Isaac stood next to him. Victor didn’t know anything about him, but he must have held some kind of lieutenant position under Miguel. Much to his relief, the discovery of Miguel’s dead body did not appear to upset Isaac at all. When he was contacted, he calmly turned and informed the other two that his authority was now formalized. He didn’t seem joyous or thrilled about the responsibility, just accepting.
Sergei put on another defiant look, “I still think my way would be better.”
Desmond piped up for the first time since the argument started, “If we did something like that, then we would turn exactly into the barbarians the Citizens believe we are.”
Sergei looked surprised. He looked on the verge of speaking, then closed his mouth and frowned. Isaac cut in, “There’s not a whole lot of time, right? We should keep going and leave ethics discussions for later.”
Victor nodded, and the three started moving once more, their growing entourage of armed soldier escorts following quietly behind.
******
Kaylee had collapsed almost as soon she and Malcolm arrived in their destination; like everyone else, she was beyond exhausted after the long day and night. Malcolm had silently followed along behind her as she tried to decide where to go. Her first thought had been to head into the Citizen’s Escape and find a nice huge bed to relax in, but she had been nervous about running into any military presence.
So she had asked Malcolm if he knew another easy way in. Without so much as a grunt of affirmation, he had taken the lead, and she followed close behind. Along the western side of the compound, he brought her to a break in the high wall. It wasn’t as easy of a climb as the one out front, but it was far out of the way of any fighting or troop movements.
With his assistance, she safely scaled and descended down the wall. They moved through the Escape compound, arriving several minutes later at the living quarters. Not terribly long after, Kaylee shoved a large chair in front of the closed door, collapsed on the king-sized four-poster, and slept like the dead. Even the distant, yet still quite loud and concussive, explosion of the daisy-chained claymores failed to stir her from her deep slumber.
Malcolm, having sat on the floor quietly without complaint, jerked his head towards the sound of the blast and narrowed his eyes, but he did not move further. He didn’t sleep. He didn’t need to.
When Kaylee awoke, she felt a little unnerved that Malcolm was sitting cross-legged against the wall, staring at her. She self-consciously crossed her arms and scooted up against the headboard, eyeing him warily as he stared in silence. The events of the last couple of days rushed back through her, which served well to cut through some of the fogginess of sleep. She remembered that, despite how peculiar he was, he had helped her more than once. She owed him her life.
They stared at each other for several moments, not speaking. She figured it was unlikely that he would break the semi-awkward silence. That, and thousands of questions burned on the tip of her tongue.
Feeling lame, she started with one that sounded too obvious in her mind. “Okay… what exactly are you?”
Malcolm finally looked away, a very human gesture of discomfort. He gave a slight shrug and said, with decent clarity despite harsh tones, “Donn’t knnow.”
Kaylee frowned, “How can you not know?”
Malcolm turned and glared, narrowing the slanted white eyes, “Don’t know!” he hissed, causing Kaylee to jump.
She held up her hands, “Okay, fine! Just relax. Jeez.”
He kept his gaze turned away, and she watched him in silence for a while. He didn’t look at her; he seemed lost in thought.
Finally she broke the silence again, “Do you know how old you are?”
“No.”
“Do you remember where did you come from?”
He looked over at her again, not unkindly this time, “Hkere.” His eyes narrowed, “…annd nott hkere.”
Kaylee was confused, “What?”
Malcolm shook his head, “Donn’t knoww. M- Mem…” His eyes scrunched together; it almost looked comical. “Mmemor…”
“Memory?” Kaylee asked, trying to be helpful.
His eyes widened in recognition and he nodded. “Mmemory is… is…” The confused look returned. He held both of his hands out in front of his body, whirling them around each other in a rapid motion.
“Your memories are scrambled?”
Malcolm nodded again. “Wwoke upp. Colld. Hkurt.”
Kaylee asked, “Do you remember when?”
Malcolm looked up, thinking, “No.”
Did he sleep last night? She wondered, noting him in the same cross-legged position he had taken several hours earlier. If he did, he has some hellish muscle cramps now. It made her wonder how keen his sense of time passage was. Several hours of me sleeping seems like nothing to me. Maybe it’s the same for him when nothings happening.
A stray thought occurred. She tried to squelch it, ignoring the absurdity. Yet the memory of the now-silly stories from childhood and beyond kept pecking at her resistance. She hesitated, letting the strange and absurd question rest on the tip of her tongue. The inquiry was not to be denied, and she blurted, “Are you an alien?”
Malcolm cocked his head at her.
Having let loose the reins, she kept going, “Well, you’re really strong and fast. You’re bulletproof. You can’t really talk, and you have blue skin.” She turned her palms upwards in a ‘well?’ kind of gesture.
Malcolm gave another of his little shrugs, “Donn’t knnoww. Do yyouu?”
She scooted to the edge of the bed and jumped lightly to her feet. She crouched down, leveling her face with his. “Will you show me?” she asked.
Malcolm twitched, and a low growl escaped his throat. She stood up and walked around to the other side of the bed. She turned back, folding her arms, “Well?”
He stood up, slowly. He looked at her, put one hand up and removed his hat. The wild, matted shock of white hair came free and tumbled out, framing his still-clothed face. Kaylee could see dark blue-gray skin on his forehead and temples. Her mouth involuntarily fell open as she saw his bulbous ocular bone structure.
Kaylee felt a shiver course through her body as he unwrapped the scarves around his face. She whispered, “Oh my God.” The first thing she saw was the upturned, nearly flat state of his slitted nasal cavity, very skull-like. She saw his face taper down to the smallish jaw, which, although much better than before, was still hanging from an improper angle: not healthy-looking for any species.
Kaylee had an urge to move forward and run her hand across that skin. She imagined that it would feel like some combination of leather and velvet, but she was too nervous to move any closer. True to his nature, Malcolm said very little, and his slanted eyes glowed faintly in the darkness of the room.
“You really aren’t human…” She whispered.
The eyes narrowed. Barely moving the still-injured jaw, he hissed, “Donn’t thhinnk ssso …”
There was a resounding crash on the floor above, and both Kaylee and Malcolm jerked their heads upward in response. Malcolm let out a low growl once more and hastily rewrapped his face. After tucking the bright white hair away underneath the hat, Malcolm once again looked like the strange figure Kaylee had seen in the alleyway only days before.
He yanked the chair blocking the door aside and made as if to investigate, but Kaylee moved forward and grabbed his shoulder. “Wait,” she said. “It’s probably just some junkie looking for some leftover pain meds or something. Don’t worry about it.”
Malcolm relaxed and stayed but positioned himself near the door. Kaylee said, “We should get out of here, I need to talk to Rick about some stuff.” She pulled out the small radio he had given her the night before and pressed the switch.
“Rick? Rick, are you there?” She waited a moment, imagining Rick fumbling around, grabbing at his radio and complaining loudly.
Through the speaker, she heard, “…the goddamn thing. This is Rick,” he was half-talkin
g to someone else, “Hey! I’m gonna take five and answer this! Hello? Someone there?”
“So much for the all clear signal,” she said, chiding.
“Kaylee! Hey, sorry about that. Been busy.” She could hear him breathing hard on the other line.
“Yeah, fine. You still busy right now?” she asked.
“Just working on clean-up. It’s a still a pretty big mess here. I’d recommend staying clear; it’s not a pretty sight.” He put a large emphasis on ‘not.’
“You in Purgatory right now?”
“Yeah, but seriously, don’t come here.” He said adamantly.
She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, fine, but I do need to tell you something that I found out when I was with Miguel. Trust me; you’re going to like it. How about you meet me in the little central park in five minutes?”
There was surprise in his voice. “Wait, you’re already here?”
She laughed, “Yeah, you gotta try the beds in the living quarters sometime; they’re great.”
There was chuckle on the other end. “Is that an invitation?”
Kaylee gave a sly smile, “See you in five.” She switched her radio off.
She noticed that she felt really quite hungry. Even though she’d practically gorged herself the night before during her dinner with Miguel, it had been near to twenty hours prior. She looked over at Malcolm, who hadn’t moved from the door. She shook her head. She wasn’t surprised that he didn’t know how old he was or how long he’d been in down below. He seems to be able to sit quietly for hours without noticing it, she thought.
“You hungry?” she asked him.
He looked over at her, and tilted his head, as if in thought. “No,” he finally said.
She raised an eyebrow. “Okay, whatever.” She switched the radio back on. “Hey, Rick, bring me something to eat, I’m starved.”
“Okay, Kaylee,” she heard in response.
She walked over to the door. “All right, Malcolm, let’s get going.”
Silently, he followed her out of the room, eyes sweeping back and forth for any movement or threat. Seeing none, he relaxed slightly and continued behind her, still watching.
A few minutes later, Kaylee was walking across the small park. It remained dark, looking exactly the same as it had days earlier when she had retrieved the can of peaches. Hmmm… she thought to herself, what actually happened to those peaches? Before she could remember where they ended up, she saw a figure that she quickly identified as Rick. A distance behind him she could see the silhouettes of some men digging and others tossing things into the holes. Doesn’t take much to figure out what they’re doing, she thought with a shudder.
She and Malcolm walked right up to Rick. She scowled, not seeing him carrying anything. He rolled his eyes, grinned and pulled a small foil packet out of his pocket, passing it to her. Her eyes light up and she snatched it from him, tearing it open and scarfing down a handful of the trail mix.
“Sorry I didn’t bring more, it’s all I had with me.” Rick said, raising an eyebrow at her devouring exuberance.
“That’s okay,” she said through a mouthful of food. She swallowed it. “It’ll be fine for now.” She continued eating noisily.
Rick eyed Malcolm, whose huge presence behind Kaylee made him a little nervous. His hunched silence and glowing gaze did very little to assuage this feeling. Rick gave him a curt nod, which was not returned.
“Well?” He finally said, as Kaylee tipped the bag upside down and dropped the last of the crumbs of the package into her mouth.
She looked over at him, chewing noisily. A piece of food ended up in her windpipe and she choked. She doubled over, coughing for a while and gasping for breath. When she looked up Rick was kneeling next to her, looking concerned.
“I’m fine,” she said, red-faced and strained.
“Well,” he said, standing up and shaking his head, “that’s why you shouldn’t eat so fast.”
She straightened up, coughed once more, and took a deep breath. “Shut up.” Rick smirked at the retort. She continued, “Anyway, I brought you here because I have very important information for you that I found out when I was captive, but if you’d rather just make jokes…”
Rick held up his hands in a surrendering gesture, “All right, all right. Go ahead.”
“Okay, so Miguel, who was so unbelievably boring, took me around to show off a bunch of his accomplishments. One of these was in that bondage club, The Dungeon. In one of the cells he had a Citizen chained up.”
Rick narrowed his eyes. “Really?”
Kaylee nodded, “Yeah, the guy had some weird idea about hunting people, so he decided to come down here to try it. Well, he ended up getting captured, and Miguel had him tortured.” She thought about it. “He’s probably still there, actually.”
Rick twirled his hands in a ‘go on’ sort of gesture.
“Right, well, the guy had busted through a sealed off section of the layer between us and them. Here’s the best part,” she licked her lips, “it’s still open.”
Rick’s mouth hung open, “Are you serious? Where is it?”
“Oh yeah. Mid-southern section, high-rise condos. Not exactly sure where, but it shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
Rick ran a hand through his hair, “Wow… this is… this great news! I gotta tell Victor about this. Why don’t you and,” he gestured at Malcolm who passively watched the exchange, “the big guy there head down that way and see if you can’t find the opening? It’s bound to be less dangerous than you’re last job.”
Kaylee thought about it. Finally, she nodded. “Sure, we can do that. Just let me get some stuff together and I’ll head out.”
“Good, I’ll radio back to the Highland and let them know you’re coming, head back that way first, and I’ll make sure they get supplies ready for you.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve really been valuable to us Kaylee, we’re really grateful for all you’ve done.”
Kaylee slipped out his grasp with a coy smile, “Yeah, I bet you are.”
Rick looked confused and jerked his hand back, “Well, uh. I didn’t mean it like that, uh… That is to say, that you’ve, uhm…” he trailed off. He squeezed his eyes shut with embarrassment and rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand. “Can you find your way back out? Uh, without going this way?” he waved his hand towards Purgatory.
Kaylee laughed at his discomfort, and walked away from him. “No problem. I’ll be in touch!” She called out, over her shoulder.
Rick let out a sigh and watched her go, Malcolm trailing behind her. He shook his head and walked back over towards the building, passing the other men tossing bodies and pieces into the large grave. He winced, realizing that there was still a lot of mess to clean up. Why did I volunteer to do this again?
Chapter 27: All Good Things…
Rather than his usual passive nature, Gottfried wore a heavy scowl as he passed outside of the Institute compound. He walked across the synthetic breed of grass, very realistic with even a couple inches of dirt beneath it. The evening sun flickered with the sterilization field, bathing the park in a soft orange glow, which he didn’t notice. It wasn’t something he paid attention to, but, then again, he didn’t often find himself going for an evening walk in the park.
The investigation of the initial insertion of soldiers sent to down below represented something like the fourth trip that the Gottfried had made to the Old Haven. He felt, an opinion shared by most of the Inquisitors, a distaste for traveling in that region, so he avoided it whenever possible.
Because of it, he also didn’t often pass down the hard ceramic steps cut into the ground on either side of the Institute, a few hundred feet from it, facing away from the rest of the city. Through a double door and past a guard wielding an assault rifle, he walked down a couple of hallways with a couple of corners, arriving in a rectangular room directly beneath the Institute’s main lobby.
Straight ahead of him, he saw the hallway that lead to the other bunker entran
ce in a very symmetrical fashion. On his left, in the room, was two quarter-circle desks in each corner at the far end. One man sat behind each desk. He gave them a nod, which they silently returned.
Between the two was a fairly large freight elevator, the very one that went directly down into the Citizen’s Escape. This, however, was not the subject of his visit. Recent radio communications suggested that the elevator was malfunctioning anyway. Alpha claimed to be working on it, but it was taking time and their techs were having trouble with it. Gottfried cursed the gross incompetence of the military force for not having the foresight to bring someone who was familiar with the engineering of their primary exit point. However, at the moment, he was more concerned with the numerous other delays.
Opposite from the elevator, at the other end of the room, laid a set of double doors; he pushed them open and walked inside. A large room, used mostly for storage, had a few tables set up. On the tables lay various radio equipment and a bundle of wiring and cable that boosted their signal through the distance and layers of concrete. All of the gear put together allowed them to communicate with Alpha Base. A few soldiers meandered around the room, drinking coffee from styrofoam cups. The operator on duty sat with his feet propped up next to the equipment and the headset around his neck.
When Gottfried entered the room, all of them looked over at him and quickly composed themselves to appear as though they were doing some kind of work. He ignored their disheveled appearance and cut right to it, “When was the last communication from Alpha Base?”
The man sitting at the table, feet now planted firmly on the ground and headset in place, checked his watch and answered, “That would be about… forty-five minutes ago, Inquisitor.”
“What was their status report?”
The soldier looked at a clipboard with something scrawled on it. “Uh, it looks like they sent a very brief report…” he flipped through a couple of pages, “Ah. They reported running into other faction soldiers a little under three hours ago at four o’clock this afternoon. The latest information is that they have tracked them back to their HQ and are in process of cleaning it out.”
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