Murder Genes (22 page)

Three steps up to a wooden door with glassy panels.
 
A porch light illuminating the front of the house.
 
Past the door on one side would be a kitchen with wood floors.
 
The other side would be a dining area.
 
Past those would be a hallway to a few rooms.
 
His room, Del and Tim's.

It felt strange.
 
Surreal.
 
Fake.

Jess knocked on the door, still holding Kyle's hand.

Del opened the door.
 
"Jess!
 
...it's been months.
 
Where'd you disa..."
 
She stopped when she saw him.
 
Del ran to Kyle and grabbed Kyle into her arms.

He took his arms and put them around her, too, because Del wanted that.

She murmured in his ear.
 
"Tell me you're OK, Kyle."

"I'm OK."

"Did they do anything to you?
 
Are you hurt?"

"No.
 
I'm fine.
 
They didn't do anything."

Del laughed in relief.
 
"Thank God you're home.
 
We've been so worried."
 
She stood, carrying Kyle.
 
"Tim!
 
Come out here!"

When Tim walked out, his jaw dropped in shock.
 
And then it transformed into a big grin that made him look genuinely happy.
 
He ran forward and hugged them both, then pulled Kyle away from Del so that he could give a huge bear hug that made Kyle feel like he could die.
 
Kyle wanted to bite Tim's ear off and escape, but he didn't.
 
Instead he hung his arms around Tim, too.

"Son," Tim said.

Kyle felt a moment of confusion, and then he replied.
 
"Mom, Dad."

They beamed at him and brought him into the house.
 
They invited Jess in, but she declined.
 
Kyle watched as Jess disappeared into the night.
 
Then for Del and Tim, he faked as best he could the happiest smile he could manage.
 
And ate the food like he was famished and eager to eat.
 
And pretended to sleep like nothing was wrong and like nothing horrible had happened to him the last few months.

He told them he didn't remember much, but he did.
 
He remembered everything.
 
Including the way the boy with the ring through his lip had gone crazy with hunger and attacked Kyle, useless arms swinging at his side.
 
He remembered what he'd chosen to do, to survive.

He remembered how his hands shook.

In the night, on his bed, he got up and went to his pant pocket that he'd insisted Del not wash yet, and pulled out the scrap of paper with the word "Merciless" on it.
 
He carried it back to bed with him, and only then did he fall asleep.

Chapter 16

A German court has cut the sentence given to a convicted wife abuser by a year because his genes have linked him to violent behaviors.
 
How far will we allow this to continue?
 
What if he were to murder someone.
 
Could he simply blame it on his Coding?

-Emily Gallin. "Reduced Sentences for Unlucky Genes?"
Future
. June, 2015.
 
http://www.future.com/2015/full.html

The man really seemed like he was straight out of some samurai Kung Fu movie.
 
Chinese--Japanese, potato patato.
 
"Xiaos!
 
I'm leaving." Jay called.

Xiaos stopped training his sons--Evo and Ti--and wiggled his index finger at Bitch.
 
Coming from Xiaos, even that looked intimidating.
 
"When do you plan to learn to defend yourself?" Xiaos asked Jay.

"You mean beat the crap out of someone?
 
I do that fine, thank you."

"They are approaching, you must be prepared."

Jay answered in the way his hardcore martial arts friends used to.
 
Full of themselves and dripping with tough-ness.
 
"I'm not worried about spinning kicks, Xiaos.
 
Tae Kwon dope is useless in a street fight."

"They created TKD, the traditional style.
 
It would be wise to be prepared."

"I'm busy," Jay said in his normal voice.
 
"Just watch Bitch for me and we'll talk about this later."

"I'm not a dog," Bitch complained.

"Sit and stay," Jay replied, walking off.
 
He was impatient today, antsy.

"Sneak me out," Bitch came up after him.

"You remember what type I am?
 
Murderer-survivor.
 
That means to survive Xiaos' wrath I'm gonna say 'no' and then promise to knock your head off if you try escaping while I'm gone."

"You know that if I wanted, I'd be gone.
 
Take me with you, I can help."

"Talk to Xiaos. But right now, sit, stay," he said it again.
 
"Stay."

Bitch glared at him, but there was an ease in his posture that told Jay he'd made the right decision.
 
Not that Jay'd considered otherwise, he never did.
 
Bitch didn't want to leave.
 
He pushed the borders because it was his instinct and a part of himself missed the chase and the adrenaline of being frightened for his life.
 
The truth was that Bitch pressured Jay because he wanted to assure himself that Jay was protecting him.
 
Reminding himself that he wouldn't ever have to leave Esperanza again.

"Watch the...bitch, he might make a run for it today," Jay called to Xiaos.

Xiaos nodded and one of the twins, Evo, waved at him.
 
"Kick some butt for me!"

"Yeah, kick some fucking ass!" Ti screamed at the top of his lungs.

Jay smiled and waved back.
 
He'd like to say it wasn't his fault Ti's mouth had become dirtier than piss, but it was.
 
And in an odd way Jay felt proud, kinda enjoyed the feeling of corrupting the kid into adulthood.
 
He felt like a proud uncle.

Before he left, Jay made his rounds through Esperanza.
 
He did the rounds because he needed to remember why he traveled out of the perfect town of Esperanza.
 
For Brian, the guy with the blown off leg.
 
Joanna, the lady who had a newborn child, as insane as having a kid in Morir was--she named him Sully.
 
Emmy, the girl who was still too scared to speak or look anyone in the eye.
 
They and the others acknowledged him in their own ways when Jay past them.
 
A nod or wave or a shy smile as they worked the best they could, building, cultivating, being
civilized
.

Esperanza looked like a small town now, it was thriving.
 
Minor roads and paths cut between the Crystal Onyx buildings and a community center had even been built, a place built by mere sweat where neighbors chatted, shared, and enjoy life like human beings.
 
People had jobs now, and while there were those like Jay who left Esperanza for the good of everyone--warriors and gatherers, ultimately it was Jay that was Esperanza's reassurance that things would be OK.
 
Life could be lived in Morir.

And just as much as Esperanza needed him for this reassurance, Jay needed them.

"Adrianna," Jay said.
 
She was standing by the exit he most often took into Morir.

She walked up to him and leaned forward to kiss him on the lips.
 
"Come back, hear me?"
 
Adrianna was the first girl he'd saved.
 
The same woman who'd been raped in the middle of Haven and forced to watch her fiancé's almost-corpse bumped in the mouth.
 
Not a happy time.
 
She was from somewhere near Texas in one of the few towns left where they still had slight accents.

"I always come back," he replied.

"You're goin' at her today?"

"Yeah, today."

"Well don' fuck up," she said with a scowl.

She always said that.
 
Just this time she was actually worried, he felt it in the peck she'd given.
 
There was a hesitancy to her that he only picked up on because she'd kissed him like that a hundred times before.
 
Didn't blame her, because if he was planning on dying, this'd be the way to do it.

The dragon's lair you might say.

The plan was to get into Freckles' headquarters, "Lair", and rescue Karah right from underneath Freckles' nose.
 
Yeah, it was a bit romantic, dastardly romantic really.
 
But the truth was...he owed her one.

Sure, Freckles would shit his bed when he succeeded.
 
Shit and then eat it, or at least hump the pile of shit since he was into that sort of thing.
 

...that wasn't nice.
 
Gaywads were people too.

...even if they were the type that liked to hack and slash, inseminate corpses, and blow teeth off strangers.

Jay flicked one of the four bells left on his bar.
 
In clanged weakly.
 
One of these days he'd make sure Gamer got it back.
 
Teeth and butt humping both, followed by death and more butt humping.

He took a turn through the passages that he normally didn't, he usually avoided this area with the bad memories and all.
 
Bitch had shared several secret passages with Jay over the week he'd been in Esperanza.
 
The kid probably could've been anything if it hadn't been for The Code.
 
A spy, CIA, double-triple agent, a modern day Inglorious Basterd.

Maybe a gymnastics instructor.

Jay halted in front of the "small gap" in amazement.
 
Bitch had jumped this?
 
It had to be a fifteen foot drop to a ledge the width of his hand.
 
He shook his head and whispered to himself.
 
"Hell no."
 
It looked like if he missed his bar could maybe catch him around the ledge, suspending the top of his head as the rest of his body kept falling.
 
Jay didn't bother considering it any more than he already had.
 
He turned around and went for the "longer but easier" path to Lair.
 
Hopefully, this one would actually be possible to traverse.

The other path was more tunnel than path, and not so much long as slow.
 
Too bad it dropped him off right outside Lair rather than inside it like the other had.
 
Jay spent most the time on his belly through twists that felt like he'd break his spine in two.
 
But it was doable.
 
The truth was that with Bitch roaming Freckles' territory, Jay would've had no chance in heck to save Karah.
 
But now that Bitch was helping Jay, things were different.
 
Karah was possible.

The tunnel finally gave Jay the lung capacity to take full breaths.
 
He slowed a bit as he poked his head from the pile of rubble that hid him.

There it was.
 
Lair.

It looked like all the other buildings in Morir.
 
Except that it crawled with Eyes.

With Bitch's recent disappearance, things would've changed, patterns would've change.
 
Gamer was too sharp to let
that
detail pass.
 
The positions of the Eyes and the where and when of the passing Guards gave him clues to blind spots and check points.
 
The rotations told him schedules and sleep patterns, and their alertness told him that Freckles was under heavy pressure from the other Gamers.
 
Jay wouldn't be the only one watching.
 
As smart as Gamer was, he'd be changing up the rotations and positions of his Guards and Eyes.
 
Maybe daily.

That was a problem.

A complete day of watching passed before Jay figured out his plan.
 
It was almost dumb simple, but it was the only way he could be sure he'd picked out all the Eyes.

Jay took a deep breath and screamed at the top of his lungs.
 
"Kim Cho-sung!
 
Kim Cho-sung!"
 
He tried to do it in his best Korean voice, but damn, he'd never heard a Korean talk.

Jay pulled his body completely out of sight as soon as he saw the movements.
 
Jay smirked, he'd even managed to set off an alarm.
 
A bunch of Freckles' men had emerged.
 
Scouts.
 
Jay watched through cracks as they sprinted like goat people over and around rubble, making big boomerangs back into headquarters as they scoured the surroundings.
 
He grinned as they yelled out more alarm, coming across other scouts from other Teams.
 
Jay had seen what he had needed to see, though.
 
It was human nature to watch.
 
The Eyes had shifted or poked their heads around in response to Jay's yell.
 
That was all he needed.