Chapter Three

Thorne cocked his head to one side. After staring at her for a few moments, he rocked back on his heels and sat down, continuing to rest his hands on his knees. This was clearly going to take awhile.

"You think I'm crazy."

Well, at least they were on the same page. "I daresay the thought has crossed my mind."

"I'm not."

"Well, that really cleared everything up, didn't it?" He knew being sarcastic wouldn't help, but she had already tried his patience a bit too much for one day.

"You're mean."

"Insulting me is not going to make me have any more pity on you."

Again with the eyes. He moved his gaze down to avoid her stare, and realized quickly that he was looking at the general vicinity of her chest. No, not a good place to be looking either. He focused on the wall behind her shoulder instead.

"I really am the package," she said firmly.

"Heard it. Can we get to the part where you explain what in the name of spades that's supposed to mean?"

"I need you to get me out of this satellite and take me with you."

He forced himself to look at her, and to his dismay, she looked just as serious as she had a moment before. "Is that all? Well I'm really sorry to crush your dreams, but I'm not taking you anywhere."

"But…" she trailed off, her lip beginning to tremble. "But you're my only hope…"

"Well you certainly didn't pick the right guy, then, because I am the wrong person to put your hope in," he said dryly.

The girl's eyes widened again as some tears begin to spill out. Not the crying again! She looked around frantically—from him, to her screens, to the ceiling, to the door—anywhere and everywhere she could look. Then she began to talk to herself. First it was under her breath, but she grew louder the more she looked around.

"I am the daughter of royalty. I live on an island in the sea. Pirates have come. They have taken me aboard their ship and are holding me ransom. Yes—they will send word to my father about me. He will have the money to pay the ransom. But right now, I have to convince these pirates to let me go. I have to show them my worth. Convince them I can be part of their crew. I—I am the daughter of royalty."

Pirates? Royalty? What? Thorne watched her talk to herself and almost found it endearing. Then he remembered that he was still stuck in a locked room on a satellite. And he could now confirm that she was, in fact, crazy.

"Sure, sweetheart, you're the daughter of royalty. Can we get on with this then? What's it gonna take for you to stop stalking me?"

She snapped her attention back to him, hope lighting up her features. "Take me with you."

"Can't do it."

"Why not?"

Hmm, let's see. Because the only thing that was worse than having someone who knew his real identity was having to tote that someone around with him.

"I already told you this earlier. I can't have someone knowing my identity. And I have other things to attend to. I run a profitable business and have to worry about myself and myself alone."

"Mr. Thorne, please."

He sighed and looked down. He dragged his finger along the wood of the floorboard, making a circular shape. "If you want to leave the satellite so badly, why don't you just leave?"

"I'm a prisoner here. I can't leave."

Oh. "A prisoner? On a satellite? How long have you been a prisoner here?"

"Most of my life."

Thorne grimaced. He knew what it was like to feel trapped somewhere, with other people telling you what to do. He thought back to his realization that she didn't have a very well thought out plan with blackmailing him. But if she had been stuck here most of her life…she really must have been desperate.

"Most of your life? But…you have food, computers, communication capabilities…who's holding you prisoner?"

She gulped and averted her gaze. "Uhm, you probably haven't heard of them."

"So this is like a jail?"

"No, not really. I didn't actually commit a crime. I was born…different, and I was supposed to be killed. But then they realized I was good at hacking and spying and so they put me here to help them with their…missions."

"And now they wanted you to find me?"

"No! They don't know I contacted you. I manipulated a D-Comm chip to track you down. It's the first time I've ever been able to contact anyone. I thought…I thought you could help me since you had a spaceship. But I was wrong, I guess. You're just a criminal, and you don't care."

He pursed his lips and wrestled with his thoughts. She was stuck here. And she needed help. He really was her best shot at getting out. He had quite the ethical dilemma in front of him. And if there was anything that Thorne was bad at it, it was making the right decision in a moral dilemma.

"By the way," she said. "The Eastern Commonwealth military was just about to catch you for the jewelry heist you were planning. And I really didn't tell them anything. You just didn't cover up your tracks enough."

"Well, I guess I can't go back to the Eastern Commonwealth then, can I?"

"Please," she said again, "take me with you. I won't be a burden. You can drop me off wherever you like. But we have to go now. I think if I calculated correctly, no one should be stopping by for at least a few more days, but you never know."

"Wait a minute, you lured me here with the possibility of someone catching us both? What kind of plan is this?"

"I—I watch a lot of net dramas. I've been focusing on spy dramas lately. I devised my plan based on one of them."

Thorne couldn't help chuckling at the poor girl. "Didn't your parents ever tell you not to believe the dramas? They're all fake."

"I never had any parents," she said matter-of-factly.

She was really loading on the guilt heavily. He didn't deal with guilt—pretty much ever. He made a decision, he went through with it, and he didn't dwell on the consequences. He certainly couldn't beat the system if he stopped to feel sorry for himself or other people he may have hurt in the process.

He pulled out his knife and held it up in front of her. To his surprise, this time she didn't flinch. "You know, I can make you do whatever I want. I'm the one who has the power here."

"You said you wouldn't hurt me."

"I don't want to hurt you, but if you keep up with this 'you have to take me with you' nonsense and don't open the door for me, I might not have any other choice."

This time she did flinch, but then she looked airily into space again and muttered, "he's just a pirate." She turned back to him. "Well go ahead then."

"Go ahead then, what?" he replied, not understanding her comment.

"Hurt me. It doesn't matter anymore. Because if I open that door and you leave me here, I'm already dead anyway. At least this way I'll die fast."

Thorne felt an uncomfortable churn in his stomach at her words. The dejected look on her face wasn't helping either. He knew he couldn't kill her. He didn't want to kill her. He also couldn't get out of this satellite if she didn't cooperate, though. Maybe he really could threaten her a bit more, with force, just to see if she were bluffing. But deep down he knew that he wasn't that sort of person, especially not with a girl like this, and he wouldn't be able to go through with it. Especially not after what she'd just told him. This was not good.

He scratched his chin. "If I take you with me—but just to drop you off somewhere—I'll need you to make me a new ID chip. How do I know I can trust you—that you won't just track me again?"

"How do I know that if I unlock the door you won't just leave me here?"

"I guess you'll just have to trust me."

"Then you should probably trust me too."

They glared at each other for a moment, but then he forced himself to give her a carefree grin. "Alright then, let's get that door unlocked."

The girl looked at him hesitantly as he got to his feet. She slowly followed suit, her long braid trailing behind her. He followed her over to the computer, just to make sure she didn't do anything stupid. A part of him was worried that she would force the vents to emit some sort of poison. Thorne shook his head. He wasn't one to be paranoid.

She managed to type something despite still being bound. He still felt slightly bad for not releasing her, but he still couldn't quite get a solid grasp of this situation. Despite everything, it was better for him to remain with at least some control. She didn't disappoint him, though, and after a few seconds, the airy voice returned and announced that the door was indeed, unlocked. He sauntered over to it quickly, and pushed the button. It opened. He turned back at the girl, who was now looking at him with her wide eyes again, and he hesitated.

She held out her arms. "Aren't you going to untie me now?"

"No," he said rather casually.

The girl looked like she was going to cry again. He walked over to her quickly before she could turn into a waterfall again. This was stressful enough without more tears. Best get this over with. In one grand swoop, he picked up the girl and slung her over his shoulders.

"Sorry sweetheart, I just don't think we've reached that stage in our relationship yet."