Travis wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “Actually I want to know something. How did you two psychos meet?”
Brooke shifts in her chair, curiosity replacing whatever tension had been there.
I glance at Beau.
He leans back and stretches his arms behind his head. “You want the sanitized version or the one that got us flagged.”
“Flagged version,” Travis says.
Beau nods once.
“2019,” he begins. “We were attached to a joint task force overseas. Officially we were providing perimeter security for contractor operations. Unofficially we were babysitting people who had better lawyers than morals.”
His tone stays even, almost bored.
“Most of the job was routine,” Beau continues. “Convoys. Warehouses. Equipment moving through places where nobody outside the military wassupposed to be paying attention. Contractors handled a lot of the infrastructure. They had their own security teams and their own paperwork.”
I lean back in my chair and stare into the fire.
“At first it looked normal,” I say. “Then people started disappearing.”
The room stays quiet while he speaks.
“Laborers,” Beau continues. “Drivers. Villagers who lived too close to the wrong road. Migrant workers moving through the area. Nobody important enough to trigger an investigation.”
I can still see the place when I close my eyes.
Dust blowing through broken fences. Diesel generators humming all night.
“We started noticing trucks moving at odd hours,” I add. “Vehicles that never showed up on official manifests.”
Beau nods.
“They were moving people,” he says. “Civilians. Some local. Some from other countries. None of them there voluntarily.”
Brooke’s hand stills slightly against Luna’s back.
“They had a compound,” Beau continues. “Concrete building on the edge of a supply route. Guards posted outside. Contractors with government badges and private security patches.”
The fire cracks quietly behind us.
“There was a basement,” I say. “They kept them chained down there.”
Beau gives a short nod.
“We reported it, command told us to stand down,” he adds. “They said the contractors were operating under separate authority and the situation was not our jurisdiction.”
I watch the fire for a moment before speaking again.
“We went back anyway.”
Beau rubs a hand over his jaw.
“It was supposed to be reconnaissance. We planned to document what was happening and pull the civilians out quietly.”
His mouth twitches slightly.
“That part went according to plan.”
