26Stefan!
Not possible. Removing Stefan from confinement before we’d arranged the exchange was far too risky for Krüger. Or so Holger had argued. Wrong again.
Stefan beside me, close enough to touch. Krüger had made the one move for which I had no countermove.
My eyes jittered around the room. Suddenly, it was impossible to make myself look at Stefan. To see how much damage Krüger had done to him.
But I had to know how bad it was.
I managed to focus on the feet. Shackled at the ankles. The cross chain linked by a yard of vertical chain to another piece binding the wrists. The shortness of the vertical chain forced him to hunch his back and the ankle shackles shortened his gait, making Stefan stand like my arthritic father.
My eyes moved upward, to his hands. The tapering fingers were
