BEYOND THE PALE: ( The Outlander ) (28 page)

“I thought I already
was one.”

“Firstly, you are not a
criminal or a gangster; you work for a gangster. If you were a gangster, I
would probably kill you, unless you were already gainfully employed killing for
me.”

“I don’t want to be a
gangster or a killer. If I became a gangster, I would probably kill you.”

Shondran was slightly
taken aback, but then smiled. He respected that answer but he didn’t believe
River anyway. He reckoned River was still heart set on finding his way out of
the citadel and back to his people. He didn’t judge him for this, but he did
feel that as long as his aspirations were to leave, he could never fully trust
River.

The path of the
conversation had put River off his game and his next shot veered widely off
course. The golf ball arced high and to the right and then just vanished. This
time the vista view in front of them noticeably shuddered. This time they had
both seen that clearly and they now tried to recreate the same effect with
different shots. They ascertained that the view would shimmer at varying
distances and could plot a semi circle range to the effect. Their growing
interest in this effect was superseding that of the golf. Eventually Shondran
called over a leisure assistant and demanded an explanation. The assistant
explained to them that the stunning view in front of them was artificial. It
was in fact a hologram. This was a little disappointing for both of them.

“So what is the real
view?” enquired Shondran

“There is the city wall
of course without the breech in it, and in between here and there are the
livestock pens and a solar energy farm.”

“There is an animal
farm there?” asked River incredulously.

“No they are just
holding pens. The farm and the abattoir are under here.”

“Under where exactly?”
asked Shondran with interest.

“Everywhere,” replied
the bemused leisure assistant.”There are automated livestock pens under the
whole leisure resort. There are 16 acres of cattle and pig pens and a poultry
farm below us. You name it; they are reared, milked, and killed by machine
automated processes down there. They produce enough meat to feed all of New
Denver.”

River was stunned and
shocked, “But how can you treat livestock like that. It is cruel.”

“Its not cruel sir,
those animals don’t have brains, they are genetically reared with a small brain
stem that is only adequate to keep them alive with some mobility. They have no
intellect and are not aware of their existence or environment. I should know, I
have worked down there. The animals are just fine. Me though, I couldn't take
the smell.”

The man's explanation
weighed heavily on River's mind as he drove the buggy back to the hotel. It
didn’t seem ethical or right; what about the animal's spirit. Shondran on the
other hand was past caring. He was more concerned with getting ready for the
upcoming lodge meeting. As usual it was scheduled to start at three and the
lodge would be convening in a purpose built temple at the LRH estate manor
which was located nearby. He would have a few hours to get prepared first and
there were likely other lodge members arriving at the hotel soon that he wanted
to greet.

River had used the time
to get the sedan looking immaculate. He delivered Shondran on time to the
gravel forecourt in front of the small granite temple which looked more like a
mausoleum. He dutifully opened the door for his employer and stood by the sedan
with Cortez whilst Shondran greeted and shook hands with other arriving
members.

Neither of them cared
for being treated as underlings but there was a certain amount of pomp and
ceremony expected at these meetings. The lodge members and guests were usually
fawned over and attended by their lackeys. The ornate grounds, the gothic
inspired mansion, and the Temple annex were all off limits to them, so when the
guests disappeared inside, River and Cortez stayed with the sedan for the
duration. Although Cortez had been here before, he had no idea what transpired
inside the building; Shondran would never tell.

Ninety minutes later,
River got to act the perfect chauffeur by standing once again by the open sedan
door, whilst Cortez shielded Shondran like some secret service agent ready to
take a bullet on his behalf. River noted the two small enamel icons which
Shondran now wore on his jacket collar; one was a pyramid and the other an owl.
It was best not to enquire as he usually declined to speak about the Society of
Moloch, and they drove back to the hotel in silence.

Every Lodge meeting was
followed by a sumptuous Lodge meal which only members could attend. That was
except for the discreet hotel staff that served them and the entertainment
booked for the evening. It was River and Cortez's job to wait in an antechamber
outside the sealed doors of the hotel's prestigious banquet room. They weren't
alone; there were two retainers for each invited guest sitting in rows of hard
back chairs that were placed along the walls of the room.  

River thought Cortez
was the most dismal company that he had ever had the misfortune to spend time
with. The man rarely spoke and you had to drag a conversation out of him. So
River was pleased to find that many of the other bodyguards and chauffeurs were
better company. However four of the sixty plus retainers were very noticeable
for their dour and sullen disposition. They sat together both rigid and still,
and were even less animated than Cortez. They did not even talk to each other.
River turned to a friendly and chubby chauffeur sitting beside him by the name
of Ray and asked him who they were. He was informed that they were underlings
to the two government ministers whom were lodge members.

“They are so quiet.
Don’t they ever talk?” asked River.

“Judging by their
demeanour, they are probably secret service agents. Most senior government
officials use guys like them. They rarely speak in public in case there are lip
readers present.” Ray changed the subject to something much closer to his heart,
“You know I am really famished; do you fancy taking a walk with me to the
kitchens to get a plate?”

“I don’t think we can
leave here,” pointed out River.

“No your bodyguard
friend can’t leave here, but you and I can; it is one of the benefits of being
the chauffeur. Come on, you can bring him back a doggie bag.”

Ray was already on his
feet and walking towards the staff only exit, and River got up to follow him,
looking back at Cortez and shrugging apologetically. He seemed to take an
awkward route to the kitchen, but his strategy became clear when he led River
through a staff changing room which was bustling with a dozen burlesque dancers
making final adjustments to their costumes before they entertained the lodge
members. River apologised repeatedly for the intrusion and was copied by Ray
who lacked any sincerity at all because he was still leering at the half
dressed women. The dancer’s outfits consisted of not much more than high heels
and gold or red lingerie covered by long black hooded capes which had a scarlet
lining inside. They all wore golden masquerade masks. Unlike Ray, River didn’t
find the look attractive or appealing at all. He thought the costumed look
seemed almost sinister. Another set of swing doors and Ray and River had found
the kitchen. Ray seemed to know some of the catering staff and seemed quite at
home. He pulled up a stool beside a kitchen table and River copied him. Ray
asked for a steak but River chose a vegetarian option because he was still
perturbed by the thought of the underground livestock complex.

“The dancers were a
nice distraction weren't they?” said Ray grinning from ear to ear.

“It makes you wonder
what they get up to at those lodge meals.”

“Oh those dinners are
very formal affairs, full of set speeches and toasts. They are mostly
ceremonial and even the dancers are more esoteric than exotic. I have been told
that there is not a lot of free association. If members want to chat with each
other, they are encouraged to do that in their own time.”

After his meal, River
brought back a freshly made sandwich for Cortez and handed it to his grateful
colleague before he headed off to use the bathroom. The gentlemen’s rest room
was extraordinarily plush with marble flooring and gold plated faucets. However
before River could begin to relax in his own company, he was joined by two of
the secret service bodyguards. One guy joined him at the urinal, standing right
beside him and not even pretending to urinate. The other guy stood by the door
and when he seemed satisfied with the environment, he held the door open for a
lodge member to come in. The member looked well groomed and influential in his
well tailored dark suit and expensive looking shoes. Strangely he only seemed
to want to wash his hands which he did for an extraordinary long time. River
looked over his shoulder to access what a typical government minister looked
like. In reply the man who had been using the hand basin's mirror to watch
River the whole time, now turned his head to look directly at him. The duration
of his examination was disconcerting but stopped once River zipped up and
walked over towards the wash basins. As he started washing his own hands, the
government official once again turned to directly face him and stared
penetratingly at him whilst continuing to hold his hands under the running
water. River observed him in return by way of the mirror. He then followed him
with his gaze as the man walked over to observe the urinal that River had just
used and then nod to his security agent to follow him. River watched him
continuously in the mirror as the elite member now walked past him again. He
noticed that his eyes now looked different; they were yellow and the pupils
were thin elliptical slits like a cat. As he looked closer, he thought his
facial features seemed more triangular and his nose broader and flat. His skin
looked grey and leathered like snake skin. River realised what he looked like;
it was a lizard, and in shock he turned around to look directly at him as he
walked towards the exit. However the man's face was completely normal. River
realised that he was just imagining it. He chose to follow behind, as the last
secret service man walked out of the rest room. The bodyguard took exception to
this though and blocked his passage with his out stretched hand, intending to
hold him there until the government elite had re-entered the banquet room.
River took exception to this and twisted the man’s arm to force the bodyguard
aside. When they returned to their respected chairs, the bodyguard stared with
malice at River. Ray noticed this and so did Cortez.

“That was Diplomat
McCreadie. He is a very important member and the Secretary of this Lodge. You
should have left the rest room when he went in.” River noticed that Cortez only
seemed comfortable talking to him when he was laying down some criticism. He
really didn’t care or like him, but then he guessed the feeling was mutual.

It was the sensation of
movement in the dark which awoke him. Yet there was no imminent danger and
nothing initially seemed out of place as he lay on his side with his eyes open
staring out across the darkened room. However River sensed that something was
wrong. He did not feel fully awake yet, and his vision flickered as if he could
actually see flickering energy patterns all around except for an area close to
his bed. Here there was an outline of a four foot high shape that was as dark
as he had ever seen. The shape was so dark that it formed a silhouette against
the flickering background. River lay there very still just watching and thought
that he could see the silhouette moving slowly abreast of him. He was wondering
whether he was simply imagining this when the hotel room door begin to open.
Then as he watched it open, an all pervading sense of fear fell over him. His
initial reaction was to hide, and then it was to run. Neither of these
emotional responses seemed natural to him, but then this whole situation seemed
very unnatural and out of the ordinary. He hadn’t even moved yet, but stayed
dead still as if gripped in fear.

When he saw the dim
shape of a man enter the room and walk over to him, he now tried to move but
couldn't. He felt completely paralysed and immobilised, but this was nothing
like the time when Audrey had immobilised him with the custodial bracelet; this
time there was no motor response from his nervous system to his muscles in his
attempts to leap to his feet. Instead he lay helpless while the man approached
and leaned over him. He felt him insert an electronic swab into his mouth and
another into his nose. He could see the man clearly now despite the darkness.
He was wearing the uniform of a hotel porter, although River knew that he
wasn't a porter. He recognised him as the same bodyguard that had stood beside
him at the urinal when the diplomat had entered the gentlemen’s rest room. Now
he was shining a bright light scanner into his eye and held it there as if
taking a scanned reading. When he removed the light, Rivers vision went dark as
his eyes tried to adjust to the change in light. As it slowly returned he
realised that as well as this man, he could still see the ultra dark silhouette
shape which stood beside the bed. As he looked at it he had a growing desire to
shut his eyes and sleep. An old memory convinced him that this was a 'Nagas'.
That was the indigenous term for a spiritual entity that was known for bringing
night terrors. He had a vague memory of experiencing one as a child, and
searched his memory for what advice he had been given by his mother the next
morning. She had told him that you had to keep your eyes open so as not to be
entranced. She had told him that it was controlling your mind, but by keeping
your eyes open you were less susceptible to its power over you. Prayer or even
anger had the ability to nullify the fear and break its hold over you, and
River now opted for Anger. He ignored the ministrations of the man currently
manhandling him, and instead stared defiantly at and into the dark void. His
mother may have called it an evil spirit and a Nagas, but he now knew
instinctively exactly what it was. It was the Lizard man that he had seen in
the mirror earlier that evening. The reptoid which was mimicking the government
diplomat and whom had taken such an interest in him in the rest room. It was
now remotely accessing his mind and holding him immobile and paralysed. River's
anger rose like a surge which ripped through his body. He felt the Nagas's hold
failing as he regained full motor control of his nervous system and muscles. He
leapt to his feet in one succinct movement and thrust his hand deep into the
dark shadow of the silhouette. He felt an icy coldness engulf his arm; saw what
seemed like sparks of static electricity across the shape, and heard a
screaming noise that was something akin to a violent rush of air in his head.

The sound was
otherworldly in that it probably was imaginary or inaudible to another person.
However, it did not seem to be inaudible to the man dressed in the porters
outfit; he was clutching his head in pain. River did not waste the advantage
and launched an immediate attack on the man. Two successive punches to his
throat and to his nose were followed by a scissors kick which sent the man
flying backwards through the room. River did not expect him to recover from that
and he turned to switch on the room lights. When the lights came on the door
was closed and there was no one there in the room with him. River stared
incredulously at the empty spot where the porter should have fallen. He
wondered whether the whole escapade had been a figment of his imagination. It
may have been a dream but he was certainly awake now. However there was grazed
skin on his knuckles which meant that they had definitely hit something. He
looked around again incredulous that the man had disappeared. Doubt gave rise
to paranoia and River tentatively approached the long curtains by the window.
He pulled them back only to reveal that no one was there and the window was
closed. He checked beside the bed and then walked across the room to the bathroom
and pushed back the door. The room was empty; there was no sign of the
intruder. It was the middle of the night and he had obviously had a nightmare.
River climbed back into bed and fell asleep.

It was less than 3
hours later when he was awoken again. This time it was by the incessant
knocking on the door of his room. River climbed out of bed and guardedly opened
the door. It was a member of hotel security who was knocking but Cortez stood
with him and did the talking.

“Come on, get dressed
we have to go.”

“Go where?” asked River.

“We have to leave the
hotel,” replied Cortez.

The hotel security
officer added, “There has been an incident Sir. A man died last night.
Seemingly a member of staff had an accident and fell to his death, but the
initial investigator found that he didn’t work here, and that he was dead
before he hit the ground. It seems that he was murdered and a full scene of
crime investigation unit is on its way here. We think it best discretion that
your employer is not here when they arrive. It will save him from having to
answer some awkward questions.”

“I am going to wake him
and tell him,” said Cortez. “You had better get dressed and get the sedan
around to the side entrance and wait for us.”

“I don’t understand,”
said River. “Who killed him?”

“They don’t know, but
we have to get the boss clean away before he gets involved in a murder
investigation.” Cortez and the security officer headed off in the direction of
the executive suites.

River quickly got
dressed and was packed and ready to leave. He bypassed reception on his way to
the hotel parking lots so he didn’t get to see or experience any of the
commotion caused by the fatality.

He brought the sedan
around to the side entrance and waited as instructed. It wasn’t long before he
saw Cortez and Shondran accompanied by the same security officer making a hasty
pace to the sedan. Cortez and security carried his bags, as it seemed he was
still in pamper mode. However Shondran looked like he was in a foul mood.

The getaway was quick
and they passed the backup CPS units on their way to the scene. River turned to
the rear cabin and enquired again, “Do we know yet who the dead guy was, or how
he died?” The question was really aimed at Cortez but instead Shondran answered
it in a menacing tone. -“He worked for Diplomat McCreadie; he was killed by a
single upward punch to the nose which splintered the bone and drove it into his
brain. Death would have been instant.”

River was unnerved by
this answer and not least because came from Shondran who usually didn’t care to
explain things. Also River could see in his rear view mirror that Shondran was
still staring at him as if accessing his reaction. Outwardly River showed only
surprise. Internally, he was racked with guilt, remorse and alarm. He realised
now that it was he who had delivered the death blow, and that the fight with
the diplomat’s bodyguard dressed as a hotel porter was not a dream but had
actually taken place. How on earth his body had come to be thrown off the
building, if he had died instantly as Shondran said was a total mystery. There
was something strange about that man anyway. He didn’t seem totally human, and
now River was worried about the electronic swabs, samples and readings which he
had taken. He considered that they were most likely DNA readings and scans for
someone who wanted to identify him. Had they managed to retrieve them? River
kicked himself for failing to investigate the dead man's body; he might have
been able to have retrieved them.

All in all, Shondran
was not having a good day. His convention had been cut short, and his round of
golf today was obviously cancelled. That meant his opportunity to walk and talk
privately with a government minister responsible for all appointments, and all
trade through the transit port was also lost. And this was all because a man
had been murdered last night; incidentally a man whom according to Cortez had
taken some exception to River. There may have been nothing in that, except that
the hotel's head of security had explained that this military trained bodyguard
had been killed by someone adept in unarmed combat. This fact was not lost on
Shondran who greatly admired River's fighting prowess. But now as he looked and
studied River, he still came to the same conclusion that he didn’t see him as a
killer.

He recalled what River
had said to him -
'I don’t want to be a gangster or a killer. If I became a
gangster, I would probably kill you.
' So if this was River’s first venture
into killing someone, he had picked the wrong victim. Citizen McCreadie was the
perpetual Secretary of the Lodge. No one stood against him because he held the
most political influence in it. He was a designated diplomat which meant that
he travelled extensively to the other metropolis to represent New Denver and
sit on international quorums. Being able to call someone like him your lodge
brother opened a lot of doors. He was an influential friend, and someone whom
you did not make an enemy of.

The call which came
through from Commander Alex Salford was almost serendipitous. Shondran raised
the privacy barrier as he took the call. This return call was about River, and
the Commander's revelations only confirmed his own suspicions. There had been
no security incident on the district 17 turnpike on the day that they had set
off from the Mira Belle, and no communication jammers had been in use. So River
had lied to him, and was purposely not answering his communicator. Shondran had
been waiting for that confirmation, and now he wanted to get to the bottom of
this. He could not abide liars, let alone someone lying to his face. The next
step would be for him to get Ramesh to come down to the Mira Belle, so that he
could question him first hand about what River had been up to down at the port
that morning. He made the call to his office and arranged for Ramesh to be
collected. Once Ramesh had told him what he needed to know, he would then
confront River.

Just before the sedan
had reached the Mira Belle, Shondran decided to share this knowledge with
Cortez, and told him to stay with River and make sure that he returned with him
to the upstairs office once River had dropped the sedan off at the local depot.
Then as the sedan pulled up on the kerb outside, he lowered the privacy barrier
and casually told River that he would see him later before stepping out alone.

The sedan waited until
he had entered the building before driving off. As Shondran watched it depart,
his communicator received another incoming call. He was shocked when he
realised that it was Diplomat McCreadie, the lodge secretary calling him. The
man was polite and cordial, but direct as ever, “Barry, I have some disturbing
news for you. I am afraid that a man in your employ, by the name of Angus
Cactus has been positively identified as an imposter. His real name is Eli
River and he is a wanted felon. I would like you to detain him temporarily and
hand him over to an official from the Interior Office by the name of Naighal.
He will contact you this evening to arrange his collection. Are you okay with
this?”

“Yes brother McCreadie,
I am. By the way, I am sorry for the loss of your man today,” Shondran replied
only to be cut short by the diplomat, “Good, we will be in touch,” and then the
call was disconnected. Shondran peered outside the building nervously hoping to
catch sight of the departing sedan, but it was gone.