Hidden Talents

Witt's End was too hard on hotshot business consultants.”
    “Nothing a good consultant can't handle here.” Caleb glanced toward the counter. “I'll explain everything in a minute. First let me get a cup of coffee from Ariadne.”
    “All right,” Serenity said.
    “Is this a private conversation?” Zone asked.
    Caleb's mouth curved. “If you don't mind.”
    “No, of course not.” Zone got to her feet. “I'll let you two talk. I've got a store to mind.”
    “Thanks,” Caleb said. “I won't be long.”
    Zone paused and gazed intently up at him. “I want to thank you again for what you did last night.”
    “Forget it.”
    “I cannot forget it. Nor do I wish to do so. I asked Blade what happened in that cave. He says Royce slipped and fell.”
    “That's exactly what happened.”
    “I understand that you don't wish to burden me with the knowledge that because of me, you and Blade were forced to kill a man. It's kind of you to try to protect me. But as I told Blade, it's not necessary.”
    “Zone, read my lips: Kincaid slipped and fell.”
    “As you wish.” Zone smiled her solemn smile. “It's clear that you and Blade want to let the matter rest. I will not mention the subject again.”
    “That's good to know.”
    “I see now that I misinterpreted the vibrations that I felt emanating from the vision pools. You were not the source of the turmoil and danger that I sensed. You were the counterforce.”
    “Ah,” Caleb said sagely. “That explains it.”
    “Yes it does,” Zone said seriously. “The vibrations I experienced around you were no doubt tuned to the same wavelength as the vibrations of the turmoil and danger that I felt. Naturally your vibrations resonated on the same frequency as the source vibrations.”
    “Naturally.”
    “And I accidentally mistook them for the negative energy, rather than the positive,” Zone concluded.
    “I can certainly understand how someone could make a simple mistake like that,” Caleb said.
    “Thank you for your graciousness. I shall treasure it as I would the most priceless of gifts. I am forever in your debt.” She inclined her neatly shaved head in a graceful bow, turned and floated toward the door of the café.
    Caleb watched her leave. Then he looked at Serenity. “Does she really believe all that stuff about vibrations and counterforces or is she just pulling my leg?”
    “I don't know,” Serenity said honestly. “I've told you, in some ways she's like Blade. They both live on two planes of existence simultaneously, the one we all recognize as real and one that probably exists only in their own heads.”
    “In other words, they're both weird. Jessie was right. They're probably made for each other. Wait here while I get my coffee.”
    “Coming right up,” Ariadne said as she bustled out from behind the counter. She had a mug in one hand and a handmade almond biscotti in the other. “Here you go.”
    “Thanks.” Caleb hung his jacket over the back of the chair Zone had just vacated. He sat down, pulled the mug toward him and dunked the biscotti into the coffee.
    “You're welcome.” Ariadne smiled. “And thanks for what you did last night.”
    “All I did was hang around with Blade while a homicidal maniac fell into one of the vision pools.”
    “As far as I'm concerned, whatever you say is good enough for me.”
    Caleb muttered something inaudible around a bite of the biscotti.
    “But I wasn't talking about just that,” Ariadne said softly. “I wanted to thank you for taking charge afterward. Things could have gotten complicated.”
    “I'll let you in on a little secret,” Caleb said. “Sheriff Banner didn't want things to get unduly complicated. He ran a check on Kincaid and he knew the guy was a walking time bomb. I got the impression the sheriff was as relieved as everyone else that the bastard took a header into one of the pools.”
    “Banner is a good man,” Ariadne said. “But something tells me that he and Blade would never have understood each other. So thanks for handling everything.”
    “It's not like I had anything better to do at the time.” Caleb paused to eye his half-eaten piece of biscotti with a thoughtful expression. “How long does this stuff keep?”
    “You can store biscotti for a month or more,” Ariadne said. “It's double-baked over a period of several hours, so it's very dry, like a cracker. I've eaten some that were six months old. You couldn't tell the difference between them and