They did not wake up Tina. It did not matter to them whether the pregnant prisoner was awake or not because they had to give her something to make her sleep anyway. When Tina woke up, the people in white gowns paid no attention to her widened eyes, full of fear and question. Very quickly, in cold blood, they gave her a shot in the artery. Tina immediately realized that these people were there for the evil deed she had often worried about. Every time she entertained such thoughts, she would get angry with herself for having such a bad opinion of people.
Yet, they really were not people, they were cold-blooded murderers, whose hearts and minds were not even slightly touched by Tina’s desperate pleading not to kill the little unborn baby. Tina struggled until the end, until the last second, until she lost consciousness. She begged all of them, everyone in her cell that night, not to kill her child. But the drug they gave her was very strong and the murderers even looked at one another several times, surprised at how this young woman could struggle and resist for so long. In the end, Tina closed her eyes, drained of strength, defeated and asleep. She did not feel anything, could not see anything, when the several-month old fetus was cut out from her body.
The only thing that connected Tina with the world were the tears wetting her face. Tina cried. She was in a deep asleep and still cried…
There was probably no happier prisoner on earth than Gega when he was taken for interrogation. He felt like he was going on a date, and the most precious place for him in the whole world was that wall with Tina’s words.
But that day there were no new words for him and he wondered if they stopped taking Tina for interrogations, or if she simply didn’t have enough time to write even a single word. That day, he left only a question: How’s our little one?
Several days later, when Gega was taken to interrogation again there was still nothing from her. Again, Gega thought there could have be many reasons for the lack of reply but he still felt a strange weakness in his knees and sweat at his temples.
Once in the interrogation room, Gega asked for water and began to think about what could possibly have happened. At a loss, he decided to ask the investigator about Tina. He had no hope whatsoever of a truthful reply from the elderly investigator, but he had nothing to lose.
Gega drank some water and tried to act as calm as possible when he asked the investigator in a matter-of-fact tone.
“How is my wife?”
“Your wife is well.”
“Are you also the investigator for my wife?”
“Your wife is interrogated by my colleagues.”
“Then how do you know she’s well?”
“I’m telling you what I know, son.”
“Do you have any children?”
“I have good children.”
“Unlike us? Have you ever written a letter to your sweet-heart?”
“I think I’m the one who asks the questions here.”
“Sooner or later, you’ll have to answer, too.”
“Are you saying that to me?”
“To all of you.”
“Are you threatening us?”
“I probably won’t be able to anymore, but others will demand answers from all of you.”
“For what?”
“For everything.”
“First all of you will have to answer for what you have done. You have destroyed the lives of so many people and you don’t even consider yourselves guilty.”
“I have not killed anyone but I still consider myself guilty.”
“And how is that expressed? You aren’t helping the investigation, you will not name the others.”
“I’ve told you already I’ll say everything that’s necessary if my wife and child are going to be alright. I’ve already testified about the monk too.”
“And I’ve already told you that no one will let a plane hijacker and a terrorist go home, even a pregnant woman.”
“I didn’t ask you to do that. I agreed to give the testimony you wanted because I want my baby to be born, to stay alive, at least, if they’re going to sentence me to death by firing squad.”
“Don’t be afraid, son, they won’t sentence you to be executed. If you confess everything, don’t be afraid of death.”
“I’m not scared of the execution and death.”
“Then what are you afraid of?”
“I’m afraid for my baby, I am afraid that it will be killed.”
“It isn’t born yet, how can it be killed?”
“Yes, but it will be born, and a baby born in prison needs so much care and attention.”
“If it is born, they’ll take care of it. Don’t you worry about that.”
“If it is born? What do you mean, if it is born?”
“Son, you understand that prison conditions are very bad for a pregnant woman.”
“But you promised. I gave you the testimony. I wrote what you wanted me to.”
“And it’s very nice that you wrote it.”
“But what if I change my testimony at the trial?”
“That doesn’t matter. The main thing is the testimony that you have already given to the investigation. That’s the way it is, according to Soviet laws.”
“How?”
“You should have studied the laws first, son, and then hijacked the plane.”
“But what about my baby?”
“As I said we cannot release a terrorist, even if it’s a pregnant woman.”
“But she can give birth here, in prison, right?” “She can, but…”
“But what?”
“But I’ve told you, and am telling you again, prison isn’t the place for a pregnant women and she may have a miscarriage at any minute. If your wife intended to have a baby, she should have stayed at home.”
The investigator said something else to Gega, but he wasn’t listening anymore. His fist hit the investigator remorselessly, and he fell down with a thud. Gega didn’t give him the chance to get up. He jumped on top of him, trying to strangle him with his bare hands.
“Fuck you! You promised they’d take care of the baby! Fuck you all! Murderers!”
Afterwards, in the cell, when Gega opened his eyes and wiped away the blood, he couldn’t recall how those men who first hit him and then kicked him until he fainted appeared in the interrogation room so quickly.
When he regained consciousness, he could feel the taste of his own blood and tried to spit, but it proved to be quite hard, just like moving. He felt pain everywhere—his whole body was aching. He remembered the investigator’s words:
“Don’t leave any marks on his face, hit him low!”
He also remembered his utter surprise at how active the investigator was, who had been just been croaking and hardly breathing two minutes earlier. However, it was only a fleeting moment. He desperately wanted this horror to end but the it continued until they finally got tired…
After that day, Gega’s interrogations abruptly finished. They no longer needed his testimony until the trial. Gega waited impatiently for the court hearing where he would see Tina. But he was also afraid of the meeting, afraid of facing the truth that Tina was not pregnant anymore. As long as hope still existed, a small sliver of hope, he did not want to face the truth.
He also knew he would see his mother at trial, who he had not seen or heard from since the hijacking. He would try to explain to her that he had not intended to leave her, that he had planned to take his mother with him later, take her away from this terrible country.
He also wanted to see his friends, who were together with him on the plane and who he had not heard anything about each other since their arrests.