"Rath came from the remote Aan tribes of Cambodia's northern interior. He had been taken by the Khmer Rouge as a ten-year-old, out of an orphanage run by the Western missionaries. He had been given the AK-47, shown how to use it, and made to murder a cultural enemy--a doctor who had sat on his knees, arms behind him, crying. Since then, Rath had seen and done terrible things out of extremes of fear, heat, hunger, and thirst that might've killed other men.

He had eaten insects to survive and sucked the water out of the bark. He'd lain down in the mud for three days and made his mind blank while the enemy moved all around, searching.

And put of that determination, he had eventually built a kind of life for himself--escaped the trials, used stolen money to set up his operation." pg.38 chapter 4