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Trafficking U

Trafficking victims often feel trapped and forgotten. Thanks to the real-world St. Paul Hotel for standing in for the fictional Norra lekplatsen for these pictures. Also thanks to Joan,Nicole, and Caleb for posing for them.

A chance encounter with a college student victim thrusts bank fraud analyst Jesse Jonsen out of her high tech office into a street-battle against sex traffickers and her own dark past.

Jesse spent her entire adult life atoning for her teenage years as a thief by fighting financial predators as a fraud analyst. Now, after a long week, it’s the Friday before Superbowl LII and Jesse just wants to finish her latte. Let the football crazies own downtown Minneapolis for the weekend.

And then Leilani, trying to escape from her “boyfriend,” barges into Jesse’s life. That chance encounter will plunge Jesse past her limits into war with an international sex trafficking ring.

The sex trafficking industry generates billions of dollars, enslaves millions of people, and thrives by spewing lies across the internet. Jesse has an idea to fight back that just might work. But first, she must survive. And confront her own life choices.

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Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, 6:30 p.m.

Who’s in Superbowl LII anyway? Who cares? Jesse Jonsen sipped her latte at the Manitou Coffee in the Minneapolis skyway and scrolled through pictures of jeans. This horrible week of sending suspicious activity reports into a law-enforcement black hole was finally over. Let the football crazies own downtown for the weekend. Maybe she would accept Mom’s standing offer to go to church in the suburbs with her Sunday morning, just to get away. Or maybe she’d sleep right through until Monday morning. She chuckled silently. Predators and perverts. This is the part of Superbowl week nobody highlights in the glossy brochures.

“Act like you know me. Please.”

Jesse looked up from her tablet.

Late teens. Tall. Native American maybe? And scantily dressed, which made no sense in early February in Minneapolis. Unless…


Interested in a real-world trafficking victim story? Read The True Story of Canadian Human Trafficking, by Paul Boge.