Page 50 of One Minute Out

Maja didn’t know anything of another attack.

“Just be aware. My men are nothing like the Serbian hoodlums you’ve been surrounded by. My men are trained. Skilled. We will remain vigilant, but we are unafraid of this masked man.

“Now,” he continued, “we will be here for the rest of today and all day tomorrow. I suggest you rest, eat when the food arrives, and relax. I know the Serbians do not allow talking. That is not us. Talk to each other if you wish, but do so softly, or you will all lose privileges.”

The leader turned away and left the room, leaving four more armed men standing around or sitting on broken windowsills.

Maja sat quietly, her long dark hair hanging in her eyes, until a woman scooted over to her and sat close.

“Do you speak Russian?” the woman asked in Russian.

Maja did speak some, but she didn’t feel like talking. “Nyet.”

“English?”

Maja hesitated. She was afraid to speak but was certain this woman had heard her speaking English back in Belgrade. There was no denying it now. “Yes.”

“My name is—”

Maja interrupted. “No. You know the rules. Don’t say your real name.”

“No one can hear us if we speak softly.”

Maja looked at the floor. “I don’t want to know your real name.”

The woman leaned closer to Maja. “Fine. They call me Anke here. Where are you from?”

“Romania,” Maja said.

“I am from Kiev. Ukraine.”

“Okay.”

“I wanted to tell you, because you look older than many of the others.” Maja had just turned twenty-three, and this did put her as one of the older women in the group.

“Tell me what?”

“I have learned that one of us is a spy.”

Now Maja looked up in surprise. “A what?”

“A Serbian guard told me when we were getting off the bus. He likes me, I guess, and before they left he whispered that I should watch what I say to the others because one of the girls was put in here to inform on the rest of us.”

Maja looked around in the dim. “That... that sounds crazy. Nobody is here because they want to be.”

Another woman, Maja knew her to be Moldovan, leaned into the conversation.

“Maybe it’s crazy,” the Moldovan said, looking at Maja. “Or maybe it’s you.” Louder she said, “Maybe you are the informant.”

“I... I am not an informant.”

Others tucked closer on the floor, listening in as the Moldovan girl continued. “I have been watching you. I have been raped twice. Once in Belgrade, and once last night in the forest. Most of the other girls have been raped, as well.”

All of the girls within earshot nodded.

“Others have been beaten. But you? I haven’t seen them lay a finger on you.”

Another young woman, also one of the Ukrainians, said, “I saw her touched. In the woods the other night. One of the men selected her, dragged her a few feet. But then he put her back in line when the other man yelled at him.” She eyed Maja now. “It was like you were being protected for some reason. Why?”

---