Chapter Three

          Lucky Spencer lay on the bunk in his stainless steel prison and looked at the ceiling for the thousandth morning in a row. He took pleasure in seeing the scratches and marks on the usually indestructible metal. It was just one piece of evidence that he was not losing his mind, and he still had his imagination working to invent ways to escape. That had been a particularly good plan. He tied himself on a makeshift pulley and destroyed the cameras in his room. It took him weeks to figure out where they were all placed. He tested his captor's intelligence and his patience. Finally Lucky had concluded by what the idiot had told him where he was able and was unable to be seen in the large antiseptic room. It was then simply a matter of destroying the cameras and waiting for the moment when a door was left unlocked while the captor looked for him. He had been deprived of light for a week for that stunt, but it had been worth it just to see his Keeper walking with a cane. Lucky smiled at the memory. The cameras were more obvious now - yet more impenetrable. Still, they were not always on. His jailer let him have some privacy, and although Lucky appreciated that gesture of humanity, he wondered at what cost it had been issued.

          Lucky contemplated what he knew and what he imagined. He had imagined that his father was definitely looking for him. Definitely.

          But the opposite had been true, Luke was drowning in grief and unable to help when Jerry had broached the subject of the odd and coincidental occurrences killing members of their families. So Jerry waited. Luke dissipated into a ghost of himself and Lucky plotted. Eventually Lucky found a way around all the barriers that the Keeper had erected to keep him off of the Internet, away from all ways to cry for help. It happened because an idea finally occurred to Lucky. He used a plastic spoon to open the computer on his desk. The computer had an internal modem that had simply been disconnected. Quickly he got it working, and realized the computer ran on the new cable-connection instead of phone-line based Internet connections. He was irritated it took him so long to recognize that, but he got busy once he did realize.

          He tried all email addresses he remembered for his father, Luke; his brother, Nikolas; Nikolas' father Stefan and his cousin Lucas. It was the last one, his ten-year-old cousin, who brought him even the tiniest measure of hope. It appeared that Lucas was confused about the message Lucky had sent - but fortunately it seemed his Aunt Bobbie had married a smart man. Lucas went to his stepfather for help. Lucky's "Uncle" Jerry had realized who he was and figured out a way to respond through a neutral and innocuous web site. Jerry couldn't trace the source of his nephew's messages, but he promised to find a way to get to Lucky. No matter what it took.

          Lucky believed in Jerry. Jerry believed in Lucky. Now what they needed was a miracle.

          Lucky's fortune with the Internet had not been a fluke or any sort of luck, save maybe bad. It was a carefully constructed plan the Keeper had set in motion. One of many such plans running simultaneously as he watched his living chess pieces scramble for position. The Keeper smirked as he thought of the plane explosion on the runway. It was an unfamiliar expression for someone so ungodly and evil. To an onlooker, it might even seem like the smile had been applied like some awful stage makeup. Only, there was no one looking on. The Keeper was alone with his thoughts. Jasper Jacks undoubtedly thought it was chance that saved him from death. It wasn't chance. It was another plan. The Keeper wanted the prize that Jax had brought along for the ride. He wanted to see Barbara Jean Spen- Jacks in person. He wanted to see the fear and the hatred before he killed her. And Jax had just handed him the opportunity.... The chance of a lifetime.