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She wanted to rush to him, but both her ankles were chained to the wall. She coughed once. If her heart sped up any faster, she might pass out. “Is it really you? Are you hurt? How long has it been? A month?”
“Two weeks,” he mumbled. She could hardly hear him.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
“Please ... Don’t.” His voice was weak. What had the agents already done to him?
Hannah wanted to tell Simon how much she had missed him. She wanted him to know how often she had prayed for him. She thought back to the Bible story when Paul and Silas were imprisoned together for preaching the gospel. They sang praises all night long. She would give almost anything to hear Simon’s off-key voice fumbling through a few verses of Amazing Grace. “I’m sorry they caught you, too.” She recognized the pleading in her own voice and wondered what Simon was thinking. “Did you finish the deliveries?” she asked. “Did you ...”
“Shut up,” he growled. “Don’t you know they’re listening?”
She lowered her head. Of course the guards would eavesdrop. She shouldn’t have mentioned the Bibles. But couldn’t they talk about other things? Maybe if they comforted one another, they could show the guards they weren’t afraid. Maybe if he talked to her, she would stop feeling so scared. She could reach her fingers just far enough to caress the back of his hand, but he jerked it away. “I just wanted ...” she tried to explain.
“Stop.”
Why was he angry at her? What had she done? He didn’t blame her for getting caught, did he? She thought about everything that had happened since her arrest, how much she had agonized over his safety. The only reason she didn’t give in to her interrogators was to guarantee he stayed safe. No matter what they asked, no matter what they did, she had refused to tell them where he was. But they found him anyway. And now he was furious at her.
She took a deep breath. Did he think it was her fault? She swallowed once. “I didn’t tell them, you know.” He was silent. Was there any way she could lift his spirits? Wasn’t that why they had decided to travel together in the first place — to be an encouragement to one another? “I never betrayed you.” Uneasiness sat in her stomach like a rock. Tentatively, she reached out in the darkness until she found his shoulder.
His whole body heaved with silent sobs.
***
General Sin frowned as he sat listening in the surveillance area. His lip twitched slightly. With fumbling hands, he lit a cigarette and listened while the new prisoner chided the girl for talking about their so-called “secret” mission. So, the boy had more brains than courage. General Sin flicked his cigarette to the ground and punched the screen off. He had heard enough.
***
Simon would have shaken Hannah if they both weren’t bound. There was nothing he could do to make her understand how it eviscerated him to have her so near, bound by chains just out of reach. She went on asking questions, apologizing, assuring him she hadn’t given him away. She was clueless.
“Is that why you’re mad?” she pressed. “Did you think I told them where you were?” Simon couldn’t even imagine what torture she had already endured the past two weeks while he roamed freely across the countryside.
He wished she would shut up. He had never let anyone watch him cry. Not even when he was a boy dying of starvation in the days of the Great Hardship. Why did they have to be chained in the same cell? Why did she have to see him like this?
“Please believe me.” Hannah sounded as if she were close to tears herself. Simon felt like screaming. “I didn’t tell them anything,” she repeated.
He jerked his head up. “And why not?” He heard her gasp, but that didn’t stop him from continuing. “All you had to do was talk. Give them my name. My location. My mission. Anything. Why didn’t you tell them what they wanted to know?” He was sobbing again. He didn’t care. They were both doomed. What did it matter if she saw his tears? What did it matter if she heard him shout? They had no future together except one of torture and death. “You should have told them anything. Everything. Why did you let them do this to you?”
The cell door jerked open. Someone released his handcuffs from the wall and yanked him to his feet.
“I was trying to protect you.” Her voice was fragile. “You know why, don’t you?” In the light from the hallway, he saw her glance up at him. In some other place, that single look would have filled him with unspeakable joy.
He lowered his head and followed after the guard. “That wasn’t your job,” Simon muttered to the floor.
The agent prodded him to the interrogation room. He was only a few centimeters taller than Simon, but he loomed over him with a menacing glare. “Name,” he demanded as he strapped Simon to the chair. Spit landed on Simon’s face. He had no more will to fight. He had already failed. Hannah suffered because of him. He let her down, and then he acted like a barbarian. Now both of them were going to die. At least he didn’t have to play at heroics anymore. Simon gave his legal name.
“Who is the girl with you?”
“She goes by Hannah. I don’t know her birth name.”
“When did you meet her?”
“A little over a year ago.” He wondered how much Hannah already endured on his account. She could have stopped it if she had just turned him in. His palms were sweaty, but the rest of his body shivered with cold.
“Is she your wife?”
He set his jaw. “No.”
The young interrogator made a sound in the back of his throat. “That’s a shame. She’s quite ... alluring.”
Simon lunged, but the chains cut into his wrists and held him fast. The guard chuckled and then resumed his questioning. “Have you ever been across the border?”
“No.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s not what your lover told me.”
Simon’s body tensed, his muscles strained to break free from his bonds. He gritted his teeth. “She’s not ... We don’t ...”
The agent walked over to a shelf and opened a small case. “You say you’ve never crossed the border?”
Simon looked down into his lap. “No.”
The man frowned, and a small silver scalpel glistened in his hand. “Unfortunately, I’m not quite sure I believe you.”
What followed could have taken five minutes or two hours. All Simon knew was his throat was raw, and his ears rang with the echoes of his own screams. The guard was preparing some sort of needle when an older agent strode into the room. Simon couldn’t focus on his features, but he saw his arms swaying as he walked. “Did you get a confession?”
“Well, no, Comrade General, but ...”
The general cleared his throat.
“He gave us the name of a few towns,” the guard squeaked. Simon struggled to remain conscious. What were they talking about? Was Hannah all right?
“You’re dismissed.” The general brushed the interrogator aside and studied Simon. “It hasn’t been a good night for you,” he remarked. Simon scarcely blinked. If they were busy breaking him down, that meant they weren’t tormenting Hannah. The general laid his hand on Simon’s shoulder. “I gather you didn’t enjoy your conversation with my assistant. I assure you that my style is much more ... refined, shall we say?” He wiped the bit of blood dribbling down from Simon’s mouth with a rag. “Nothing to say? No matter. We’ll have you talking before long.”
He strolled over to the shelf of tools. “I’m sorry your little friend will have to see this.” Simon felt his eyes widen. “You want to show her how brave you are, don’t you?” He let one corner of his mouth curl up. “Of course you do.”
The general took his radio out of his pocket. “I’m ready. Bring the girl in.”
***
Hannah slumped against the wall and bit the inside of her cheek. Why was Simon so angry? What had she done wrong? She endured countless days in solitary confinement and merciless interrogations just to protect him. She had imagined how proud he would be if he ever found out. How thankful. He wouldn’t consider her a child anymore, someone he had to look out for and protect. He’d understand she chose to suffer rather than risk his well-being. And somehow, if he had the courage to recognize it, he would know it was because she loved him.
She wiped her cheeks. Tears were a waste of energy here. Her body couldn’t afford to lose the water. She needed to calm down before Simon returned. He couldn’t see her like this. Her head was spinning, but she didn’t know if that was a result of the illness or her anxieties. How much easier would life be if she had never met him?
The door clanged open. “Let’s go.” Rough hands unchained her from the wall. “Follow me.” Her leg hung limp behind her, and she tried to hop to keep from being dragged down the entire hallway.
The guard nodded to his superior and left her in the interrogation room. Simon was already strapped into a chair, blood pooled near his mouth. “Hannah.” The word was barely audible through his swollen lips.
“Welcome, my dear.” The officer feigned a bow. “I can’t offer you a chair, I’m afraid.” He waved his wrist toward Simon. “Normally, I would ask the gentleman to relinquish his seat, but I’m not sure how willingly your friend would comply.” Simon’s back tensed, but he didn’t say anything. General Sin’s boots stomped on the floor, and Hannah felt each vibration through the concrete. He gave her a curt nod. “I brought you in for a very specific reason. It seems that you two know each other. Quite well, if I can trust my own judgment. But your friend here — Simon, I think you call him — is almost as stubborn as you, my dear.” Hannah glanced at the chair where Simon glowered at them both.
“I’d like to make this easy for all of us.” General Sin glanced alternately between her and Simon. “So let’s start at the beginning, shall we?” She kept her eyes on his boots. “You.” General Sin pointed at Hannah. “Who are you?”
She whispered her birth name. General Sin smiled. “Excellent. You see how easy this is? Do you prefer I call you Hannah? Why did you change it, by the way?”
She almost lifted her eyes to Simon, but she was afraid her look might betray more than she intended. “I took on a new name when I became a Christian.”
“When you became a Christian.” General Sin clasped his hands behind his back and nodded in mock understanding. “That’s right. And this Simon friend of yours, he’s a Christian too?”
Simon’s chin tilted up slightly in what Hannah guessed was a nod. “Yes,” she answered.
“Two Christians.” General Sin smacked his lips together. “No papers. No work orders. Foreign boots,” he added, staring at Simon’s shoes. “And I’m supposed to believe you’ve both been minding your own business and keeping the peace?”
Hannah tried to keep her voice steady. “That’s right.”
General Sin turned to Simon. “And you’ll corroborate her story, no doubt?”
“Every word.”
Sin took a knife out of the box. “And what about you, Comrade Simon?” He made a show of testing the blade with his own thumb. Simon grimaced when it drew blood. “Do you want to explain to me what you were doing when my agents found you?”
“I was looking for work.”
“I see.” General Sin stopped in front of the tool box, making a show of selecting another metal object. “And how was it you managed to travel so far without proper papers?”
Hannah didn’t realize she was holding her breath until she started to feel faint. Simon set his brow. “I was hungry.”
“And that explains why we found you with foreign boots?” General Sin frowned at a long, metal needle. The point glistened in the electric light overhead.
“Just like I told the other guard, I found the boots near the train station. I thought they might be worth money, so I picked them up.”
The general feigned a gasp. “Are you admitting you planned to sell stolen goods on the black market?”
Simon shrugged. “Who doesn’t?” Hannah watched him in amazement. She would have never guessed a Christian could lie so easily.
General Sin’s smile vanished. “Who doesn’t, indeed?”
***
Simon watched warily as General Sin set down the needle. “I see we’re not getting very far here.” He clucked his tongue. Anger surged through Simon, and he felt the veins in his neck throb. General Sin strutted over to the table of instruments. “Let’s try things from a different angle, shall we?” He held up a small metal contraption for Simon to inspect. “We call this the junior guillotine. It’s modeled after a French invention our Dear Leader is especially fond of. Would you like to see how it works?” He squeezed the device to demonstrate the swift slicing motion and then breathed in Simon’s ear, “Careful, now. You wouldn’t want to slip your finger in there by mistake.”
Simon gritted his teeth. His head felt like it was sinking. The general kept his voice level and pleasant as he slipped the device over Simon’s pinky. “Now, you just tell me who you delivered your Bibles to, and I’ll let you leave here with everything intact.”
Simon tried to swallow. His whole jaw was swollen from his scuffle in the woods. He shut his eyes and hoped the general couldn’t feel him tremble.
General Sin chuckled to himself. “Silly me. I forgot.” He slid the device off Simon’s finger. “This kind of tool won’t work on a big, strong man like you.” He strode over to Hannah and yanked her hand before Simon could even cry out. He jammed her ring finger into the opening.
Simon struggled against his iron restraints. “Let her go!”
General Sin still glared at Simon. “This is your last chance. Give me the names, and I’ll release her unharmed.”
Simon’s field of vision blurred over. He wanted to scream. The metal from his handcuffs sliced open his wrists. He envisioned himself breaking free and tackling the general to the ground.
“Better talk.” General Sin yawned. “I have a meeting soon and really need to hurry things up.”
Hannah’s hand trembled, but she didn’t make a noise.
“Three ...”
Simon clenched his jaw, unable to tear his face away from Hannah’s wide, terrified eyes.
“Two ...”
“Stop!” He tried to leap out of his chair. “I’ll do it!” His shout echoed against the whitewashed walls.
General Sin kept his eyes on Hannah but smiled. “I’m listening.”
Simon rattled off as many names as he could remember, hardly pausing for breath. General Sin slipped the junior guillotine off Hannah’s finger. She met Simon’s gaze with a look that made his heart capsize.
General Sin helped her to her feet, and Simon almost detected a certain amount of chivalry in his touch. “You can go,” the agent whispered and then barked into his radio, “Get the girl out of here.”
Simon pulled once more against his restraints. Don’t let them hurt her, he begged. Would he ever see her again? Did she know how much he ... Simon called out her name. She faced him, but when he saw her expression, he couldn’t speak. Her eyes were filled with intense sorrow.
Sorrow and unmistakable pity.