Echoes at Dawn (KGI #5)(83)

She moved forward, not waiting for permission. She pulled the chair from the opposite side of the bed and positioned it right next to Elizabeth’s head.

“Hello, Elizabeth,” she said in a low, soothing voice. “My name is Grace and I fix people.”

Elizabeth turned slowly, her eyes weak and dull as she focused her stare on Grace. “You mean like God does?”

Grace smiled. “No. Not like God. I believe He gave me the ability and I don’t always know what to do with it. Someone wise once told me that perhaps my purpose hadn’t yet been revealed. But I’m learning and I’m going to do my absolute best to take away your sickness.”

Elizabeth nodded solemnly. “I want to make Daddy smile again. He’s been sad. I don’t want to die and leave him alone. He needs me.”

Farnsworth made a choking sound and abruptly rose, turning his back to face the other way.

Grace slipped her hand into Elizabeth’s and squeezed lightly. “Can you hold on for just a little while longer? I’m waiting for some people to get here. Healing someone takes a lot of energy and I need them to help me afterward.”

Elizabeth frowned. “Will you be all right? Daddy can help you, can’t you, Daddy?” She turned in her father’s direction.

Farnsworth slowly turned, struggling to smile through his obvious distress. “Of course I will, sweetheart. I’ve given my word to her that all will be taken care of. All I want you to concern yourself with is getting better.”

Grace slid into Elizabeth’s weakened mind, nearly weeping as she witnessed firsthand all that the child had endured in her very short life. But she was also awed by Elizabeth’s sheer determination. Her strength of will. It was the only reason she was still alive, because her body had long since given up.

She pushed as much hope and warmth through the pathway, hoping to bolster the child’s spirits.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened as she stared at Grace in wonder. “How did you do that? I felt you. Inside my head, I mean. It was wonderful. Like magic.”

Grace smiled. “I suppose it is magic in a way. No one really knows why or how I can do it.”

“You should eat,” Farnsworth said gruffly.

At first Grace thought he was talking to his daughter, but he was staring directly at Grace.

“You’ll need your strength. I don’

t imagine you’ve eaten for hours.”

Grace turned to Elizabeth. “What do you say? Are you up for something to eat? Maybe we both need to keep our strength up for what is to come.”

Grace felt a stirring in Elizabeth’s mind. A tiny beacon of hope. The child was afraid to hope. She’d been disappointed so many times so she’d resigned herself to her fate long ago. She kept up the act for her father because she knew how devastated he’d be, but she’d long since stopped believing in miracles.

Don’t ever give up hope. Sometimes it’s all we have.

Elizabeth’s smile broadened, her eyes widening in wonder as she nodded wordlessly in response to Grace’s silent communication. Then she turned to her dad. “I’d like some soup. Could I have some?”

“Of course you can,” Farnsworth said in a shaken voice. “I’ll have something brought up for the both of you. I need you to hold on, baby. Just a little bit longer, and then I promise everything will be all right.”

CHAPTER 37

HANCOCK put his hand to his ear for a moment and then said, “The helicopter is landing.”

Grace looked up, her heart leaping into her throat. She was suddenly grateful she’d merely picked at the food, because her stomach rolled up into a tight ball.

Elizabeth glanced up, her fingers curling tightly around the spoon she’d used to eat her soup. There was so much hope and fear reflected in her gaze that it made Grace want to wrap her arms around her and hug her.

Farnsworth leapt to his feet, agitated, pacing toward the door until Hancock put his hand out to halt the other man.

“My men will handle the situation.”

“You tell your men to get them up here at once,” Farnsworth snarled. “My daughter has waited long enough.”

Hancock gave Farnsworth a chilling stare that immediately took some of the belligerence from Farnsworth’s stance.

Grace rose, her fingers fisted at her sides. She stared expectantly at the doorway, and after whiat seemed an interminable wait, Rio appeared.

His gaze immediately found Grace and he would have started forward but she reached out to him.

Don’t. Don’t give him any reason to believe I’m anything more than a mission to you. Just as Hancock’s is to Farnsworth. Don’t give him anything to use against you or me.

Are you all right?

Even as he murmured the words in her mind, he relaxed, glancing around the room, his gaze cool as he seemed to take in any potential threat. He finally settled on Hancock and his lip curled in distaste.

“Is that any way to greet an old friend?” Hancock mocked.

Farnsworth’s gaze narrowed suspiciously. “You know each other? What’s going on here?”

“Nothing you need concern yourself with. Merely renewing an old acquaintance,” Hancock said mildly.

One by one, Rio’s team filed into the room. Elizabeth shrank into her pillow, and Grace reached down to take her hand.

“It’s all right,” she soothed. “No one here will hurt you.”