INVISIBLE PRISON (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) Read Free Page A

start you knew where you stood with Van: mess with him, he’d kill you, otherwise he’d ignore you until he needed to deal with you.
    I gave a slight chin nod in acknowledgement—one of those you-don’t-mess-with-me-and-I-won’t-mess-with-you motions. I think Stone and I understood each other perfectly.
    But I didn’t have a clue what this Ling Mai woman wanted.
    “I understand you’re sentence here is for life,” she said, as if discussing the weather as she returned to her seat.
    “Yeah,” I answered with more snarl than I intended. “What of it?”
    The other woman angled her head and rocked my world. “Would you be interested in having your sentence commuted?”

 
    CHAPTER 3
     
    There are two things you don’t joke about in prison. Getting your sentence commuted is one of them. I hadn’t discovered the other one yet.
    Instead of answering directly, I glanced at the empty chair next to Ling Mai and bought some time by saying, “Maybe I’ll take that seat after all.”
    Since my sore muscles were already stiffening, shuffling the few feet to the chair and easing down into it took longer than I expected. But it still wasn’t long enough to determine if the woman across from me was for real.
    “What’s the catch?” I asked, bracing myself.
    “We need someone with your abilities,” she responded. “And in exchange for a year of your services the state of Idaho is willing to forgive your sentence.”
    Bull puppy. Killing someone didn’t get swept under the rug no matter what; and who needed me that badly to even suggest such a swap?
    “What abilities?” I hedged, tackling the easiest question first.
    “You being a witch and able to wield magic.”
    I was glad I was sitting. No one outside my immediate family and my witch mentor who’d trained me for a few months knew who or what I was. No one. And I was damned sure going to keep it that way.
    Being a witch wasn’t as hard to hide as say being a shifter or vamp. If discovered I could always pass myself off as a Wiccan, or a harmless back-to-earth kind of person, but the fact I possessed real magic, was not something I flaunted.
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I was pleased my voice sounded level, except for that small crack on the last word.
    “Quit the BS, Noziak,” Stone jumped in, obviously a master at hearing the lie. “We don’t have time to shoot the breeze here. Either you want to spend the rest of your crappy life stuck here.” He glanced toward the space beyond the Warden’s door. “Or you can jump at the best opportunity you’ll ever be given.”
    “Only a fool jumps at some vague promise,” I shot back, “And I’m not a fool.”
    The Ling Mai woman raised one hand to notch down the tension permeating the room. “Ms. Noziak is correct,” she said. “She doesn’t have enough data to make an informed choice.”
    Yeah, take that a-hole, I wanted to crow, but held my tongue, responding only to Ling Mai. “Tell me who you are, what you want and what you want from me,” I said, my voice firm and no-nonsense.
    “I am the Director of a very new, and very discreet agency being created to counter the growing agitation between human and non-humans existing in the world.”
    “Non-humans?” I mumbled, curious as to whether this was a witch-hunt, pun intended or if she really knew what she was talking about.
    “Weres, shifters, vampires, demons, faes and those we have not yet identified,” she said, her tone calm. “We’re not an eradication program, or seeking to kill and ask questions later. A few of us realize that humans and non-humans have existed relatively peacefully for centuries, and we want to make sure that status remains.”
    “But?” I was waiting for the ten-ton other shoe to drop. The fact she knew about non-humans, while appearing to be human, was enough to take in. But the fact she knew about non-humans and wasn’t on an exterminate first and ask questions later agenda was the biggest