Pia had promised herself that she would adopt a more conciliatory tone with Berman if she got another chance to talk to him. She had to give in, she saw that, or who knew what would happen to her? If she didn’t agree to Berman’s terms, there was no chance of her making it back to the United States. She even knew there was a deadline—the marathon at the athletics championships. But when it came to it, she couldn’t help herself. She found herself saying things she knew she shouldn’t. It was a bad habit, to say the least.

Pia suddenly felt physically exhausted but she wanted to keep walking. It had been almost a week since she had gone to see Berman at his house, as near as she could figure. It felt like ten years. Pia wondered: if she pretended to relent to Berman, would he take her home. Perhaps she could promise him the physical favors he so craved once they were back on American soil, but knowing him as she did, she doubted it very much. She knew she was powerless to do anything while she remained a prisoner here.

“How much longer are you going to keep me here like this?”

“How much longer are you going to resist the inevitable?”

“Perhaps forever.”

“I have said the consequences for you would be disastrous.”

“Can you at least get me a cell with a real bathroom? Or is that how your mother is, soiling herself in a diaper? You like the women in your life to be degraded, is that it, Berman?”

Pia steeled herself, ready for Berman to strike her. But he didn’t. Instead, he stopped walking. Pia looked at him and his face was thunder.

“You’re lucky you’re so pathetic yourself. I’m sure you are aware that I could have had my way with you if that had been my only intent. The fact of the matter is that I’m protecting you from our hosts, taking a risk, I might add, that their patience might run out. But that doesn’t mean I have to protect you forever. Think about your situation again. What are you going to do, climb that wall over there?”

Pia looked at the enclosure surrounding the garden. It was an impossibly huge fence, especially in her weakened condition. Even if Berman said to go climb, she wouldn’t be able to do it. Pia knew Berman was right. She was trapped with little hope of rescue. The only person who might guess that she had been abducted was Paul, and what could he do, especially since there was no way he could know for sure what had happened to her?

Chapter 60

60.

LANSDOWNE ROAD, TOTTENHAM, NORTH LONDON, U.K.

SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2013, 3:35 P.M.

“You like watching this, Burim?”