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When the cutting was done, they were told tofor so" They were uards, radiating the sense of being in charge, sat with a look of irritation on his face As each was called forward, he reloaded a clipboard

"Nae?"

"Twenty-one"

He eyed her up and down "Can you read?"

"I can read Yes"

"Special skills?"

She hesitated "I can ride"

"Ride?"

"Horses"

His eyes rolled a little "Anything useful?"

"I don’t know" She tried to think of so safe "Sew?"

He yawned His teeth were so bad, they appeared to wiggle in hisonto the clipboard and tore off the bottoe From a bin beneath the table he retrieved a ratty blanket, a metal plate, a battered cup and spoon He passed these to her, the paper balanced on top Sara quickly glanced at it: her nae 216," and, below that, "Biodiesel 3" The handwriting had the blockiness of a child’s

"Next!"

One of the guards took her by the arm and led her down a hallway of sealed doors A tiny box of a rooh not like any chair Sara had seen before: acontraption of cracked red leather and steel, its back reclined at a forty-five-degree angle, with straps at the chest, feet, and wrists Lurking above it, like the legs of a spider descending on silken threads, was an aruard shoved her toward it

"Sit down"

He strapped her to the chair and departed From without the room, the sound h-pitched sound Was it screaht be ill She would have been, if there had been anything in her sto She would beg She would plead She had no strength to resist

The door opened behind her A ray slasses perched at the tip of his nose and bushy eyebrows that curled like wings at the tips Sorandfatherly Like the guard at the table, he was looking at a clipboard He raised his eyes and s bile

"I’ as he shook his head "Those people are idiots I bet you’re faet you out of here"

She experienced a flash of hope that he intended to release her, but as he drew a stool beside the chair, snapping on a pair of rubber gloves, she realized heelse He placed his hand beneath her chin to open her jaw He peered inside her ers before her face

"Folloith your eyes, please"

Sara traced his fingers as they ht and pulled away He took her pulse, then produced a stethoscope from the pocket of his sht and returned his attention to the clipboard, squinting through his glasses

"Any health probleht sweats, difficulty urinating?"

Sara shook her head

"How aboutoff boxes "Any proble, for example"

"No"

"It says here you’re " He paused, flipped through pages "Twenty-one Is that correct?"

"Yes"

"Ever been pregnant?"

So clenched inside her

"It’s a simple question"

She shook her head "No"