VANGUARD(25)

“Can you not guess, Commandant?” She pitched her voice a little lower, making him lean in a bit. “You are an observant, perceptive man. What do you think motivates me?”

“Ah, no! I want you to tell me.” His eyes sparkled with excitement.

He’s enjoying this. Tell me, Commandant, what motivates you to tag people’s foreheads with the symbol of what your country once was? Sophie fiddled with her pen, pretending to appear uncertain. Jaros smiled his encouragement.

“Ambition,” she said, lifting her chin defiantly. “I have done well in my career. I am only twenty-eight, yet I am leading the most significant relief mission America has ever seen. When this mission succeeds and I return home, I will have my choice of jobs.” Sophie let her mind go on a flight of fancy. “Definitely a book deal. Perhaps even a movie.”

The Commandant laughed as if she were giving him the purest form of entertainment.

“It is just as I thought!” he exclaimed. “Indeed, you are ambitious. Now perhaps, you seek more power? The ability to influence others? I am not surprised. I’m good at reading people’s true thoughts. It is pointless to lie to me. Altruism…bah! A wasted emotion.”

“Really, Commandant?” She feigned surprise. “You say that, yet this place…–” Sophie gestured around her. “…is a refugee camp. You give aid to the very people you have invaded and conquered. You’ve allowed a humanitarian organization in to help care for these refugees. Is that not altruism?”

The Commandant’s grin widened further. “Your coalition’s presence here is but a temporary one, my dear,” he said. “I have allowed you access only to keep my prisoners alive through the winter.”

“Refugees,” Sophie corrected him, fear creeping down her spine. “This is a refugee camp, not a prison.”

Jaros laughed suddenly, startling her. “It is a refugee camp in name only,” he scoffed. “I prefer to think of this as a holding facility for the Soviet Republic’s future workforce.”

Sophie bit the inside of her lip until she drew blood. “The days of the totalitarian regime are over. They ended before I was born. You cannot force the people of Orlisia to comply with such demands.”

“There is no one to prevent us from doing so,” the Commandant said. “We are the world’s only true superpower. And your international security forces are too weak to intervene. Even now, they sit idly by.”

“The United Nations will eventually take action. The deadlock your country has on the Security Council will be broken, international forces will arrive, and this invasion will be over. The world knows this to be true.”

“Perhaps,” said Jaros. “Or perhaps the deadlock will continue for many months…plenty of time for me to finish gathering and relocating this new workforce to the far reaches of the Soviet Republic.”

“This is the age of the Internet. The age of freedom. The world will not permit this.” Sophie looked him straight in the face. “Commandant, I will not permit this.”

He laughed. “Young Sophie, you are but one person – and a woman at that. Leading a team of barely sixty people, feeble civilians with no weapons or power of any kind. The outside world may or may not believe your tales. You are here at my indulgence only. I could force you all to leave at any moment, or I could take out my displeasure with you on the detainees. Regardless, I will not permit even one prisoner to leave this camp alive. By the time the UN finishes its futile wrangling, this camp will be emptied of able-bodied workers.”

Sophie sat frozen as the Commandant continued. “The population of the former country of Orlisia will provide a convenient labor force for the growing Soviet Republic. The people are hardworking and industrious. We will transport them in the spring to their new homes. The residents of this camp – the number grows daily – can spend the remainder of their days working for the betterment of my nation. We have need of many strong laborers in our mines, factories, and oil fields.”

His eyes burned with a fervor Sophie had seen one too many times in her career – in the eyes of military dictators, homeless drug addicts, and all manner of ordinary citizens in between. This affliction did not discriminate.

The camp – and its entire population – was under the control of a madman.





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Before she returned to base camp that day, Sophie began to walk through Parnaas. Two armed Soviet soldiers followed.