The seat next to me is empty when Bea should be sitting in it, her leg pressing against mine. My body clenches as I think of her head resting against Ronan Knavery’s chest, and the zip lands with a clunk.
We pull off our earphones and jump out of the aircraft.
Maks takes me to an outbuilding and kicks open the door. “Tell Vanya we’re back,” he tells the pilot, who walks off. I’m yanked along a passageway into a space divided into four prison cells. A girl of about fifteen or sixteen with olive skin is in one and next to her is a guy the same age. She looks up, afraid. “We didn’t steal anything,” she says.
“Why would we?” the boy adds.
“Please let us out of here.” She presses her face between the bars.
“Pipe down,” Maks says, and the girl immediately eases herself away from the bars and into a corner. He turns to me and points at an empty cell. “In there,” he says.
“What have I done wrong?”
He raises one eyebrow. He’s so big, it would take nothing for him to squash me, so I just do what he says.
He hasn’t even closed the door when Vanya blazes in, heading straight for my cell. “Where is she?” she asks, prodding my chest with her finger.
“They were probably kidnapped. We found three dead drifters in the station. Looks like there’d been a struggle not long ago,” I say. Vanya pinches the tube connecting my airtank to the facemask, completely cutting off my air supply. I pull off my facemask and try taking a breath. It’s no good. It’s like swallowing boiling water. I cough and splutter. Vanya lets go of my tubing. I hold the facemask back over my mouth and nose and suck in as much air as I can manage.
“I’m extremely disappointed,” she says.
“He isn’t lying. There were three bodies in the old railway station and blood everywhere,” Maks interjects. “Freshly dead, I’d say.”
Vanya rubs her head and paces. “Let me ask this: Is it possible Jazz was never with you? Is it possible you knew she was my daughter and decided it would be a clever way of forcing me to look for your friend?”
“Jazz was the one who knew the others were heading here and could lead us.”
“My daughter was leading you here,” Vanya says, her eyes losing some of their hardness. Maks approaches her and gently rubs her back. She steps away from him. “If what you’ve told me is true, Jazz is as good as dead and you’ve proven yourself to be useless.”
“He’d fit in okay,” Maks mutters.
“Would he?” Vanya says, heading for the exit and disappearing.
Maks shuts the door to the cell and attaches a heavy padlock.
“Why are you locking me in?” I ask again. And for how long? I need to tell the others the plan to get back to the pod and overthrow the Ministry.
Maks laughs. “Makes no difference whether you sleep in here or the main house: You’ve been a prisoner since you arrived.”