The Twelve Stones (47 page)

Scott looked in disbelief towards his friend
.
“But she just stabbed me!”

“
And I can heal you if you stop whining long enough to let me concentrate. Now shut up before I give you diarrhea.”

Scott shot a panicked look over at Siobhan. “He can do that?”

She shrugged.

“
Anything?” Alex asked, his eyes clenched shut.

“
I’m not sure, but the sky certainly is a pretty shade of purple.”

Alex opened his eyes and looked at the pale face of his best friend.
He
leaned forward
,
intent on healing Scott before it was too late.

“
No!” Siobhan slapped Alex’s hand. “Heal him from there. You can do it!”

“
I can’t!” Alex yelled back in frustration
.
“He’s losing a lot of blood. Let me heal him
,
and we’ll try again with something easier.”

“
Priorities
;
that’s why I’ve always liked you
,
Alex.” Scott muttered softly, his eyes closing.

“
Concentrate!” Siobhan spat at Alex in anger. “You know you have the power
.
W
hy
aren’t you using it?”

Alex shut his eyes again. This time, he concentrated on a simple image of his best friend. Slowly
,
other memories from their childhood together began to flash in front of his mind’s eye.

“
Let go.” Siobhan whispered. “Let the power flow naturally over you. Don’t fight with the river
;
direct it.”

Alex nodded
,
closing his eyes again
.
T
his time, he felt the release of energy flow over his body.

“
Not bad
,
” Siobhan said proudly. Alex opened his eyes, looking at Scott’s formerly bloody arm. The stab wound had healed somewhat, but not completely.

“
You do that a few more times
,
and you’ll be unstoppable.” Siobhan turned
,
brandishing the knife in Scott’s face. “Ready to go again?”

“
No, nope, I’m good.” Scott replied hastily
.
“I’ve got to uhh…keep my eyes on the road.” Scott moved out of range of Siobhan’s knife.

“
Scott, learning how to heal you from a distance might come in handy during the next fight.” Alex pleaded. “I’ll heal you, I promise. It may take a few times as practice.”

Scott
,
knowing a good argument when he heard one, just shook his head and rolled up his right sleeve.

“
Just try and avoid getting any blood on my clothing this time.” Scott screwed his eyes shut and braced himself on the Hypertruck’s console. Siobhan smiled and stabbed Scott again, this time cutting deeper and closer to the bone.

“
Again
,
Alex. Concentrate on Scott and Scott alone. Let the energy flow…”

As Alex concentrated, the Hypertruck flew down the interstate highway
,
weaving in and out of traffic towards Kline and whatever he had in store for them.

Chapter Thirty-
Four

Emily awoke suddenly
to find herself
sitting in a chair. A bright light shone down on her head as she squinted around the room, trying to make out any details. Somewhere, water dripped, and then she heard shoes scuff across the dirt floor.

“
Hello?”
s
he called out weakly.

No response.

Her heart thudded in her chest. She breathed deeply, concentrating on each breath as it moved in and out of her body. Opening her eyes, Emily looked around, her mind sharp and ready for whatever was in the big
,
scary
,
dark room.

A scuff sounded from the dark beyond the light. Emily’s eyes narrowed as she squinted to look beyond the bright lights in front of her.

“
Look,” Emily said
,
exasperated
,
“
I'm not easy to intimidate
. If you wanted to kill me, you would have by now. Just…”

Suddenly a voice from the darkness interrupted her. “Do you know everything there is?”

Emily was confused for a moment. “Who are you?”

“
Who are any of us?” Kline stepped out from behind the light. Emily squinted as Kline’s body blocked the four large klieg lights that had been shining down on her face. “Some like to say that we are all just a collection of self-aware
,
slow
-
moving particles of energy, all derived from the same primordial soup.”

“
You sound like a Philosophy 101 student
,
” Emily quipped. “But I imagine you’re trying for the intimidation factor instead
,
aren’t you?”

Kline smiled
;
she was feisty.

“
You like to think you are smart
,
don’t you
,
Ms. Harper?” Kline asked
,
amused. “You like to think there’s something stopping me from snapping your neck like a twig.”

Emily felt a sharp bolt of fear go through her body.

Kline sniffed, “Ahh
,
see, now there it is.”

Emily’s face hardened once again as she struggled to center herself.
Breathe
,
Emily
,
s
he whispered.

“
The thing is
,
Ms. Harper, that even with all your knowledge about mathematics, and science, and logic, you
are
still
incredibly
ignorant about how this world works.”

“
I like to think I know a thing or two
,
” Emily snapped back.

“
Oh
.
” Kline looked surprised. “You misunderstand my point
,
dear lady. You see, I’m not taking anything away from your degrees and knowledge
.
I
n fact, I find the pursuit of knowledge a most noble and endearing trait of the human race. After Newton published his
Principia of Mathematics
, he talked about how there was a whole undiscovered ocean of knowledge in front of him. That is what I refer to when I call you
‘
ignorant
,’
my dear lady. There is so much you don’t know, about me, your former fiancé, and all the possibilities in this grand universe of ours.”

“
Then why go to all this trouble?” Emily asked, her voice low
.
“You show me a picture of my dead fiancé, tell me he’s still alive. He then shows up, trying to rescue me from some insane egomaniac I’ve never even heard of before today. You then kidnap me
,
along with my best friend who you stashed away somewhere, and bring us God knows where. I'll tell you this one more time
:
the Alex McCray I knew is dead and has been for six years. Whatever
you want from me is from another life, one I haven’t thought about in a very long time
,
” Emily finished dramatically.

Kline looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, smiled in that half
-
smile way, and nodded, tilting his head towards Emily. “Well of course
,
you idiot, I know all that.”

Emily was taken aback.

“
Well, good!” She snapped back and leaned to the side, offering her tied hands up to Kline, “Then how’s about you let Christina and I outta here
,
and we’ll forget this even happened.”

“
Novel approach
,
Ms. Harper, but I’m afraid you serve a much larger purpose than that.”

“
As what, bait?” Emily finally snapped
.
“I told you Alex is dead
.
Y
ou believed me!”

“
I believe
d
that
you
believed that Mr. McCray was dead
,
”
Kline replied in a bored monotone. “You saw for yourself that he is not. Why do you think he let you believe he was dead all these years?”

“
I don’t know
.
Y
ou’re
wasting your time, you’re keeping me here against my will, and I want to go
home!
” Emily screamed the last part, her fiery temper
finally on display
.

Kline chuckled. “You
are
feisty
,
aren’t you?” He approached Emily, taking his PDA out of his pocket. He tapped on the screen for a few moments and then showed the screen to Emily.

Emily watched, tears welling up in her eyes as she watched Alex, her former fiancé, who had disappeared into the ether six years ago, fire an automatic assault rifle.

“
That’s the footage taken from the Joshua Tree Sheriff’s station I showed you. Again, the proof is right there in front of your eyes. Alexander McCray may have been killed, but someone else rose from the ashes. Would you like to meet him?” Kline asked casually, watching Emily’s reaction.

He flipped his PDA back towards him as he typed on the pad. He held it in front of her eyes, which she shut.

“
Look at him
,
” Kline snarled. “LOOK AT HIM!”

Emily opened her eyes, afraid of what she would see. There, a man’s picture, the same man she fell in love with over ten years ago
,
was there again in front of her face. They were the same eyes that had looked deep into hers and promised a lifetime of love and devotion. It was the same crooked smile that Emily loved to mock Alex for, but secretly loved. It was the same freckles, dotted across his face that she always had to keep sunscreen lotion handy for.

It was Alex, and yet it wasn’t.

“
His name is Jason McCray - not uncommon in the spy world to keep one or both of your names. Who would suspect a spy using his own name? He’s mostly worked in Afghanistan for the last six years, with the occasional forays into China and Russia. He did the kinds of things…well, the kinds of things you see in spy movies but never really believe actually happen. He was an assassin
,
and quite a good one
,
as I understand it.” Kline paused as he watched Emily meet her old lover anew.

“
He left and became a spy?” Emily almost laughed, “You’re seriously trying to sell this?”

“
‘
Sell
,’
nothing! I had to spend quite a lot of money to even get this information from a
host
of different government
s
!” Kline snapped
.
“Here’s reality as it stands, cold hard facts and truth
,
and
yet,
you still refuse to believe.”

Kline hurled the PDA away into the corner of the room
.
Emily winced at the crash,
duck
ing
the shrapnel that ricocheted around the room at incredible speeds.

“
Frankly, it doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. The fact is
,
men like him don’t let things like this go. He is coming for you, and because of that,” Kline smiled, “
h
e
will suffer.”

Kline turned on his heel and retreated out of the room
,
the gravel crunching as he walked away.

The four construction
-
style klieg lights went out
.
Emily screamed as she was left in the darkness once again.

C
hapter Thirty-
Five

The closer Red Howell got to Rupert Kline’s private trailer, the more nervous he became. His earlier humiliation still stung, but it was the least of his concerns. There were whispers, rumors flying around the work site about a fierce gun battle that had erupted only a few miles away. More rumors of bodies, murder, and now two women being held hostage
on the premises
. The object buried deep within the Mesa that his men had just found while drilling was the final straw. There was nothing, not even Kline’s brutish strength
,
that would keep Red and his men at this site a minute longer than was necessary. They had officially entered the
T
wilight
Z
one
.