Turncoat: Turncoat Trilogy Book 1

Chapter 16.2

Aaron failed to control his expression as his eyes widened and his jaw went slack. General Jameson was well known in the Alliance for his cruelty and unconvential interrogation tactics. Various instances ran through his head of things attributed to the man she held in such a high regard. The West Felrain Massacre, the Occupation of Tarpin, several bombing campaigns and other slaughters. Hundreds of thousands of lives ended at the say so of a single man who helped raise and protect a young gay Tzi girl, a girl he loved enough to protect well into her teens and even her induction to the military.

"I know how you guys think of him and you're wrong," she said. "He only did those things because he was forced to. I saw how it affected him whenever he had to sign off on an operation. His hand would shake and he wouldn't eat for days afterwards. I had to try to force feed him once after a week, especially when the news got back to him of what happened. The Felrain Massacre nearly killed him. He isn't the war criminal you make him out to be, he's a signature to them!"

For the first time she became animated. Her fists clenched and anger bled onto her face for a moment and then it was all gone and her somber tone returned. "I want you to remember something for when all of this is finished, for when this war is finally over. Your news outlets and history books will portray us as savages with no concern for human life. They will call us child murderers and this war a genocide and in some aspects, they will be correct. But, we are people, we live and die just like you and your soldiers. Mothers and fathers weep when their child doesn't come home from war because of your machines, just like yours. Are there monsters among us? Yes. Do we want to do the things the government forces us to? Not always."

Aaron nodded. "I will make sure people know that, I promise." The words just slipped out before he could catch them and he cringed. A promise he could never keep, he knew it and she knew it. She wouldn't be able to walk down the hallway here without drawing stares, what would happen when they moved her to a city? She was obviously from the Axis, if they couldn't tell by looking at her, her accent would give her away instantly. She would heal slow and ugly, scars of every kind marking her skin and it would give her away. She would never be able to live down where she lived at the beginning of a war that wasn't her fault.

"When you first came in here, you said that all of the people who sat here before me deserved it in one way or another, they were criminals of some sort," she said.

"Yes," Aaron said, wondering where this was headed.

"I deserve to sit in this chair as much as those people did," she said. "I had to do horrible things to get here, just to survive long enough. I thought I could get here with my morals intact, without breaking laws, but now that I think about it. I deserve to sit here as much if not more than anyone before me. I deserve an execution for what I've done."

Aaron kept control of his face a little better this time as he studied the broken teenager in front of him. Whatever she had done must have been truly horrible if she thought she deserved execution. "Is that what you want?" he asked. "A trail based on the information you give me? Do you want this to be a confession of your crimes?"

She shook her head slowly, as if unsure of her decision, slowly gaining resolution. "No. I want my life back, I want to see my parents again, I want to..." her voice choked up and he could see tears glistening in her eyes. "I want to be normal again! I want my legs back! I want to be able to walk and breathe without augmentations!"

She's going to need psychiatric help after this, possibly institutionalization for a time, Aaron realized. If she is in this state, what kind of state are Nick and Victoria in? They fought on the front lines but all accounts. "Tawny," he said softly. "Would you like to take a break?"

She shook her head and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "No, no, if I stop now I might lose my nerve. Where was I? Oh, yeah, Otto bursting in."