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I was already beginning to lose track of time when I heard voices on the other side of the door.
I didn’t know how many hours had passed since I had woken up on that ship. Without my phone, without access to a clock, and without any reference besides the light passing through the curtains, everything seemed to blur into an endless sequence of waiting.
I hated waiting.
Especially when other people decided what I could or couldn’t do.
I adjusted the clothes on my body and sat on the edge of the bed. My wrists were still marked by the ropes, but the restraints had been removed. I wasn’t free, but at least I could move around the room.
When I tried to open the door, I discovered it was locked.
“Of course,” I murmured, turning the doorknob once more.
I struck the wood with the palm of my hand.
“Zion!”
No one answered.
I knocked again, this time harder.
“Luka! Elias! Does either of you intend to explain when I’ll be able to leave this place?”
I heard footsteps approaching, but they stopped before the door opened.
“Go back inside, Maeve,” a male voice ordered from the other side.
I didn’t recognize the man as one of the three.
That made me even more irritated.
“Open the door.”
“I received orders to keep you here.”
“Then tell your superiors they can come give me those orders personally.”
The man didn’t answer.
I stepped away from the door before the urge to kick it became irresistible. It wouldn’t help to take my frustration out on an employee who was probably just following orders.
But that discovery worried me.
The three weren’t just keeping me inside the suite. They had placed other people to watch the door, which meant my freedom depended on a decision they still didn’t intend to make.
I went back to the bed, trying to organize my thoughts.
I needed to find out where we were and how I could contact Matthew. I also needed to understand why Zion insisted I was in danger.
I didn’t believe he had invented everything. I knew the risks of that world and knew the Organization had enough enemies to turn any carelessness into a threat.
But that didn’t justify what they had done to me.
If they really wanted to protect me, they could have started by explaining the situation, instead of drugging me and bringing me onto a ship against my will.
Unless there was something they didn’t want me to find out before reaching the destination.
That possibility stayed in my head.
The door finally opened when I was almost decided to try to dismantle something in the room to improvise a tool.
Luka entered alone.
“Before you start screaming, I came to talk.”
“Good. I was just thinking about tearing the door off to decorate the suite.”
He looked at the doorknob and then at me.
“I imagine you’ve realized you can’t leave here on your own.”
“I realized you’re making an impressive effort to turn a conversation into a prolonged kidnapping.”
Luka didn’t argue. He walked to the table and placed a cell phone on it.
My gaze went immediately to the phone.
“Is it mine?”
“No. It’s a device you can use to talk to Matthew, provided Zion authorizes the call.”
The hope that rose in me disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared.
“Are you playing with me?”
“No.”
“Then why bring a phone I can’t use?”
“Because we’re trying to organize the call safely.”
I crossed my arms.
“You can command armed men, manage businesses, and solve problems that would make any ordinary person lose sleep, but you can’t allow a mother to speak with her own son?”
Luka held my gaze.
“It’s not a matter of capability, Maeve. It’s a matter of security.”
“You love that word.”
He was silent for a few seconds, then pulled out a chair.
“I want you to understand something. No one here wants Matthew to suffer.”
“Then stop keeping me away from him.”
“I can’t promise everything will be resolved immediately.”
“You can start by keeping what Zion promised.”
Luka lowered his eyes to the device.
“I’ll talk to him again.”
That answer irritated me, but I decided not to prolong the argument. I needed to keep the possibility of a call open, and screaming wouldn’t make the phone ring any faster.
“Now tell me what’s happening,” I asked. “You talked about the Organization, about threats, and about information that might be related to me. I want to know what we’re talking about.”
Luka rested his elbows on his knees.
“Some things changed while you were away. There are movements we can’t fully explain, and your name has started appearing again in conversations we would rather keep under control.”
My stomach clenched.
“My name appeared where?”
“In information we’re verifying.”
“That means absolutely nothing.”
“It means we need to understand why you might be involved.”
I stood up and began pacing around the room.
I knew that feeling. It was the same one I felt when my father received bad news and spent the entire night making calls. I had never liked being kept out of decisions, but I had learned that, in that world, some information could put a person in danger simply by being known.
Even so, I wouldn’t accept remaining in the dark.
“If someone is looking for me, I want to know who it is.”
“We’re still confirming some information.”
I stopped in front of him.
“So you brought me here without knowing if there’s a real threat?”
“We know there are reasons for concern.”
“Reasons aren’t answers, Luka.”
He stood up too.
“I know.”
The unexpected sincerity made me interrupt my next provocation.
For an instant, I saw how much that situation was also weighing on him. I didn’t know if it was worry about me, about the Organization, or about the consequences that could arise if something went wrong.
But I couldn’t let that distract me from what really mattered.
“I want to talk to Matthew today,” I declared. “Not tomorrow, not when you finish discussing your affairs. Today.”
Luka looked at the phone on the table.
“I’ll do what I can.”
“Do more than what you can.”
He picked up the device and walked to the door.
“Maeve?”
I turned.
“What?”
“If you know something that could help, you need to tell us.”
I stared at him for a few seconds.
There were things I knew. Information I had kept for years and that might have some connection to the current situation. But I didn’t have enough proof to conclude that the events were linked.
And I didn’t trust them enough to reveal everything.
“When I have reasons to believe you’re telling me the truth, maybe we can talk,” I answered.
Luka nodded, without insisting.
This time, when he left, he didn’t lock the door immediately.
I quickly approached and grabbed the doorknob.
The corridor was practically empty. I saw two men at a distance and a camera installed near the ceiling.
It wasn’t a real opportunity to escape.
But it was an opportunity to observe.
I memorized the position of the guards, the distance to the elevator, and the location of the camera. Then I closed the door before anyone noticed my attempt.
I still didn’t have a plan.
But I was beginning to know my prison.
And, to escape it, I needed to understand every detail.
I returned to the window when the sky began to darken.
I thought about Matthew, about my father, and about the three men who had decided to bring me back into their lives without giving me the chance to choose.
I didn’t know how long we would remain on that ship, nor what awaited me when we finally reached the destination.
But there was one thing I had already decided.
I wouldn’t hand over my secrets just to buy a few hours of peace. I also wouldn’t allow them to use my son as a justification to control my every move.
If there was a real threat, I needed to know it.
If my past was related to what was happening now, I needed to find out how.
And if Zion, Luka, and Elias expected me to simply accept the situation because I had once been part of their lives, they were in for a great disappointment.
I wasn’t there by choice.
But when I had the opportunity to decide my next step, I would do it for myself.
Without asking permission from any of them.
