Prisoner of Glass Read Online Free PDF Page B

him, or tapped the line and were listening in …”
    “Give it to me!” Elspeth demanded.   Her long bony fingers clenched the air in front of their cell.   “Give me the goddamn phone!”
    “What?   No!”
    “Card, listen to me.   It’s not like you have a charger.   We have to keep calling people until we reach someone who can help us.   If your brother is out, then let me try.”   When he still didn’t hand it over she said, “Card!   I’m not going to steal your fucking iPhone.”
    “Okay … okay.   Wait a sec …”   He fumbled around.   “Uh oh.”
    “Uh oh, what?”
    “Um … oh, there we go.   Thank Odin, Jesus and Aquaman.   For a sec, it didn’t look like we had a signal.   Here.”   He handed her the iPhone.   Elspeth’s eyes clung greedily to the one, thin line of bandwidth.  
    She had a connection!   Somehow, in the bowels of this prison, a signal had managed to escape.   Elspeth punched the numbers in frantically.   When the phone rang, she nearly cried aloud in delight.
    “Hello?” It was her mother’s voice!  
    “Hi, Mom?” Elspeth said.   “It’s me, Mom!   I’m okay, I’m not dead!”
    Her Mom was silent for a long moment.   “Who is this?”
    “It’s me!   Oh God, Mom, it’s me!   Elspeth!   I’m okay!   But I’m in like … sort of this jail … you have to help me.”   But Elspeth’s Mom was not nearly as excited to hear from her or worried as Elspeth had expected.   “Mom?   Mom.   What’s wrong?”
    “Who is this?” Her Mom’s tone had suddenly taken a turn for the nasty.
    “Mom?”
    “I’m not your Mom , and you’re not Elspeth!”
    That stung.
    “Mom.   Don’t you recognize my voice?   How could you not recognize my voice? Mom!”
    “ Don’t call me that!”   The woman’s voice dripped with disgust.   “ You’re not my daughter!   How DARE you!”
    “Why would you say that?   Mom …”
    “Why?   WHY?   Because I’m looking at Elspeth right now!”
    Elspeth’s hand flew to her mouth to prevent a torrent of sobs from erupting.  
    A voice in the background said, Mom?   Who’s that?
    “Listen.   I don’t know who you are, or why you would play such a sick joke,” her Mom said.   “I guess you’re in prison, and you’re lonely … so you decided to dial for dollars and see if you could get some sympathy.   Well, listen!   Don’t ever call here again!   Do you hear me?   Go away!”
    Her mother hung up.
    Broken, shocked, Elspeth lowered the iPhone from her ear.  
    “What happened?” James asked.   “What did she say?”
    Elspeth shook her head in shock.   “I don’t understand.   She … she didn’t believe it was me.”
    It took a full moment for this to register with Card.   When he’d internalized it, he said, “But … but how can that be?   Doesn’t she know you’re missing?   Isn’t she worried sick?”
    “She said I was already there.   She could see me,” Elspeth said, numbly repeating what the voice on the phone had said.  
    “She could … see you?” James repeated.  
    “Yes,” Elspeth hissed, hiding her head in her hands.   Impulsively, she redialed her mother again — it went to voicemail.   “What does that mean?”
    “Impostors.   Maybe they put impostors in our place, when they grabbed us.   Clones.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “No.   Of course not.   Don’t be ridiculous, said the seven foot tall chick in a ridiculous underground prison.   Give me my phone back.   I tried getting web and email, but can’t get data down here.   I’m going to shut it off now.   Save what little is left of the battery.”   There was only 10% left, according to the phone itself.
    “Good idea,” Elspeth mumbled.   She was about to hand it back to him when she decided on impulse to first snap several pictures of the hexagon map, being sure to include enough resolution so she could zoom in on anything she desired later on.
    Only then did she give