Children of the Kradle (Trilogy Book 1)

by Alexa Hamilton

  Kilt cleared his throat and widened his smile. “Well hello there! Nice threads. Didn’t expect to see you in uniform.”

  “Nice to see you too.” Eli leaned against the steel frame and wrapped his fingers around one of the bars. Next to Kilt’s thick, leathery hands, his own looked pale and bony. Eli tucked them under his arms. He glanced briefly at Darby who seemed to be taking great interest in this exchange. Then he turned back to Kilt, the two of them eyeing one other. Eli cut to the chase. “Trespassing? Seriously?”

  Kilt shrugged. “Wanted to pay you a visit buddy. Did I get your attention?”

  Eli rolled his eyes. “I’m pretty certain you got the attention of all my colleagues. I’ll be hearing about this from my boss.”

  “Villus?”

  “He’s the one.” Eli rubbed his bloodshot eyes with his thumb and fingers. “Wait a minute. How do you know Villus?”

  Kilt smiled. “How is it the old saying goes? ‘That’s for me to know and you to find out?’”

  Eli narrowed his eyes. “Alright. Whatever. Let’s drop the pleasantries. What do you want? I know you didn’t get arrested by accident.”

  “Well yee-haw! He’s smarter than he looks folks.” He laughed and turned to Darby who was grinning like a fool. Kilt shot him a dirty look before turning back to Eli. “Listen,” he said. “I just came here to see if you wanted to be friends again.” Kilt offered his hand through the bars as if to seal the deal.

  Was this supposed to be a joke? He kept his arms crossed stiffly against his body. “Kilt, I’m a busy man. If you only brought me here to play games then maybe I should leave. And,” he knocked on the steel bars, “you can figure how to get out of here yourself.” He began to walk away as if making good on his promise.

  Kilt followed beside him, the bars slicing across his animated eyes. “Now I know you don’t mean that. You’re just sore that during our escape, Mevia left with me instead of you.”

  Something snapped inside Eli. His mind flashed to an image of him reaching through the bars, grabbing Kilt’s throat, and squeezing until those pretty white teeth popped out. “Yeah, so what happened then, Kilt?” he spat. “Why did you leave her alone out there?”

  “I didn’t. She got lost. It was dark. I tried to find her.”

  “Well the CorMand infantry didn’t seem to have any trouble.” He clenched his fist picturing how Kilt’s Brillo pad throat would feel in his hand, but then he pushed the thought away. He’s the one stuck here. You can walk away anytime. In fact…

  “You know what? Screw this. This conversation is over.” He then addressed Darby, “Enjoy your cell mate.” He turned and calmly walked toward the exit.

  “Oh come on now,” Kilt protested. “Don’t leave in a huff. We were just starting to get reacquainted.”

  “Good-bye Kilt.” Then, just before he got to the door, Kilt said something else.

  “I found her. I know where she is.”

  Eli froze.

  Impossible. He had been searching for Mevia ever since she won the Demo. How could some computer illiterate farm hand have found her?

  “I can show you,” said Kilt.

  Eli turned his head to the side. “How?”

  “Tracking device.”

  It made a sliver of sense, but he could still be lying. Eli went back and leaned in to the cell bars, speaking softly. “How would she get a tracking device?”

  “Because I passed it to her at the boat. After I heard about her unfortunate capture and then her very fortunate victory over the Demos, I went to the docks and paid her a visit.”

  Eli grasped the bars as if they were supporting him. “Is she ok?”

  Kilt’s face softened. “I assume so since they got the device working.”

  “They?”

  “She and my brother, James.”

  Eli frowned. “You have a brother on the island? That explains a lot.” Eli bit his thumb nail and looked away. His brain was moving in rapid fire synapses. Kilt was here for a reason. “You need me for something. Otherwise you would just go get them yourself.”

  “You’re always one step ahead there genius. That’s why I like you.”

  “What is it then?”

  Kilt lowered his voice. “I need to connect my GPS device to one of your super computers.”

  “Why?”

  “To find their exact location. Right now, all I can do is use my device to give them coordinates to come to me, but I need to find them.”

  “In case they’re stuck and can’t get to us.”

  “Exactly.”

  Eli bit his thumb again. Could it…yes this could work. “I know a program that could help us.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  “Where’s your device now?”

  “Hidden.”

  “Wise.”

  “No offense buddy but I don’t trust you.”

  “Wise.”

  “Thank you.”

  Eli paced back and forth. This could be a trick. That was not outside the realm of possibilities, but what could he do? He could just tell Kilt to hit the pavement and forget it, but then where would that leave him? If he was being honest with himself, the search for Mevia was not going well. He was stuck and it was driving him crazy. The ugly truth was he needed Kilt, but if they were going to work together, he was going to have to figure out a way to immerse this grizzly goon among proper CorMand society without calling too much attention to himself, especially from Villus.

  He eyed Kilt standing there in his ratty jacket and soot stained pants. Was he seriously considering bailing out the guy who had manipulated Mevia away from him? Damn it, he supposed so.

  Eli looked up and saw Darby watching him with his stupid rich kid haircut. “What the hell are you looking at?” Eli snapped.

  Darby lifted his finger like he was going to make well thought out point, but seemed to decide against it and plopped down on the cot.

  Eli went back to Kilt. “Alright. I’ll get you out of here and get you a guest pass to stay with me.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Tomorrow.”

  Kilt’s eyebrows flickered. “Tomorrow?”

  Eli didn’t reply.

  “You mean to tell me that you want me to stay the night here,” Kilt made a circle with his index finger, “when I could be scot free in the next ten minutes?”

  Eli shook his head. “Look, I’m not trying to be cruel. It’s just that…well, I’ve been involved in a few flag raising…incidents here lately, and I don’t want to do anything to call attention to myself.”

  Kilt gripped the cell bars. “Aw c’mon man! Don’t be ridiculous. I traveled a long way to see you. I was looking forward to having a hot shower tonight.”

  Eli rolled his eyes. “Oh please. Don’t act like this is a social visit. Look it’s just one night. Maybe two.”

  “Two?!” Kilt turned his back to Eli and began pacing, muttering to himself. Then abruptly he stopped as if remembering something. He turned to Eli and smiled. “Well, that’s ok then I guess. I’m sure my jerky will keep all right, and my potatoes…”

  Eli’s stomach flipped. He pushed his face in between the bars. “Wait, did you say jerky? Did you bring jerky here with you….like…from the woods?”

  Kilt nodded. “Fresh potatoes too. Homegrown.”

  Potatoes and jerky? Surely Kilt would still share his food even if Eli left him here for a couple of days. Hmm. Better to not risk it. “So, uh,” Eli tried to sound casual, “how much jerky did you bring?”

  Kilt leaned in and grinned. “Pounds.”

  Eli didn’t realize he was holding his stomach until Kilt looked down at his hand. He immediately dropped it. “Ok,” Eli said. “I’ll get the paperwork started.”

  Kilt shrugged as if he didn’t care one way or the other, but Eli knew he was feeling triumphant.

  Oh well, he’d let Kilt have his victory. Tonight, that cotton-picker was going to pay him back the bail money in the most delectable of currencies: meat and potatoes.
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  Chapter 47

  Eli paid his bail, and Kilt was handed a yellow slip of paper, which he signed, but then upon leaving, tossed into the trash.

  “Are you crazy?” Eli asked. “That’s a court order.”

  Kilt gave him a look. “Oh so, you’re a regular law abiding citizen now are you?”

  Eli rolled his eyes, but he had to admit, the man had a point. Eli was lawful like Kilt was refined. “Fine,” he said. “Let’s just go to my apartment.” He checked his watched, his heart sinking. 5:03—rush hour. “The halls will be packed,” he muttered.

  As they exited the automatic doors and went onto the main concourse, Eli watched as Kilt—an unbathed survivalist—walked directly through the ultra-modern market square with its array of laser lights, crystal glass, and sleek bio-fitted fashions. This was going to be harder than he thought.

  Kilt stopped on the clouded glass walkway, standing shoulder length apart in his muddy boots. He stood out like an audacious excrement on a landscaped fairway.

  From his blood spattered pants—who or what’s blood, Eli did not want to know—the worn jacket patched with bits of grey animal fur, to the rat’s nest of a beard, upstaged only by his tangled hair, Kilt was drawing stares like a circus spectacle. But what was really interesting was his reaction. He was smiling. Not the ignorant grin of a rube, thinking these people were his friends. It was more of a horse laugh, as though he was expecting this reaction, and was relishing every moment.

  Eli nudged Kilt with his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

  They walked with the flow of the crowd. Eli couldn’t stop looking back and forth between the commuters and Kilt. He was obviously fascinated by the surroundings, but was keeping himself reserved, his head straight forward, leading with his chin, while his eyes darted from side to side.

  Eli bumped shoulders with a man engrossed in his handheld. “They really need to do something about this rush hour,” he muttered.

  “Huh?”

  “There’s no order. Everyone just walks wherever they feel like it.” he stepped to the side and then angled his body between a couple.

  “Hm. Doesn’t seem too bad.”

  That’s when Eli noticed: Kilt wasn’t dodging traffic. The seas were parting before his commanding presence, and their overflow was colliding into Eli.

  Kilt was wearing a cheeky smile. “This place must be throwing you off your game, buddy.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Kilt looked over his shoulder, grinning. “Why, we just passed two of the most gorgeous blondes I’d ever seen and you didn’t even stop and window shop.”

  “Really?” Eli smiled, but did not turn around. “What did they look like?”

  “Couple of VV’s. Straight tens. Flowing blonde hair, green eyes, bodies so tight that if they stood in a breeze they’d twang.”

  “Did they have perfect teeth too?”

  “Well, yeah, but I wasn’t paying much attention to their canines.”

  “And what about cup size? 36B breasts, would you say?”

  Kilt slowed and looked at him. “Well, I’m no bra salesmen, but, yeah. I guess they had some healthy B’s.”

  Eli was grinning now, feeling Kilt eyeballing him.

  “What?” Kilt asked, “Don’t tell me you know those girls.”

  Eli chuckled and shook his head. “No. No, I can’t say that I do.” He put his hand on Kilt’s shoulder and turned him toward a group of women gathering outside a boutique. “Did they look a little like them?”

  Kilt’s jaw hit the floor.

  They oggled the girls, six of them, giggling in a pack, each as indistinguishable as septuplets: hair, eyes, nose, bone structure, height and weight, all identical. They unanimously turned and began walking toward Eli and Kilt.

  “Impossible,” Kilt whispered as the girls passed, separating, three on one side and three on the other as if Eli and Kilt were nothing but inanimate obstacles. “Sisters?” He asked, unabashedly staring.

  “Cousins most likely,” Eli replied. They watched them walk away, their milky, blunt-cut hair, bouncing an inch above their perfect rear-ends. “They are either Dunder’s or Scaffold’s.”

  “Huh?” Kilt finally pulled his eyes away from the view.

  “They’re the wealthiest, oldest families in the Kradle. Around here they’re considered royalty. All genetically predesigned in a fertility lab. Those stunning sirens,” Eli pointed, “are what their families’ consider to be the standard of beauty.”

  Kilt shook his head, his eyebrows raised as if a bomb went off in front of his face. “Bio-chicks.”

  Eli elbowed him. “Keep admiring from afar, because that’s about as close as you will ever get.”

  “Your confidence is shallow, my friend.”

  Eli shrugged. “Unless you happen to be a long lost son or relative of one of their uncles.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Eli was enjoying himself. “Well when I said the Dunder’s and Scaffold’s were like royalty, I was speaking in every sense of the word.” Eli paused for dramatic effect. “They only marry their own family members. Usually second or third cousins, but many times they go all the way to first.”

  Kilt cringed. “No kidding. And that’s legal?”

  Eli nodded. “They’re all genetically pre-programmed, petri dish fetuses as they say. So, deformities aren’t a problem. Their marriages keep the peace among two powerful, competitive family members so I suppose the arrangement makes everyone happy.”

  “Interesting,” Kilt said. They continued on their way through the parting crowd. “Well, they’re still the best looking group of test-tube babies I’ve ever seen.”

  Eli chuckled. “You should see the men.”

  “No thank-you.”

  They ambled past the boutiques and trinket shops, going beyond the food courts and candy stores, and around the kiosks selling magic sex pills (Ultimate Satisfaction Guaranteeeed!).

  Suddenly Kilt stopped in front of a shiny store with loud music pumping from the teaspoon sized speakers embedded in the door frame. Kilt peered into the windows with a glow of fascination in his eyes. “Can we stop in here?”

  “Really?” Eli read the sign. Et-i-Kate Salon and Spa. He looked through the glass at the rows of swivel chairs, black and leathery, filled with women who appeared to be wearing a strange variety of head gear, their skulls piled, tied and electrified. A haze of toxins wafted from inside, a mixture of chemical fumes and fruity perfumes creating a not entirely unpleasant tonic in the air. “But,” he said, “this is a women’s hair salon.”

  Kilt was already engaged, his mouth cocked in an ironic smile. He took a step closer and touched the glass. “Hey!” He snatched his hand back as his fingers were attacked by the Tango-Clean robot. The Tango, which was shaped like a computer screen, was attached to the glass and its only function was to sail across the windows and eradicate smears.

  Eli laughed.

  Kilt shrugged him off. “There’s men in there. See?” He pointed, careful not to touch this time.

  “Them?” Eli stared at the narrow shouldered ballerina like men dressed in all black. One was getting a manicure while the other was receiving a treatment that apparently required his body to be hooked up to a torture device.

  “Yeah.” Kilt stroked his beard. “You know, I could use a good hose down.”

  Eli gestured toward the door. “Sure.” Better their couches than his. Besides, a good grooming before parading around CorMand might be smart. He followed Kilt inside, up to the receptionist desk where a bug-eyed zebra-haired girl checked them in.

  “You’ll be with Antonio,” she said listlessly.

  “Great!”

  Antonio appeared from around the corner wearing a pair of fitted, synthetic black pants with a billowing, over-sized white silk shirt. Beaded jewelry bounced against his hairless chest. “Well, hello.” He stretched his fat-injected lips into a smile, revealing a row of neon pink veneers. Diamonds twinkled f
rom his two front teeth.

  Eli was used to the trend, but Kilt was staring and fidgeting with his own teeth. “Um, hi.”

  “Welcome to Et-i-Kate.”

  “Thanks,” Kilt replied genuinely. “It’s my very first time.”

  Antonio didn’t miss a beat. “You don’t say! Well then, a very special first timer’s welcome to you, handsome. We’ll just have to give you the star treatment now won’t we?”

  He lead them into the salon and shouted over the music that Eli could take a seat in the waiting section. As Eli sank into the soft leather, he suddenly realized how tired he was. He exhaled, his eyes growing heavy, but with all the lights and music, he would be hard pressed to fall asleep in here.

  A kitten-like woman trotted by, her blonde hair swirling around her china doll head, framing her red flower petal lips. Dainty and poised in her skin tight synthetic white ensemble, she stopped and posed before Eli.

  “Hey handsome.” She winked and half-smiled. “Care to mingle?” She turned in a circle then blew a kiss. “Standard rates plus tip.”

  Eli smiled politely. “I’m fine. Thanks though.”

  She stuck out her lip and pouted like a bad actress. “Ok, but shout if you change your mind. That is, if I’m not already taken.” She winked and then strutted off toward another potential customer, a woman lounging in a chair.

  Eli picked up one of the tablets from the pile, turned it on and scanned the news blogs. Nothing new except a report on the comm tower bombing, but he had already heard about that at work. The general media was always slow to report the happenings, but he supposed it was the price they paid for security.

  He looked over at Kilt sitting in front of a mirror with a smock listening to Antonio explain something. Then Eli opened a game application and began to kill time bashing Eurasian drones. The next time he glanced up he saw the voluptuous tail end of the kitten girl following the other woman into the back room.