Murder Genes (45 page)

"Why'd you bring your rope cutters if you trusted him so much?"

"Like Hunter said, we always have a backout plan."

"And now?"

Adan lowered his voice.
 
"Like I just said.
 
We always have a backout plan."

"How long until you use it?
 
You realize he's asking us to stand by as he's gonna send some, if not
most
our people on a bullet train to heaven."
 
Jay glanced at Hunter.
 
Hunter was glancing at his watch again.

"You get that we're doomed anyway?" Adan said.
 
"I mean, if you have a better plan to get at Immortal Leader I'm all ears, but we personally have to take whatever chance we can to fight back."

"You know he'll probably turn on us after the fact, even if everything goes as planned."

Adan nodded.
 
"Of course.
 
I never planned on making it out of Morir anyway.
 
If things work as planned, I'd expect Morir to return to normal, except with a lot more Slant-Eyes and us eventually dead."

"Well, I did plan on getting out of Morir.
 
I still have a damn smart kid named Kyle on the outside that I plan on holding in a one-arm-fucking-hug after I'm out of here."

"Fine.
 
You do that, and I'll help you too," Adan said.
 
"But let's get through this part first and we'll deal with Hunter later.
 
You have family that you want to protect, I get that better than you can guess.
 
I respect that.
 
Just remember that we've got to get past this boss level first."

"Hell," Jay said.

"Hell." Adan said back.

"All right.
 
Who's ready to kill a fucking immortal god?" Jay asked loudly.
 
This time The Redeemers did cheer back.
 
"Damn, I'm getting better at this," Jay mumbled to himself.
 
They walked back to Hunter who was still looking at his watch.

"You girls done talking yet?" Hunter asked, looking up.

"Yeah.
 
But before we agree, I want to hear your plan, all of it." Jay said.

"I was planning on telling you the plan," Hunter said, tapping his watch.
 
"But after your chit-chat, I've no more time.
 
Immortal Leader's gonna be here any minute."

"He's coming here?
 
Right now?
 
Personally?"

Hunter pulled his gun out from the holster at his side and shot in the air, twice.
 
Immediately, twenty-some fully armed Enforcers rushed in and herded them to one wall.
 
"I wanted Immortal Leader to see me blow your head off in person.
 
Both your heads," Hunter said to Adan with the most sincere evil-look Jay had ever seen.

This was the betrayal they were waiting for.
 
Sooner than Jay had expected.
 
So much for trust, Adan.

Jay gave his own signal to Paul, the second one.
 
Not the one he or his men hoped to get, probably.
 
Retreat, go to Plan B.
 
Yes, there actually
was
a Plan fucking B.

Hunter spun with his gun out, and connected the dots with their heads.
 
"If you have any backout plans, you'd better tell me about them now.
 
I don't need any fucking surprises before Immortal Leader shows up!"

No one did anything.

Hunter pulled the trigger on one of Adan's women.
 
She didn't even have time to scream before her head blew off.
 
"Backout plans!" Hunter screamed.

Adan didn't answer, he glared at Hunter and spit.

Hunter shot another, a child this time.
 
A woman started sobbing and wailing.
 
She screamed at Adan.
 
"Tell him!"

"Thank you, Em," Hunter said to her, familiarly.

The muscles in Adan's jaw worked, and Jay heard the sound of his teeth grinding together.
 
Then Adan spoke, lifting his head and staring at Hunter.
 
Jay saw, a smile?
 
"We've placed explosives everywhere in the area.
 
Once Immortal Leader gets here,
everyone
is dead."

Now
that
was a good plan.

A sudden series of shots rang out, all from Hunter's gun.
 
Em and a few children fell in a row as Hunter stalked forward.
 
His men held their places as Hunter bent over the bodies.
 
Then he lifted stood up with a triumphant fist, a trigger in his hand.
 
It'd been Em's body he'd found the trigger on.
 
"Knew it," Hunter said to Adan.
 
"You always had a thing for Em even if you were a married man."

Adan's face went limp.

"Now Jay, I know
you've
got something up your sleeve."
 
The gun came up again, pointed at Xiaos.

Immortal Leader and a whole bunch of Slant Eyes walked into view.

Immortal Leader was a young man with a fat face and dark eyes. His body though, was built like a professional weightlifter.
 
Strong to the point of ugly.
 
Ugly and pompous, the worst combination.
 
Around him bristled men that looked like they were ready to throw themselves onto Immortal Leader any second.
 
Jay wondered if he could get to Adan's trigger and set off the explosives.
 
Even if without the missile, killing Immortal Leader could break up the whole DPRK.
 
With enough internal strife, it could happen.

There was a wild holler that began from everywhere around them.

Paul wasn't following Plan B.
 
The dumbfuck.

Plan B was to watch, wait, and see.
 
Come later.

Plan B was NOT to fucking rush Hunter and Immortal Leader, guns blazing.
 
Not until Jay ordered it at least.

Damn Thrillers.

Screams and yells and chaos ensued.
 
Some of prisoners tried to scatter, and most were shot down in their places.
 
Jay didn't move, neither Xiaos or Bitch and the men nearest them.
 
Because Hunter wasn't moving either, his gun stayed trained on them.

The other Redeemers took off, yelling and running at Immortal Leader or the Enforcers and detonating their ass-bombs.
 
It was disorganized and it failed, horribly.
 
They were lucky if they caught two or three enemies.

The DPRK opened fire on anyone they thought might be a threat and Hunter's Enforcers disappeared into the surroundings.
 
More gunfire and mere minutes later, it was over.

Paul was drug in on his knees in front of Hunter by an Enforcer.

"I'm sorry, Jay," Paul said, staring up at the barrel of Hunter's gun, now pointed to his forehead.

"If there's a chance you're on our side, Hunter, just let him live.
 
Put him against this wall with the rest of us," Jay instinctively fought against his chains.
 
He stumbled a bit, off-balance.

"Any last words?" Hunter asked Paul.

"Hunter!" Jay screamed, his voice cracking.

Paul opened his mouth and Hunter pulled the trigger.
 
Paul's head rocked back hard and he hit the ground with a wet sucking sound.
 
"Guess not," Hunter said.

Bitch cursed under his breath and Jay tried to lunge at Hunter, but he fell sideways instead, right to the ground.
 
Jay watched as Hunter walked right up to Immortal Leader.
 
He handed the trigger to him.
 
The trigger that could've ended this whole mess and blown everything to bits.

Then Hunter sent a few of his men forward to get their hands dirty and search each of their assholes for left over Tags.
 
Plan B and C, gone in a flash.

It was over before it had begun.
 
Hunter had outsmarted them.

Chapter 28

A roundup of humans reminiscent of Nazi Germany is occurring in the Land of the Free.
 
What began as a rebellion has turned into a full scale civil war.
 
Families are split between sides.
 
Homes are infected with internal conflicts.
 
Lives are at stake.

Evil walks our lands.

Who is to blame for the fall of America?
 
Are we no better than the Axis of Evil we once sought to destroy?

Even if I am alone, I will stand for what is right.
 
I cannot stand by and watch pseudoscience propaganda take over my country.
 
I will fight, and if it means that I die, I die a martyr.
 
For Truth and Science.

-Issak Rafael May 2023.

Ten thirty.
 
Right about now, Ryant would be coming back home and heading directly upstairs to his room.

"...so we have to stimulate you epigenetically in a manner that can damage your frontal and temporal cortices even
more
in order to alter your psychological profile further." Andre said.
 
"The gene passes through the mother's side, and according to the research of Jim Fallon and later confirmed by Issak Rafael before his disappearance, The Code is gradient.
 
Thus we can assume that since your father had The Code and your mother must've as well, somehow your gene remained recessive despite.
 
I suspect this is the situation in most our population.
 
Rather than being gradient as Fuller and Rafael presented, I'd propose that The Code has remained recessive in every individual under a different form, a DNA
changing
form."
 
Andre always spoke rather than typed his thoughts.
 
Kyle stood beside him, reading as the words appeared on the computer.
 
He resisted the urge to itch, with all the stuff on his chest.

Kyle had been learning a lot watching Andre work.
 
There were in his basement office now with computers stacked everywhere. Little LED lights lit up the room almost as much as the overhead track lighting.
 
"So what you are saying is that I need to keep killing people." Kyle said.
 
He licked his lips.

Andre glanced at him.
 
"Yes Kyle, that's essentially what I'm saying.
 
You've had several triggers, of which we don't know which is the causal factor to your DNA alteration because we weren't able to test you with the consistency we would've liked."
 
He went back to reading his script, rubbing at his scruff grown jaw as he thought.
 
"Come here, Kyle.
 
We should give you more of the epigene stimulant."

Kyle nodded and came forward.
 
When the needle went in and out of his shoulder, he hardly felt it.
 
"How long do I have to take this?"

"As long as it takes.
 
Doing it several times daily in smaller doses will help, too.
 
Before, we had to give you a large dose at once because we didn't know when we'd get another chance.
 
We used it in doses higher than we probably should have."

"Is that bad for me?"

"Nothing we know about.
 
But that doesn't guarantee anything.
 
I don't think any epigenetic study has gone through procedure, execution, and data analysis so quickly before.
 
It probably hit you harder in the emotional developmental alterations than the physical to be honest."

Ten thirty-five.
 
Ryant would be much sleepier than normal.
 
But he wouldn't notice anything yet because there wasn't any smell.

"So what do I need to do differently this time?" Kyle asked.
 
"I've killed people before."

"We can only assume that the triggers would affect you after they are tripped within one, two, or three events at
most
, since the cognitive and cerebral trauma documented in mass murderers are due to just a few extremely powerful and painful events in their lives.
 
Thus my guess would be that any triggers due to trauma affecting yourself or against yourself has already long been established.
 
Our only logical progression would be a precognitive traumatic action with you as the conceptor."
 
The whole time the computer kept typing his words.

When Kyle spoke, it typed under Kyle's name.
 
"I don't understand what you are saying," he said.
 
He almost itched at his chest, but reminded himself not to, again.

"In simple terms," Andre brooded.
 
"I'm saying that you must plan intentionally to kill someone.
 
Thus far, you've only killed out of reaction, spontaneously, mostly in self-defense.
 
Any trauma you've had applied directly to you.
 
Now, we have to have you plot and brood on murder until it becomes your purpose, then after each kill after some time we'll test you for any genetic changes."