was nodding, but he wasn't maintaining eye contact anymore. His shoulders drawing in and his gaze sliding to the sides and back. "So you think the same network that brought this girl to the island, smuggled Hesse in."
"Well, he made a fortune trafficking kids out of Malaysia." It's blank, bland and true. The numbers are horrorfic, and it wouldn't surprise Steve to find him up to anything he'd done before, here in Hawaii. Especially just the convenience of proving a point, trying to blackmail him into freeing Anton, killing Steve's dad as payback.
"You're looking for a snakehead, then," Chin supplied, not looking all that optimistic, even as Steve suddenly felt it. Finally getting toward looking in the direction of Danny, again. Like it was something Steve probably could have gotten even without asking him, given his friend there. "Local Chinese gangs the specialize in human smuggling."