She didn’t seem like she was joking. But there was something about her tone and the way her jaw never unclenched that made Manny suspect she was a little less than convinced about her own words. For the next few minutes they talked in between sips of mediocre coffee. He learned she was from the American Federation, and enough of a true believer that she’d smuggled herself into the Heavenly Kingdom. She didn’t seem like a zealot, though. More than anything she seemed scared.

“How do you like it here?” he finally asked. “Is it what you’d expected?”

She didn’t respond for quite a while. Instead, she stared into his eyes. Manny stared back. It was a strange feeling. She must have been trying to search out whether he was trustworthy or trying to trick her into revealing her disloyalty. He maintained eye contact and tried not to seem like a member of whatever the Heavenly Kingdom called their secret police. Apparently it worked.

“Of course I’m happy here in God’s Kingdom,” she smiled an empty smile. “I’ve been blessed to meet so many dedicated people. But, um…I’ve also met some people who, um…I, um, well…” She coughed. “Not everyone here seems to have the Lord in their heart.”

Manny almost laughed at the irony in her admitting that to him. But he kept his mouth shut and just nodded. Sasha took a long sip of her coffee. He felt a little bad for staring. She was very pretty. But she was also pretty young. And of course she’d volunteered to join a theocratic murder-state. That was probably another reason he shouldn’t get too attached.

“So, anyway,” Sasha explained, “I’ve run into some men I don’t like very much. And they keep finding me when I get off from my shift at the hospital. I’m sure they’re waiting outside the House of…where I’m staying, right now. I don’t want to deal with that yet.”

“Well,” Manny smiled his most charming smile, “I’m happy to help you wait them out. I’ve got another hour at least before the buses take us back to the barracks.”

And so, for a while, they just talked. She told him about her work in the hospital and he tried to say as little as possible about his two shitty days as a Martyr. Sasha didn’t seem to mind that he didn’t have much to say about himself. Manny got the feeling she was just happy to have someone to talk with. Most of her words passed over him until she mentioned something about a prisoner.