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Cell blocks line the walls. The iron bar doors are slid open, and the rooms are empty. Like the other building, against the back wall on both sides, there’s a metal staircase bolted to the concrete wall.
“More rooms upstairs?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Where are the bathrooms? Showers?”
“Another building.” That could explain the stench. Not everyone can hold it until they’re released to go to the restroom.
“They plan build more buildings.”
I scan the row of cells. At the end of the row, there are four locked doors. As we approach, I see men sleeping on cots. The phrase “skin and bones” comes to mind. At a glance, these men don’t appear to be much of a risk, although with the right training, which is often taught in Asia, any one of these individuals could be a competent opponent.
“So, this is it? Two buildings?”
“Easy job, yes?”
Mind-numbingly boring. And no sign of Sloane.
Vlad leaves without an explanation. Tells me to sit and watch. There’s not much to watch. The few men locked inside are sleeping. So I wander up the stairs. All the rooms are empty. The barred doors are closed but unlocked. At the end of the hall, on the back side without the stairs, there’s a room with a window. The glass is smudged. A linen satchel rests on the end of the bed. A plain cotton dress hangs on a nail. A stack of dusty books rests on a small wooden table.
Vlad said he lives on the grounds. I doubt he lives in this room, but maybe another Wagner hire does?
I step closer. The books are faded, the binding cracked, but the titles are in English. The Art of War. Pride and Prejudice. The Blind Watchmaker.
Could this be where they’re keeping Sloane? I lift the satchel and tug on the opening.
Creak. Creak.
Footfalls.
Someone’s coming up the stairs.
I drop the satchel to the bed and step into the hallway. Out of the smudged glass I see a white woman with long, dark hair pulled back, stepping into one of the smaller concrete buildings with a thatched roof.
Vlad’s head appears in the stairwell. He pauses mid-step, gaze on me. “What you do?”
“Just checking things out up here.”
“No one’s up during day. Too hot.”
I can’t imagine the people who own this place care about the heat, except for the computers, and even those are in a building with ceiling fans, not air conditioning.
“You hungry? Lunch outside.”
We leave the four locked cells and the twelve sleeping people. Outside, I scan the courtyard searching for the woman I saw. The sun is high and the humidity oppressive. I slap at an insect on my neck. Wooden poles holding tarps create shaded areas, and there are tables set up beneath them. Beyond the wall are trees. While the trees aren’t as tall as what you’d find in the northwest, a forest grows outside these walls. Why did they cut everything down in here? Trees would provide natural shade and would do wonders for making this place more hospitable.
I follow Vlad past more buildings, toward the end of the compound he didn’t show me earlier in the day. We pass one concrete building without a roof. He points at it and says “Showers.” Open air showers apparently. The next building has a roof. I see a long metal tray that I recognize as an extended urinal.
Up ahead, beneath one of the shaded areas, are tables, and many of the uniformed Wagner men are eating. Fish sizzles on a metal grate that rests above an open-air fire. A woman smiles a toothless grin and holds out a bowl. She says something in Khmer, but I understand her gesture and take the bowl of rice from her. A man lays a piece of grilled whitefish over my rice. He lifts a ladle from a metal bowl resting on the grill. The sauce is orange red, and my guess is it’s curry. But to avoid suffering from an upset stomach, I decline the ladled sauce.
They drench Vlad’s rice and fish in red sauce, then add a generous helping of creamy white sauce. If the white sauce is dairy, then Vlad has the constitution of an ox.
Conversation goes on around us. I pick up bits of languages. Russian. French. Khmer. Bits of Mandarin. There’s no sign of the white woman I saw through the window.
When I finish, Vlad’s still eating.
“I’m going to go check things out. Okay?”
