I screamed. The sound filled the room, bounced off the stone walls and pounded at my ears but I couldn’t stop, I had to let the pain out. My throat went raw. My body arched like a bow in the chair and my fingers clawed at the air. The pain reached a peak…went higher, higher than I’d thought was possible. There was a final, tearing pull—

And then the pain dropped away, becoming a throbbing, steady burn. I descended into a limp, blubbering mess, tears pouring down my cheeks. “Please stop!” I managed between heaving sobs.

Becker held up the pliers and showed me my big toenail. His voice was sharp and cold as a scalpel. “Tell me who knows about the bomb.”

I panted for air, trying not to look at my foot. If I told him about Vasiliy, Luka and Arianna, he’d kill them. And he’d kill me, once he had no more use for me. My only chance was to hold on. But for what? No one was coming to rescue me. Danny and the others were in jail and no one knew where I was.

“You have nine more,” said Becker. “Then the fingernails. Then the teeth.”

I took a big panic breath of air and he leaned forward, thinking I was going to talk.

“Nu-nu-No,” I got out between sobs. I’d let him have the bomb, at the metro station. Tens of thousands of deaths were going to be on me. I wasn’t going to be responsible for any more.

He stood and, without a word, he left. I sat slumped and panting. My foot throbbed and my wrists burned where the cord tying them to the chair’s arms had rubbed them raw.

Becker returned, pushing someone ahead of him. She was a year or two younger than me and she wore a dark blue knee-length dress. She had a duster and a can of spray polish in her hands. A maid.

Becker closed the door and shoved the woman to her knees in front of me. He pulled out his gun and the woman shrieked as he pressed the muzzle to the side of her head. “Tell me who knows about the bomb,” he said again.

“Nein! Nein bitte!” The woman started to sob, pleading for her life. I collapsed inside. I knew he’d do it. And if I didn’t talk, he’d find someone else and keep doing it and doing it until I did talk.

I nodded. Becker hauled the woman roughly to her feet and shoved her out the door.

I told him about the Malakovs. I told him the CIA didn’t know. I didn’t try to hold anything back because I knew he’d be able to spot a lie in a heartbeat. Interrogating people is what he did.