The truck rumbled forward again, slower now, tires crunching heavily through white sand as it eased through a massive gate framed by tall mesh wire fencing topped with coiled razor wire that glinted under the sun. Inside, white tents stretched in every direction, hundreds of them, maybe thousands, arranged in orderly rows and clusters with the lived-in logic of a place that had stood long enough to develop its own rhythm.
Clotheslines sagged between poles. Smoke curled from cookfires. Children darted between gaps like quick silver fish.
The truck rolled deeper into the heart of the camp and finally stopped with a low hydraulic hiss.
In the boot behind us, the girl had started kicking again. Hard, rhythmic thuds against the metal. The tranquilizer was burning off fast.
"Destination reached," Mercury announced from the front, voice dry.
