The Commandant stood up and moved around to the front of his desk. The guards returned with Will, the Rev, and Jim. She noted Anjali’s absence, and her heart leaped against her ribs. Had she been deliberately left outside? Please let me be right about this.
“Sophie.” Jaros’ voice sounded like the swish of a snake’s scales on the rocks. “The prisoner has been given a job of great responsibility. You know what that means, don’t you?” She looked up at him. As she had expected, he held the knife.
“If you brand him, he’ll die.” She was unable to prevent her voice from trembling. “He won’t survive the trauma.”
Jaros smiled. “Then someone must stand in for him. One of your colleagues, perhaps.” Jaros gestured at Will, the Rev, and Jim standing behind them. Sophie could hear their collective intake of breath. “Perhaps one of these fine gentlemen you admire so much. I have noted your particular attachment to each of them, especially that one.” He pointed at Will.
Nothing would give him more pleasure than marking an American aid worker as a possession of the Soviet Republic.
“You will choose now.” His soft voice became menacing, and Sophie turned to look at the men behind her. She saw each of them straighten a bit, their expressions firming up. Preparing to be branded in place of a man they didn’t even know. That wouldn’t happen, not while she was still taking air.
“Jim, continue the tent-to-tent search,” she ordered. “We need to isolate these pneumonia cases as quickly as possible. Dave, you remain second-in-command of this mission. Please go about your business.” At the Commandant’s nod, the guards removed both men from the building over their protests.
That left Will. Sophie looked at him for a long time. William Temple, her mentor. Her dearest friend. The man she would follow anywhere. Her boss.
“Will, please take the patient to the camp. Dr. Shah knows what needs to be done until I return.” His eyes flew wide, and he lurched forward. Every gun in the room pointed at him.
“Sophie, no! I know what you’re planning to do and it’s insane.”
She let her eyes and voice go hard. “I am in command of this mission, William. Not you. Do as I have instructed. Take the patient to the camp now.” She turned her back on him and pushed her red hair away from her face.
“I have chosen, Commandant. You will mark me.”
Jaros grinned. “As I knew I would.”
She faced him, her knees trembling. Jaros’ guards and her two omnipresent Soviet soldiers stood behind the Commandant, weapons drawn. The knife came up between her eyes.
Michael would never forgive himself, she knew. He’d live for the rest of his life knowing that Sophie had been mutilated because of events he himself had set in motion. It would tear them apart. In saving him, she’d lose him forever.
But she had no choice. She loved him, would never love anyone else the same way. She’d spent the last ten years trying to find someone who could take his place, and no one had even come close. If she bought Michael’s life with this act, then it would be worth it. She would have her work, and Michael would have his life. But she still had one card left to play.
The knife tip settled in the center of her forehead. The Commandant’s face hovered directly in front of hers, and she could see the madness gleaming in his eyes. The knife pierced the thin layer of skin and flesh. Jaros dragged the knife diagonally, carving the line of the hammer. She could actually hear the blade scraping against her bone. Two things happened right away.
First, she screamed at the white-hot line of fire blazing across her forehead. Not just because it hurt, but because she believed it might save her life. With the Commandant blocking her view and blood dripping down into her eyes, Sophie heard, rather than saw, the second thing happen. Every safety in the room clicked off, and all the guns aimed. But not at her. Not at her, she knew it.
At the Commandant.
“Commandant. No,” came a rough voice in Russian from behind Jaros. One of the guards.
One of her guards. Young men, raised in a time when Soviet culture was working to elevate the rights and status of its women.