Malachai

by Romi Hart

  She yanked open the specimen drawer of the FISH reader. She seized the petri dish and tossed it and the tissue into the biohazard container. She threw herself onto her stool. This couldn’t be right. Something must be wrong with the machine. Nothing else explained these results.

  She grabbed another petri dish and a calibration strip. She dropped the slip into the dish and stuck it in the drawer. She tapped the switch and it closed. She double-clicked the FISH app on her computer and hit CALIBRATE.

  The machine purred in the background, but she couldn’t sit still. Not even the blinking green CALIBRATION COMPLETE window surprised her. She squirmed on her stool bringing up the results from Malachai’s blood. She printed them out, but every page spitting out of the printer sent her into an agony of angst and anticipation.

  What exactly was she supposed to do with this? How could she go right or left sitting on these results? She snatched the pages from the printer tray and slammed them onto the desk. She folded them over and over again. She folded them into a tiny square and pushed them to the farthest, darkest, bottommost corner of her handbag.

  6

  Malachai strode out of Ogru-Kuche to find Riley and their young foot soldiers assembling in the yard. He placed two more rockets next to her. “This was all I could find. It looks like Lincoln and Brittany got to the armory before us. They cleaned us out.”

  She peeked up from under her long hair. “We can’t carry any more, anyway. Don’t bring any more. Did you get ammo for the .45s?”

  He patted his vest pocket. “Five clips each. That’s all I could get.”

  She propped her rifle on the ground and held up her hand. “That’s enough. Let’s get moving. We’re wasting daylight.”

  Todd stood up from a squat next to her and slung his backpack over his shoulder. “What route do you want to take?”

  “Huey Long Bridge,” Riley told him. “You and the others split up moving through town. We don’t want to attract too much attention. Get out of town any way you can and we’ll converge in Salvador Wildlife Management Area. We’ll regroup and head west from there.”

  He gave her a nod and turned away. He crossed the yard to where the other New Breed waited. In a minute, he relayed Riley’s orders to them and the group slipped through the gate.

  Malachai watched them leave. “Do you want me to split off, too?”

  “You’re with me.” She looped her rifle strap over one shoulder and raised her backpack with another arm. “I want to stop by Felix’s place on the way out of town.”

  Malachai frowned. “What for? We don’t want the others getting too far ahead of us.”

  “The farther ahead they get, the better. The more space we put between us, the less likely one of the humans will notice us. I need to give Polly fifty bucks from Tessa. She asked me to stop by on my way south.”

  Malachai nodded more to himself than to her. He didn’t need to take these mundane considerations into account. He had his mission to focus on. He just wished he didn’t have to lose sight of his people on the way.

  He vowed to follow Riley’s lead. She knew a lot more about missions into the Quag than he did. Once he saw how she conducted herself, he could take it from there when he had to command one of these trips on his own.

  He strapped his backpack over his shoulders, stuck the rockets in his pockets, and he and Riley headed for the fence. Just then, someone shouted from the building behind him. “Malachai! Hey, Malachai, wait up!”

  He rotated around to see his sister Courtney hanging from the second-story window. She waved to him. “I found another five rockets for you. I’m coming down.”

  He glanced toward Riley, but she only grinned and flapped her wrist toward the building. “You might as well. Go on.”

  Malachai trotted up the steps and met Courtney coming down the stairs. She thrust the rockets into his hand and bolted back up inside.

  He put them with the others and went back downstairs, but he froze when he spotted Riley standing on the sidewalk outside the gate. He didn’t see Jules Hitchcock anywhere, but Malachai never doubted that kid was lurking around. He must be if he let Riley out.

  Malachai shrank behind the corner when he saw Riley in a heated discussion with Isabelle. What was she doing here? The two women faced off gesticulating in wide circles.

  “I’m not leaving until I get some answers, Riley,” Isabelle was saying. “I didn’t come all the way across town to turn back, so don’t think you’re gonna walk away from me. You want me to believe we’re still friends and that we might have some future relationship with each other so you better quit stalling and tell me what the fuck is going on.”

  Riley stiffened. “How did you find this place? Don’t tell me you used your position to stalk us.”

  Isabelle arched her eyebrow. “Us? So it’s us now?”

  Riley didn’t flinch. “You didn’t answer my question. How did you find me? You work for the fucking military so you must have used your position to access classified records. Admit it.”

  Isabelle didn’t admit anything. She narrowed her eyes at the building slumped among piles of trash and broken homeless bodies. Scattered scraps of filthy paper and crushed beer cans dotted the yard. “Where’s Malachai? I know this is his address. I didn’t think it was possible. Don’t tell me you’re living here, too.”

  Riley dropped her voice to a harsh growl. “It’s none of your business where I’m living, Isabelle. Is this the way friends treat each other—hunting up private information behind each other’s backs?”

  “If we’re friends, then you living in a dump like this is my business. If I seriously thought you were living here, I would be worried enough to try to help you get out of it, but I don’t really believe that. You said your husband, whoever he is, was in a meeting in the Sheraton. He must be well off if he was meeting people there and Malachai’s suit tells me you people aren’t anywhere near poor enough to live in a shithole like this. Something’s going on and you won’t tell me what it is. You just said your records were classified. Why the hell would they be if you weren’t trying to hide something? Why don’t you want someone who’s supposed to be your friend to know where you live? It doesn’t make sense.”

  Riley spun away on her heel. “I don’t have time for this, Isabelle. I’ve got more important things to worry about right now.”

  Isabelle lunged after her and grabbed her arm. “You said we would get together this weekend and catch up on each other’s lives. You’re leaving, so when exactly are we going to catch up? If you don’t tell me right now what the fuck is going on with you, when do you plan to do it—or do you plan to fill my head with a bunch more lies? That’s not the behavior of a friend, Riley.”

  Riley bowed her head. “I’m really sorry. I wish I could tell you, but there are things you don’t understand. Peoples’ lives are hanging in the balance. I wish like anything I could tell you, but I can’t. I have bigger priorities I have to consider.”

  Isabelle rushed her. She stuck her hand in her handbag and pulled out a wadded ball of paper. “How do you explain this? I won’t give up on this, so you might as well tell me right now.”

  Riley frowned at the crumpled mass. “Explain what?”

  “I DNA tested Malachai’s blood. He got injured in town and I got some of his blood on a tissue. I tested it, but the results don’t make any sense.”

  Riley reared back gasping. “You did what?”

  Isabelle opened the papers and pointed to them. “The immune factors don’t make any sense at all. The hormone levels are off the charts and some of the DNA matches reptiles. It’s not even human. Now how do you explain that?”

  Riley wheeled away and set off down the sidewalk. She barked over her shoulder. “You shouldn’t have done that, Isabelle. You never should have tested Malachai’s blood.”

  “Don’t you think I fucking know that?” Isabelle rushed around Riley and planted herself in front of her friend. She waved the papers in Riley’s face. “I know I shouldn’t h
ave done it, but you were both being so cryptic about why he wouldn’t go out with me. It was stupid, but now that I did it, I can’t ignore this. I came over here to get some answers and I’m getting ‘em.”

  Riley went very stiff and still. Malachai shrank behind the corner. He hated to hear what Riley would say, but he pitied Isabelle for facing down Riley when she got like this. He wouldn’t want to confront her when she got mad. If Isabelle knew Riley at all, she would realize she crossed a line and there was no coming back from.

  Riley lowered her voice to a deadly murmur. Malachai had to strain to hear her. She moved her face right up close to Isabelle’s nose. “You listen to me, Isabelle. You’re messing with forces you don’t understand. You’re gonna wind up in hot water way over your head. I would advise you to burn those pages right here and now. Put Malachai and these blood results as far out of your mind as you possibly can. Don’t tell another living soul what you found out. Go home and go on with your life like you never bumped into me and Malachai. Do you hear me?”

  She let Isabelle off easy, but nothing would penetrate Isabelle’s head. Malachai sensed that even from a distance. “I can’t. I’m a scientist, Riley. I make my living solving scientific problems like this. I can’t ignore it and I definitely won’t forget it.”

  Malachai shuddered when he observed Riley. She stood perfectly still. She looked at her friend, but she didn’t seem to be human. She had traveled somewhere far beyond Isabelle to a different world.

  Her shoulders relaxed and she shook her hair out of her face. “I’m sorry you feel that way, Isabelle. I wish I could help you, but if you don’t drop it, I can’t be responsible for the consequences.”

  She burst to life and stormed back to the gate. Jules materialized out of nowhere and met her there. He opened the gate and let her through it. He locked the gate and vanished before Isabelle turned around.

  When Isabelle faced the building, she watched Riley march across the yard and barrel up the steps. Riley whipped around Malachai and stopped.

  She raised her eyes to Malachai’s face and her expression changed. She was shaking so hard her teeth chattered. “Did you hear all that?”

  Malachai nodded. “Come on. Let’s go downstairs.”

  The pair peeked around the corner. Isabelle still stood in the same place on the sidewalk outside the fence. The papers dangled from her hand. A gust of wind caught her golden hair and blew it back from her face.

  Malachai caught a glimpse of her features set in a mask of iron certainty. She wouldn’t leave this alone. She crossed her Rubicon and she wouldn’t go back. He could see that as clear as the nose on his own face.

  7

  Malachai and Riley entered the Ogru-Kuche war room. They paused at the door to set their backpacks and their weapons in the corner. Victor and Colonel Weeks bent over a table across the room. Malachai waited so that he and Riley could approach them together.

  Malachai didn’t envy Riley this moment—not one bit. She bowed her head and closed her eyes. she gathered herself into a compact ball the way she always did whenever she confronted a frightening situation.

  Victor glanced over his shoulder. He arched an eyebrow when he saw the pair standing there. “What are you doing here? You should be halfway to Shenandoah by now.”

  Riley’s head shot up and her bright eyes opened. “We have a serious fucking problem.”

  Victor scanned back and forth between them. “What is it?”

  She took a deep breath. “It’s my friend Isabelle.”

  Victor’s eyebrows leaped up. “What about her?”

  Riley winced. Malachai saw her struggling to tell the whole sordid tale, so he dove right in. “I met her in town the other day. I was on my own waiting for Royce to finish with the car. She came up to me on Canal Street.” He cast a sidelong glance at Riley. “She tried to hit on me.”

  Victor’s lip twitched before he caught it and got his expression under control. “And?”

  Now it was Malachai’s turn to take a deep breath. “While I was trying to let her down as gently as possible, a truck skidded off the road and smashed into a store window a few feet away. I got that cut on my arm from flying glass. Isabelle tried to stop the bleeding with a tissue.”

  Riley cut in. “Then she took the tissue back to her military lab and ran a DNA test on it. She found out a whole lot of crazy shit about his blood and now she’s all hot under the collar to get some answers. She doesn’t know what she found out, but if I know anything about her, she won’t quit even though I told her to drop it. She’s probably out there right now searching for an explanation. She used the military database to track us down. She just confronted me out on the sidewalk.”

  “Which means….” Victor added, “if she knows where we are, the military knows, too.”

  Riley nodded down at the floor. “I was just going to say that.”

  Victor wheeled around. Now he trained that horrible glare of his on Malachai. “You’re pulled from the mission. I’m putting you on Isabelle.”

  Malachai jumped back. “Putting me on her! What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

  “I want you to tail her. Stay with her but don’t let her see you. Find out what she’s doing and who she’s talking to about this. She could be putting us all in serious danger or she could be in serious danger herself.”

  “So what if she is?” Malachai fired back. “If she gets herself in the shit, that’s her own fault. It isn’t our job to pull her fat out of the fire. She’s human.”

  “She could be handing this information over to anybody. She could sick the whole fucking US military on us. Follow her. Keep an eye on her and let me know what she’s up to. If she meets anybody or tries to tell anybody, stop her.”

  Malachai cringed. He never hated his brother more than he did right now. He narrowed his eyes at Victor and growled between gritted teeth. “I don’t think this is a good idea. She already has some weird ideas about me. Put anybody else on this but not me.”

  Victor chopped his hand through the air. “It’s already done. You have your orders. Now go and carry ‘em out.”

  He started to turn away. Malachai felt the last nail driving into his coffin. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t give up the mission to go babysit Isabelle. “Listen, man. You know I would never flout your orders, but you have to reconsider. I’m not the man for this job. It’s me she’s all worked up about. You need someone impartial following her—not me.”

  Victor rotated around. When he fixed his eyes on Malachai, Malachai realized all these words meant nothing. Victor told him what to do. Nothing would change that.

  Victor came sauntering back. He halted in front of Malachai, but he didn’t stab and cut with that commanding voice of his. He almost whispered. “I’m putting you on this because I trust you. Everyone else I could assign to this is already out in the Quag and you know the city better than any of them. You’re the only one I trust enough to do the job right. It’s you or no one.” He clapped Malachai on the shoulder. “All our lives are riding on you. I’m only sorry I have to send you out alone.”

  Malachai had to look down to maintain eye contact with his brother, but those words gnawed at his heart. Victor trusted him. He put him in charge of Isabelle because he needed a man he could trust. He didn’t trust anyone as much as he trusted Malachai.

  Victor gave his shoulder a squeeze and turned away. He went back to talking to Colonel Weeks and left the massive weight of his hand resting on Malachai’s shoulder. That hand, that trust, that commission, meant more than Malachai ever could have hoped.

  He couldn’t let Victor down. Malachai never worked alone in his life. He always occupied the position at Victor’s right hand. He never took on an assignment like this. Even when he got assigned to the Quag, he put himself under Riley’s authority.

  Now he would be flying solo. He would be solely responsible for Isabelle and her actions. If she put Anarock in danger, he and only he would stand between her and the dreadful consequence
s.

  He glanced over to see Riley gazing up at him. Her black eyes read all the torturous shades of meaning passing through his mind. She shook back her hair. “I’m really sorry about this.”

  He shrugged. “No sweat. You better take these.” He fished the rockets out of his pockets and passed them to her. “Good luck out there.”

  She fiddled with the rockets and refused to look up. “I wish it was me tracking her. I’m responsible for her. I should be the one cleaning up her mess.”

  “Naw,” Malachai breathed. “You have a more important job to do out in the Quag. You go do it and leave this to me. I’ll handle it.”

  She peeked up. “Are you sure?”

  He nodded, but inside, he couldn’t feel anything. The bottom fell out of his world. Now he was going into greater danger than ever and he was going alone.

  He strolled back to the door with Riley. He didn’t see anything while she put on her backpack and stowed the rockets somewhere. She picked up her rifle and the rocket launchers. She carried all that like it was nothing. Anarock couldn’t ask for a better commander on this mission.

  Malachai accompanied her to the entrance steps. He compressed her elbow once. “See you around.”

  “See ya.”

  She walked out to the gate and Jules let her through for the third time. She waved to Malachai and disappeared. Silence fell over the building. Malachai was one of the last people left in the place.

  He couldn’t stick around, though. He had a job to do. He had to make his brother proud, to say nothing of the rest of Anarock. He took his time heading back to the war room to retrieve his backpack.

  He went through the laborious process of putting away all the equipment he collected for his journey into the Quag. He wouldn’t need any of that now. He stashed everything in the armory and hung the pack on its hook. Then he went upstairs to the family apartment.