She studied his face.
“What is the trap?”
“Lucian’s men are watching your apartment, every hospital, every train station, and both roads out of the city. Your father has circulated a private message stating that anyone claiming to be you is an extortionist exploiting the family’s grief.”
Mara laughed once.
The sound contained nothing resembling humor.
“So I am free to leave, provided I am willing to die.”
“You are free to choose which danger you prefer.”
“That is not freedom.”
“No,” Roman said. “But it is honesty.”
Mara picked up the phone.
“Can this be traced?”
“Not immediately.”
She dialed her father.
Silas Ellison answered after two rings.
“Mara?”
Her knees weakened at the sound of her own name.
Roman moved closer but did not touch her.
“Dad.”
A long silence followed.
Then her father exhaled.
“You should not have called.”
Mara closed her eyes.
“You know I’m alive.”
“I know the people who took you may be forcing you to say things.”
“No one is forcing me.”
“We can resolve this.”
“Then tell the police.”
“That would create complications.”
“I was kidnapped.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t. Lucian announced that I was dead.”
“It was necessary to stabilize the situation.”
The sentence was delivered in the same tone Silas used during board meetings when discussing delayed shipments.
Necessary.
Stable.
Situation.
Words chosen to remove blood from the subject.
“You sank a vehicle in the harbor,” Mara said.
“Lucian’s security advisers handled the details.”
“You let them.”
“Mara, listen to me carefully. Crowe Energy’s merger with Bellweather protects twenty-three thousand jobs. Tideglass is essential to the agreement. If the market learns that its creator has been abducted by Roman Sable, the company could lose billions before morning.”
“So you killed me on paper.”
“We created time.”
“For whom?”
“For everyone.”
“Not for me.”
Her father’s voice hardened.
“You have always struggled to understand decisions made at this level.”
Mara opened her eyes.
Roman stood several feet away, watching her without satisfaction.
Silas continued.
“You are an exceptional engineer, but your judgment becomes emotional when family is involved.”
“I ran into a burning laboratory for this family.”
“And we spent years helping you recover.”
“You spent years hiding me.”
“That is unfair.”
“You built private entrances into clinics so photographers would not see me.”
“We protected your privacy.”
“You removed me from the company’s anniversary portrait.”
“The press department made an aesthetic decision.”
Mara’s scars seemed to burn beneath Roman’s jacket.
“Did Greyhaven catch fire because of V-17?”
Silence.
The answer lived inside it.
“Who told you that?” Silas asked.
“Roman Sable.”
“Do not trust him.”
“Did Gabriel Sable die trying to rescue us?”
“Mara—”
“Did you tell me he survived?”
“You were medically fragile.”
“Answer me.”
“It was an unstable period.”
“Answer me!”
“Yes.”
The word moved through her like a blade.
Mara lowered the phone.
Her father was still speaking.
She raised it again.
“Why does Lucian need Tideglass?”
“You are in no condition to discuss corporate security.”
“Is he using the relief fleet to transport people?”
Silas did not answer quickly enough.
“Oh God.”
“You do not understand the geopolitical realities involved.”
“Children were inside those ships.”
“We do not control every contractor.”
“You control whether he gets my system.”
“The board controls Tideglass while you are unavailable.”
“I am not unavailable. I am alive.”
“That distinction is currently inconvenient.”
Mara stopped feeling the floor beneath her.
Roman’s face changed.
Not with surprise.
With confirmation.
Mara looked directly at him as she spoke into the phone.
“I am coming back.”
Her father’s voice became urgent.
“Do not attempt that. Lucian believes Sable has compromised you.”
“Lucian does not get to decide whether I exist.”
“This is larger than you.”
“No,” Mara said. “You simply built it on top of me.”
She ended the call.
For several seconds, the theater contained only the rain.
Roman picked up the folder.
“My people are preparing to move. Lucian will trace the signal.”
“Where are we going?”
“You are not going anywhere with me unless you choose to.”
Mara put on the shoes Dr. Voss had left beside the couch.
They were soft black boots, one size too large.
“Can you prove what Lucian is doing?”
“Not without Tideglass.”
“Can Tideglass expose every ghost route he has created?”
“If I reach the core archive.”
“Where is it?”
“Beneath Bellweather’s old lighthouse station.”
Roman’s eyes narrowed.
“The station was closed after Greyhaven.”
“Officially.”
“And unofficially?”