The Slave Trade

We have known for several years now that slave traders are operating in this area but despite the best attempts of the police captain and his men it has proven impossible to catch any of them. Some people have blamed this on the poor captain, suggesting he has been corrupted, but this is unfair on him and his force as he is no more in their pay than the rest of us. Wherever you go you will hear talk of the slave traders and their schemes but still no one will say who they are. Some people argue that there are no slave traders at all or else claim that they existed once but are no longer alive. Rightly, they point out that no one has ever held witness to their trading nor in fact is there any direct form of proof of their activities. Maybe they are right in this, but if so then surely they must comprehend some far worse secret; for the slave traders actions permeate everything we do, even if solid evidence of such does not. Nearly all the people in this town, when the subject is brought up of an evening, will lay claim to some familiarity, yet when they are called upon as witnesses they crumble and talk incoherently or else they puff up with verbosity and spout vacuities leaving the jurors unimpressed. For it is a curious truth that when we hear such testimonies they tend to ring false. We forget our own ordeal at the hands of the slave traders and instead take great delight in teasing the haggard witnesses with questions that we ourselves shrink in fear from. There are also many who enjoy their slavery and will look down their noses at those poor souls who are free. It is one presumes, with this class of person that the slave traders first dealt when they appeared so long ago. Long, long before the fighting first broke out they were here and when finally it did erupt they were ready and took advantage. While the people, our ancestors, fought bitter wars against each other and died on bloodied spears the slave traders thrived, growing on the carnage and though their gutless trade put them in the thick of things it brought them no harm. For once the dust settled even those that fought and died most valiantly left only a shadowy trace and we now find ourselves in our current state of affairs. Alas now there is no chance they will ever be charged for their grip is too strong. Although every day new plans, of ever increasing complexity are hatched to cease this trade and although we all work tirelessly to overcome them we never seem to come any closer. Sometimes I suspect that this unending, wearying work is just another task they set long ago and that we have in fact been working for them all along.