we have a reeducation zone here, and Kaechon is only for sons of bitches that are irredeemable, we do not coddle at Bukchang. You will not leave here alive. You will be caught trying to escape. And you will be tied to a pole, your mouth stuffed with rocks, and you will be shot five times by each guard. And every minute you are here alive will feel like death.”
He looked at his men. “Kaechon,” he said, and laughed. “For shit coddlers.”
They all laughed too, grinning at each other and slapping their thighs.
He stood. “Twenty thousand euros.”
“When?”
“Five days.”
“But that is impossible.”
“Then I am sorry.” He motioned to his guards, who moved forward.
“Wait, wait!” she screamed.
The men stopped and looked at her expectantly.
She rose on quivering legs. “I will get it. But I need to get a message out.”
“Perhaps that can be arranged.” He looked over her naked body. “You are not so scrawny. When you are cleaned up, you will be pretty, I think. Or at least not so disgusting.”
He reached out and touched her hair. She flinched and he slapped her so violently he drew blood.
“You will never do that again,” he ordered. “You will welcome my touch.”
She nodded and rubbed the skin where he had struck her and tasted the blood on her lips.
“You will be cleaned up. And then you will be brought to me.”
She looked at him and knew what that meant. “But the euros? I thought that was the payment.”
“In addition to the euros. While we wait the five days. Or do you prefer the filthy, dangerous mines to my bed?”
She shook her head and looked down, defeated. “I…I do not want to go to the mines.”
He smiled and cupped her trembling chin, lifting her gaze to his.
“You see, not so difficult. Food, clean water, warm bed. And I will have you as often as I want.” He turned to his men. “As will they. Anytime we want. You understand? Anything we want, I don’t care what it is. You are nothing but a dog, do you understand?”
She nodded tearfully. “I understand. But you will not hurt me? I…I have been hurt enough.”
He slapped her again. “You make no demands, filth. You do not speak unless I ask you a question.” He put his hands around her throat and slammed her against the wall. “Do you understand?”
She nodded and said in a defeated voice, “I understand.”
“You will call me seu seung,” he added, using the Korean word for master. “You will call me this even after you leave here. If you leave here. I make no promises, even if you get me the euros. You may not safely escape. It is up to me and me only. Do you understand?”
She nodded. “I understand.”
He shook her violently. “Say it. Give me my proper respect.”
“Seu seung,” she said in a tremulous voice.
He smiled and let her go. “See, that was not so bad.”
A moment later he clutched at his throat where she had struck him. He staggered backward, colliding with one of his men.
She moved so fast it seemed that everyone else had slowed by comparison. She catapulted across the room, slipped one guard’s gun from his holster, and shot him in the face with it. Another guard came at her. She turned and kicked so high her foot caught him in the eye. Her jagged toenails ripped his pupil, blinding him. He screamed and fell back as the third guard fired his gun. But she was no longer there. She had pushed backward off the wall and cartwheeled over him, taking the knife off his belt holder as she sailed past, landing a foot behind him. She slashed four times so fast no eye could follow. The guard clutched at his neck where his veins and arteries had been severed.
She never stopped moving. Using his falling body as a launch pad she leapt over him and caught the blinded guard in a leg lock around his head. She twisted her body in midair and hurled him forward, where his head struck the stone wall with such force that his skull cracked.
She picked up the pistol she had dropped, stood over each guard, and fired into their heads until they were all dead.
She had always loathed the camp guards. She had lived for years with them. They had left scars inside and outside of her that would never heal. She would never be a mother because of them. Because of them she had never even contemplated being