Page 108 of Depths of Destruction

They fix their plates and sit.

"Are the ladies still sleeping?" Andre asks.

"Yeah," Axel confirms.

I put my fork down. "How's Zoe's arm?"

Dirk's face falls. "She was in a lot of pain last night."

"She still wouldn't take the pain medication?"

Dirk's face hardens. "No. She'll manage."

"Well, I hope she doesn't have any scarring. It looked nasty."

"I'll keep applying the ointment. It will help to repair her skin."

"Axel, you still haven't finished telling me what Penelope knows," Andre says.

"Things are going on behind closed doors."

My stomach flips.They always are.

"What things?" Andre demands.

He shifts, staring at me. "What do you know about Panama and the cartels?"

"It's the gateway country between Central and South America. For years, the cartels have fought to rule it."

"The guerrillas have been working with various cartels but especially the Colombian cartel to gain power."

"That would explain how the transaction occurred to sell Vanessa from the guerrillas to Gómez's gang," Andre says.

"But there's a bigger play going on," Axel says.

Chills run down my spine. It's the same feeling I get when I'm digging into a story and on the verge of finding something big. "What is it?"

"The U.S. and Britain—"

The house shakes so violently, the pan falls off the stove, and photographs come crashing off the walls. The chandelier above the table swings.

"Naomi, get down," Andre yells and pulls me under the table to shield my head from falling objects.

Everyone crouches under the table, and Andre protects my head further by holding me to his chest. The rumbling gets louder, and a bang fills the air. Zoe and Penelope's screams follow.

Dirk and Axel slide out from under the table and rush out of the room, yelling their names.

Objects continue to crash to the floor, and the shaking lasts several minutes.

When it finally stops, I'm not sure if Andre's heartbeat or my own is pounding harder.

"You all right?" he murmurs in my ear.

I slowly glance up. "Yes."

"Oh shit," Tinker groans.

I turn my head. The floor is covered with broken objects, and the wall is split in several places. Sunlight from the outside is peeking through the cracks.