Escape To Survive

by Ryan Gawley

  His suspicions were aroused late one evening when he came home earlier than expected due to a rescheduled meeting and found his penthouse living quarters were empty. In itself that wasn’t unusual as sometimes his wife would visit the wives of other Elites, a routine part of their social arrangements and sometimes Kathy visited friends in the lower levels of their block. Henderson fixed a drink from his cabinet, slightly annoyed at having to perform this menial task for himself and as he replaced the bottle he noticed the level in the bottle was a few drinks worth lower than it should have been. Although he drank heavily he counted his drinks carefully since fine liquor was a rare and expensive indulgence even for him. Kathy would never have dared to touch the liquor cabinet and Claudia was an occasional drinker with a preference for vodka so he wondered who had drunk his scotch? He knew a fresh bottle had been opened only a few days previously and even allowing for occasionally generous measures there should have been more liquid remaining. Henderson cleared it from his head telling himself the stresses of the day and his irritation with his wife were making him consider the ridiculous was in fact probable. He reclined in his favourite chair to read his business reports but couldn’t concentrate on them as thoughts of the scotch bottle wouldn’t leave his mind.

  When his wife returned she appeared flustered having not expected to find him at home. He asked her where she had been and she quickly explained she had been shopping for a dress for the function they were to attend on the following weekend. Henderson’s suspicions were increased when he noticed she was carrying not a single shopping bag. Even if she had not found the dress she wanted he knew his wife would never return from a shopping trip without buying at least something she didn’t need as he was only too aware of how she thoroughly enjoyed spending his money. He chose not to confront her immediately deciding instead to prove what he now knew was a lie. He had no idea at that time just how big a lie he was about to uncover.

  Although his work schedule was typically full Henderson cleared a day of engagements to allow him the time he needed to confirm his fears. He didn’t arrange to have his wife followed by anyone else since he could not suffer the disgrace of others knowing the idyllic family life he portrayed was nothing but a sham. No, if his wife was cheating he would deal with this personally. It would be a chore he would have to endure but his growing anger hardened his resolve and he became more convinced of her guilt even before he had gathered any proof. He left dressed for work as usual and waited in an upmarket cafe at the bottom of a block facing the entrance to his own choosing a window seat where he used an arrangement of condiments and menus to obscure any direct view of his face from the street. If the staff and patrons recognised him and perhaps thought it unusual for the head of the Upper Council to be present none dared to question him.

  To occupy the time Henderson worked from his personal networked tablet with which he was able connect to and control much of his business affairs but he couldn’t concentrate as he glanced up at the entrance to his block with every movement detected in his peripheral vision. As the hours passed his frustration grew and he was becoming convinced his wife had managed to slip out while he used the cafe toilet or that in fact she simply just wasn’t intending on meeting her mystery lover today. Henderson was cursing himself for letting his anger and paranoia overcome his better judgement and leading him to waste a valuable day when he spotted his wife leaving their block so he quickly waved his wrist over a scanner by his table to make a payment using his implanted chip leaving not a single cent for tips. He hurriedly threw on his coat and carefully placed his network tablet in a hand-sewn calf leather case before leaving the cafe and walking after his wife in the direction of the nearest sector barrier gate.

  The sector gates were always manned by two squads of Enforcers but Elites and Dregs passed in both directions since some Elites liked to shop for black market goods in the Dregs sectors and many Dregs were employed as personal assistants, barmen, cleaners, maids, drivers and for other tasks the Elites considered to be menial. So long as a valid ID chip or authorised thumbprint was scanned the Enforcers would allow you to pass unquestioned, except of course that the Dregs were subjected to frequent random security checks and many were “detained” for unspecified offences to ensure discipline of the lower class was maintained.

  It was over a mile walk to the nearest gate and Henderson found it difficult keeping up behind his wife’s casual pace. He was not used to walking for any distance further than from office to car to lift as he travelled from home to work and back again. He supposed Claudia walked so as not to be noticed taking regular high class cab rides back and forth from the Dregs sector. Although his personal driver could be summoned at a moment’s notice he was glad of the opportunity to follow her personally and observe her movements, aware that this was probably the most attention he had paid her since their marriage began. He waited until Claudia was about two hundred yards ahead and tried to discreetly follow. He had no idea what he would do or say if she were to look around and see him, acting without a definite plan was something he almost never did.

  The afternoon was bright and crisp so the Elite sector streets were full of people out browsing the expensive stores looking to find that new imported household gadget or item of clothing. The mass of people provided Henderson some cover but they were not so tightly packed as to mean he would not be seen if indeed she did glance back. Luckily his wife appeared to be in no mood for shopping and walked straight past several of the designer boutiques he knew she favoured. To Henderson this confirmed his notion that he should follow her as he could not imagine his wife passing up any opportunity to add another hanger to her extensive wardrobe.

  When she approached the sector gate she withdrew a slender hand from a soft leather glove and placed her thumb on the scanner, flashing a smile at the hard faced Enforcer who just nodded when the ID scanner confirmed green status and let her pass without a word. Henderson paused for a moment to consider what he would do now knowing that if he followed his wife through the barrier into the Dreg sector the Enforcers would recognise him as an Upper Council member if not in person then certainly when his implant chip was scanned. He had absolute authority to cross the divide as he wished but to do so on foot and unaccompanied would at the very least elicit a series of salutes and snapping to attention from the guards. Claudia would surely be alerted that a senior member of the Council was near meaning she would abandon her meeting.

  He decided he could not risk his wife discovering she was being followed so kept to his own side of the gate instead stopping at a digital sector map attached to the railing nearby and made a pretence of confirming his location and planning a route. As he stood beside the map screen he peered through the railings into the Dreg sector beyond the barrier and watched as Claudia stopped at a hot food stall only fifty metres beyond. Henderson rarely visited the Dreg sectors finding them offensive to his sensibilities and had never paused to observe the daily comings and goings of everyday life in the sewers of his city.

  He correctly assumed the food stand was one of several operating by the gate to provide cheap meals to the Dregs workers who were on their way to or from work in the Elite sector. The stall was busy and the food seemed to be enjoyed by those who ate outside at the plastic seats and tables but the aroma of charred cheap meat and grease made Henderson queasy. He couldn’t understand how his wife had developed a taste for such filth. It was so obvious to him then that he thought himself a fool for not thinking of it immediately. She was waiting here to meet her lover. This way she was in sight of the Enforcers should there be any trouble but before venturing further into the Dregs sector she would have her man to escort her through the troubled streets.

  He realised his luck and knew all he had to do was to wait a short time and his proof would present itself to him. In readiness for what he knew was inevitable he forced himself to contain his anger and channelled his rage into imagining what he would do to this man when he finally got his hands on him. He waited with
his mobile phone discretely pointed at Claudia and set the camera to record video. His wife’s lover must have already been waiting close by for within a few moments he approached her and the two held each other in a long embrace seeming not to care who saw them but they quickly appeared to gather their senses and awkwardly looked about them to check for anyone who may have noticed. Apparently satisfied their secret was intact they walked off together and disappeared into the crowd.

  Although the throng around them paid no attention to the lovers the pair failed to notice the figure watching from the other side of the barrier. Henderson stopped the recording and slid the device back into the inside pocket of his coat. His blood pressure skyrocketed, his face flushed as his chest grew tight and his breathing became laboured so he forced himself to remain where he stood until he had regained control of his body and temper. He couldn’t think, mentally paralysed by the incredible fury burning in his heart. When his emotions had calmed enough he walked a few streets from the barrier to signal his driver to collect him and bring him back to his tower block.

  The luxury sedan screeched around the corner and pulled up to the curb beside Henderson. The driver thought it unusual that his employer had left his building on foot but he knew better than to ask questions. As he held the car door open Henderson climbed into the back of the vehicle without exchanging so much as a glance, seething with the repeating image of what he witnessed as he was quickly transported to the familiar comfort of his personal living quarters high above the city.

  Henderson knew his wife would attempt to explain in some way the encounter he had observed but to him there was to be no forgiveness, no quarter would be given. He would deal with his wife personally then have her lover tracked down, arrested and interrogated by the Enforcers after which this man would not even remember his own name never mind have any recollection of Claudia. He waited until his wife returned home to confront her.

  ***

  Sitting now in his high-rise mansion recalling the events of that terrible day from his favourite chair with only a stiff drink and her memory for comfort he could still hear her gargled scream in his mind, still feel the life draining from her body as he tightened his grip on her throat and throttled the last of her breath from her lungs. As the final light faded from his wife’s eyes he realised what he had done and for the first time in his life Henderson felt a deep sorrow. The feeling didn’t last for more than a moment and was quickly replaced with arrogance, self-righteousness and empowerment. ‘She deserved to die, she had to die. She made me kill her. How could she do this to me knowing what I would do when I found out? And she knew I would find out. Nobody goes behind the back of Victor Henderson, nobody. Not even you Claudia my love,’ he had spoken as he knelt over the lifeless body of his wife.

  Henderson remembered the next few moments of that awful day with painful clarity. In his mind’s eye he could see himself standing over his wife, his body trembling with rage when his attention had been drawn by a noise at the top of the stairs and he had looked up in time to see his teenage daughter run from the balcony to her room, the door slamming, the screams of fear and wailing of disbelief. He realised Kathy had witnessed the murder of her mother and knew with absolute certainty the two women in his life would now be forever dead to him because of the violence he had unleashed in their home.

  Despite threats and occasionally beating her he could never bring himself to grievously harm Kathy but he also could never let her leave. In some sense he loved his daughter despite being absent from most of her life. He needed her and could not allow her to speak of what she had seen. Thinking fast he moved from the living room leaving his wife’s body on the floor and hefted his considerable mass up the stairs to his daughter’s room as quickly as he could manage and threw all his weight against the door splintering the frame and crashed into the room convincing Kathy she would be the next victim of her father’s rampage. She ran to the corner of her room and began throwing perfume bottles, hair brushes, jewellery and anything else she could find desperately trying to keep her father at bay.

  Henderson however was not concerned, fending off the various projectiles and ignoring the bottles of expensive perfume which smashed and ran in pungent streaks against the wall behind him. He frantically searched her room, throwing to the floor drawers full of clothes and tipping out the contents of her handbag until he found what he was looking for. He flipped open her mobile phone and twisted the two halves apart before removing the SIM card and snapping it between his fingers. He lifted a stool from under Kathy’s desk and gripping it by the legs swung it hard into the wall mounted net-screen smashing the laminated ply-glass in a shower of fragments thus ensuring she had no way to communicate with the outside world.

  As he moved to exit her room Kathy ran at him, her eyes stinging with tears, screaming and cursing him. She jumped at him slashing with her long nails, hammering his chest with balled up fists, biting him as though she were a rabid animal. All the years of violence she had silently witnessed now erupted from her and she directed the keen edge of her rage toward her father. The rapid flurry of blows were ineffective and Henderson easily warded off most of her attacks but before he was able to throw her down she managed to claw the nails of her left hand into his scalp leaving deep bleeding tracks across the top of his head.

  Throwing her to the ground he kicked her in the stomach and she creased into a ball holding her abdomen and used her legs to wriggle backwards to the wall. Henderson was almost shocked at what he had done and began shouting as his daughter lay on the floor sobbing uncontrollably.

  ‘Do you see what you made me do? Do you see?’ he roared.

  As quickly as he could Henderson raced to his home office on the opposite side of the balcony. He sat at his massive mahogany desk and swiped his wrist chip to access the network terminal where he logged into his personal building security control panel and locked out access to several other network terminals throughout the house then disabled all but his own access to and from his home. Now nobody could enter or leave unless he permitted it. The maintenance people were security cleared and supervised by his driver when required and he would have to consider cancelling their services to guard his secret but it could wait until morning. For now he had a body to dispose of.

  Henderson knew he had to manage the scene carefully. He ran this city, controlled the country from his boardroom and had powerful friends that could help him but the nature of such men meant they would use any advantage to take his seat as the head the Upper Council. If they knew he had lost control and killed his wife they may challenge his suitability for leadership. He considered how much worse it would be if General Curran learned of this knowing a perceived lack of judgement could be all he needed to force a military takeover. No, this situation was too volatile and he must exercise caution.

  He couldn’t dispose of the body without help but who could he trust? There was only one person with whom he dared to share this secret and that was his driver and bodyguard. Involving anyone else at all would be a huge risk but he accepted it was now a risk he had no choice but to take. With his daughter trapped in the apartment he decided he could deal with her later and anyway she had seemingly withdrawn to some inner shell and appeared to be in shock and thankfully relatively quiet. He placed a call via his office terminal asking his driver to come up to the top floor. When he ended the call Henderson re-enabled the driver’s access allowing him to enter the towering fortress.

  If the driver felt any surprise or shock at seeing the body of his employer’s wife lying still on the floor of the living area he made no outward indication that it bothered him. Henderson had observed on other occasions how this man appeared to have less capability for empathy than even he did and it frightened him to be in the company of someone so clinical.

  Henderson explained that an argument had gotten out of control, it was a tragic accident but he obviously couldn’t have any involvement of the authorities. A large bonus would be in order for assisting with th
e disposal of his wife’s body with no questions asked. The driver simply nodded in agreement making no further issue of it and took a pair of tight fitting black leather gloves from a jacket pocket then pulled them on as Henderson smiled approvingly, almost in awe of the cold manner in which his bodyguard handled the difficult situation.

  Together they bundled the corpse of Claudia Henderson into two suit bags he had taken from his wardrobe, one pulled over her head and shoulders, the other pulled up from her feet and where the bags overlapped secured them by wrapping several layers of duct tape from a roll the driver kept among other tools in the back of the car.

  ‘What about the girl?

  ‘She is not to be harmed, do you understand? I will deal with her myself.’

  The driver just shrugged and said nothing further.

  They planned to use a contact at Central Disposal who for the appropriate cash fee would go for a break at a convenient time allowing discrete disposal of any package. Henderson knew the city’s waste incinerators were in operation twenty-four hours a day and would destroy anything they were fed. While the driver descended in the lift to load the body into the car Henderson went to his office safe and removed a bundle of notes, enough to cover the disposal fee and the initial half of the promised bonus payment.

  With a corpse wrapped in the boot and a large wad of cash in his pocket the driver moved off calmly as if running a normal errand comfortable in the knowledge that he would not be stopped by the Enforcer patrols who would scan the license plates and back off upon confirming the car’s registered owner was a high ranking Upper Council member.

  Meanwhile Henderson had returned to his penthouse feeling calm and in control, he was almost in the clear. From his office he accessed the Central mainframe and arranged and personally approved travel documents for his wife and daughter which would lend credibility to his cover story that they had both travelled together for an extended visit to see Claudia’s family on the continental mainland. Since Henderson was increasingly busy with special projects and now Kathy had finished school it was a good time for them to travel and for mother and daughter to spend some time together. It was a believable explanation since it was common knowledge the Henderson’s had no other family living in the country and no one would care enough to probe any deeper.