Tejada had seen a few women who had been raped but they had all been dead or unconscious. He had never before dealt with a victim of attempted rape. He had the vague idea that women were supposed to cry, or faint, or have hysterics in such a situation. He had not expected this brittle hostility. By rights, it should have irritated him. But he had t

Gonzalo realized, as he told his story, that he had just robbed a man at gunpoint, and was ready to laugh with joy at the results. Some feeble prewar self hammered at the ice crystal that imprisoned it, and tried to protest this immoral behavior but its cries and gesticulations remained safely locked away. Carmen, as she listened to the story, fear

He tried to be glad that he was going home today. He would be able to talk to Viviana. He could find out what had been happening. But why did a dead man need to talk, or to know what was happening? It was kind, or perhaps selfish, of Carmen to try to keep him alive, but he was a dead man now, for all that she might try to protect him. Better to hav

Surely he could not have been impressed by the Falange’s pretended concern for peasant laborers? If he were a little brighter he might have turned into a Socialist, she thought. She looked at the uniform in front of her and brushed away the idea. It was ridiculous. He was simply a gentleman who enjoyed playing at being a policeman.

And if she has any relatives, tell them to feed her up. She’s suffering from malnutrition.” Tejada wondered briefly if medical training had the unintentional side effect of divorcing doctors’ brains from their external surroundings. Since Villalba was a superior officer, he did not point out that most children in Madrid were probably suffering from

He shook his head. “The trouble with Madrid is that it’s in the middle of goddamn nowhere.” Gonzalo stiffened at the insult to his home. He knew what the man meant, of course, but it made more sense to say that Portugal and France were nowhere. Madrid was the center of things.

When the trucks arrived from their final trip, perilously overloaded, it was discovered that two of the prisoners had fainted on the journey. The truck driver, who had protested at the lack of space, was careful not to say “I told you so” but it was written on his face. Tejada bit back his annoyance. It would have been simplest to shoot the unconsc

She sipped at her drink in silence. He drank silently as well, frowning heavily, and a little of her fear returned. He’s a guardia, Elena thought. Better educated, and maybe brighter than most, but one of Them. They can be human, off duty, even pleasant, but they’re . . Them. She drained her cup and set it down.

“I don’t know,” she said after a moment. He raised his eyebrows. “You don’t know if you recognize it?” She looked up at him, and her mouth twisted. “Guardia, as you probably are aware, all of the students at this school have notebooks like that one. I won’t say that I recognize this specific one, because I don’t, but I won’t be entrapped into sayin