by Matthew Samm
The light lessened its assault on her pupils and the world began to refocus. It was more beautiful than she remembered, and her heart fluttered with joy at being outside for the first time in over sixty days, feeling the cool wind mingling with the warm and comforting sunshine.
Happiness flooded her system, despite her misgivings at events in the cave. She couldn’t help it and she didn’t fight her feelings. Just for a moment, she would allow herself to enjoy the world.
Finally, objects remerged in her sight and she saw the police officers. They carried guns, sleek, black and deadly. There were three of them in total, plus another piloting the hovercraft down the hill, its engines still whirring, emitting the familiar thrum that said the craft was ready to go, it just needed the pilot’s command.
Her father released her arm and walked towards the armed men. One of them, the commander, walked forward to greet him. They spoke for a few moments and the commander returned to his position, always remaining slightly further forward than them. As their leader, he must remain slightly extended from the rest of them.
Her father returned to her, gave her a smile and gently led her towards the armed police. As she came closer, Alix noticed that the commander and one of the officers was female, golden hair emerged from under the helmet and spilled over their shoulders. Her father stopped them just in front of the officers and Alix felt her legs sway as they struggled to adapt to the sudden stop in momentum.
She turned, being gently guided by her father. As she did, she looked him in the eyes curiously, not sure what he wanted her to see.
Her father returned a mischievous smile and nodded at her. They faced the cave again and he placed his arm around her shoulders.
From the cave door, Mad Jack, Isaac and scar face emerged. They stopped, the scene facing them emitting a threatening vibe. Armed men facing them, in a line, like a firing squad. The thought dimly barged into Alix’s thoughts. It couldn’t be, could it? They weren’t to be shot here, were they?
Alix pushed the thought from the back of her mind as another cooling breeze wafted her back, feeling delicious.
“Commander,” her father said, not needing to say anything else.
From behind her, the commander uttered a command. It contained just two words, their names, but it was enough. “Alex. Daavic.” Two of the armed police officers stepped forward, moving ahead of Alix and her father.
Alix couldn’t help noticing the similarity of name. One of the police officers, the man or the woman she couldn’t tell, was called ‘Alex’ just like her. She scrutinized what she could see of the female officer. Alix didn’t have golden hair, but it was the same length and their build was almost exact. If Alix dyed her hair the same color, it could be her stepping forward on command and carrying out whatever order was to come next.
“Present arms!” bellowed the commander. Both officers raised their weapons, the stocks slamming into their shoulders with. Trained precision.
Outside the cave, Isaac and scar man took a slight step back, aghast. Mad Jack didn’t move, merely fixing her father with a steely gaze. Loathing stretched between them and it was clear, he would do anything to kill her father now.
Alix’s thoughts of vengeance made themselves known again and her quest to stop Mad Jack became all the more pertinent. Would he feel that he had his revenge by keeping her and Isaac locked up for six weeks after pummeling Isaac to a bloody pulp? It was unlikely. Alix would have to stop him for good.
Her reverie was spoiled by the slight twitch in direction. The guns had been facing all three of the men, but now, they flicked to the side, both guns pointing at scar man. Grim realization seemed to dawn in his face, and he backpedalled, his back thumping off the cave wall. He began to turn, seemingly to try and run.
That was when the gunshots split the sky.
Scarman’s tatty shirt bulged and blood sprayed. The bullets ripped him apart. He was dead before he even hit the ground, but blood continued to spread in a puddle from beneath him, the downhill gradient making the puddle into a brook that flowed with the contours of the land.
Alix stood open-mouthed, before turning her face and burying it in her father’s side. His hand closed around her head, pulling her face against his body as if to shut out the horrors of the world.
She didn’t see it, but Isaac also backpedalled, ending up behind Mad Jack, tripping on a jut of rock and stumbling backwards, falling and landing on his back. Isaacs limbs were just as ungainly as Alix’s.
When she pulled her face out of her father’s clothing, she couldn’t help looking at the corpse. With the exception of the blood, his back looked exactly the same, only completely different. He could be sleeping, were he not outside, but there was no evidence of the terror he’d experienced in those final moments.
The guns swiveled to the remaining two. As always, Mad Jack remained impassive, seemingly immune to fear and looking almost bored by the whole affair.
Isaac remained on the ground, but he gingerly made his way to his feet, using the rock wall to help.
“Commander arrest them both,” her father ordered.
“Dad?” Alix asked, her eyes staring at her father’s face, a look of immature understanding spread across her features. Her father shushed her, and she turned back to the scene.
One of the officers, the woman, stood at a distance, holding her gun on the pair, making sure that any attack by either of them would be greeted with lethal force. The other officer, strode over to Mad Jack first, perhaps expecting an attack. The officer remained out of the firing line as he approached. If there was an attack, he wanted as much space between Mad Jack and the flying bullets as possible.
He walked behind Mad Jack, pushing him forwards slightly as his hand gripped the back of Mad Jack’s shirt. This tiny push helped him gain a little momentum, which he used to swing Mad Jack’s colossal form around and pushed him to ground. He didn’t resist. He knew this was going to happen and nothing good would come from his resistance, except his untimely death.
Mad Jack was a man who knew the value of the perfect strike. One perfect strike could end any contest and completely defeat any opponent. He was not going to waste his life pursuing this dead end. He’d die if he attacked now.
The police officer slapped the metal bracelets onto the back of his wrists, the device gripping and puncturing the skin. He drew both arms behind Mad Jack’s back and tapped a button on his assault gear. Blue light flashed between the laser cuffs. Mad Jack was now secure.
The officer left him lying on the ground and turned his attention to Isaac, who might have run, had he been thinking clearly.
Isaac shuffled backwards as the man approached, stumbling again and collapsing to the ground. The officer simply rolled him over onto his belly, slapped on the bracelet and fired on the lasers.
Both men secure, her father turned to the commander and spoke. “Take them to the craft. Put them in the cells at the back. Keep them separate.”
The commander nodded and she motioned to the two officers. Instantly, they started moving, picking Isaac up and planting him on his feet. Mad Jack stood of his own accord, easily getting to his knees and pressing his massive bulk upright without even a flinch of effort. They were marched past them. Mad Jack passed by with little more than a loathing glance at her father, which still spoke a thousand promises of death and retribution.
Isaac was far less contained. Somewhere between the laser-cuffs firing up and the march past their father, he found his voice. “I hate you!” he screamed at their father. “I hope you die!”
Their father motioned for the officer to pause, stopping Isaac in front of them. Her father brought a backhand up and slapped Isaac across the face. It was worse than being punched. It conveyed disgust and contempt and contained no effort to damage, only to humiliate.
As Isaac’s face snapped to the side and rebounded, a red mark on his cheek began to spread. He spat from a dry throat at their father. There was nothing to spit. All Isaac could offer was the mo
tion.
Their father chuckled to himself. “I have to hand it to you, Isaac, you’ve definitely got some anger in you. That’s good. You take after your father.”
“I’m nothing like you!” screamed Isaac.
“I know you’re not.” Their father paused “Whoever he is, I’m sure he’d be proud.”
Alix’s mouth dropped open. It was all true. Her father did hate Isaac… and she lost her brother all over again.
17
Alix stared in shock at the back of the pilot’s seat. Below her, stood the incarcerated bodies of her brother and her nemesis, both in cages. In the cabin, where she currently sat, atmosphere stank with anger, bemusement and sorrow.
He wasn’t her brother. Had she known that? Was there ever a sneaking suspicion that he wasn’t? She couldn’t think of any, but the more her father’s words patrolled her mind, the more she realized the little giveaways. His physical appearance, first. Isaac was long-limbed and wiry. He was certainly strong, but his body shape didn’t match her father’s. He had their mother’s eyes, but so did she.
“You want to ask me, don’t you?” her father said from beside her. He was holding her hand, despite her not feeling entirely comfortable with it.
Alix didn’t say anything, but he persisted.
“We have time to talk now, Alix, if you want to know the truth. I always said you’d know the truth in time.”
Alix felt a well of unease spring inside her gut. She didn’t want to talk about it, and yet she desperately wanted to talk about it. The contradiction twisted her guts as she tried to compute the morning’s occurrences. Sheer relief at seeing her father again, shock as scar man was gunned down in cold blood and her brother’s arrest, mixed with the revelation that ‘his father would be proud’.
Alix spotted a way to ease herself into the conversation. She was most hurt by her brother’s arrest and having to admit that Isaac had been right about her father. There were things she didn’t know, and he did. How could he know? They could only be suspicions, but whatever they were, they must have been correct. Why else would he arrest her brother?
She decided to ask about his final comment. “Dad?”
“Yes, Alix.”
She paused.
“You can ask, Alix. I’d be very surprised if you didn’t have questions right now.”
“What did you mean that his father would be proud of him?”
Her father smiled to himself and squeezed her hand. “I knew you’d zero in on that, Alix. I thought for sure you’d ask about the guard. You’ve never seen anyone die in person, have you?”
Alix shook her head. She’d seen it on video, but they were usually edited to remove the criminal’s actual death unless you unlocked the parental controls, then you could really see the sentence carried out. She had the option to view every execution bout in gory detail, but she never chose to.
She’d often wondered whether she would if anyone she cared about had been the criminal. When her mother died, she watched Mad Jack’s son meet his fate. His was the first execution bout she’d seen on the video. Scar man’s death was her first foray into real life death.
“You’re so strong, Alix. And I’m proud of your efforts,” her father said, giving her the warm embrace of a father’s encouragement that had been missing for so long. It should have laid right into Alix’s heart but instead, it rang hollow. Where had this been when Isaac needed it?
And then, the revelation played back into her mind. A father’s encouragement couldn’t be given if he wasn’t the father, could it? Alix’s world turned upside down. Nothing made sense anymore. The criticism leveled at her father seemed so clear and yet so murky and she was unsure where his responsibilities lay. She asked him again. “What did you mean?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m not his father. You’re not his sister. Well, you’re his half-sister.”
“We had the same mother?”
“You did and a fine woman she was…at first.”
“What do you mean ‘at first’? mom was wonderful, so was little Alice.”
Her father’s face crossed to a mournful frown. The mention of Alice had brought a hidden pain to the surface. “Yes. Alice was wonderful. My little angel. She was never meant to…she was never meant to end up in this. She was mine and I wanted her for myself!” His face and voice had switched suddenly. They started low and mournful but as he thought of her, it shifted into deep, unsettling anger; a low, simmering boil that betrayed his hidden emotions.
“She was your daughter, dad, just like Isaac is your son,” Alix said.
Her dad threw her hand out of his grasp and span his head around towards her, the anger barely controlled. “She was not my daughter!” he bellowed, shaking Alix’s shoulders. “He is not my son!” He paused while he composed himself, holding her shoulders, but not shaking them anymore. Still, his hands and arms shook with rage and she noticed the conscious effort he was making to control his anger.
“It’s OK, dad,” she said, raising her hands and putting them over his, giving them a little squeeze and letting him know that it would be alright.
He visibly calmed and turned his palms over to take her hands. He squeezed them back. His eyes were red.
She smiled at him. Eventually, anger and disturbance began to fade.
He took a deep breath and continued. “Your…your mother was having an affair…”. He paused again and continued deep breathing.
“mom would never do that,” Alix said, more of a whisper than an outspoken phrase. She felt her dad squeeze her hand too hard and she knew she’d said the wrong thing.
“I saw it with my own eyes, Alix! Do not call me a liar!” The low growl was back, and he found it harder to control this time.
Alix shrank back ever so slightly, removing herself from his hands and sliding just out of reach. He could still touch her, but it would have been uncomfortable to do so. His hands slid to the hovercraft’s armrests. “So, what did you do?”
“What do you think I did, Alix?”
More tests. He couldn’t even answer this simply. “I think you confronted her.”
He smiled, pleased with her answer. “Of course, I did. We cannot let injustice rule, Alix. What your mother was doing was an injustice to me. I waited until I had the proof I needed and then I stopped her in the house. She tried to leave when I mentioned what I knew, but her first words gave her away.”
“What did she say?”
“How? She said ‘how?’ She was shocked that I knew and spoke before she could stop herself. After that, the cat was out of the bag and she could not deny it.”
“Did you have proof? How did you know?”
“It was the usual things you’d imagine, Alix. Missed phone calls and things like that, but really, it was the car outside that gave me my proof.”
“What car?” Alix asked.
“Do you remember Mrs Hamilton?”
She was their neighbor, a wealthy lawyer in New Manchester. She lived in the same exclusive apartment block and looked like their mother. It was the hair. The same color, the same cut. Alix had several times run downstairs to greet her mom when she was younger, only to be greeted by Mrs Hamilton. “Of course, I remember her. She looked like mom.”
“Exactly,” her father whispered. “I’d been seeing a car outside. It was usually parked in the same place. I’d sent the guards out to see who was in it a few times, but whenever they got close, the car drove off. The windows were always blacked out. Each time it did, I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence. I even tried sending someone out in their own clothes, but the car drove off all the same. It was like they could sense who the guards were, and they never got the chance to see inside.”
“So how did Mrs Hamilton come into it?” Alix asked.
Her father smiled. “The person in the car made the same mistake you did.” He paused, letting the answer sink in and seeing if Alix could bring everything together in her mind. “Mrs Hamilton was heading home. I had one of my men just inside the
door watching the car. It was a rental, so we didn’t need the plate. We just needed Mrs Hamilton. She passed the car and the door opened. Whoever was inside tried to get her attention. They wanted Mrs Hamilton to get into the car, but she wouldn’t take any notice of them. She crossed the road as always and headed towards the complex doors. When she did, the car swung around and opened the rear door for her to jump in. I’d told my man to watch for this opportunity. He did. He ran out and tried to get a look inside.” He paused again.
Alix stared at their father, wanting to know more, wanting to know who was in the car. “Well! Who was it?”
“A man. He was calling your mother’s name. When my guard got near him, he drove off with the car door still open. It smashed into another car parked on the side of the road and smashed closed.”
“Did you ever see the car again?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Never again, but we knew the rental place and we hoped the damaged car would be returned. It never was, and there was no one of note in their books. We don’t know who rented the car, but it was almost certainly for someone else.”
“Did you go and see the person who did rent the car?”
Her dad smiled again, pleased that it was a good question. “We did. Missing. Not been seen in days. Whoever it was had been paid to go in there and rent the car. When things didn’t work out…well, let’s just say I don’t think he’ll surface any time soon. We’ll no doubt fish him from the canal in the future.”
“So, that’s how you knew?” she continued, wanting to ask as many questions as she could before the craft landed and she’d lose her chance. While her father was here and while he was trapped, she could probe for answers.
He nodded again. “Of course, it was. What more proof was needed. She confirmed it when she asked ‘how’.”
“Then you confronted her?”
