The keys were marked; Cortin had no trouble finding the one for the main entrance, or for the cellblock. She'd wait for Mike before taking any of them to the suite, but she could make a preliminary evaluation and pick her first subject.
The block held twenty cells, four of them, as Brady had said, flagged as having occupants. She didn't get beyond the second one, though. Its occupant startled her at first—she hadn't thought of him since leaving New Denver months ago—then she chuckled and turned on the cell's speaker. "Powell—I would've thought you, of all people, would've avoided Enforcement troopers."
Startled, the young man stared at the one-way glass in the door. "Uh … Captain Cortin?"
"Colonel, now—but it's me, yes. What're you doing in custody again, much less at Harmony Lodge?"
Powell managed a tentative smile. "Congratulations, Colonel." Then it faded, and his shoulders slumped. "You won't believe me—they didn't, at the Center, so they sent me here for the High King's Inquisitor." To Cortin's astonishment, she saw the beginnings of hope in his face, and his eyes brightened. "That's not— You're not—?"
"It is, and I am."
"Oh, thank God! They said the King's Inquisitor would have truthsense—please, let me talk to you!"
Cortin hesitated. He certainly sounded sincere enough, but he'd been conditioned once; possibly he had been re-conditioned, this time to kill whoever turned out to be King's Inquisitor. On the other hand, that Brother had said Shannon had put her off limits, and Powell had submitted to her will once; he'd do so again easily. So she was unlocking the cell door when Odeon arrived.
"Find a promising one?" he asked.
"I'd say so—one who wants to talk to me, at least." Cortin opened the cell's door, beckoned its occupant out. "You remember our young friend?"