Murder Genes (52 page)

"Jay," Jinn said again.
 
He kept saying Jay's name, but Jay didn't even hear it, not really.

"Da!" Bitch's voice pierced.
 
Da?
 
Did I hear that right?
 
"Fucking wake up!"

Jay blinked.
 
"...repeat?" Jay mumbled.

"Was this boy Phantom Warrior's student?"

Phantom Warrior.
 
Xiaos?
 
"...no." Jay managed.
 
"No.
 
Don't take him from me.
 
Don't fight him, fight me."

"He's lying!
 
Jay!
 
Tell him the truth," Bitch raged.

But whatever Jinn translated, it pleased Immortal Leader.
 
He gave a big smile and nodded.

It needed no translating.

There formed a little circle, a circle of Immortal Leader's generals, Hunter and the translator.
 
And Jay of course, hanging by his wrist.
 
In the middle of the circle, Bitch and Immortal Leader faced off.

Jay'd seen Immortal Leader fight plenty of times.
 
He'd never seen Bitch fight square on before.
 
Bitch had trained with Xiaos, that was true.
 
But it'd been nothing more than a few months, at best.

Then they fought.
 
Bitch as much a bee as Muhammad Ali thought he'd been.
 
Bitch jabbed and evaded and dodged, landing blows in ways that made Jay happy.
 
When he smiled, a wave a disorientation took him and he looked away.
 
Jay couldn't follow the moves, maybe because of how sick he was, or maybe because Bitch and Immortal Leader were moving that fast.
 
The flurried pace of fists and feet, rolling and slipping was frantic.
 
Dizzying.
 
When Jay looked back up, he realized that Bitch--the fucker--might actually win.

Murphy's law.
 
You think it, you fucked it.

Bitch got his face slammed in by Immortal Leader's knee.
 
Bitch stumbled back and hit the wall near Jay, striking the back of his head.
 
Bitch stumbled, his eyes searched air.

And that was that.

One blow was all it took.

Immortal Leader grabbed Bitch's head by the hair and smashed it into the wall a second time.
 
Jay heard a crack and Bitch went limp.
 
Jay felt the slow horror rising in his chest, and he stared at Bitch.
 
It'd ended so fast.
 
Jay blinked.

Bitch's chest rose, and fell.

Immortal Leader noticed Jay's eyes.
 
He smiled at Jay and, holding Bitch up by the hair, walked around until he was right behind Bitch.
 
He leaned against the wall and began choking Bitch with the crook of his elbow even though Bitch was probably already dead and the breathing, reflexive.

Immortal Leader grinned one-sided, like he always did when he thought something was funny.
 
"Hungry doggy?" Immortal Leader asked Jay.

Jay kept looking at Bitch, Chris Nelson.
 
Chris' eyes flickered.

A hand twitched.
 
Then spasmed, and Chris leaned just a little bit and reached behind him.
 
His lips moved, and a small moan came out.
 
Jay understood it.
 
"I love you."
 
Bitch gasped, a small choke.
 
His hand stopped searching.

Bitch had the Tag.

"Hungry?" Immortal Leader asked again, lifting Bitch higher by his hair and shaking Bitch like a doll.

"I love you too, Chris," Jay whispered.
 
Then to Immortal Leader.
 
"Die!"

Immortal Leader looked at his watching translator, like he didn't understand what Jay'd said.
 
He did.
 
He absolutely, fucking, did.

The Tag detonated.

Bitch's body flew away faster than Jay could see, and Immortal Leader became a cloud of red that left a gaping hole in the wall with cracks that ran right up near where Jay'd was.
 
The metal stake shivered and fell out and Jay crashed to the ground.

A few million DPRK throats screamed in horror.

Hunter pulled a gun, and started shooting everyone.
 
Immortal Leader's generals fell like flies.
 
One of Jay's guards rushed Hunter, the guard died just as quickly.
 
The sledgehammer giant turned toward Jay, clearly intent on smashing Jay's skull into bits.
 
Just as the hammer lifted, Jay rolled backwards.
 
The huge man went over Jay's head, right into the gap in the wall that Immortal Leader had left.

He hit the bars running through the wall and an electrical zapping sound and a shaking scream lasted a fraction of a second before the smell of overcooked flesh and smoke took its place.
 
The hammer fell to the side and the blackened corpse fell from the hole right onto Jay.

Jay shoved at the hot flesh, failed.
 
He crawled on an elbow and two knees, trying to get out from under the weight.
 
He didn't have the energy to pull the stake out.
 
Didn't have anything, anymore.
 
Jay collapsed, spent.
 
He saw that he'd maybe made a foot from under the burnt corpse.

When he looked up again, Hunter was standing over him with his gun aimed at Jay's head.
 
Again.
 
The five generals lay in a circle around them.

"Just get it over with," Jay said.
 
"I'm tired of this view."
 
He didn't even have the strength to say it louder than a gurgling whisper.
 
It'd be quick this way, at least.
 
He let his head fall back and roll to the side.

He saw Chris, the upper third of him, laying in the dirt.
 
The ribs that were left poked out like spikes of a blowfish and his eyes were blinking.
 
Slowly.
 
Once.
 
Twice.
 
He looked at Jay, and a small smile appeared.
 
And then he didn't blink again.

Jay looked back up at his executioner, into the barrel of Hunter's gun.
 
It was like an endless, dark tunnel that called to him.
 
Bade him enter.
 
Offered rest.

He missed Kyle.
 
Goodbye, son.

"Don't kill him."
 
Karah's voice.

"Get out of the way."

"No.
 
I won't."

A sigh.
 
"Move, or I'll shoot you too, darling.
 
I love you, but not that much."

A new voice.
 
Jinn?
 
"But you won't shoot me.
 
You need me, don't you?
 
That's why you didn't shoot me when you shot everyone else.
 
If you want to lead the remaining DPRK, you'll need me to translate."

Hunter's voice mused with a touch of exasperation.
 
"What god made this man so lucky?"
 
There was a click.
 
"All right, you two win.
 
But I suggest you pick him up and get the fuck out of here before I send the missile over."

"When?"

"
Now.
"

Jay felt his armpits and his legs lifted.
 
Something knocked against Jay's foot.
 
He forced his eyes open.
 
Jinn was wearing a gun.
 
And Karah...
 
"Karah," Jay groaned.

Hunter was walking away from them, toward the--his--soldiers.
 
Karah's eyes were frozen on Jinn's gun.
 

"Karah, don't..." Jay mumbled.
 
It seemed like only she heard him, because Jinn was still looking the other way and Karah's hand started to shake.

 
Jay could hear the millions of mourning voices, the same sound his heart was making.

Karah's hair suddenly tickled his face, she whispered harshly in his ear.
 
"I'm going to do it.
 
He, of all of us, should die.
 
So I'm going to kill the bastard now, Jay.
 
No more watching the world die around me."

"Not worth...it." Jay sighed.

"Worth it," she whispered back.

"I forgive you," he said.

She stared at him.

"My bell, you can...have it.
 
No more...killing."

She lifted something in front of Jay with a finger.
 
His bells.
 
"Thank you, Jay."
 
She squeezed the bell between her two palms, crushing it.
 
"But it's my turn to act."

Jinn briefly glanced at them.

He'd murdered, he'd killed, he'd made excuses.
 
By anyone else's book he was a murderer.
 
But if he could choose, right now, he wouldn't be a murdered.
 
Bells or no bells, right now and for the rest of his life he wasn't a murderer.
 
That was his fucking choice
now
.

Karah, who'd never killed anyone, was making the
wrong
choice.
 
She'd been in the right the whole time, not him.

She kissed him and sighed.
 
"You've inspired me, Jay.
 
All this time you did what was necessary.
 
Fighting to save as many as you could."

NO.
 
But Jay couldn't say anything.
 
He didn't have the strength.
 
Jay closed his eyes.

"Jinn.
 
Help me hold him for a second," Karah's voice said.

"What's wrong?"

"He's too heavy.
 
Come here."

Jay's legs were lowered to the ground.
 
He felt his body dropped.
 
His head hit something and he heard shouts.

Three gunshots in quick succession.
 
Then a fourth.

Jay struggled to crack opened an eye.

When he did, he saw Karah crawling across the ground toward him.
 
Guts and blood spilling from her stomach.
 
She was smiling.
 
Behind her was Hunter's body, blown open from the back.
 
A gun in his dead hand.
 
Karah's limbs gave out and she collapsed right beside him.
 
She told him she'd done it, murdered Hunter like it was a good thing.

And then she wept a single tear that was enough to mean everything.

And then.
 
She closed her eyes.

Jay lifted his head, the hardest thing he'd ever done, and kissed her tear away.

Jinn found the missile.

It was Jinn who found a way to blow the thing up, taking out half the DPRK army at the same time.
 
It was Jinn who ended it all.

It was Jinn who saved the world.

Chapter 32

Murder is in the blood.

Like all genetic expression: hair color, eye color, and homosexuality, those with The Code are predestined to kill.
 
Their bloodlust is not by choice.
 
For many it is a matter of time before they give in to their natures while others relish their identities, thriving in the freedom that our world gives them.

They did not choose this path.
 
Some are your friends and family.
 
I know this and I grieve with you, but The Code will express itself--science has proven it.

We've no choice but to treat The Code as an illness without a cure, unrestrained since the times of Cain and Abel.
 
The Code has limited itself thus far, throttling its own propagation in wars and conflict.
 
But we can control this disease before it roots deeper into our genetic code.
 
Sterilization, drugs, and other interventions have failed us.
 
The murders continue.
 
We must quarantine The Code completely and let it destroy itself for a lasting solution.
 
This is our mission as a civilized race.

Though painful to consider, I urge you to think of the lives that may be saved.

Our world can be one without conflict, where death happens by nature and not by intention.
 
How many people, how much untapped potential, how much heartbreak have we felt because of those carrying The Code?
 
We can change this.
 
Hitler and Stalin and Mao will never again exist in our world.
 

Our step is a giant step for all people across all nations.
 
It is our next step in evolution.
 
We unify across cultures and languages, across boundaries once and long unforgeable.
 
For humanity's future.
 
There is an answer to world peace: