Among the Betrayed Read Free Page A

Please?”
    â€œOh, all right,” Bonner said grimly.
    â€œSally?” Nina asked.
    â€œOkay,” Sally said in her smallest voice. Nina knew that if there’d been even a glimmer of light in the room, she would have been able to see absolute terror in Sally’s eyes.For once Nina was glad for darkness.
    So they’d gone into the woods, clutching their fake I.D.’s like lifelines. But they hadn’t just hidden and watched. They’d met Jason and his friends. And Jason had told them a wonderful story about a girl not any older than them, Jen Talbot, who’d led a rally demanding rights for third children like them. Jen had been brave enough to tell the Government that third children shouldn’t have to hide. Jen had died for her beliefs, but still, listening to Jason’s wonderfully deep voice praise Jen, Nina had wanted to be just like her.
    But now that Nina had been arrested, it looked like Sally and Bonner had been right. The woods had been dangerous. The three of them shouldn’t have stepped foot outside Harlow School. Nina should never have met Jason, never have kissed him, never have fallen in love.
    â€œNo!” Nina found herself screaming again. “No, no, no, no, no . . .”

CHAPTER FOUR
    T he hating man came back. Nina stared at him coldly, her eyes like slits, her chin held high.
    â€œYou’re the one who lied,” she said. “Why should I believe you? You can say anything you like. But I know. Jason wouldn’t betray me.”
    The hating man wouldn’t meet her gaze. He glanced to the other side of her jail cell.
    â€œWhy haven’t you eaten?” he asked.
    For the first time Nina noticed a tray of food just beyond her feet. Two thick crusts of black bread, a smear of synthetic butter on each, were stacked on a plate with a small, wormy-looking apple. It was no worse than the food she’d eaten at Harlow, or at home.
    â€œI wasn’t hungry,” Nina said defiantly, and it was true. But now that she looked at the food, her stomach rumbled.
    â€œRight,” the man said with a disbelieving snort. “Hunger strikes aren’t terribly effective when you’re condemned to die anyway.”
    He spoke so casually that it was all Nina could do not to gasp. So it was true. They were going to kill her. Fine.But they couldn’t make her die hating Jason.
    The man rocked back on his heels and squinted at Nina, like a naturalist studying an interesting bug. For a while the Government had been big on the idea that everyone should eat insects, so they’d shown a lot of bug shows on TV. Nina had never thought to feel sorry for the bugs being studied.
    â€œSo,” the man said. “Is Nina Idi your real name?”
    No! Nina wanted to scream. It would feel so good to tell the truth now, at the end. Nina had always loved her real name, Elodie. Elodie Luria. When she was really little, Aunty Zenka had even made up a song about Nina’s name: “You’re just like a melody . . . Our little Elodie.” Elodie was a fairy-tale name, a princess’s name. When Gran and the aunties had scrimped and saved and finally gotten enough money to buy Nina a fake I.D. on the black market, Gran had come home and laid out the I.D. card on the table like a golden prize. Nina had tiptoed over and read the name, with all the aunties and Gran circled around like the good fairy godmothers at Sleeping Beauty’s christening. Then Nina had begun screaming.
    â€œNina Idi? That’s my name now? That’s like . . . like Ninny Idiot! You want me to be a Ninny Idiot?” Even screaming, Nina had felt ashamed. That little rectangle of plastic was her ticket to freedom. It represented twelve years of Aunty Lystra wearing glasses she couldn’t see through anymore, twelve years of Aunty Rhoda wearing the same coat, twelve years of Gran darning socks so manytimes the socks were more darn than