Chapter 688: Judgement

Mills never thought that she would be stepping foot back in her home country for anything other than to shoot test weapons at targets and tell her brother what she liked and did not like about them, but here she was walking into the slums. She had a small army with her, including Drax, who refused to let her go on her own. Everything about the place had changed, from the amount of dirt to the way the people behaved, and Mills wondered if it was really the same place she once called home.

"What is this?" Drax asked, clearly as confused as she was. The slums were not actually a slum anymore. There were shed homes in place of the wooden shacks, gardens that were being tended to by older men and women, playground equipment for children to utilize at will, and what looked like its own police force.

"Who are we looking for again?" Mills asked because the information she was given was that a possible hostile party had taken residence in the slums, and needed to be investigated, and possibly, taken out. However, what she was seeing did not look like the person needed to be put down, they needed national recognition.

"Don't be swayed. If the person doing all of this is working under the radar, it's likely they have a secondary agenda," Drax said. He could see the dreamy look in his wife's eyes as she watched children running because they were playing and not because someone was chasing them.

"Was all of this really done within three months?" Mills questioned, pointing at a food stall that even had seating out front. "Draxy, please tell me that I'm not dreaming." Drax pulled Mills close to his chest and kissed the top of her head.

"Think of it this way; how many people had to be killed to get this level of cooperation?" Mills frowned but she did not actually care. Everyone who was alive looked happy. The only fear was directed toward their heavily armed group who came to disturb the peace, and as more people took notice of them, the more deserted the 'slums' became.

"Hello, are you looking for someone?" Mills turned to see a young-ish couple smiling brightly beside them. She recognized the woman from her past, and she yielded to Drax, unsure if she trusted herself.

"Who's in charge?" Drax asked, and the man furrowed his brow as if the question was confusing.

"The president doesn't live here sir." Drax smirked, and Mills clutched at her chest as if she had just heard the most endearing words in the world.

"Don't be swayed," he whispered to her, and she nodded her head vigorously, shaking away the feelings of euphoria she felt.

"We don't want any trouble; we just want to talk to the person responsible for these changes." Mills pointed around but the man was not as docile as he looked.

"Those are a lot of guns for people who don't want trouble."

"What if we leave them behind? Can we meet with that person then?" The man did not answer them, but he spoke into a small radio in his hand before nodding at them.

"Only two of you can move forward, but the rest are free to look around. We only ask that you don't harass the residents." Mills scoffed at the statement. The man used the word, 'residents,' not dogs, or any other foul term, but a respectful one.

Drax nodded at the couple, who waved them along before asking the other men in their group to be mindful of the children. It was such a surreal experience for Mills that she genuinely believed she had fallen asleep on the airplane and was in a dream; one that became more convoluted as she ventured further into the slums and passed the 'Twin Scholars Education Center.' They were slightly bigger buildings, and she could not help but peek inside.

One of the structures was filled with adults who were watching a film on basic reading and writing skills. The other was clearly for children and had classrooms with actual teachers in them. She stood outside of one of the rooms, completely baffled by the level of change she was witnessing and when the children's hands shot up to answer a question asked by their teacher, she could feel her emotions threaten to overflow.

Whatever change was happening was a good one, and if some unruly people had to die to make it possible, Mills did not mind it. She had worked hard to keep her brother from falling through the cracks, dropping out of school so that she could work to keep them safe and well fed. They had spent time in the slums; first, because the last set of relatives they had lived there, and then because those people were also killed, and they had nowhere else to turn.

They woke at 4AM every morning, and they walked to school, sometimes ran if they felt they were being followed, but now, there were children actively learning within the community, and Mills was beyond overwhelmed. Even the clothing the children wore looked clean and well kept, which sent her mind back to the people they passed. No one was wearing rags or tattered clothes, and the foul smell that once permeated the air, had given way to the plain scent of wet earth.

"Are you still coming?" Mills heard, and she turned to see the woman who had approached them earlier.

"Tell me," she said. "Am I dreaming?" The woman patted Mills' shoulder with a somber expression before she spoke.

"I remember you," The woman admitted. "I remember when you first came to live here; how poorly people treated you and your brother, and how your relatives tried to beat you into submission. I also remember when you left. You know... the man you used to spend a lot of time with came back here every day looking for you. I kept praying that you were safe and I'm glad to see that you are doing well now. You should be happy for us too." Mills wasn't surprised that she was recognized, and while she had not said much, she knew the woman was asking her to abandon her task, and truly, she wanted to.

The pair left the school, and Mills made eye contact with Drax, who was looking at her in concern. He knew she was struggling to find the flaws in the 'system' and truthfully, so was he, but they worked for the Lee group, which strove to monopolize the natural resources of Sani by putting someone they trusted in a position of authority, and that someone was Milo; Mills knew that.

The small group finally made its way to another structure that looked like a courthouse and on closer inspection, it was. The sign on the door called it a community complaint and outreach center, and from the sounds inside, there was already a dispute being heard by a group who wore black veils to cover their faces. Squeezing Drax's arm to stop the man from interrupting the proceedings, Mills took a seat, eager to see what sort of justice was being done in a place that had never known law.

It was a messy argument, but Mills was fascinated by it nonetheless. What seemed to be the older sister was accusing her younger sister of seducing her husband. It was clear the younger one was pregnant, and no amount of rocket science was needed to deduce who the father was thought to be. The group listening nodded along as the women took turns speaking, but eventually, the person who was seated in the middle, held up a hand to stop the petty dispute.

"Because we knew this hearing was coming, an arrangement had been premade by the judge." A man was dragged into the room in handcuffs, and the person, who must have been in charge, opened an envelope before standing. She began to read lie detector test results aloud, and the younger sister shouted triumphantly while the man turned to his wife, claiming that the results were false.

"I told you I would never. I told you what happened. You took care of me for most of my life. Why would I betray you?" Mills had not actually been paying much attention to the women after the lie detector test result readings because her mind had immediately become filled with thoughts of Mina. She glanced up at Drax to see if he had drawn the same connections, but he looked to be more interested in the judgement being voted on by the seven veiled figures seated at the wooden table.

"For your crime of attempted trafficking, this community sentences you to one year of hard labor." The man shouted in fear as he was pulled away, and his wife looked sick, but it was not clear if it were because of her husband's actions, or hers.

The room was cleared, and Mills stood as the woman who read the lie detector results approached them. She waved them into a back room before sitting in a large chair and lifting her veil.

"How can I help you?" she asked, and Mills intuitively knew that the woman had not grown up in the slums.

"We want to meet the person in charge. I think you called them 'the judge.'"

"I'm sorry, but 'the judge' isn't a single person. It's a group of us. I am the head of the courts right now, but I can be replaced at any time." Drax took a seat in one of the chairs opposite the woman speaking, and began playing with a knife, but he did not get the reaction he was looking for. "If you are here to intimidate me, please don't waste your time. I know fear, I know pain, and I know torture. As soon as you try to take me away from this place, I will bite down on a poison capsule I put in my mouth before entering this room, and my heart will stop within two minutes."

"We didn't come here to make trouble," Mills replied. "We just want to understand the meaning of all this."

"If you were simply curious, you wouldn't have come with guns, nor would your men have hidden bombs all around our settlement." The woman turned on a large television screen that was split into multiple camera views. "You've had people all around here for the last three days, and our patrols tell us that they've counted seven explosive devices. What about that isn't 'making trouble?'"

----

Mina watched the giant yacht approach her rescue boat and she gestured for everyone to get ready. She was with a mostly female crew, much to Nael's displeasure, but her plan would not work without it. She knew from spying on President Lee that his father often travelled with untraceable gold bars, which is what she was after. The man typically used cheap commercial cruises to bring the gold across country lines without scrutiny, and she planned to use his tax evasion tactics against him.

As soon as they were hoisted on the ship, the women quickly and subtly created chaos, until one of them was able to incapacitate the captain and take the ship off course. As they slowly took control, Nael's men were secretly climbing ropes that were thrown over the edge of the ship, and by the time the crew knew what was happening, they had been outnumbered, and out gunned. It was then that Mina spotted senior Lee, and because she was looking for him, she noticed that he was slowly moving his hand into the breast of his jacket, so she pushed a gun against his head.

"Don't be foolish old man," she whispered. "You're injured, and these men will kill you and ransom your wife. Are you ready to die for a few bars of gold?"