Page 57 of Perilous Healing

“Yes,” he replies. “You will be.”

“Minute is up.” River reaches out his hand.

“I have to go. Keep her safe.” I end the call, then hand the phone over to River.

“Who’s Bravo?” he asks.

“A dog.”

“Interesting name for a dog.”

“I was military once upon a time, it seemed like a fitting name.”

He doesn’t respond, just sticks the phone into his pocket. “Shall we finish breakfast so I can show you both where you’ll be working?”

The compound Riverhas managed to build is relatively extensive, though I’m discovering everything but the main house is made of shipping containers. They’re arranged in two long rows, almost like a manufactured main street.

Emaciated children sit outside in the dirt, the younger ones playing while the older kids watch carefully. I see no men or women, no adults at all, aside from us and the armed guards walking back and forth.

I stop walking.

“What are you doing?” River asks.

“What is this place?” My tone is deadly.

River looks around. Realization must dawn on him because he shakes his head. “You may think me a monster, SEAL, but I assure you I wouldn’t harm children.”

“You sure about that?” Bianca snaps. “Because they look pretty sick from where I’m sitting.”

“Hungry?” he asks. “Sure, but not harmed.”

“Hunger is harming them.”

“That’s on their parents. I offer meal tickets for a job well done. If they starve, it’s because they have parents who don’t take their work seriously. What kind of boss would I be if I didn’t offer consequences for actions?”

“You starve their children?” Bianca looks genuinely surprised, as though that horror goes beyond even what she thought him capable of. But I’ve seen the monster that lurks within River.

“They starve their children by not working. Come.” He’s clearly ready to dismiss the conversation, so I table it for now, though I intend on freeing every single one of these people by the time we leave here.

I’ll free any who want that freedom…or I’ll die trying.

We continue down the makeshift main street until we reach the edge of a massive pit in the ground. Going down at least a hundred feet if not more, there are stairs carved into the ground, and people are below, using tools to move through the dirt.

“You’re looking for diamonds.”

River turns to me, clearly impressed that I called it. “Good on you, SEAL. Yes, wewerelooking for diamonds. And we found them.”

The people in the pit are sweaty and covered in dirt and grime. They’re skin and bones, their faces gaunt, their expressions haunted. Armed guards patrol below in the pit and above, walking alongside the edges so not an inch of the place is unmonitored.

“So you kidnapped their children and put them to work in your mine?” Bianca whirls on him. “This is what you brought us here for? Because you’ve starved and worked these people to within an inch of their lives, and now you expect me to treat them?”

He doesn’t even miss a beat. “Yes. I do. Now let me show you where you’ll be working.” Turning on his heel, he heads back toward the rows of converted shipping containers, stopping in front of the one closest to the pit. He opens the door and steps inside.

Bianca glances back at me, her emerald gaze furious, then follows him inside.

Yarrow shoves me so hard I nearly fall. Slowly, I turn to face him. “Have to come at me when my back is turned and my hands bound?”

“At the moment,” Yarrow replies. “But we both know you’re no match for me.”

---