'Shit. She really made a mess of you.'

Blake looked up. Comrade Walsh was standing in the hospital room doorway. He had to turn his head to see the man through his left eye. His head ached and he felt ill and groggy from the painkillers. Despite this, the doctor's news had sunk in: there was nothing to be done. He'd lost the use of his right eye.

It was a blow. He was disfigured and partially blinded. How much of an effect was it going to have on his life? There were men on the streets of East Berlin who'd been blown up in the war who lived without legs. An eye: worse, or not as bad?

More to the point, how angry was he with Beth for taking it?

Walsh was studying him with a look a pity and discomfort. Neither expressions were welcome. 'So was it missing?' Blake asked.

'Yeah, no photo. How did you know?'

Blake's teeth clenched. The fucking devious bitch. The photo of him and Hannah had been taken from his file. How had Beth even got access to his documents? Stasi officers' files were kept in a secure archive.

He let out a hard, frustrated sigh. Maybe she hadn't meant to be devious. Maybe she just wanted to be sure he was telling the truth. Beth seemed like the sort of girl who needed to know things for herself. If he'd only put Hershel Greene's files away maybe she would have started to trust him.

'She's been taken into Hohenschönhausen, like you asked. They're waitin' on you for the interrogation.'

Strangely, the news depressed him. What was there to find out from her? That she didn't trust him and that she loved her father? He'd have to sit there with not only her reproachful eyes staring back at him, but Hannah's as well. Beth had been right – he was still so angry with Hannah for getting killed. It was that anger that made him good at his job, but lousy when it came to Beth. In the moment it had felt good, back-handing her across the face like that, watching her reel. But the anger had dissipated now.

It wasn't worth his time. He'd let her sweat in there for a few more days and then send her back to the factory. If she or her brother or sister put a foot out of line for the rest of their lives he'd personally see to it that they never saw the light of day again.

And if later, he found out he was angry with her? Well, he knew where she lived. There were ways of taking revenge that didn't require the girl to be in prison.

'I haven't got the stomach for it, Walsh.'

Walsh's eyebrows went up in disbelief. 'That's the drugs talking. She took your goddamn eye.'

Blake gave him a tight smile. 'What I was doing at the time, I might have been asking for it.'

Walsh shook his head. 'You've gone soft, Blake. You gonna charge her with assault at least? No? Well, her boyfriend's gonna be real pleased, I'll bet. Her knifin' a fuckin' Stasi officer and just walking away.'

Blake's good eye narrowed. 'Her boyfriend?'

'Yeah. Some rough guy. Saw 'em kissing outside her flat the other night.' Shane grinned as he saw Blake's face darken. 'Didn't know, huh?'

Beth, kissing another man. Listening to Blake talk about his past, snooping through his things, smiling that big, innocent smile at him while another man put his filthy fucking hands on her. No boyfriend, and Beth could walk away even though she'd taken his eye. He knew what he'd been thinking about doing to her just seconds before she'd stabbed him. She'd lashed out to protect herself.

But with a boyfriend all this time? That she'd concealed from him? He imagined her in bed with this man, them laughing at him. Suddenly the events of the previous day were cast in a whole new light.

Beth was going to pay.

…

'You can't do anything. Do you understand me? Anything. You can't kill Blake. You can't get Beth out of Hohenschönhausen.'

Daryl took a vicious drag on his cigarette and stabbed it out. He glared across the booth at Rick. It was just after midday and they were in Schwarzer Samt.

How had it happened? How the fuck had it happened? Less than two nights ago he'd been kissing Beth, letting her talk him into her staying, and now just what he feared would happen had happened. He felt a terrible certainty that he'd never see Beth again. Why hadn't she stayed with fuckin' Merle? Why hadn't he been there to help her? She couldn't have been thinking clearly or she'd never have gone home.

'I'll fuckin' decide what I do,' Daryl growled. 'Now, tell me what you know. Maggie couldn't get much sense out of Beth before the soldiers came for her. Said she had a fat lip but the blood wasn't hers.'

Rick glanced around briefly, checking for eavesdroppers. His blue eyes were clear and frank. Daryl thought that that's what he liked best about the man – he wore a glass face, and his honesty shone right through. Rare fuckin' trait in a politician. 'There was an altercation between Blake and Beth at his office.'

Daryl leaned forward. 'At his office, or in his office?'

Rick's jaw pulsed, once. 'In his office.'

'I'll kill the fuckin' scumbag,' Daryl snarled. 'He tried to rape her and now he's got her prisoner in that place.'

'Blake's in hospital just now. We can't lose our heads, Daryl. We need to think, and we only have a day or so till he's discharged. How much does she know?'

Daryl tried to rein his temper in so he could think clearly. An altercation, and Beth ended up with a bruise and Blake ended up in hospital. Daryl was fiercely proud. Good girl. You're a fighter, in more ways than one. His heel bounced on the wooden floor and he tore a cigarette butt to shreds. 'She knows about the plan to tunnel through to West Berlin from the U-bahn. The location of one of the safe houses. Knows Merle's a Stasi spy, though a fuckin' terrible one. Knows I'm a traitor and I got a pet Party member.'

Rick twisted his mouth wryly. 'That what I am? Fuck me, the girl knows a lot, Daryl.'

'You wanna get out?' Daryl asked. 'I got some emergency plans. You ain't scared of heights, are you?'

Rick gave him a long look. 'Will you get out?'

'Leave Beth here alone? No fuckin' way.'

'Thought not. I ain't going anywhere either. We've got no reason to believe Blake's suspicious about any of that. More like he arrested her as a matter of course after she gouged his fuckin' eye out.'

Daryl smirked at that. He wished he'd been there to see it. And then finish the goddamn job.

Rick said, 'Anyone making an attempt on Blake's life or trying to get into Hohenschönhausen – and you can't get into Hohenschönhausen, I promise you – is only going to arouse his suspicions.'

Daryl's anger started to mount. He was just going to do nothing? Sit on his ass while Beth was interrogated?

'Here's what's going to happen,' Rick said. 'Blake's going to hold her for a few days, maybe a week, to scare the girl. He ain't gonna press criminal charges. If Beth's a smart girl she'll realise that's all that's going to happen.'

Daryl thought about this. Blake wouldn't like the scandal it would cause if it got out. Blake was a big man and Beth was a little thing. People would guess what had been going on, even if a judge was persuaded to rule that Beth hadn't been acting in self-defence.

And Beth's more clandestine work? Blake had no reason to suspect Beth of anything like that. A girl would stab Blake in the eye if he was trying to rape her, traitor or not.

'I don't fuckin' like it, Grimes. I ain't used to doin' nothin'.'

'Too bad, Daryl. It's what Beth needs you to do, and you're goddamn doing it.'

…

They came for Beth while Maggie was wiping the blood from her sister's face and hands: five men in brown coats, scarves and dress shoes. Men that you'd see on any street in East Berlin. Except that there was something off about these men. The cut of the clothes was oddly similar, their shoes were identical, and they all wore the same expression of grim inscrutability.

They came right into the apartment, startling the sisters. One of the men said, 'Fräulein Greene. Please come with us.' When Beth, silently accepting her fate, reached for her coat, he pulled it out of her hands and took her by the elbow.

She was escorted downstairs to a refrigeration truck. Or what was marked as a refrigeration truck. Inside were a series of wire cages over a bench seat, not big enough to stand up in, and a guard with a machine gun. Beth was locked into one of the cages and the truck door slammed shut, leaving her and the soldier in dim light.

The truck lumbered through the streets of East Berlin. It was impossible to tell where they were headed, but Beth guessed it would be Hohenschönhausen. Half an hour later when the truck stopped and she was taken out into a walled courtyard, she thought the sandy breezeblocks looked familiar.

Her induction into the prison proceeded very much as it had when she'd visited the previous day, except this time she didn't laugh when she was told to strip, and she wasn't given her clothes back. Instead she was given a blue jumpsuit to wear, photographed and fingerprinted and shunted roughly from one room to the next.

'Am I being charged with anything?' she asked the woman holding her upper arm in a cruel grip. She could see the first gate in the corridor just ahead. Surely if she was being taken into the prison proper she was being charged with something. But the woman didn't answer, only held her arm tight enough to leave bruises. Beth was marched down corridors, past heavy door after heavy door.

Finally they stopped at one. The door was opened and she was shoved inside. The door slammed shut behind her, a lock grated, and then there was the sound of footsteps walking away.

Beth looked around her. The cell was just long enough to lie down in and narrower than her arm span. There was a toilet without a seat in one corner and a strip of fluorescent light overhead. The floor was bare and concrete with nothing to sleep on or cover herself with, and there was no window.

Beth slid down the wall and wrapped her arms around her knees. It was very cold. She'd always told herself that prison wouldn't be so bad. It was just a place that would make you cold and lonely and uncomfortable, but if you were there for something you didn't regret it wouldn't be so bad.

She saw that she was a fool. It wasn't just a place. It was a state of mind. They'd dehumanised her first – taking her clothes, putting her picture and fingerprints into the system, ignoring her questions. She didn't know how long she was going to be here and what was going to happen to her. But she had all the time in the world to wonder.

…

Two meagre meals had been pushed through the door, which was her only way of gauging time passing, when it grated open. A warden came in and grasped her by the upper arm, hauling her up, not looking her in the eye or even acknowledging she was a person. Her hands were manacled in front of her.

Beth was taken down this corridor and that, through metal gates that clanged behind her. They passed a high window at one point and it looked dark outside. Was it the next evening? She'd slept a little on the cold floor, but had woken frequently when her muscles had cramped.

A door opened and she was shoved inside. A man sat at a metal table in a neatly pressed uniform. His thick, dark hair was combed, but partly covered by the bandage that wrapped around his head and covered his right eye. The other eye stared balefully up at her.

'Beth. Sit down. I think there are some things you'd like to tell me.'

…

You guys, did you see that there's a new TV show about spies and the Stasi and the Berlin Wall called Deutschland 83? It's been broadcast in the US and Ireland already (and is available to stream on Amazon US and UK) and is airing on Channel 4 in the UK from January 3. I'm so excited! If you've already seen it, let me know what you think.

And what did you think of today's chapter? Rick and Daryl don't know what Shane's told Blake, that Beth has a lover. Seems like it's Daryl's turn to underestimate Blake. Uh-oh!