Page 48 of The Girl Beneath the Sea

They’ve seen it and they’ve put a collar on him.

He is standing behind the right podium and staring directly at the camera.

He’s pale and his mouth is tight at the corners. There are lines at the corners of his eyes that I could swear weren’t there a day ago.

His hair is cut. Somebody’s cut it since this morning. It’s neat and short at the sides and it’s not the hair I had my hands in.

The Monteverran Prime Minister stands beside him. I recognize him from the last press conference, the one I watched on my phone in the dark and then had his face reinforced in my mind over the constant googling in the last hours.

He’s a small and neat beta, silver-haired and distinguished. The Prime Minister is saying something about a difficult time and about gratitude to the American authorities and about the resilience of His Royal Highness.

I don’t listen to a word of it. I’m watching Aurelio. He is completely still.

Then Reinhardt says His Highness will say a few words, and steps back.

Aurelio looks down at the podium. Then he looks up.

“Thank you,” he says. “I am well. I was not harmed. I wish to thank the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Chicago Police Department for their swift action, and my own security service, whose loyalty has never been in question.”

He stops. Not for breath. I see a slight movement of shoulders. He looks down again. He is shuffling cue cards and reading them.

“I will not be discussing the details of what happened. I ask for your understanding in this. I would like now to continue the work I came here to do, on behalf of my father and my country. Thank you.”

The prime minister starts speaking again.

His Highness is receiving medical care from the royal physicians as a matter of course, but we have no concerns about his health. A ransom was not paid.

I am still watching Aurelio, standing there as still as a statue.

Then my attention switches as the minister says, “We understand that the individual responsible was fatally injured while attempting to flee, and that his body has not yet been recovered from the river. We are content to leave the matter with the American authorities.”

The individual responsible. That’s me.

Oh shit. Aurelio thinks I am dead. That’s why he looks so bad.

Reinhardt is still talking, something about His Highness being most eager to resume his duties and that there will be further announcements in due course.

That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

I sit with the phone an inch from my nose. The news anchor comes back online and starts saying something. I don’t care about her analysis. I want to see Aurelio again.

I go onto YouTube. It takes me seconds to find the clip, already uploaded.

I run it back and I listen again, and then a third time.

The most important thing is that he is alive and at least physically unharmed, even if he looks terrible and he thinks I am dead.

But I have two takeaways.

Firstly, it was pre-recorded. No live press conference.

Secondly, the way he spoke and the cue cards.

I know how he speaks. He is thoughtful, picks his words before sharing them.

This isn’t that.

Every single word out of his mouth was written by someone else.