“Yes, there’s more.”Resignation rang out in my voice.I wasn’t getting out of there, and the sooner I wrapped my pounding head around that fact, the better.
This must have been what it was like for all the women we captured.I scowled at the unwelcome comparison.This harrowing acceptance was what it was like for Caroline.
“If you tell us what you know, perhaps we can help you in return.”Her tone was softer, as though she sensed my emotional turmoil.Maybe it was written all over my face.
“Everythingyou know,” the man on her other side corrected.“You would need to divulge all that you have seen, heard, and expect the president to do.”
“What kind of help?”My heart picked up its pace again.
After all the hours I’d been sitting there, dehydrating without so much as a drink, or the offer of a toilet break, let alone legal counsel, the suggestion of an ‘exchange’ of sorts had been the first tangible hope I’d heard.Desperate and without other options, I clung to it, like the debris of a sinking ship on the open ocean.
“A glass of water, at least.”The older man smirked.
My gaze shot to his.“How about a plea deal?”
I scanned the line of faces gawping at my question.Their expressions said they were shocked at my audacity, but I didn’t know why.Clearly, they didn’t know much about the man they had in custody if they thought I was humble and modest.I was prepared to ask for just about anything in order to help my cause.
“You are not in a position to negotiate, Commander General,” the smirking man replied.
“I think I am.”I leaned toward him a fraction.“I worked closely with the president for many years.We studied together, and I know him personally.I helped to establish the regime he now presides over, and I ran the camp he proudly uses to contain those he no longer wants to participate in his society.”
I paused, allowing my words time to resonate.“I don’t believe there was anything Ian Jackson didn’t tell me about his hopes, his intentions, and his plans, and it seems as though you’re rather keen to know more about those things.”
A strained silence fell over proceedings as one of the men passed a hand-scrawled message in German past the woman to the other one.I resisted the urge to read the message, although I could have.His handwritten words didn’t matter.I finally had their attention.
“Do you have details of the things you mentioned?”the officer who’d arrested me asked.“Can you describe the layout of Jackson’s buildings and provide dates, a timeline, and other numbers?”
“I do have details.”Emboldened, I straightened at the smug admission.Up until the day I’d left, I had all the fucking details.“And yes, I can provide them.No one knew Ian better than me.”
“And you would be prepared to share all of this with us?”the cynical guy asked.
“It seems as though you need my information.”I looked between them, still unclear what they wanted the information for, yet prepared to throw Ian under the bus to save my own skin.“Is that correct?”
“Your intel would aid the international case against Jackson, yes.”The woman nodded.“He is the ICC’s main target.”
An international case against Ian?
My brow rose as I wrestled with his probable reaction.Would he be horrified at the thought of being enemy number one, or would he be predictably arrogant thathewas their ‘most wanted’?
“This is news to you, I think.”She smiled.“You did not realize that you were, how to put it, ‘wanted men’?”
She laughed, her colleagues joining in her amusement as I shifted in my chair.
“Ian never thinks about anyone except himself,” I told her.Until recently, it was one of the few things we had left in common.“So, no, he gave zero thought to international law or its consequences.”
“And you?”Her tone was more derisory then.“Did you consider that what you were doing was not only morally repugnant, but also criminally punishable?”
I recoiled at her question, glancing away at the light brown wall again.“I knew it was wrong.”
The pain amplifying in my head was making it difficult to think, and glancing around, I looked for a wastepaper basket I could vomit into if the urge swelled.
“And yet it took your love for Miss Craness to change your mind?”She sounded almost imperious.
“Yes,” I assured her, certain that if they only took away one thing from my interview, I needed it to be that.“Caroline changed everything.She made me realize that those women weren’t state property, they were people.That’s why I had to get her away from Ian.That’s why we had to run.”
Her eyes widened at the passion in my voice.“It is good for her that you love her.”
“Yes.”
