Page 60 of Bought By Sin

My heart raced as I dropped into a run along the outcropping of rocks that made up the jagged terrain around here. Under the darkness of the night, I was a blur of shadows. Geared up in black and running with the stamina and speed I would never slack on keeping top-notch, I sprinted in the direction I’d memorized. All last night, I’d pored over the satellite images. I envisioned moving through this area and covering ground without detection.

So far, so good.

No patrolling units caught sight of me, not even when I reached the fence and used the bolt cutters to snip a small opening for myself.

In.

I was supposed to report in if I could, but as I roved my gaze over the inside of the compound, I was too scared to speak. I was too scared to even breathe loudly. Crouched over and duck walking where I could, I was mindful of passing through here literally like a blur. No sounds. No footprints in the dust. And hopefully, no heat image if they had sensors like that at the perimeter. The vest I wore had a deflecting property that could remove my heat mark.

I didn’t need to tell Lev and the others that I was in. They were tracking me anyway.

Now go.

Go find the offices.

Go see what you can record.

Riding the steady rush of adrenaline kept me mobile and cautious, trespassing according to what I’d memorized.

Buildings stood just where I thought they might. Low-lying, hangar-like spaces showed up where I expected them to be. Structures came into view according to what the satellite images had prepared me for.

But what I hadn’t counted on was the violence and hell that I could hear and smell.

The metallic stink of blood and fecal matter and sweat as I passed what had to be a prison.

The blood-curdling screams and moans of pain as people were whipped, tortured, and threatened from within the walls of what was likely a dungeon of sorts.

Keeping to the shadows wasn’t only for the necessity of being able to get in as far as I could to spy. It was a matter of survival. Because as I trespassed further and truly went deep undercover to sneak in here as a spy for the Volkovs, I knew that if I was spotted, any lie to explain my presence here wouldn’t stand up.

I would be killed.

Tortured and treated like I was when I was first sold into slavery for crime families.

Holding my breath and getting impatient to find an office building or even a place that suggested it was for lodging, I moved in. I stuck to the shadows and waited as patrolling men passed by.

All that I could see was captured via the small cam sewn into the hat I wore. On my invasion here, capturing all that I could, I knew that Lev and the others would witness the same gore and hell that I did.

How each building I passed showed men raping chained-up women. Through the cracks of windows and doors that I peered through, countless examples of brutality and unspeakable inhumanity were evident.

So many captives beaten.

A room where someone was cutting off someone’s tongue.

Another building where a mixture of men who looked like defectors from Cartels and gangs were drinking and whipping a woman to dance for them.

I hardened my heart the best I could.

I shielded my conscience with every step of the way.

Above all else, witnessing the brutality of these criminals banding together in any part of Gregori’s network solidified my hatred of them, my scorn and deep abhorrence that this was what happened when the wrong people had too much power.

My moral compass would never be reset to anything a “normal” person could have.

Yet even I could see this hell and be sickened and angered that it could happen unchecked like this.

Reminded of the misery that I’d faced when I was first sold into slavery, when my parents gave me over to the Cartel just so they could have some money for a quick hit of drugs, I tried to shut it all out. The memories of being so scared in a terrifying environment. The hopelessness of knowing my family had given me up for their own selfish needs. The lost sensation of not mattering to anyone.

Stop.