Among the Betrayed

CHAPTER TWO

Why?" The word exploded in Nina's ears, and she jerked awake. Then she jerked back because a man's face was just inches from hers, yelling at her.

"Why did you betray your country?" the man demanded.

Nina blinked. She was doomed anyway — why not argue? "Betray my country?" she could sneer. "What kind of a country thinks it's a betrayal just to be born? Was I supposed to kill myself out of loyalty? Out of patriotism? How is it my fault that my parents had two babies before me?"

But anything she said would betray her mother and Gran and the aunties — everyone who'd kept her hidden, everyone who'd kept her alive.

She didn't speak.

The man sat back on his heels. It was dark in Nina's prison cell; she thought it was probably the middle of the night. The man's silhouette was just a dim shadow in front of her.

He's a shadow and so am I, Nina thought. She was still groggy enough that that seemed funny.

Then the man turned his head and murmured, "Now." Instantly the entire cell was flooded with harsh, too bright light from the one bare electric bulb overhead. Nina squeezed her eyes shut.

"I know you're awake," the man said softly. "You can't hide."

Nina stiffened at that word, "hide." He knew. Of course he knew. Why else had she been arrested? She thought she'd resigned herself to dying, but suddenly she was drowning in panic. Was this it? Was the man about to shoot her? Or was he going to take her somewhere else to die? How did the Population Police kill illegal children?

Nina opened her eyes a crack because it was better to see her killer than to cower sightlessly, expecting a gun-shot at any moment. But seeing gave her another jolt: She recognized the man. He was the one who'd been there when she was arrested, staring at her with those hate-filled eyes.

Weakly Nina closed her eyes again. It didn't matter. She still had the man's image imprinted in her mind. He was tall and muscular and richly dressed, like someone on TV His dark hair waved back from a high forehead. He looked powerful, just as Jason always looked powerful. But Jason had never once looked at her with such hatred.

Nina remembered something Gran always said: "If looks could kill. ."

Looks can kill, Gran,

Nina wanted to say.

That look's going to kill me.

The man chuckled.

"I don't care if you talk or not," he said. "Your cohort already told us everything.

He cracked like an egg. I just thought you'd like the chance to tell us your version. Maybe your friend lied a little to save his own skin. To make himself look a little better and you, well, a lot worse. Guiltier. You know?"

The man was practically crooning in Nina's ear; his face was so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her cheek. Nina could barely think. What was the man talking about?

For a minute Nina didn't even understand the words he'd used—"cohort"? What was that? Then she remem' bered all the mystery novels Aunty Lystra had read aloud back home, on nights when the TV wasn't working. The detectives in those books were always accusing people of being "cohorts in crime." Cohorts were partners, helpers. Did he mean Gran and the aunties, who were cohorts in hiding her?

Nina barely managed to keep herself from gasping.

No! she wanted to scream.

You didn't catch them. You couldn't have!

Tears began streaming down her face, silently.

But the man hadn't said "cohorts" and "they" and "them." He'd said "cohort." "He." "Him."

Nina knew only one him.

No, she corrected herself desperately.

I met other boys from Hendricks School. Just because I didn't really know them, that doesn't mean they didn't betray me. In fact, it makes it more likely that they turned me in.

Nina thought about the guys she and her friends had sneaked out to meet in the woods at night. As a group, they were as skittish and timid as rabbits. She couldn't imagine any of them having the nerve to speak to the Population Police.

Except one.

No!

The denial slammed through her brain. Maybe she even screamed it aloud. Even if you forgot that Jason loved her, even if you forgot that he'd kissed her, secretly, by moonlight — he was an illegal third child, too. All of them were, all the kids who met in the woods. Even if they wanted to, it would be too risky for any of them to betray her.

Maybe it's my father, Nina thought bitterly.

Maybe Gran was wrong and he did know I was born, did know I exist. Maybe he thought he'd get a reward for turning me in.

Nina opened her eyes, angry enough now to face the hating man without flinching.

The man was smiling.

"Oh, Scott — or should I say Jason — had some very interesting tales for us," the man said cheerfully. "He made you out to be quite the operator."

Nina screamed. The sound echoed in her tiny concrete cell, one long wordless howl of rage and pain.

When she stopped screaming, the man was gone.