by Susan Bohnet
“I spent some time here at a resort when I was a kid and I was visiting it the other day with some friends. I hiked over a nearby hill and found what looked like another summer camp area. When I went in for a better look, I met that man. He said his name was Ronan and told me he ran a camp for underprivileged children. While those kids certainly looked underprivileged, he did not come across as a camp counselor even then.” Kai glanced at Beth. “I think there may be something much bigger going on than we think. But we need to have some evidence before we call the police.”
The truck rounded the corner where the road to the camp split from the road to the resort and he slowed. Should he drive closer to the camp or go to the resort first? What if the rebels were at the resort? Could he park far enough away to hide the truck but allow them to walk over the hill?
He turned to Beth. “Well? Should we just drive into the camp and demand answers or do we sneak in over the hill and do some serious spying?”
“I vote for spying,” said Beth, and Kai felt a spark of joy rush through him. She was willing to put her life in danger to help two small children and that was the kind of thing that made him love her so much.
“Okay, then. Resort it is.”
Chapter Twenty-nine
Kai slowed the vehicle as he neared the resort. He eased the truck off the road and between two evergreen trees. He couldn’t get in as far as he would have liked. The back end of the truck was still visible from the road.
“What are you doing? I thought you said there was a resort here.”
Surely to Beth this was just more of his weird behavior. “I’m not sure if there are people at the resort now, and if there are, if we could trust them…” It sounded like paranoia even to his own ears. He jumped out of the truck and Beth followed. “This way,” he said.
Kai took her hand and led her into the woods. She pulled her hand from his grasp. “Just lead the way.”
“Beth?”
“I said I’d reserve a verdict, but I’m not about to slip back into old, comfortable habits that are going to cloud my judgment.”
Kai felt his breath catch. “Fair enough.” He swallowed. “Come on.” It was a steep hill and he could hear Beth’s breathing become more labored. Finally, they reached the summit. Kai crouched and pointed at the large central building. “I think that’s the kitchen and common area. The smaller cabins are the sleeping quarters.”
“It looks innocent enough. Kind of sketchy … but normal.”
Beth had removed her sweater and the skin on her arms and neck glistened in the warm day. It felt like summer.
“Let’s get a closer look,” said Kai. “Follow me and be careful, it’s steep in spots.” He led the way and purposely slowed his pace for Beth.
They were near the edge of the trees when they heard a clanging noise. Kai and Beth crouched down. A woman in a drab, shapeless dress exited the large main cabin. She held a metal triangle from a string with one hand and banged each of the sides in succession with a metal rod. Children emerged from the other buildings. Some came from the main cabin, wiping their hands on the back of their pants. One holding a dishrag ran back inside and came back without it. Others came from the smaller cabins. The woman smiled as they arrived and spoke with different children.
“What did she say?” whispered Kai.
“I don’t know.”
One of the children, a boy about ten, dawdled at the edge of the lake. He had his flip-flops off and stepped into the water. The woman called to him and he came with quick steps. “It’s a great day to play in the water,” observed Beth.
The woman led the children to a track and gave a sharp smack on the metal triangle. At the sound, the children fell into step. Some walked, others ran, some seemed to race, others dragged their feet as though they’d rather be doing something else. Around and around the track they went. “It’s not a competition,” said Kai. “What are they doing?”
“Exercise?”
Kai thought of prison inmates. They had time in the yard for fresh air and exercise, too.
“How many … two, five, nine, eleven … nineteen children.” Beth adjusted her position. “Do you think this is all of them?”
“I would think so. It looks like quite a few kids. “
“What if this is one of those Scared Straight kinds of camps? You know, where they take kids who are headed toward a troubled life of drugs or alcohol or something like that … and they show them where they’re headed and help them change their course.” Beth paused and bit her lip. “They use some tough methods and scare the kids into leaving the drugs behind. Could that be what we saw happening back in town?”
Kai considered it. “Do they throw people around in the Scared Straight programs?”
“I don’t know, but I saw a show about it a long time ago and I know they yelled at them a lot and made them find their way home or survive without food … something like that.”
“Some of these kids are so young, though. Look at that girl, with the yellow shirt.” The girl couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years old. She had dark skin but Kai couldn’t place her race, East Indian maybe. She was talking with another girl, and her uneven, newly emerged permanent teeth showed as she laughed at something. “She hardly looks like someone hardened by drugs.” Not yet, anyway, Kai silently added when he noticed the girl behind her on the track. She was older, twelve, maybe thirteen, and her feet stumbled one ahead of the other, her face closed, protective.
“She doesn’t seem to fit that profile,” Beth admitted.
“If this was a regular camp, as Ronan said, wouldn’t they have games to play instead of walking a track? Give them a soccer ball and they’ll be running around like crazy and having fun doing it.” Kai looked past the children who continued to round the track. He could see movement inside the large cabin. Men. Other women.
“She really should have let that boy get in the water,” said Beth. “Look at his ankles.”
Kai took a moment to find the right boy while Beth continued, “And there’s not a single boat in sight. Do they ever go out on the lake at all?” Kai looked at the boy’s legs. There was a line just above his ankles where the dirt began. A minute or two in the lake had washed his feet and made a noticeable difference. Kai looked at the camp carefully. Was there running water? A bathroom? He spotted the telltale narrow buildings behind the small cabins. Outhouses. Did they ever get cleaned up? This neglect was enough to bring the stirrings of anger into action inside him, but since he suspected lack of cleanliness was only the tip of the iceberg at Ronan’s camp, Kai consciously dampened his emotions. What was going on here?
Chapter Thirty
Kai and Beth watched as the children continuously marched around the track, the younger ones started to lag behind the older. A boy about ten years old slowed until he was walking beside a little girl who looked about five. She had long blond hair and wore a short pink dress. He spoke to her and she nodded before taking his hand. Kai felt a stab of emotion at the scene … humanity showing its ability to be kind and caring once again. He saw so little of this on his missions. Of course that made sense. He wasn’t sent out to Influence the humans who were already doing good things. He was wanted for those who were moving toward violence and destruction.
Next, he noticed a redheaded girl, about twelve years old, wearing shorts and a t-shirt that barely covered her torso. Her hair, which was a lovely shade of copper, was held up high on her head in a ponytail. She was edging her way to the outside of the group of children.
“Look at that girl in the blue t-shirt,” Kai said to Beth. “She seems to be up to something.”
Beth’s eyes darted from child to child until she found the girl he was talking about. She nodded, never taking her eyes off the children.
They watched as the girl continued to edge her way to the outside of the group. When they came even with the forest, she tu
rned suddenly and raced toward the trees. She ran about fifteen feet before the woman watching the children saw her. The woman let out a bellow and within seconds two men raced out of the nearest building and ran after the redheaded girl.
Kai heard Beth suck in her breath. The men wore angry scowls. What would happen to the child when she was caught? Kai reached out to try to Influence first one then the other man, but they were too focused on their pursuit to allow him to see anything but their single-minded purpose. “Catch the girl. She can’t get away.” The men were outrunning her and were only a couple of feet behind her now. The children stopped marching as they saw what was happening and huddled together in the middle of the track, the younger ones hidden inside the circle by the bodies of the older ones.
One of the men reached out and grasped the girl’s ponytail, twining it around his hand and jerking her to a stop. The girl flew off her feet and the man flung her violently to the ground. She cried out as she went down. Beth gasped. The second man arrived and he stopped beside her, his breathing hard and fast. He bent down and grabbed the girl’s arm, yanking her to her feet. She cried out again. He turned her toward him and then slapped her across the face, sending her spinning in a circle before she crumpled to the ground again. This time she did not make a sound.
But Beth did. It was a high-pitched sound of protest that seemed sharp in his ears. When he turned to her, she clamped her hand over her mouth, her eyes as round and luminous as a full moon at midnight. Had they heard? Both Kai and Beth looked down at the people below. The two men hauled the girl to her feet. They shoved her ahead of them toward the track and the children who all stood miserably watching. No one was looking up the hill. They must not have heard Beth’s sob of outrage.
Kai glanced at Beth with relief, but she was crying. He slid his arm around her shoulders. He wanted to hold her tight and assure her that everything would be fine. He would take care of these awful people who would treat a defenseless child this way. They should call the police. They had seen enough now to know that there was something terribly wrong here and someone needed to investigate.
But something made him stop. The police had strict rules to follow. Their hands would be tied if this was a legitimate camp for wayward children and the parents had given permission for this kind of treatment, that boot camp stuff Beth had mentioned earlier.
Besides, there wasn’t cell reception out here. They’d have to go out to the main road for Beth to get a signal. And then they would have to leave the children. He didn’t want to do that. If they maintained surveillance, they might get more evidence they could use to force the police into action.
Beth and Kai sat huddled against a tree and watched as the children were herded off the track. When they reached the cabins, the children split, obediently, into smaller groups and disappeared inside each one until they had filled four of the bunkhouses. The two men stopped the woman with a barking word, then one spoke to her in lower tones. She nodded and turned to motion to the red-haired girl who was standing at the threshold of the fourth cabin. Kai could see the tear tracks that ran down her dirty face and felt the familiar rise of anger. He didn’t need to see her eyes to know the fear and anger she was feeling. He tried to calm himself. He knew what his anger could accomplish. The men moved back in the direction of the cabin from which they’d emerged and disappeared into it as well.
The woman watched the men and then she turned to the young girl. She said something, but Kai couldn’t make out what it was. The girl nodded her head and, shoulders slumped, walked beside the woman who led her up the trail to the central building. At the bottom of the stairs, the girl hesitated and the woman paused before slipping her arm around the child’s shoulders and giving her a light hug. They walked into the building together.
“That’s weird,” whispered Kai. “She called out the hounds and then comforts her.”
Chapter Thirty-one
“Do we have enough to go to the police?” asked Kai.
“I think so. I’d like to lock them all away right now,” Beth said with clenched teeth. Her tears of compassion had dried on her cheeks as though the fiery indignation of her heart had physically sapped them dry.
“You think we’ll get them to investigate? The way they chased that girl and roughed her up was over the top, but it seems to be done now. They brought her back and the woman seemed kind enough to her when she took her inside.”
A man exited the far cabin and slammed the door, drawing their attention. Kai swallowed. “That’s Ronan.” Even from this distance, he seemed to exude evil. Kai wasn’t even trying to get inside his head. Ronan strutted across the gravelly ground and flung open the door to the main cabin.
“What’s he doing?” whispered Beth, her voice catching.
“Maybe it’s not over for her,” said Kai. Beth stopped breathing. “Stay here. I’m going to see what I can find out.” Kai rose.
“I’m coming with you.”
Kai shook his head but Beth glared at him. There was no stopping Beth with that determination in her eyes. Kai sighed. “Stay close.”
They made their way as silently as possible over pine needles and twigs. Kai couldn’t help thinking that the main cabin could be beautiful if it were fixed up. The sun was dipping low in the sky and it had taken on a glow. Instead of warmth, however, this glow seemed like the garish effects of a sci-fi movie in a scene illuminating an enemy space ship. The irony wasn’t lost on Kai. In this instance, it was the alien out to save the innocent.
They came to the first window on the west side of the building. It was dingy, almost opaque, but Kai was able to make out six long picnic tables. There was a wood-burning stove in the center, the long metal chimney disappearing into the ceiling. There was no one there.
He shook his head to communicate this fact to Beth, who was too short to see inside, and they moved on. The next window was propped open and the savory scent of sausages mixed with the acidic tang of tomatoes wafted out. Kai had to stand on his toes to see inside this window. There was a woman at a stove stirring a huge black pot. She was shorter and thinner than the exercise guard. Guard? Is that what she had been?
Just as Kai was about to leave the window, the exercise guard entered the kitchen. “Are we ready?”
“No. Cut those apples into quarters. Only one per kid.”
She went to a wooden counter and carefully counted out the allowed number of apples, grabbed a knife, and began her task. Kai and Beth moved away from the window before he spoke. “The exercise guard is in there with another woman but the red-haired girl isn’t with her anymore.”
“Where is she? Oh no. Is she with Ronan?”
It was Kai’s fear as well. There weren’t any windows on the north side of the cabin. He pressed his ear to the wood and listened. “I don’t hear her.” Beth did the same, setting her teeth as she concentrated. She shook her head.
The only unexplored side was the front that opened toward the other cabins. A sudden clanging startled him. It was the cook banging a much louder triangle than the one used for exercise purposes. The children spilled eagerly from the small cabins and hurried to the main cabin. Suppertime. But only a quarter of an apple with your stew, thought Kai.
“She’s not with them, either,” whispered Beth. “I guess we knew that.”
Once they were all inside, Kai heard the sound of wooden picnic tables creaking under new weight and shifting on the cement. The men from the far cabin came out next. One snorted, turned, and spit in the dirt. There was a bulge at the small of his back. Did they all have weapons? There were five of them. Two wore loose, dusty, button-up shirts over black tees. The other three wore jackets. “Knock it off,” said one to the spitter as they walked by. “Stay out of it or Ronan will have your head.”
When the men had disappeared inside, Kai and Beth crept around the corner. There was another window along the wall and they stopped to peer inside. They saw Ro
nan pass by on his way to the dining area but the red-haired girl wasn’t with him.
“Doesn’t she get to eat?” asked Beth.
They moved a little closer to the front door. Looking in, Kai could see the picnic tables. The copper-haired girl was nowhere in sight.
“She tried to run away. Maybe they don’t trust her to eat with the others,” he whispered when he eased back to the north side. “Let’s have a look at their cabins while they’re eating.”
There was a door in the front and a single window in the back of each of the small cabins. The filth was apparent, mattresses thrown on the floor–most missing sheets. “They could be shut down simply on the basis of this,” said Beth.
Kai nodded. He thought of the first time he’d looked in a cabin, the day he discovered this place. He had seen all the children crowded together, one telling animated stories. He hadn’t noticed the degree of squalor then, only the children. “I don’t see a gym bag, a backpack, anything.”
“Not even a change of clothes,” added Beth.
“Let’s get out of here.” Kai took a few steps. “Or do you want to check back at the tables and see if the girl is there?”
“We’ll help her better by getting the cops out here,” said Beth. “She wasn’t there before and there’s not much we can do against this many people.”
Kai felt the anger swirling within him again. He wanted so badly to just rip into that building and demand an explanation from Ronan. His knees actually trembled as he stood there, staring at the front door. Kai took a step toward the main cabin. “Kai, stop,” Beth hissed. “What are you doing? You can’t just walk in there! I know you want to save her. We both do. But I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Turning to Beth, Kai placed his hands on either side of her head and looked her deeply in the eyes. Hers were wide with fear. He smiled and kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry.” He took a step back.