-1- 9 crimes
I couldn’t get in the car fast enough.
I yelled at Jean to get in the car as I quickly heaved the body into the trunk and took off at top speed down the abandoned highway.
I was putting it together already as we headed towards Mojave. I was angry, that I was being called out—I was once again fighting fights that weren’t mine.
“Alan what the hell is going on ?,” Jean finally asked.
I ignored him-- I decided to keep him in the dark for now. I hadn’t wrapped my own head completely around what was happening just yet.
As it became more clear to Jean we were headed to Mojave he tensed up but he said nothing.
Sara would have never known it was my birthday and it wasn’t her idea to give me my car either.
“Alan, haven’t we had enough adventure for the day ?,” Jean asked, “Let’s go home,”
I made my way into the town, parked my car in the first abandoned spot I saw and headed for the open air noodle restaurant. I bypassed Rayne’s wife at the hostess stand and headed to the back towards the elevator. I barely had my hand on the elevator button before I was thrown to the ground by 3 men, my head smacking against the concrete.
In my fury I had forgotten about the heavy security Rayne had on his place. If it wasn’t for the fact the guards recognized me I was sure would have been shot dead.
“Sorry,” I said,” I need to see Sara Grace right now.”
“You could have waited,” one man said, “Wait here and I will see if she wants to see you,”
I picked myself up and took a seat at the bar, Jean came up and sat next to me. I was surprised Jean had followed me this far.
Sara came out of the elevator wearing skin tight blacks pants and a black shirt, her hair was pulled back-- just the way I remember her on our first encounter. That pissed off look in her eyes.
I never noticed how attractive she was.
“Back so soon ?,” she asked
I noticed a gun strapped to her waist. She then turned her head slightly and looked at the person sitting next to me.
“Jean,” she said almost startled
It was Jean’s move.
“It’s been a while,” he said,” I-I’ve actually missed you .”
“Of course you did,” she said, “You were—are my friend,”
Sara didn’t have friends. This was
their version of an apology and I hated to interrupt it but, I had to.
“I need you to look at something,” I said.
She begrudgingly followed me to the car and I opened the trunk.
“A dead man?,”
I shoved the corpse to the side so she could see the words written on the trunk floor.
“ Tell me what this means,” I said
“I don’t know. I don’t have time for games, Alan” she said
A black SUV honked from across the street and Sara turned to the car raising her hand to it.
“I have to go,” she said
“Heading out ? I thought you retiring here ?,” Jean questioned
“I am but, Rayne is moving. In case you haven’t noticed the law is cracking down and he is sure they will make an example out of this place soon. He is packing up and leaving and so are all the smart ones. I’m just going to make sure he makes it to his new location safely.”
The car honked again.
She looked over to the car. The driver didn’t appear to want to wait.
“Sara listen to me,” I said,” The only people who know this is my car is probably you and Luce. Look, ever since the Life Summit I have believed there is something in Luce, some kind of technology--
“I know,” she said
“You know ?,”
“Of course, I do. I’ve always suspected,” she said, “Derek was always so careful to keep Luce alive and I saw the scars from the procedure. I’m sure whatever Derek did is why Luce is the way he is but it’s something I choose to ignore. My son is not going to get involved with this fight unless he chooses it. ”
“What if what is inside of him is hurting him ? What if someone took it out it made him better--,”
“No, Alan,” she said, “He is fine he does not need to be better—he is not sick. I have to go and you better leave after me,”
She took a running start towards the car and Jean took her into a half hug before letting her go.
“Let’s not be strangers,” he called after her.
She turned and gave him a half smile before getting into the car.
“That was nice,” Jean said as black SUV drove off ,”Alright, we have a body to get rid of ,”
Jean headed for my car but, I scanned the area.
“Where do you think they are—Luce and Chris ? I mean she wouldn’t take them with her.”
“Mrs. Washington ?,” Jean suggested
“Rayne’s wife ? Isn’t she always at the restaurant ?,”
“No, Rayne’s mother,” Jean said
“Right, let’s go,” I said getting into the driver’s seat.
Mrs. Washington lived on the edge of Mojave in a very small one bedroom house. Only a few people in the organization knew her exact relationship to Rayne—a safety precaution. If anyone tried anything near her house they had hell to pay. I only knew about her because Rayne asked me to drive her to his brother’s funeral last month.
I pulled into the driveway and knocked on the door. Mrs. Washington was an elderly woman who looked very little like a threat to anyone but, apparently she had been a spy and committed treason when she was younger. She met Rayne’s father—the former Yakuza boss-- while she was on the run.
“Hello,” she said
“Hi, I’m Alan I don’t know if you remember me--,”
“Of course,” she said,”The handsome boy who drove me to the funeral. You were very kind,”
“I am also a friend of Sara Grace’s--,”
“Oh, how nice,”
“Yeah, I need to talk to Luce,”
She welcomed us both into the house and I immediately saw Luce—he was sitting in the den with his eyes on a math textbook as if he was reading it. When Mrs. Washington disappeared into the kitchen to make tea I sat next to him.
“You told your mom it was my birthday, didn’t you ? You wanted her to give me my car back ? You wanted me to find your message. You were sure the first thing I’d do when I saw that car was look in that trunk. You hid all this from your mother because you knew she would never help you.”
He picked up a blank screen from beside him and tapped it until four images appeared on it at once.
“Help me” he quietly
“I can get a doctor to short circuit--,”
“No. I must go here. You must help me.” he pushed the screen towards me and I took it.
Nothing on the images made sense it was just pictures of a building, a lobby and some stairs.
“Why ? Why me?,” I asked
He returned to the book ignoring me as Mrs.Washington came back in with a bamboo tea set.
“I need more than this,” I said
Jean and I left an hour later without getting another word out of him.
-2-
Later that night the images of the building were still vivid in my mind even though I wasn’t thinking about them. I could not make any connections between them after hours of staring so I decided to take a break.
My back pushed against the dirty wall in the cool night air I reached down taking the hand of the short brunette and helped her off her knees. She placed her hands against the wall on either side of me and stood on her toes like she wanted to kiss me. I was hesitant at first but obliged to a quick clean kiss.I was sure the rest of her red lipstick was now officially no longer on her lips.
We walked back through the backdoor and back into the crowd and noise of The 10th Circle. We were barely inside when Belle cut in between us and taking my hands led me out to the dance floor. With her spiked heels she was taller than me and tilted her head down to speak into my ear.
“Isn’t she a pretty one ?” Belle asked
“I couldn’t really tell,” I said. It was true the light inside and outside was shit.
“You keep acting like this and I’ll stop sending complimentary girls your way.”
“I wish you would.”
I don’t think she knew I never had sex with any of them—I just didn’t want to. The only reason I tolerated it was because I knew if I pissed Belle off she would find someone who would love to mess up whoever killed Dakota.
She kneeled down a bit, I cast my eyes down to her and pulled her to me. She turned so her back was against my chest, reached her arms around my neck and our bodies moved to the intoxicating sounds of blaring generic synthetic beat. The room was crowding as more people came to the dance floor forcing us even closer together. The closer she came to me the more I forced myself to think about those images.
I hated her whores but, I would fuck with her. Of course unless she was completely wasted I knew she would laugh in my face at my proposition. I always wanted the ones I couldn’t have.
“Where did all these people come from ?,” she said into my ear.
“This is the only club not shut down yet,” I said
Captain Romer was planning a visit in town for some community service or something this week so they had been cleaning the place up.
“Let’s get out of here before they shut it down for crowding,” she said to me.
We hadn’t exactly come together but, I followed her out and into the street.
Going out to dinner by myself turned into drinks and then spending the late hours in a dance club and a blow. It was well into the late night hour but, the streets were alive as ever.
When we reached our buildings I motioned for Belle to follow me into my apartment building.
“I get to see your place ?,” she said
“All you ever had to do was ask,” I told her, ”Let’s have some drinks.”
Of course the only alcohol in the
loft was a bottle of strong red wine Jean had been drinking out of the last few
months to help him pass out every night.
I was was about to unlock the apartment door when I heard someone moving around inside. I knew Jean was getting shitfaced somewhere so it had to be Allison. I was tempted to wait for her to go back into her room before opening the door but, Belle was staring at me. I opened the door and I saw Allsion was looking at the screens Luce had given me. She jumped when she saw us and headed for the curtain.
“What are you looking at ?,” I asked blocking her way.
“No-Nothing,” she stammered
“Do you know that place ?,” I said,” It’s important Allison. Tell me.”
“No, Alan." she whispered
“Allison,” I warned.
” You kill people-you-”
“Allison I promise this is the exact opposite,” I said, “Tell me, now what is this place.”
Her eyes wandered past me to Belle—who waved awkawardly-- and then back at me.
“That’s our building,” she finally said
“Our ?,”
“Well, Dad’s. The new Kyto building—it’s the new offices and lab space. I was supposed to be at the private opening ceremony. People aren’t supposed to know about it.”
“I need to get in there.”
Allison frowned at me and then walked over to her side of the room disappearing behind her curtain. I knew I was kidding myself in thinking she would be of any help to me.
“Now she is cute,” Belle said stretching out on Jean’s bed.
“I’m going to need you to leave,”
-3-
We had a day to get the plan in motion. Allison was not willing to help or cause trouble but Jean was more than willing. If Luce needed to get in that building for some reason then we would make it happen. The building was most likely to be empty at night so that was when we were going to go.
Before we headed out I popped open my black trunk to figure out how to arm myself.
“You can’t take those,” Jean said looking over my shoulder.
“What are you talking about ?,”
“If we get caught they may try and say you were trying to kill someone,” he told me
“Getting caught ? I’ve never heard you talk about getting caught.”
“That is right,” he said
Losing Minnow had made him more cautious. Although this would prove to be a temporary state.
When he turned his back on me I slipped a small pistol into me pocket. After we were sure we had everything we needed we headed out. It took us an hour to get to Mojave because I drove the back roads to end up in front of Mrs. Washington’s house undetected.
Luce was waiting for us. He just knew.
He sat silently in the back of the car and for some reason Jean and I were silent as well. I wondered if after we got whatever was trapped in this kid out, if he really would be normal.
The new Kyto building was even farther across the desert in a small compound. It was the shortest building in the compound and looked unassuming. We got out a few blocks away from it leaving the car nearby. It always creeped me out how big these buildings were and how quickly they appeared. Each one seemed to come closer and closer to penetrating the gloomy sky.
We headed up the steps of the building and I examined the electronic security system at the front. We had been prepared for a new building like this to have a human guard not a security system yet.
“Should we try and override it ? Break window or what ?,” I asked looking at the device.
“How I have missed this,” Jean smiled as he took a few slashes at the device with a knife and the door opened.
“How the hell-,”
“I read more than trashy romances,” he said
When I turned around I saw Luce was already inside the building and heading down a staircase. Jean and I exchanged looks and quickly followed to catch up with him.
The building was immaculate—even in the dark every surface was shining, everything was a steel and open.
“What do you think they do here ?,” I asked as we made it down our 4th staircase.
“Try and invent a robot so human that actual humans become irrelevant,” Jean quipped
“Do you really think that ? ”
“I really do.” he said
Luce continued down more steps until we got to the basement. He opened the doors into a dim hallway and walked down it like he knew where he was going. We passed by what looked like giant incubators, I peeked inside to only see plants growing. We continued through another door into a pitch black room. Luce easily found the light and flicked it on -- the room was filled with last decade computers and interfaces.
He walked up to one and began to type in a series of numbers with a light in his eyes that I had never seen. He looked like a kid playing. He placed one hand on the scanner and touched his other hand to the small diamond pattern on his forehead. He turned to us and it looked like the mark was getting more pronounced. Images of the soldier’s death flashed through my mind.
“Jean, what if something goes wrong ?”
Jean was too busy watching to give any sort of advice.
A trickle of dark blood came from the mark and went down his cheek. I rushed over and pulled him away from the machine. He seemed oblivious of me and reached into the wound on his head.
“No!” I yelled “Don’t do that !”
He paused. His fingers were still in the wound. I could only breathe for a second before he dug back in and pulled out a blood covered plastic tube—the size of a pill and handed it to me.
“I feel . . . “ he slurred before stumbling into my arms.
“Oh, shit!” Jean shouted
I put my ear to his mouth
“No, no,no it's fine-- he is still breathing. It’s fine,”
At least I hoped it was.
I looked at the plastic tube and popped it open to reveal a mini memory chip. There was a place in the old machine for the chip. I placed it in the machine and a series of text and video files came up.
“So, this was what Derek had hidden. What killed him,” Jean said,”I bet he used to work on machines just like this.”
I opened a few files, they were profiles from government computers with tests for different machines, cost analysis reports, images of working models and names of investors. The files spanned 30 years of work.
“He should have just destroyed this,” I said
“Are you kidding, you could make big money selling this on the black market. That was probably Derek’s plan one day. Who knew the insurance policy Sara was sitting on the whole time?” Jean said.
“It is so absurd that governments and militaries get to have secrets like this.”
“Like you don’t think this is kind of cool,” Jean smiled
“I don’t,” I said,” The only thing this kind of stuff does is kill people and make them jerks. Who says we have to grow exponentially—there needs to be a point where we say enough.”
I reached into my pocket and took out the pistol .It was the size of a small hand but more deadly. I shot the entire round into the machine causing it to smoke and spark.
“I told you not to bring that,” Jean reprimanded me
We watched as the machine fizzled and then went ablaze.
“Thank you,” I heard from behind me.
I turned to see Luce had come to.
“We need to leave,” I said.
Luce appeared to have less energy than before but, he kept up with us as we quickly headed back up the stairs and to the car. I drove at a slower speed as we headed back on the deserted highway to the desert.
“That was all very anticlimactic,” Jean observed, “I want to screw with someone else tonight,”
Fine, but let’s get Luce home first,” I said
I turned the radio on because the silence was getting to me.
“Alan, look” Luce said drowsily from behind me.
I turned to address him when I saw two Republic Police Motorcycles behind us with their lights off.
-4-
Without a word I sped up and headed off the paved highway and on to the desert sand. As soon as I was off the road they turned their lights and sirens on speeding up after us.
“Shit,”
“Faster !” Jean shouted at me
This particular model of car was custom made by my dad so it went faster than was legal anywhere. It was just a novelty element to impress people but, it came in handy tonight. I pushed the car to a little over 120—I knew I could out drive them but, it we had to stop abruptly we were all as good as dead.
I should have been scared out of my mind but, I felt a sense of bliss. I remembered being with Minnow, we were running across the empty streets. She shouted at me to run and I did--- I had felt invincible, I carried her in my arms, I missed her so much—the memories just got my adrenaline pumping more. I felt invincible again.
The cops were being relentless but, I could see Mojave in the distance.
“Luce!,” I said
I started to take my foot off the gas.
“I’m going to slow down not very much but, enough. Open your door, roll out and run home don’t stop,” I told him “ Just go south you are a mile from home. They won’t be able to see you in the dark.”
He was a kid but, I had to get him home or Sara would kill me. I had the luxury of living with very little fear so I could only imagine what I was doing to him. There was no time to think, I slowed down and let the car swerve.
“Now !,” I said
He pushed on the door hesistantly and it instantly gave—he hit the ground with a thud and rolled into the darkness. I had to gain my speed back and I couldn’t look to see if he had gotten up.
“Was that smart or stupid?,” Jeans asked
We sped up to 180 and I went West to distract them from Mojave. I was going too fast and I was losing control the sand was slippery beneath the tires, my eyes were watering, my adrenaline was pumping and it was too much--- but we were going to get away.
Out of nowhere a police car from the opposite direction cut me off.
I braked to save us from colliding and as to be expected the car slid maniacllay in the sand and nothing I did to the wheel was going to control it.
I was jerked backwards by a powerful force as the car flipped standing vertically for a second before it landed with a hard crash, smashing the windows . My head slammed hard against the top. We were hanging upside down like bats, the car wheel smashed into my lower body.
I fumbled for my seatbelt.
“Jean,” I called
I heard him make an incomprehensible gurgling sound before he clicked off his seatbelt and slid out the broken window. I undid my seatbelt to do the same but my leg was caught, I jerked at it until it gave and followed after Jean.
After one second I knew something was wrong with my leg. There was a dull ache of pain in my thigh and it felt looser like it was going to fall off at any second but, I kept running.
I heard the police running behind us, Jean fumbled for a knife he had in his pocket when a shot rang out. He grabbed his shoulder and fell to the ground. I tried to keep running but my leg was crumbling beneath me and I fell.
