Defile: Violence Redeeming: Collected Short Stories 2009 - 2011 - Of Plagues, Ten: A Tapestry of Twisted Threads in Folio

Upon hearing of a lost fortune in pure, refined opium, western adventurers stationed in Afghanistan decide to retrieve it, despite repeated warnings about the dangers that confront them. When a local guide leads them through the desert into the mountains to a dark and foreboding crack in a towering precipice, they again shrug off the man's dire insistence that they return home. Their decision to enter into the defile is one they will soon regret. Greed can drive a man to dare a deadly waste. Pride can push him to the world's most desolate peaks. In the barren, combat-wracked heart of Afghanistan, evil dwells within a craggy defile, where fame and fortune beckon to the bold and foolish adventurer.