by West, Shay
“I need to ask you a question: what’s that thing over there?”
The man turned his head and looked in the direction Tani was pointing. He screwed up his face and rolled back over, mumbling under his breath. When the man didn’t move or say anything else, Tani grew more insistent.
“Please, sir, I need to know if that is the place where I’m supposed to relieve myself.”
The man turned part way over. “Relieve yourself? You mean take a piss?”
“I guess so,” Tani stammered.
“You must be drunker’n I am.”
Tani had no idea what the stranger was saying, so he kept this mouth shut.
“If’n you gotta take a piss, just go to the toilet and do it.”
“Right here in front of everyone?”
“No one out there gives a crap ‘bout you takin’ a piss.” The man rolled back over.
As the situation with his bladder was becoming dire, Tani decided he would have to relieve himself in the strange basin. He stood there, relief warring with humiliation as his bladder emptied. It felt like it took forever. Tani stared at the wall until he was finished.
“What, you ain’t gonna flush?”
Tani turned toward the man on the bench. “Flush?”
“Geez, kid, you really need to lay off the sauce. Push that little button on the side.”
Tani moved back to the basin—toilet—and hit the button. He stepped back in shock when the water swirled in the basin before disappearing. He put his face close to the basin, hoping to get a closer look at where the water went. Must be a collecting basin beneath here.
“Now what are ya doin’?”
Rather than tell the stranger he was wondering where the water went after he flushed, he left the basin and sat back down next to Keena. She must need to relieve herself as well. She didn’t respond to his questions, so he took her and led her to the basin, explaining how to use it. Tani gulped when she undid the laces on her pants, not seeming to care that he was facing her. He turned around, shielding her as best he could from the stranger on the bed. He needn’t have bothered; the man was facing the wall and snoring louder than before.
When she finished, Tani demonstrated how to flush the toilet. For the first time since their capture, she showed signs of life. She moved closer just as he had and watched the water as it swirled and disappeared.
“Where is it going?” she asked.
“I have no idea. I wish we had such things back home.”
“And where would home be?”
Tani whirled at the sound of the deep voice coming from behind him. He and Keena had been so engrossed with the toilet they hadn’t heard the newcomers approach their cage. The man had the darkest skin Tani had ever seen. The woman had lighter skin, but it was a hue he wasn’t used to seeing. Most of the time if someone had dark skin on his world, it was from too many hours in the sun.
They are the ones from my vision!
“I’m Detective Robins and this is Detective Aguilar. We’re going to ask you two some questions.”
The dark man—Robins—ordered him and Keena to put their hands behind them and walk slowly back toward the door. The detectives placed the metal restraints on their wrists, then led them out of the cage. The man asleep on the bench never stirred.
Robins directed the pretty lady detective to take Keena into a room while he led Tani into another. He could hear Keena struggle when she realized they wouldn’t be kept together. He didn’t know what to do to comfort her, so he called out that everything would be fine. The words sounded hollow to his ears.
The man called Robins told Tani to sit in a chair on the opposite end of a metal table and took a seat in an identical chair. The man’s face looked drawn and tired, with dark circles under his eyes.
“You were read your rights when you were arrested. If you want to speak to a lawyer at any time, just say so and we’ll see about getting you a public defender. But it would go easier on you if you answer my questions.”
Tani blinked at the man, unable to understand anything he was saying. Many of the words were unfamiliar, but he did understand that this Enforcer was going to ask him some questions, questions Tani was sure he wouldn’t be able to answer.
Detective Robins placed something on the table. Tani leaned closer, gasping when the piece of paper showed a perfect likeness of a fellow Harvester.
“Satrick!” he blurted out before he could stop himself.
“So you know this guy? One of your fellow killers?”
Tani shook his head, wondering how this man had a likeness of Satrick. Of all the things the detective could have done, this was the last thing he expected. I wonder if they showed this to Keena? He prayed to the gods that she would keep silent.
“Nothing to say? Just tell us how you know him and his partner, Lawnce.” Robins placed another piece of paper on the table that clearly showed that man’s face.
This was something the monastery had never mentioned. They always seemed worried about capture, but these people had means of taking someone’s likeness and putting it down on parchment. Tani wondered if it was some sort of painting or drawing. He had always been amazed by the talent of artists on his world, able to create such beautiful works of art. But this was somehow different, as though someone had captured Satrick’s and Lahnce’s likeness without the use of canvas and paints.
“I bet your partner in the other room is spilling her guts as we speak. If she gives us what we need, she’ll get the deal, not you. You could end up going down for the whole thing.”
Tani didn’t know what Robins was saying, but the spilling of guts was something he understood and it was usually something that happened following torture. The thought of these people opening up Keena’s tender belly and pulling out her innards was more than he could bear. Maybe they use innards for some sort of ritual?
“Please, don’t hurt Keena. You don’t have to torture us.”
The detective’s eyes widened. “Who said anything about torture?”
“You said she will be spilling her guts.”
The dark-skinned man blinked and gave a strange bark of laughter. “Not literally spilling her guts. It’s an expression that means to tell someone all your secrets.”
“Then why would you say such a horrible thing? Where I come from, the spilling of guts is only done as the harshest form of punishment.” Tani couldn’t believe he was chastising an Enforcer.
“And where exactly are you from?” the man asked.
Tani shook his head.
“I suppose the priests told you to keep quiet if you were ever captured?”
Tani’s mouth opened and closed, but no sounds came out. How does he know about the monastery?
“Is it the priests that make you steal organs?” the man asked.
Tani lowered his head. Satrick must have told this man everything!
“Since you seem reluctant to talk to me, I’m going to go see if I can get your partner to talk.”
Before Tani could protest, the detective exited the room.
CHAPTER 22
ELI LEFT THE SUSPECT in the room. He still didn’t know the man’s name, but at least he knew the name of his partner. Keena, he had called her. He opened the door to the room where Ava was questioning the female suspect and motioned her to come out into the hallway.
“You get anything?” he asked.
Ava crossed her arms and glared through the one-way glass at the suspect as she sat at the table. “Not a damn thing. She just sits and stares at the table. Didn’t even say anything when I showed her the picture of Satrick.” She glanced up at Eli and narrowed her eyes. “What the hell are you smiling about? If you got something, just say it.”
“I know her name is Keena,” Eli said, nodding his head. “He knows about Satrick and Lawnce, so I am willing to bet he knows the rest of the killers. You should have seen how he reacted when I mentioned the priests. Whoever they are, they sure have this guy spooked.”
“Charlie better
be able to tie them to some of the murders, or else we’ll have to let them go. Just dressing funny isn’t going to be enough to hold them.”
“I know. And if we let them go we lose our best chance of getting information.”
“What makes you think they’ll be any more forthcoming than Satrick? He hasn’t said one word to the Feds and I doubt he ever will.”
“I don’t know. My gut’s telling me there’s something about these two that’s different.”
“Do you want to take them back to holding or question them some more?” Ava asked.
“Why don’t we put them in a room together and see what happens?”
Ava grinned. “I like the way you think.”
***
Tani smiled in relief. Seeing Keena unharmed and with her guts still inside her body made his knees go weak. Despite the assurances of the dark-skinned man that she was fine, Tani felt better having seen for himself.
The man called Robins left the room. Tani managed to move the second chair next to Keena’s.
“Did they hurt you?” he asked.
She shook her head. “The lady said they have Satrick in custody! Does this mean he will be put to death?”
“I don’t know. These strange people could be capable of anything,” he answered in a low whisper.
“I wonder if Satrick is here. Maybe they would let us see him.”
“This place is so big, with hundreds of rooms, probably like this one. Or maybe he is in a cage like we were earlier today. But I doubt they will let us see him. The Enforcers on our world don’t allow criminals to visit with family or friends.”
“Do they know?” she whispered, eyes widening in alarm.
“The dark-skinned man named Robins asked about the priests and organs. They must know.”
Keena’s shoulders sagged. “Then we committed treason for nothing.”
“Not for nothing. I have a feeling they don’t know as much as they led us to think. If they did, they would be asking about the gateways, the stones, how to close them, wouldn’t they?”
Keena met his eyes and some of the fire returned to their depths. “That’s true. The only thing the lady mentioned was Satrick, asking how I knew him, where the others were. Some of the words she said were strange and I didn’t know what they meant.”
“My detective said much of the same. Only he mentioned priests and organs, so Satrick must have said something to them.”
“What will they do with us?” Keena asked, voice cracking under the strain of trying to keep from crying.
“I don’t know. I wish I knew more about the criminal systems here. The priests should have taught us more of this world. Didn’t they ever think one of us might get caught?”
“They must not have. I don’t think Master Kelhar would send all those Harvesters if they truly thought they would ever get caught.”
“I suppose you’re right.” Tani sighed. “We must decide what to do.”
“What can we do, locked up in here? I don’t even have the gateway stones,” she said miserably.
“I don’t know, but we better think of something, or else the people of this world will continue to die.”
“The man and woman are the ones from my vision. Surely the gods mean for us to tell them the truth?”
Tani shrugged. “I don’t know. But if the gods mean for the dark-skinned man and the pretty woman to help us, surely they would have sent them visions of us?”
“Maybe they cannot hear the voices of our gods,” Keena said, sounding horrified.
“Perhaps not. Maybe that is why the gods need us. To be their voices to these strangers.”
***
Master Kelhar paced the gateway chamber, praying to the gods to bring him inner peace. Ever since Lahnce returned without Satrick, and Tani and Keena had used the gateway to return to Earth, his mind had been whirling with the implications. Lahnce was certain Satrick had been captured by that world’s Enforcers. He had barely gotten away with the precious cargo he carried.
“Shall I return and see if I can find him?” Lahnce offered.
“No, there are probably more Enforcers in the area, and you would only risk being captured,” Kelhar answered.
Word had spread through the monastery of Satrick’s capture and Tani and Keena’s defection. The Harvesters were nervous and many didn’t want to do their duty. Though Kelhar couldn’t blame them, he needed them to continue collecting the organs. He wasn’t ready to let people die when what they needed was so close.
That meant sending Enforcers to bring back the defectors, and to find where Satrick was being held and bring him back as well. He sent one of his attendants to find a particular pair of Enforcers, men who would follow orders and never stop until they completed their mission.
His attendant returned in short order, followed closely by the two men. Both were large and muscular, but the similarities ended there. Cees kept his hair long and tied back with a strip of leather, while Saxon kept his head clean-shaven and oiled so that it shone in the light of the torches. Cees had blue eyes that looked more suited to merriment than enforcing laws. Saxon had dark eyes and a face full of scars.
“You will find these three and bring them back,” Master Kelhar ordered, showing them likenesses of Tani, Keena, and Satrick.
“How are we supposed to find them?” Cees asked.
“I don’t care how you do it. Question the locals, ask the Enforcers of that world, just find them!”
“What if they won’t come back peacefully?”
Master Kelhar turned to face the machinery that powered the gateway. “You know what must be done.”
The Enforcers nodded once before leaving to gather supplies. The longer Tani and Keena remained on that world, the greater the chance they would be discovered, captured even. Each trip through the gateway meant the risk of more Harvesters being found out. If that happened, Kelhar feared the humans would somehow find a way to close it.
Our people would die needlessly.
Master Kelhar walked around the gateway chamber, touching the machines, stroking the knobs and levers. These machines gave him the power to help his people. He didn’t believe the gods would allow them to have such an amazing device if it wasn’t meant to save those who were dying. His duty was to save his own people, to provide the best possible care. He had lost count of the lives he had saved. Every time he saw one of his former patients alive and well, his heart swelled with love and thanks to the gods.
Kelhar knew nothing he did had any effect; it was the divine action of the gods working through him that saved the people. And yet some small part of him felt the pride that came with a job well done. He tried to quash those feelings, knowing them to be sinful, but he couldn’t help it. When he washed the blood off his hands after a delicate surgery, he would often smile and mentally pat himself on the back. He knew it was wrong and always asked for forgiveness, but the emotions ran through him after each operation just the same.
The Enforcers returned, each carrying a pack. One would have the five return stones and both would have an ample supply of food and water. They walked onto the pad as Master Kelhar readied the machine.
“I’m sending you to the exact place they traveled to. Find them as quickly as you can.”
The men nodded and stood waiting for the gateway to activate. They had never traveled before, yet they stood stoic and unafraid. As they disappeared in a flash of light, Kelhar sent prayers to the gods to watch over them in their quest and to bring them and the people they were in search of back where they belonged.
CHAPTER 23
“DID YOU HEAR all that?” Eli asked.
Ava was shaking her head slowly. “If I wasn’t standing right here, I’d never have believed it.”
Eli couldn’t believe that what he heard was real. Oh, it was obvious the pair would know Satrick, but the rest of what they said...he shook his head. Nothing in all his years of being a detective could have prepared him for this. He was glad Ava was standing here with
him. If he had been alone, he might have convinced himself that he had heard wrong.
“Could these two be hallucinating or something?” he asked.
“Do they look like they’re on drugs? No pacing, pupils reactive, voices not slurred. My guess is they’re stone-cold sober. Besides, how would drugs explain them claiming to have seen us in visions?” she gave a little shiver.
“That part creeped you out too, huh?” He rubbed the top of his hair. “You realize what this means, don’t you?” he asked, his voice low, so no one around could hear.
She gave him that sexy half smile. “I was right all along?”
Eli snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s all you gotta say? This can’t possibly be what we think it is. Maybe when they speak of another world, they mean the compound where they live.”
“I suppose so.”
“But you don’t believe it.”
“I want to, believe me, I do. But it doesn’t fit with everything else: their clothing, strange food, being in two places at once.” Her words came faster. “What if we really are dealing with something paranormal here?”
Eli wanted to tell her she was being ridiculous, but he couldn’t make the words come. Tani and Keena spoke of things that didn’t exist on planet Earth. The arresting officers told Eli about the pair acting strangely when they were being placed in the vehicles and when they got into the elevator. The cops thought they were on drugs, but Eli wasn’t so sure.
“Guess this also blows my military theory.”
“If they were in the armed forces, they would have never spoken about stuff like this. People from this world know we have cameras and microphones in the interrogation rooms,” Ava said.
“But since they aren’t from here...” Eli left the sentence hanging.
“Exactly.”
“I wonder if the Feds ever got anything back from Satrick’s psych eval?”
Ava shrugged. “I’ll go find out. You keep an eye on our friends.”
***
“I wonder when those detectives will be back.” Keena asked.
