"Damien's niece is missing," Langston told Angie.

"His sister Barbara has a daughter, Melody. She is a student at Georgetown University, in DC. Her roommate reported her missing a week ago last Friday. When Metro police did not appear to be taking her absence seriously, Barbara called Damien."

"It took him just a day to convince the cops she was not dissolute. He discovered that Melody is part of a campus group; 'Students Stopping the Trafficking of People' (SSTOP) at the Social Justice Center. She and two others write for their weekly blog."

"Their editor told Damien that Melody was going to meet a source. Someone who promised to give her inside info on a local trafficking network. Melody was no dope. She left pictures of the guy and details of their meeting with the editor. She shouldn't have gone alone, but no one was available and they were meeting in a public place, the bakery area of a supermarket on Wisconsin Ave. Ironically, it was a Safeway market."

"She never made it into the store. In a review of the parking lot video, you can see her cross the lot outside the store. Two guys grabbed her, pushed her into a van, and drove off."

"The van was stolen. Metro Police found it abandoned, with a dead guy in the back. They had not made the connection to Melody until Damien brought it to them. The dead guy was her informant."

"Damien discovered more leads in the two days since he flew out from Chicago, than the police had in a week. He turned it all over to the Metro detective assigned to the case, but was getting frustrated. They weren't sharing. Damien felt they were working the homicide of the informant harder than they were looking for Melody."

"He came to me for help. I am not a field agent," Langston said. "I am an analyst. The bureau had been notified of Melody's disappearance, but they had not gotten involved in the investigation. But because it was in the system, I was able to pull the files.

"We identified one of the thugs in the parking lot video and later tracked him to Union Station. DHS cameras picked him up boarding the Amtrak Express to Atlanta with a woman. It was Melody."

"Damien, of course, wanted to take the first plane to Atlanta. I convinced him to stick around for the rest of the day to meet with our Human Trafficking analysts. I felt he needed to know what he was heading into." Langson paused and went to the sink for a cup of water.

Back in the chair by the window, the FBI agent continued. "I introduced Damien to a friend of mine who was a member of our Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team. She came in Saturday morning to brief Damien as a favor to me. The A-TaCT initiative works across state lines to coordinate a multi-agency collaborative approach to combat all forms of human trafficking. I thought when he saw how much we already had, he would agree to work with the team."

"Damien said that he would, but used that access for his own purpose. He pulled the information he needed to track down the group most likely holding Melody and 'borrowed' the Peter Berwick identity."

"I figured out what he was planning. I stressed that he should work through the Atlanta task force, but he argued it would take too long. His plan was to go undercover, using the Berwick ID, and call in the task force when he got a solid lead. I set up a contact protocol for our guy in Atlanta, but Damien never checked in with him. He went dark. Then I saw the IAFIS fingerprint request. When that came in, I flew right down.

"I am too late for Damien but I may not be too late to help Melody."