The Water Market

A former Chicago numbers runner trapped in a Saharan labor camp discovers that every commodity has a price—water, medicine, silence, survival itself. Eli Dugan never planned to be anyone's savior, but when Vichy guards march his fellow American sailors toward certain death in the desert, his gift for reading crooked systems becomes the only currency that matters. With typhus spreading, an informer in his ranks, and Allied landings reshaping the war, Eli must make one last trade—his life's hustle for other men's lives.