Master Zahir mentioned that we should go to the laundry room and look under the washing machine. This is a place where Amira had never been to before, so she has no idea if the information is accurate at all. It's underground and where Amira's slaves live and sleep.
We walk down the white marble stairs, and we hear movement in the underground room. Bruno begins to slowly descend with a handgun ready to shoot. We go behind him step by step, going around the objects that are lying on the floor because of this place being raided.
I’m holding Amira by the elbow in case she trips over something, she’s carrying the child and is at risk of a panic attack, I understand this cannot be easy for her.
Once we get to the laundry room, we see two female slaves trying to clean up the mess the guards left behind. Bruno readies his gun, and before he can take the shots, I stop him by grabbing his arm just as the slaves hear our footsteps. The two women turn around in panic and start screaming. Bruno grabs one and muffles the screams with his hand, and Sarah does the same with the other.
“Be quiet if you want to live,” she whispers. The two slaves breathe heavily, Sarah's presence only alters their mood but when they see Amira beside me, they lose their heads.
“Silence, slave. You'll get us all killed.” I whisper in Arabic, but there's no point, they're beyond reasoning.
“What's going on down there?” shouts a man from upstairs.
We hear the steps coming down the staircase. Bruno lets the slave go, and she starts screaming non-stop. As soon as the man coming down the stairs is visible, Bruno reacts like lightning, aims the gun at the guard and fires once. The body of the man plummets and rolls down the steps, stopping at Amira's feet. The child starts crying again, shocked by the noise and the violence. Bruno runs towards him trying to calm him down; he strokes his hair and kisses his forehead. I quickly glance at Sarah to see her reaction, but she’s taking care of the women.
“I didn't mean to scare you, kid, I'm so sorry, it's all right,” he whispers in his ear.
The two slaves are still paralyzed by the sight of Sarah pointing her gun without losing sight of them.
“Keep doing what you were doing.” Sarah orders.
But they don't understand English, so I translate. They nod nervously and start to pick up everything on the floor. Using the advantage that they don't understand English, I address Sarah.
“I don't think it's safe for them to see us leave, let me talk to them,” I say.
Sarah nods, lowers her gun and relaxes her stance as I walk towards them. I’m an authority figure for the slaves, and they respond to me as if I were a boss.
“Did they offer something in return for information regarding our whereabouts?” They look at each other in fear and one of them speaks.
“Yes. A week of rest.” Well, that's a lot for a slave. I direct my concerned look at Sarah, as Bruno continues to comfort the child.
“They were offered a reward sizeable enough for them not to take it. This is bad.” I sadly say because I know what this means for them.
I don’t consider them something unworthy like the master did, everyone in here is a victim and nobody deserves this outcome.
“Then say no more, I won't risk our asses, they won't live to tell the story nor to see us go.” Sarah glances at Bruno waiting for a confirmation; he nods and then tells the child.
“Can you sing?”
“Y-yes...” he whimpers.
“What's your favorite song?”
“My mom always sings me the one about the lost children.”
“Well, I don't know that one, sing it loud so I can hear it.”
Bruno playfully covers the child's ears and Sarah waits for him to start singing to execute the poor slaves. Bruno moves away from us, showing us his back and entertaining the child. The two women have no time to defend themselves, they are both dead in a second.
The child wants to turn around to see what happened, but Bruno covers his eyes to prevent him from looking at yet another bloody scene.
Amira trembles at the violence that Sarah wields and the pain she could inflict on other human being seemingly without remorse and honestly, when she sliced master Wasim’s throat without hesitation, I was shocked too. She looks like a woman with metal veins, even Bruno examines her with curious eyes from time to time.
My brother says a few words to the boy, I couldn’t hear him clearly, but it was something about the song he sang and then they return to where Sarah is.
We push the washing machine to the side, looking for the gate. Indeed, here it is, a perfectly camouflaged gate under the washing machine, just as master Zahir said it would be. Bruno manages to open it, some cockroaches frantically run out from it and we can see a metal ladder going down.
“Damn it!” Sarah protests. Her hands are on her waist, looking down, “I'd rather face a Russian army than a nest of roaches.”
