Page 60 of Kane's Bounty
She nodded. When they reached a set of steel doors, Kane had to leave her. He hugged her quickly and turned away. She continued on with an agent and a guard until they came to an empty cell. Neither of them said a word to her when they closed the door.
The guard spoke into a walkie-talkie. “Lock ten.”
The electronic lock clicked into place.
Lena sat down on the edge of the cot. She spent the entire day pacing or sitting on the cot. Basically, she waited.
Some hours later, a different guard arrived at the door. “You have a visitor.”
Lena stopped breathing. She nodded and got up from the cot. The guard took her down the same hall she’d come through and brought her to a gray door with a small window that was too high for her to see through.
When he opened the door, he said, “You have fifteen minutes.”
She’d expected to see Oscar. When Kane, Joshua and Grandmother’s smiling faces stared back at her, she rushed forward into Gran’s waiting arms.
Grandmother pulled away first and took her hand. The cool, smooth surface of the Stones of Adeline pressed into her palm. Lena closed her hand around her birthright and looked at Grandmother.
She sat down at the table. “Gran, did Kane explain what’s happening here?”
Rose looked toward the door. The guard’s head could be viewed through the window. She sat down and nodded. “You’re going to have to learn something new.”
When Lena was a teen, she had once seen Grandmother manipulate the stones to show a lie. The woman who had come for answers had been widowed and wanted solace. The stones wouldn’t have given the woman her peace. She and Grandmother saw a vision of the widow committing suicide. Gran had shown the woman a vision of a tall, older man walking into a light with smiling faces greeting him. The vision was false. The stones didn’t work that way. But the woman smiled as she left and was still alive.
When she had asked about the trick, Rose had said the stones should only be used in this way if the need was great. She had never talked of the incident again.
“How?” Lena asked.
Rose leaned forward and so did Lena. “See it and push it forward. You’ll have to practice, but your mind is strong. You can do this easily.”
“Won’t he know?”
Grandmother’s slim shoulders rose and fell. “Diviners only sense magic, the source and the strength. The stones will be the most powerful thing in the room. All he will sense is their power. You are the transmitter, even when the stones read true. He won’t be able to tell the difference.”
“Okay.” She said it with more confidence than she felt.
They spent the rest of the time speaking of nothing important other than the fact that the Flacks were safe and how Joshua had protected them all. By the end, Lena had the impression Gran had a bit of a crush on the young agent. Joshua said nothing. He showed almost no expression, only stood against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and watched everything. It was obvious he felt responsible for Grandmother. She would have to find a way to repay him someday.
The time was nearly up. Lena hugged Gran tightly.
“You’ll do fine,” Rose said. She kissed her cheek.
Kane kissed her full on the mouth and hugged her so tightly, she thought he might never let go. When he did release her, she could see the fear in his eyes. Something had not seen before, even when they were in mortal danger.
She turned to Joshua and hugged him.
He patted her back tentatively.
Kane laughed.
“I owe you.” Lena broke the hug and looked up into Joshua’s bewildered face.
Then he smiled. “You’ll have plenty of time to make it up to me. A home-cooked meal now and then would do the trick.”
Lena nodded and took a deep breath. Then she turned and knocked on the door. The guard opened it immediately and he returned her to her cell.
When night came, she could only tell because the prison lights went out. She began to practice, as Grandmother had suggested. Over and over, she thought of what she wanted Oscar to see in the vision. Over and over, she failed and the stones showed her different aspects of her own life. She’d never again seen the vision of herself in a body bag. Perhaps they had gone past the moment in time when that would have happened. Maybe she was no longer in mortal danger. She couldn’t be sure without asking the stones directly. She didn’t want to risk knowing the answer and having it alter her actions or distract her from her goals.
She tried to wipe it from her mind and concentrate on her job. After several hours, she lay down and closed her eyes, but every time she dozed off, she would see the faces of Oscar or Banta and come awake again. The block Kane had put up was all but gone.
