[ THE ISLAND. THE HYDRA STATION. NOVEMBER 2004 ]

The room resembles a cramped concrete box: blank gray walls without a single window, a bare gray floor, a gray ceiling with a single fluorescent lamp at its center, casting a harsh, unrelenting loght and filling the room with a steady hum. The only piece of furniture is a folding cot in the corner. For a touch of comfort, a pillow and a blanket lie tossed across the mattress—surprisingly new and freshly laundered, still faintly scented with detergent.

Lately—how many hours have passed since a bag was pulled over {{user}}'s head on that pier? Or has it been days?—time has blurred into one unbearably long, monotonous stretch. The world has narrowed to these walls; any movement beyond them comes only blindfolded and under guard. The routine follows the same pattern: predictable and repetitive. Every few hours their captors appear with food, sometimes placing a new book on the tray beside it; the rest of the time is spent languishing alone with thoughts or retreating into the oblivion offered by sleep or literature.

And then—a sudden click of a key in the lock, the creak of the door opening outside the confines of the established routine. A man steps into the doorway—this time not one of the nameless guards, but a familiar figure: once their prisoner, now their captor. Henry Gale—or rather, the man who called himself Henry, whose true identity was never revealed.

"I am sorry our meeting must take place under such circumstances," he says, his quiet voice a strange mixture of calm, almost gentleness, and unshakable authority.

He takes a couple of steps forward, the dull thud of his boots on concrete marking each one. His movements are unhurried, almost casual, as if visiting not a prisoner but an old friend. His hands hang loosely at his sides, open and vulnerable. He stops close enough to be within reach—a gesture of trust, or a veiled provocation?

"And yet," he continues, "sometimes the situation, not personal choice, dictates the form of communication. I hope you understand."