CHAPTER SEVEN“ARE YOU HUNGRY?” NANG spoke slowly to the children though his inner pace was frantic. After only one week at Mount Aural he had been sent to Stung Treng to help accelerate Krahom recruitment. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “We guarantee everyone will share equally in the nation’s food.” It was not the assignment he’d wanted. Every day he asked why. Why had Met Sar sent him away so quickly, away to these children, away when so much was happening elsewhere? “Here,” Nang said, “peasants work twelve hours a day. In Phnom Penh, government functionaries work two! They eat well. They pay no taxes.”
“You see.” Met Phan smiled. “Comrade Rang has been to the front. He knows victory is inevitable. He has killed enemy soldiers. He has blown up enemy tanks. He’s not much older than you.”
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