A Guard led Eve handcuffed into the dark chamber and pushed her into the cold metal chair in the center of the room. Her arms twisted awkwardly as she landed, but she kept the pain to herself. The Guard took a swift turn that looked almost ceremonious, and headed for the exit. The heavy metal portal slid shut behind him, leaving Eve in darkness so black she couldn’t see her hands. The click of the lock was the last sound she heard for many minutes.

A spotlight snapped on overhead. Eve could see herself, and an empty floor about a foot in each direction, but the rest of the room remained hidden from her.

“Eve Parker,” said a familiar deep and syrupy voice. “We are very, very disappointed. You have disgraced God and country.”

It was the Headmaster. She concentrated on her diamond ring, but for the first time found it powerless to calm her.

“Father, I…”

“Silence!” the Headmaster’s voice boomed. “We need not waste time discussing your failure. You know what you have done. We know what you have done. And most of all, He knows what you have done. You are a Heretic and your destination is the Infernal Flames. There is nothing you or we can do to change your fate. Your soul is lost and cannot be Saved.”

Eve wondered if he was referring to her feeding the Under-ground incriminating details about Patriot ID, or letting Seven get away. She didn’t regret either one. The tour of Facility B had confirmed her worst fears about the Patriot ID program. She knew then that it had to be exposed and shut down. She did feel bad about nearly destroying the evidence, but she wasn’t going to tell the Headmaster that.

“You will be moved temporarily to a prison cell here in the Desert Base,” the Headmaster said. “For thirty days you will consider all the evils you have committed against God and his people. Then you will be dropped.”

“An execution?” Eve gasped. “I believe the law says I’m entitled to a trial.”

“Heretics are entitled to nothing but death,” was the high priest’s icy response.

Finally finding the power to raise her voice, she exclaimed, “You can’t do that! I want to speak to the president!”

The Headmaster made no answer, but Eve could sense that he was grinning through the darkness.

Eve didn’t resist as a Guard led her down the hallway to her prison cell. It was quiet, and the heavy steel doors prevented her from seeing whether any of the cells had inhabitants. The Guard, a brown-haired woman with astonishingly large biceps, stopped at a cell marked 05 and sunk a card into the door.

“In there,” said the Guard, shoving Eve forward.

When they were inside, the Guard directed Eve to stand against the wall. Eve did as she was told. The Guard pulled back Eve’s shackled wrists and unlocked the handcuffs.

“Your ring…it’s beautiful,” said the Guard. “Unfortunately, you can’t have it in here.”

Eve’s eyes widened. “What? Why not?”

“That’s the policy. We’ll keep it in a safe place, and your family can come pick it up when they see fit.”

“Please,” Eve begged. “One woman to another, you’ve got to understand. I need it! You can’t take it away from me!”

The Guard shook her head. “Don’t make me use force.”

Eve fought back the tears. “But it’s mine!”

And with that she leaped at the Guard and wrestled her to the ground. Eve grabbed the soldier’s throat and squeezed until the woman’s face turned red.

As she held the Guard tightly between her fingers, it occurred to Eve that she didn’t have much of a plan–subdue the Guard and make a run for it. Chances were good someone would see her and the whole Desert Base would come down on her.

The Guard got a hand free and used it to knock Eve’s arm out from under her. Off balance, Eve was easily pushed off onto the concrete slab. The Guard pinned her down with one hand and pulled out a club with the other.

“You can’t have it!” screamed Eve. “It’s my ring!”

The blow came like a flash of light. Eve’s vision cleared just long enough to see the Guard’s fist hurtling toward her.

Red and golden leaves sashayed through the air as Jon and Eve walked through the tall gates and into the tree-filled commons.

“I’m sorry about encouraging you to take the mission,” she told him. “I love you, and the last thing I want is for us to be apart.”

He looked her in the eyes and smiled slightly. “No, you were right. I do have to think about my career, and this is an opportunity that I’d be foolish not to take up.”

She scrunched her eyebrows questioningly. “You mean…?”

“Yeah. I told them I’d take the mission.”

For a second she couldn’t breathe.

“You approve, right?”

Her lips twisted cautiously into a smile. “Of course. This is great news. What you’re doing…well it will be historic.”

Jon’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”

“Well,” she said, grabbing his hand, “I’ll miss you.”

They paused and Jon kissed her on the lips. “Yeah, I’m going to miss you, too.”

They walked on through the foliage, stopping occasionally to take wild and usually futile grasps at the falling leaves. Jon stopped suddenly and pointed off the trail down a yellow slope, where months ago they had tussled in the grass. “Do you remember?” he asked.

Eve grinned. “Up for round two?”

Jon stroked a pretend beard, as if to weigh the pros and cons of the suggestion. Then, without warning, he smacked her on the back and ran down the hill. “Tag!” he bellowed.

Her blue eyes displayed something between shock and amusement. She chased after him but he was already far away. “Jon, stop!” she called after him. “C’mon, we’re too old for all this running around. Let’s play something else. Please?”

He came out of the forest holding his hands in the form of a T. “Time out,” he explained. “Fine, we don’t have to play Tag. But what mature game do you have in my mind?”

She bit her bottom lip as she thought. “How about Hide and Go Seek?” she offered, adding quickly, “I get to hide first!”

Jon laughed. “That’s not fair; you were just ‘It.’”

“But now we’re playing a new game,” she said. “You said we could!”

Jon held up his hands in surrender. “Fine.”

Eve smiled triumphantly. “Close your eyes and count to thirty!”

And she was off. Eve looked from tree to tree to find the best place for hiding. Finally, she settled on a mammoth oak tree that must have been hundreds of years old. Seconds after settling herself, a pair of muscular arms came around her and pinned her against the bark.

“Hey!” she protested. “You were supposed to count.”

Jon smiled at her mysteriously.

“What do you want?” she asked, drawing a line with her finger from his belly up to his chest.

Finally, he let go and dropped to one knee.

“Jon, what are you–?”

“So, this is going to sound cliché,” he said, “but Eve, you make me happier than anyone I’ve ever met. And the hardest–the hardest thing about this mission is going to be not having you by my side. So I want–I want to make sure that, when it’s all over, we’ll never be apart again.”

He reached into his pocket and removed a small, cherry-wood box. He pulled the top open carefully and held the spark-ling rock to her eyes. “Eve…will you marry me?”

She smiled so hard her face went red. “Yes,” she whispered.

Eve awoke with a throbbing headache. She was lying atop gray sheets on a thin mattress. Her throat felt scratchy and she tasted blood.

The bed squeaked as she sat up. Gray walls oppressed her from four sides. She felt like she could reach out and touch each of them. There was a lone toilet in the back corner. It didn’t have a seat and there was no tissue paper. She had the cell to herself, but she could faintly hear the sound of someone sobbing.

“Hello?” she called out, but her voice was hoarse.

The whining continued unabated.

It wasn’t fair, she thought. After all the years of service she had given the Guard, they’d sent her to a prison like a common Heretic. She may have helped the Underground, but she had only done what she thought was right.

Something didn’t feel right when Eve rubbed her goose-bumped arms for warmth. She looked at her ring finger and noticed it was naked. She thought she would cry but the tears never came. Eve got down on her knees and prayed.