The Charm School

in this place but could not. He tried to comprehend the sort of monstrous system that could create a place such as this but could not. He tried to think of a way out but could not.

33
    Toward dusk, Hollis and Lisa left their cottage and walked south toward the soccer field. Lisa asked, “Can we talk here?”
    “Not on the paths. Later.” They found the soccer field, but it was deserted, and they moved farther south past the concrete bunker that housed the spa elevator. Lisa asked, “Are we going to the Holiday Spa?”
    “No, just walking.”
    “Like the last time you took me through these woods?”
    “Well, it’s not quite so dangerous this time. This time we’re
inside
the barbed wire.” The path ended, and Hollis climbed the ladderlike branches of a towering pine tree. He disappeared among the boughs for ten minutes, then came down and brushed himself off.
    Lisa asked, “What did you see?”
    “The Border Guard compound.”
    “Why did you want to see that?”
    “Because it’s here. That’s my training.” He smiled. “I can’t help it.”
    “I guess not.”
    They went back along the path, and Hollis turned off the trail and led her into a small ravine. They sat side by side on the sloped ground, and Hollis said softly, “They may have listening devices on the paths and maybe directional microphones tracking us. But we can talk here if we keep it low.”
    “By now we should have been in a country where no one worries about things like that. Damn it.” Lisa picked up a twig and poked the carpet of pine needles on the ground. “Are we here for the rest of our lives?”
    “I hope not.”
    “Seth knows we’re here?”
    “I think he knows we didn’t die in that helicopter crash. He probably hopes we’re here and not someplace else. We’re actually lucky we
are
here and not Lubyanka.”
    “So, are we going to be rescued or exchanged or what?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You
do
know. Why can’t I have some hope?”
    Hollis took her hand. “I told you—the less you know the better. The less
I
know, the better. You understand about polygraphs and truth serums. Burov is by no means through with us.”
    She nodded. “I told Burov just about everything I knew, Sam. I couldn’t help it. But I didn’t betray the people in Yablonya.” She looked at him.
    Hollis put his arm around her. “It’s gone. I saw the village from the air. They burned it.”
    She poked at the ground awhile, then said quietly, “Oh… those bastards…”
    “It was brave of you to try to protect them.”
    She shook her head. “I wasn’t brave.” After a while she said, “I always thought I could resist… but within a week I was nobody. I wasn’t Lisa. I feel ashamed of myself.”
    Hollis replied, “They’re professionals, Lisa. They can break anyone. They’ve had millions of people to practice on before you came along. Don’t be hard on yourself.”
    She nodded slowly. “But I had no idea what they could do to a person…”
    “I think you did.”
    She looked at him. “Yes. I understand that now. The KGB was always an abstraction to me, a bogeyman story that you and Seth told to frighten me into being careful with my Russian friends, my church attendance… but now… my God, how evil they are. We’re so naive.”
    “Don’t dwell on it.”
    “I’m still shaking.”
    He held her closer, and she put her head on his shoulder. She said softly, “Burov tried to make me hate you. He said I was here because I was an accomplice to the murders you committed. But I knew that was a lie. They aren’t interested in those two dead men. They’re interested in what we know and who we are.”
    “Yes. You know they don’t subscribe to our morality, though they take every opportunity to use it against us. You’re not a criminal. You’re a political prisoner.”
    “Yes, a political prisoner.”
    “Those guards were unfortunate casualties of their own illegal operation.”
    “Yes. I’ll remember that.” She took a deep breath and said, “I… I prayed, but I think I lost faith a few times.”
    “So did Christ on the cross. He was human too.”
    She took his hand. “You’ve made me feel better.”
    “Good. And you’ll feel a lot better if we can even the score here.”
    “I don’t want to talk about that, Sam. I’m tired of this ongoing vendetta. All I want is to be out of here and to get our people out of here.”
    He said, “Good.” He rose to his feet. “Then let’s talk to some of our