And the longer we sit in this room—
The closer he is to losing everything.
54
Jonah
Location:Subterranean Holding Chamber — Staging Node
Time:Unknown
Silence becomes a language when you sit in it long enough. I think about Cal, being rescued, and Marcus. What about the others? Are they still there?
At first it presses in—heavy, expectant. Then it thins, stretches, leaves room for thought.
I let it.
The woman across from me hasn’t moved since the door sealed. Her breathing is steady now, controlled, but her eyes keep tracking the ceiling vents, the seams in the walls, the single camera mounted high in the corner.
Good instincts.
“They didn’t search you properly,” I say quietly.
Her gaze snaps to me.
“Excuse me?”
“They rushed you,” I continue. “Hands, wrists, pockets. No strip search. No medical scan.”
She hesitates. “How do you know?”
“Because you still have your watch,” I whisper, nodding toward her left wrist.
She looks down, startled. The watch face is dark—battery long dead—but the casing is thick, reinforced.
Journalist-grade.
Her lips part slightly. “I didn’t even think—”
“They didn’t either,” I say. “Which means this wasn’t about you. Not yet.”
That settles her.
She shifts subtly, angling her body away from the camera without making it obvious.
Smart.
“What happens now?” she asks.
“They wait,” I answer. “For someone else to move.”
Her jaw tightens. “Pierce.”
I don’t react.
Not visibly.
But that name lands deep—like a hand on my shoulder.
