could speak to the dead.
The next day, he went down to the cellblock to visit her. He’d been fascinated by her since the day he and Alise had moved her down, maybe because she seemed so innocent and harmless next to Alise. He had strange feelings toward Evelina, and attraction was the smallest part of it. He felt the need to protect her, and to make life a little easier for her.
He had resisted his feelings while he and Alise were intimate together, but now that he understood Alise didn’t truly care for him, he grew emboldened enough to go and speak to Evelina.
He knocked on the closed panel in her door, then waited a moment, working up his nerve, before he opened the panel and looked at her through the barred window.
She sat on her bed, looking back at him and waiting.
“Hello,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t reply.
“How are you?” he asked.
She glanced around at her concrete cell. “How should I answer that?”
“I don’t know.”
She watched him expectantly, her eyes dark and vibrant.
“I brought you...there was Bavarian chocolate on our last supply train,” Niklaus said. “Not much, but S.S. men all got some. I saved a little. Would you like it?” He held up a square of chocolate wrapped in tin foil, offering it through the bars.
“Why are you giving me that?” She remained on her bunk.
“Come on. Take it.”
“Is that an order?” She slowly stood and walked toward him, her eyes full of suspicion. She unwrapped it, revealing the rich chocolate, and her eyes widened. “Is it poisoned?”
“Why would I poison it?”
“To kill me?”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
“Am I supposed to trust you?” Evelina asked.
Niklaus sighed and thought about it. “If you were going to die...wouldn’t it be better to die by chocolate poisoning instead of a firing squad?”
“This is true.” She looked at the chocolate but made no move to eat it. “Why would you give me this?”
“I just...feel I should help you,” Niklaus admitted. “Is there anything else I can do?”
“Yes. Unlock the door and let me go home.”
“I can’t. I’m sorry. I wish I could.”
“You can’t? You’re standing outside my door. You’re even wearing an S.S. uniform. I think you could get me out of here if you tried.”
“They would kill me,” Niklaus said.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll use chocolate.” Evelina gave him a thin smile.
“Are you going to taste it or not?”
“What’s the hurry? I have days and days to pass.” She placed it on the wobbly bookshelf that held her clothes, which now consisted only of the cheap, plain gray dresses and slippers the Nazis had issued her.
“Saving it for later.” He nodded. “That’s smart.”
Evelina shrugged.
“Can I bring you anything else?”
“Besides a key to my door?” Evelina glanced around her cell. “I have nothing to do here. Can you bring me something to read?”
“What would you like?”
“Novels, newspapers, magazines, it doesn’t matter! Just anything to keep my mind busy.”
“I can do that.” He smiled at her, but she didn’t return it.
“And more chocolate,” she added. “If it isn’t poisoned.”
Chapter Forty-One
Seth stood over the young man on the table. He was Hispanic, around Seth’s age, a veteran of the Iraq War. His name was Frederico, and his left leg was missing from the knee down. Seth couldn’t stop himself from thinking of the day he’d met Jenny. Everett Lawson had run over Jenny’s dog with his red truck that had the stupid flame decals on the sides. Seth had stopped to heal the dog, and in the process grown back the dog’s leg, which had been missing for months or years. That was how Jenny had discovered Seth’s power, and how Seth had really discovered Jenny. He smiled for a moment at the memory.
“Can you do it?” General Kilpatrick asked from the window above, looking down on Seth, Frederico, and the researchers and guards within the big concrete lab.
“I can do it, but I won’t be up for golf afterward,” Seth said. He’d resisted all of Mariella’s attempts to flip him and make him cooperate with Ward, laced with not-very-subtle hints that Seth might be welcomed into Mariella’s bed if he did. Today, though, Ward had played a dirty trick on him.
ASTRIA had brought in a pool of severely wounded war veterans, amputees and others with injuries that couldn’t be fixed by medical science. One of Ward’s assistants, a thuggish-looking guy named Buchanan, had brought a digital tablet down to Seth’s cell and held it up to the window, showing him all