Chapter 1: Into the Abyss (10)
When she woke again, the room was different.
Larger, cleaner, better equipped—she was no longer in the small border hospital. She'd been transferred. The window showed a cityscape she didn't recognize, and the bed was flanked by monitors more advanced than any she'd seen in that rural clinic.
A man sat in the chair beside her bed, reading something on a tablet. He was perhaps forty, with a lean, serious face and the kind of stillness that spoke of long practice in patience. He wore a suit without a tie, and his badge—the last time she'd seen one like it, it had been on the chest of the border police officer.
He looked up when she stirred and set the tablet aside.
"Elyse You," he said, using her full name. "My name is Captain Zhou Mi. I'm with the Cang City Criminal Investigation Division. I need to ask you some questions, but first—are you feeling well enough?"
His tone was measured, professional, but not unkind. Underneath it, Elyse detected something else—a flattened edge, as though he were holding back stronger emotion.
She nodded.
"Good." He leaned forward, elbows on knees. "Let's start from the beginning. You were taken from Cang City on the evening of March 14th. Is that correct?"
She nodded again, then found her voice. "I think so. I don't... I lost track of dates."
"That's understandable. You were gone for approximately four and a half months. You were found in Xiao Jin Gang—that's Little Golden Port—a border town in Yunnan Province. The local police transferred you to our jurisdiction because your abduction occurred in our city."
Four and a half months. It had been four and a half months. The number landed inside her like a stone dropped into still water, sending ripples through a part of her she'd been keeping carefully numb.
"Can you tell me everything you remember about the night you were taken?"
She told him. The alley, the hand over her mouth, the needle in her arm, the van, the darkness, D-Zone, the work, Ahab, Shane, the beatings, the escape, the river, the jungle. She told him about Sylvie—the parts she could safely share.
Captain Zhou listened without interrupting, his expression shifting almost imperceptibly at certain points. When she mentioned D-Zone, his jaw tightened. When she described Shane, his eyes went cold.
When she mentioned Sylvie, he went very still.
"Tell me about this woman," he said quietly.
Elyse described Sylvie as best she could—the curly hair, the steady eyes, the small acts of kindness, the essential information she'd provided. She omitted Sylvie's hint about being something more than a prisoner, though her voice faltered once, and Captain Zhou's gaze sharpened.
She covered quickly. "She was kind to me. That's all."
Captain Zhou studied her for a long moment, then nodded and made a note on his tablet.
"There's something I need to tell you," he said, and his voice had shifted—grown heavier, more careful, as though he were weighing each word before speaking it. "The information you've provided about D-Zone is consistent with intelligence we've been gathering for some time. You're not the first person to escape from that compound, but you're one of the very few who've made it back alive."
He paused, letting that sink in.
"Your testimony will be extremely valuable. But I need to warn you—these are dangerous people. The organizations behind D-Zone have reach that extends well beyond Myanmar. They have connections inside China. You'll need to remain under protection for the duration of the investigation."
"Protection?" The word felt foreign in her mouth. "You mean... I can't go home?"
"Not yet. Until we understand the full scope of the network, your location needs to remain classified. I'm sorry."
Elyse lay back against the pillows and stared at the ceiling. She'd dreamed of home for months—her tiny apartment, her boring job, her corner noodle shop—and now that she was back, she couldn't even have that.
"What about my family?" she asked. "They must be looking for me."
Captain Zhou's expression shifted again—that same careful weighing. "Your family has been informed that you've been found alive. Beyond that, we've asked them not to discuss the specifics of your situation with anyone."
She closed her eyes. There was so much she wanted—needed—to ask, but the exhaustion was rising again, a black tide that swept away coherent thought.
"One more question," Captain Zhou said, and this time his voice was different. Lower. Less official. "The woman you described—Sylvie—did she ever give you a reason for helping you? A personal one?"
Elyse thought about it. She thought about Sylvie's steady eyes, her whispered instructions, her three-word command: "Prove it." She thought about how Sylvie had stayed behind, had chosen to remain in that hell rather than escape with her.
"She said she had other work to finish," Elyse said.
Captain Zhou nodded slowly, as though this confirmed something he'd already known. He stood, collecting his tablet.
"Rest," he said. "We'll continue tomorrow."
At the door, he paused and looked back at her. "You're very brave," he said. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
Then he was gone, and the room was quiet, and Elyse was alone with four and a half months of silence and darkness and pain, none of which she was ready to face.
She didn't sleep that night. She lay in the hospital bed, staring at the ceiling, and thought about Sylvie.
And about the look on Captain Zhou's face when she'd described her—a look that had been, unmistakably, one of grief.