The Diamond Bearers' Destiny

by Lorena Angell

  The table comes to a halt, and the technician releases Brand’s bonds.

  Brand sits up slowly and smiles at Deus. “You should try it,” he says. “It didn’t hurt at all.”

  A bright aura appears above his head and shoulders and I know his power is gone.

  “You’re a fool!” Deus scolds.

  General Harding walks to the glass and peers inside at the quartz, which begins to dim. “It’s too hot to handle for now, but that’s all right. There are still a few more technicalities to take care of.”

  Deus eyes the quartz jealously.

  “You haven’t gone too far, Deus. You can still save yourself.”

  She spins around and shouts, “What? Save myself? From what?”

  “Nature’s wrath. You haven’t pissed off nature yet. If you leave now, you’ll have a chance to survive.”

  “Take him to the lockup and put him with the others,” General Harding orders Chris.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Oh, wait. Bring a girl back with you. I want to double check the powers of the diamond.”

  “Yes, sir.” As Chris walks out the door, Crimson sends him a message of comfort. She knows as well as Chris does that he will be choosing someone to die. She tells him, Don’t over-think it, Chris. Just take the first female you see.

  The cold-hearted calculation of General Harding unnerves me. Can he really be this cruel? I look into his mind and see a man who operates like a machine. He doesn’t see people around him. He sees subjects. He completely lacks empathy or sympathy. The only thing on his mind is the need to become the most powerful person on the face of the earth. I figure it’s a good thing he doesn’t know about the Grecian Blue.

  Deus asks the general, “When do you expect the transportable generator will arrive?”

  “By ten a.m.”

  My heart pounds anxiously with the news a generator is on the way. Crimson’s thoughts merge with mine.

  I wasn’t aware he’d gone ahead and ordered one. This is not good news, she says.

  “What are my orders, sir?” Deus asks politely.

  “Return to the lab and do something productive instead of trying to stir up trouble.”

  “Yes, sir.” Deus doesn’t show any irritation in her response, but I know otherwise. She leaves the room.

  General Harding, two guards, the technician, Crimson, and I remain, waiting for Chris to return. Crimson’s thoughts mix with mine. Did you notice the panels on the wall? One button press and we’re on a countdown until our charged topazes run out of power. We need to let this situation play out as naturally as possible in order to achieve a successful dismantling of this facility. People are going to die. That fact cannot be helped. But more will die if this facility doesn’t shut down.

  Chris enters the room with a girl who’s about eighteen-years-old. Her frightened and trembling body pulls at my heart. I ask Crimson if it is all right to give her healing comfort. Crimson says no. Her reasoning is that if General Harding doesn’t see consistent, typical behavior from everyone around him, he might put the place in lockdown—which would uncover the obsidian and potentially expose us.

  General Harding enters the security code on the keypad to open the door to the crystal room. Then he says, “Bring her over here, Chris.”

  Chris walks the girl over to his father.

  “Young lady, walk in there and bring me that glass box with the white rock inside.”

  Scared to death, she steps carefully into the small room and reaches her hands out to place them on either side of the box. When her hands connect with the box, she begins trembling even more. She lifts the box an inch off the table, then drops it and falls to the ground. Dead.

  I’m horrified and livid. How can anyone be so ruthless?

  Crimson tells my mind that because the diamond was touching the case, as it had touched the pouch when I carried it in my pocket, the person who came into contact with the case or pouch couldn’t handle the intense powers emanating from the stone and the container that held it.

  “Well,” General Harding says, as if nothing more than a number has just popped up on a computer screen, not caring one bit that a human life has just ended, “I gather the diamond is every bit as powerful as it should be. Remove the body,” he says to his guards. The guards pull out the girl’s limp form. General Harding closes the door and enters the lock code.

  I feel Chris’s heated aggravation toward his father. He’s about to snap. I also feel Crimson issue him more calming comfort.

  General Harding says to Chris, “Only an Unaltered can hold the diamond without dying. The only problem is, who can I trust?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I need to know I’ll be able to hold the diamond if I go through that machine. Since you displayed your ability to be trusted by bringing in the Repeater, I’m going to send you through the machine and have you pick up the diamond to see if it works.”

  “What? What if it doesn’t work? The diamond will kill me, Dad.”

  “Then I’ll know it won’t work on me, won’t I?”

  Chris stares slack-jawed at his father. “You’d experiment with my life? You have all these Unaltered guards running around here. Why use me?”

  “I can’t trust them. If the procedure works, they might run off with the diamond like the other soldier did.”

  “How do you know I won’t?”

  “Come on, Chris. You would never do that, would you? Not when you have the proper motivation to comply.”

  “Motivation? What are you talking about?”

  “You’ll go through that machine and touch that diamond, or I’ll have your mother brought in and make her do it!”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “Try me.”

  “You’ve sunk to an all-new low, General Harding.” Chris uses his father’s formal title.

  “Don’t wander off, son.”

  Chris storms out of the lab. Crimson tells me to follow him and try to calm him. I race out the door as it closes and step in time with Chris.

  Chris, I’m behind you.

  I’m going outside.

  I can’t go with you. I don’t have much power left in my topaz.

  I have to get out of here and cool off.

  Chris, let me help you.

  He stops abruptly and veers off to the left, entering an empty room. We can stay here for a bit. He closes the door and locks it.

  Are there cameras?

  Yes, but I highly doubt anyone will be watching. It’s not like the prisoners are in here. Can you believe him? Bringing Brand in didn’t gain me any more trust. Now Brand is powerless. Not only is my father going to risk my life, he would bring my mother here and use her as a guinea pig too! He’s unbelievable. If Crimson wasn’t infusing me with her energy, I’d probably have . . . he pauses.

  Chris, I place my hand on his shoulder, I feel for you. You have to deal with so much crap with your father.

  He reaches up and puts his hand on my invisible hand.

  Sensing his concern, I say, You’ll never be like him. Don’t worry about that.

  I can feel you, but I can’t see you. Can’t you allow me to see you but block everyone else?

  I don’t know. I don’t think I should experiment with my power right now.

  Crimson confirms my hesitation in my mind.

  Chris traces my hand to my wrist and then up along my arm. With his other hand, he reaches forward and finds my other shoulder. He pulls me toward him and embraces me in a firm hug. “I could use some of that healing power right now,” he says, his voice box rumbling against my head. His hands move up my body to my neck. He pulls my head away from his chest and holds it steady as his lips descend down to mine in a heated fury. His mouth ravages mine, seeking the comfort only I can give him.

  My arms wrap around his neck as I kiss him back. I feel the diamond in my heart heat up as I infuse healing vibes into his mind. I desperately want to help him relax, to lighten his load, or to share in his burden
. His hands still cradle my face.

  My hands wander. I need to feel him like I haven’t felt him before. I trace his broad shoulders down to his chest, then slip my hands around him and explore every inch of his muscular back with my fingertips, all the way down to the top of his pants. He pulls away from my mouth and says on an intake of air, “Calli, I need to be healed, not given a new problem.”

  Well, I thought your kissing would be causing you problems enough.

  “No, it’s the opposite. Kissing you is like drinking an antidote for all the wrongs in the world. Your roaming hands, on the other hand . . . ”

  “So that’s how it’s going to be,” I tease in a playful whisper. “It’s the girl’s fault when things go too far?”

  “Not a chance.” He twists me around, pinning me against the door, and kisses me again. This time his hands explore my body, yet in a reserved, under-control way. He runs his hands down my sides. He feels his way up to the zipper on my jacket and unzips it, then slips his hands inside over my tank top and across my belly, then around to my back. He moves his mouth down the side of my neck, kissing as he goes.

  I can’t help but arch my back and point my chin to the ceiling, giving him access to more kissable skin under my chin. Instead of taking the bait, he lowers his head and kisses my collarbones and the hollow of my neck. He brings his mouth back up to mine and kisses me hungrily. Then he pulls away and steps back.

  “Now my problem is my own fault,” he replies in a husky voice, breathing heavily. He winks in the direction of where he figures my face is. “But wasn’t that fun? We need to do that again—soon!”

  I agree, I say to his mind.

  “Before I go through the machine.”

  You won’t die, Chris.

  “I won’t? Well, that’s a relief.”

  It’s the vision I saw. You’ll become an Unaltered and won’t die when you touch the diamond.

  Crimson’s voice interrupts me. Stop there, Calli.

  “Well, that’s good news. Then what?”

  We’ll just have to find out together, Chris.

  * * *

  The glass box containing the diamond is brought out into the machine room on a rolling table with the use of a large piece of obsidian. The obsidian is sent back to the general’s office—thank goodness. My topaz is running low on power.

  “Lie on the table, son. It’s time for the moment of truth.” General Harding excitedly rubs his hands together like a little boy with a pocket full of quarters in a candy store.

  I can’t believe the amount of disconnect the man has for his own flesh and blood.

  Crimson agrees with my observation.

  Chris sits down and swings his legs up onto the table. Before lying down, he stares into the glass window at the pyramid-shaped holder. “Is that a piece of special quartz? Will my power be held permanently?”

  “Why would I want to preserve your power? I already have more crystals than I know what to do with that contain abilities like yours. That’s just a piece of junk quartz necessary to fill the slot so the machine will work.”

  “Nice to know I’m loved,” he mutters as he lies back on the table.

  The technician activates the machine, and the table begins moving through the opening. Once the table reaches the end, the motor revs up, the power dims, and the bright light begins its scan as Chris’s body slowly moves through the machine. The quartz on top of the pyramid glows as bright as the sun, lighting the room even more so than when the lights were on.

  The table completes its journey and Chris sits up. The lights regain strength as the machine powers down. The quartz in the window has already lost its glow. Chris stands from the table with an aura above his head and shoulders.

  “Excellent! Now touch the diamond,” his father orders.

  Chris glares at his father for several seconds. Then he extends his thoughts to me, saying, I love you, Calli.

  Chris walks over to the case, reaches inside, and pulls out the diamond.

  “Wow! That wasn’t so hard, was it?” General Harding declares. “Now you’re part of the normal population again.”

  If you slammed it into your chest, you’d become a Bearer, I tell him.

  Yeah, and then I’d be killed like Rolf.

  General Harding orders: “Put it back in the case, Chris.”

  Chris doesn’t hesitate and immediately parts with the diamond.

  Crimson says to my mind, Chris is now the owner of that diamond. I think I figured out your vision, Calli. Chris will kill his father by not relinquishing the diamond properly.

  * * *

  With an estimated four hours to kill until General Harding can use the machine again, the diamond is locked away in the crystal room, which also houses Brand’s two-minute repeating stone. If the information in the files Crimson had glanced through is true, the quartz holds the power indefinitely. The idea of anyone other than a real diamond Bearer having a crystal that would give them Brand’s repeating power, along with a Sanguine Diamond’s powers, is truly scary.

  Chris pulls up several files on the lab computer regarding the military vests containing the several different stones. We look over his shoulder as he navigates around the information. He determines the information is backed up in only one other location besides the mainframe computer—General Harding’s office.

  Chris leads us to the control room, which houses the mainframe computer. He says with his mind, This computer holds all the information in its hard drive. To my knowledge, my father hasn’t sent this information to anyone within the government. The only backup is on his own computer in his office.

  Well, it won’t be that hard to seize all the information in one sweep, will it? I respond.

  Crimson says, That won’t work. The compound has to implode naturally. If the hard drives disappear during that time, then fine. If they were to disappear today without the logical breakdown of the workings of the compound, the research will be intensified and reproduced.

  We leave the control room, and Chris takes us to a small, round room. He says with his mind, This room is called the donut-hole.

  I glance around the empty windowless room. The walls are made of the same bricks as those on the exterior of the building. The only door is the one we used. I take note of the change in atmosphere. I begin to feel some of the other diamonds of the group of twenty-one.

  Jonas connects with my mind. Hey, Calli, how’s everything going?

  It’s difficult to say . . . wait, how you are able to connect with me?

  Crimson merges with my mind. Tell him to leave you to your job. You don’t need any interference right now.

  Sorry, Jonas, got to go.

  Chris says, Freedom was able to find Calli whenever her diamond surfaced because Rolf would stay in this room most of the time and then alert Freedom when he detected Calli’s diamond. This room is in the direct center of the building. I studied the blueprints and computer files after Freedom died to figure out how this room works. Apparently, there’s obsidian in these walls. Chris points to the circular wall. The 3-D rendition showed how the obsidian creates an energy-blocking field that protects the interior of the compound. Obsidian was also built into the underside of the compound and across the roof, well, except above this room, creating a complete donut-shaped torus of energy protection from the outside world. Right here, in the center—in the donut-hole—the protection is gone.

  Maetha’s mind connects with mine. Calli, let Crimson know this was the reason I wasn’t able to detect Rolf’s involvement with Henry. I would bi-locate to Rolf only to see the brick walls and nothing else to indicate he was with Henry or in a government facility. I ruled him out as a turncoat. Also, tell Crimson that Merlin thinks he’s making headway with the Senate Budget Committee to reduce or cut funding to General Harding’s compound. Merlin argued that the research was too outdated to be spending tax-payers dollars.

  All right, she heard.

  We leave the donut-hole room and walk toward the lab.
Standing in the doorway of the lab is General Harding.

  “Where have you been? The machine is charged and ready to go, and you’re off gallivanting around.”

  “Sorry. When Mother Nature calls, I have to listen.”

  I almost laugh out loud at the double meaning to his words.

  “Come on, let’s get this done.” General Harding marches past Chris, motioning him to follow. Two guards fall in step as well.

  I try to access my topaz for invisibility, in case obsidian is exposed, only to discover the power is depleted. Crimson, my topaz is empty!

  Mine is empty also.

  Should we go somewhere and charge our stones?

  Not now. The general is going to go through the machine.

  Chapter 13 - The Newest Diamond Bearer

  When we reach the door to the machine room, the general orders two men to stand guard outside. He and Chris enter the room, and Crimson and I slip inside carefully before the door closes.

  The technician has already powered up the machine in preparation for General Harding. I realize that even though Chris’s father isn’t a person with intense powers, he isn’t an Unaltered either. He, like almost everyone else on the planet, was exposed to cosmic energy while in the womb. I feel inside his body to try to determine which power affected him. I determine he has increased reasoning and detective skills. Had he been at the center of the cosmic energy ray, he would be a Hunter. It only makes sense that his interests would fall with the military.

  The door to the crystal room stands open, and General Harding walks to the entrance.

  “Chris, come and wheel the diamond out here.”

  Chris follows orders and moves the table holding the glass box with the diamond out of the crystal room. His father hands him a key to unlock the small door, and Chris opens it.