“Scotch please, Harry,” he said, “and give me a packet of cigarettes, will you?”
Harry eyed him knowingly. “Yuh look like yuh need ’em, mate. Here,” he said, sliding the glass of whiskey across, neat with no ice, and a packet of Peter Stuyvesants with a plastic lighter.
“Thanks, mate.” Curtis swallowed half the whiskey in one go, tore open the cigarettes and lit one, taking a deep drag.
“You takin’ up them things?” Harry said, cocking one eyebrow and looking at Curtis through half closed eyes.
“Yep,” Curtis replied, finally sitting down on a bar stool. His heart felt as if someone had torn it in two and then stomped on his chest. He didn’t care if this signalled a possible heart attack. But he knew his heart was strong, as most Ryxin hearts were - just broken for a while. He didn’t know how long that while was going to be.
“Give us another, Harry,” he said. He could feel the effects of the whiskey moving through his body and thought of it as a medicine.
“How many will it take, muh friend?” Harry had a half smile on his face as if he knew all about the heartaches of the many people who came in to drown it all out.
“Don’t worry, I’m all right. But this stuff is good. Shit, what the hell was I doing? What the hell was I thinking? What kind of a fool am I?”
Harry had the third glass of Scotch in front of Curtis already, who stood and took it down as fast as he could. “I’ll see you, mate,” he said, putting the empty glass down, lighting another cigarette and heading for the door.
“Yuh take care of yuhself. Bloody women - they can mess with yuh head, mate.”
Curtis barely heard what he said. He almost ran to his car and was soon heading for his home, weaving all over the road as he went. There was no reason now to hurry for anything, but something inside him urged him on. He knew he was drunk but was already planning on drinking more whiskey when he got home. That was all he could think of because the pain was still there, sitting right inside his chest like a trapped animal, screaming and fighting. He must keep the animal quiet at all costs. “It’s okay,” he told the animal in his chest, “I’m getting you something, just hold on.”
Curtis woke next morning just after nine. He’d been dreaming that Lion Chrys-Morngel’s jeep rose up out of the sea and floated across the sky until it stopped above Curtis’s house in Tahatika Road. In the dream he’d watched with fascinated horror as it rocked gently in the sky and dripped blood slowly down onto his lawn.
He felt the dampness of perspiration through the pain of a throbbing headache and unfocussed eyes. For a few terrifying seconds he didn’t know where he was. He tried to study the walls but they seemed to be moving. He saw two identical doors to his room. Both were closed. He pulled himself up in the bed but fell back again, groaning.
Then he heard a banging noise. He listened hard. The noise stopped, then in a few seconds started again. He knew now that he was at home in his own room and in his own bed. Last night he’d drunk whiskey, lots of it. He couldn’t remember going to bed.
The hammering continued and he staggered to the front door. It was Siegfried.
“My God, man, what’s happened?” Siegfried said as he stood back and surveyed Curtis.
Curtis held his hand up to his eyes to try and block out the brightness of the sunny morning which affronted him. “Come in,” he managed to articulate and turned back into the shade and coolness of his home. He realised he hadn’t seen Janux. He stumbled to her room and knocked on the door. “Janux, are you in there?”
There was total silence so he opened the door. The bed was neatly made and everything looked normal. As he stood there trying to work out where she could be he remembered Siegfried. But there he was, standing just a few feet behind him.
“Is everything all right?” Siegfried said. “I tried to phone you but there was no answer so I decided to come round and see if you needed any help. Is the woman still coming? I have a room prepared for her.”
“No, she won’t be coming.” Curtis walked past Siegfried to the kitchen, filled the kettle with water and plugged it in. “Coffee?” he asked, motioning for Siegfried to sit down at the kitchen table.
“I have some terrible news,” Siegfried blurted.
Curtis felt his head pounding as if there were someone inside with a hammer, trying to break open his skull. “Tell me what’s happened.”
“It’s Jack - he wants to join the Ryxin breeding programme permanently. He’s been brainwashed by those filthy buggers. They want to use him to father more Ryxin babies with other women now.”
“How old is he?” Curtis asked.
“Only fifteen. His parents will go manic when I have to tell them. They’ll be back in a couple of months.”
“So when did you see Jack? Have they let him out?”
“Yeah, the bastards allowed him leave for a week only. He’s been given the number 72 and he’s already made number 10 pregnant. He told me he likes that lifestyle, and he gets well paid and looked after.”
“I thought it was only females who were roped into that seedy programme long-term.”
“No, apparently there are a few men and they are treated a lot better than the women, he says. They aren’t kept like prisoners the way the women are.”
“Where will he be staying?”
“Somewhere in Pohatu Cove, he tells me. No one can visit unless they’re invited by the committee. It’s a Ryxin breeding house.”
“Yes, I’ve seen it from the outside. Don’t worry, Siegfried. He will have a better life than if he was a Ryxin woman. They’re treated like cows.”
“But spending your life making random women pregnant isn’t a life. I can’t believe Jack wants to do that.”
“Maybe Jack needs a lesson in what’s actually happening to his own people. If he could only see that he could help them, instead of letting himself be used like this. Who’s his boss?”
“There seem to be two of them. One’s called Spryz Frurster and the other one’s Lion something. Apparently they’ve only recently taken over the show. Jack says they’re real men. In his eyes they’re tough and he says they’ve taught him quite a bit about women. Hmph, I remember Spryz Frurster from school days - he was known as a bully then.”
Curtis groaned. His head felt as if it was going to explode.
“Hey, you look sick. Is something wrong?” Siegfried looked concerned.
“I don’t feel too good, as a matter of fact. Look, as I said, I won’t need a room in your house after all. The young lady is staying where she is. She’s quite happy there - or so it seems.”
“Another one talked into the breeding programme?”
“’Fraid so. I thought she wanted out but I was mistaken.”
“I’m sorry, Curtis. There seems to be a blight hanging over this island. Where is it all going to end up? You tell me that.”
“Don’t worry,” Curtis said, not feeling convinced. “They haven’t won yet. I’m not going to allow those ugly curs to have it all their own way. Will you help me, Siegfried? I reckon the more of us the better.”
“I’m with you. Where do we start?”
“Finding Janux Lennan is my first priority. She was here yesterday when I left for the mainland. Now she’s gone.”
“I used to teach her husband, you know,” Siegfried said, looking into the distance.
“That’s why Janux contacted me - to find his killer.”
“But they all said it was an accident.”
“Human police like to find easy answers to Ryxin problems. That’s why I became a PI.”
“My God, I had no idea what was going on. Some Ryxins are going bad. My council tried to warn me but I just couldn’t see it. This island has always been so peaceful.” Siegfried was shaking his head.
“I know things are coming to a head. The Ryxin Breeding Programme committee has been trying to get Janux to join their programme for weeks now. She keeps telling them she has no intention of being made pregnant by one of their committee
members, but they don’t give up easily.”
“What has this got to do with Roscoe’s murder?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I’m convinced it has something to do with it.”
“So who are the committee?” Siegfried leaned forward.
“There are four of them, I believe. The leader is Sly Onyx and the members are Ferdy Xyle, Spryz Frurster and Lion Chrys-Morngel.”
“Like I said, Spryz Frurster was always in trouble for bullying at school. I recall Roscoe Chamonix being one of his victims on more than one occasion.”
“Do you know why?”
“They used to call him a Ryxin bastard. There weren’t many boys who only had one parent on Muritai, and as well as that he didn’t know who his Ryxin father was. That was unusual in those days.”
“Where do we look for Janux?”
“I almost forgot - I saw a woman with a backpack when I was driving here. Just by the turnoff to Ngahere Road. I think it might have been Janux.”
CHAPTER 19
Janux trudged south along Tahatika Road, keeping out of sight behind a belt of macrocarpa trees. She’d heard Curtis come in the night before and had stayed in her room. When she did come out she’d seen him in the kitchen slouched at the table, a glass of whiskey in his hand, the bottle beside him almost empty. Pain and a raw, ravaged blankness on his face told their own story.
Next morning, leaving Curtis to sleep off his hangover, she left the house. Curtis had told her Mistle Onyx had been put to work at the Xlesky Street breeding house but she wanted to go to their property in Ngahere Road and seek clues as to why Roscoe died and at whose hands.
She was sure Curtis was incapable of pursuing Roscoe’s murderer. His involvement in the breeding programme was obviously causing a slow decline into emotional bankruptcy. Janux was convinced he was being used by his Ryxin breeding partner, and once she was carrying their child Curtis would be discarded like a spent ink cartridge. He was so besotted with this woman whom he’d been sleeping with for months and Janux hated seeing what it was doing to him. Until recently she’d never thought of Curtis in terms of love, but not since Roscoe had she felt such passion rising within her.
She was also afraid that soon he would dismiss her as his client because of the intimacy they’d indulged in. But she wasn’t going to rest until Roscoe’s killer had been found and dealt with.
Once at the Onyx house she worked her way round to the back. There was copious native bush but she knew some pure-bred Ryxins had heightened senses and an almost animal instinct for knowing when someone was near.
The manuka trees that flanked the rear of the section were fairly thick and she found a place of concealment where she crouched. From here she could see the side of the house and the yard, where there was an open porch with a long table and several chairs.
Janux watched for about twenty minutes during which nothing happened and there was complete silence. Then she saw the tall shape of Sly Onyx emerge from the back door and sit down on one of the chairs to roll a cigarette and smoke. Every now and then he looked at his watch, his eyes travelling frequently to the road. It soon became obvious who he’d been waiting for.
Two vehicles drove up and parked in front of the porch. The first was a red-and-black ute that expelled two short, muscular men who resembled wrestlers. The other vehicle was a silver, four-wheel-drive jeep from which three men jumped down and strode purposefully onto the porch amidst loud exclamations.
“Brother Onyx, we are here. Tell us what you want of us. We are here to serve.”
And from another, “Cousin, do you have a spare gun? I’ll waste anyone who is responsible.”
And from another whose hair was long and wavy and his form bulky and very tall, “Let me kill your enemy, my friend. With my bare hands gives me the greatest joy.”
Janux saw that his hands, hanging from gorilla arms, were as large as dinner plates and covered in thick black hair. She shuddered.
Sly stood to greet his friends. “Sons of Werven, Tretze, Yanly, Hurzy and Pentezek, we are here for a purpose. As I told you, our friend and brother, Lion Chrys-Morngel, has disappeared. I want you to find him and his vehicle.”
“Brother Onyx,” the tall, wavy-haired man said, “we will find him. Do we have permission to vanish or kill those who may have harmed him?”
“No, brothers, find Lion first. Then find those responsible and bring them here, well trussed so they cannot escape. The committee will decide their fate but I am sure we’ll celebrate as we watch them suffer slowly, very slowly. You can all come and enjoy plenty of food and drink while you are entertained. Believe me, they will regret they were ever born. Our brother Lion is a true, pure-blood Ryxin, like you all, and our law commands that any harm to a pure-blood brings down extremely severe and harsh punishment. Go now and show no mercy. Just reel them in like the slimy fish they are.”
Janux kept very still while Sly went into the house and came back with knives and guns for the five men. He also gave them each a coil of thin nylon rope.
The men left and she waited to see if Sly would also go out hunting for Lion. A half hour went by. Looking carefully around her and back at the house, she knew she had to make a move. Remembering that Mistle had often escaped to Moa Bay through a track at the end of Ngahere Road through the bush, Janux decided she could go the same way. It was risky though, because she would be exposed when she ran across the narrow road to reach the track.
Janux couldn’t work out why Sly hadn’t joined the others. Perhaps he was sleeping. Then her worst fears became a reality and she froze. The door opened and Sly came out, a rifle slung over his shoulder. He wasn’t alone. There was young woman following who looked to be in her twenties, with long, wavy red hair, and a tight-fitting dress of pale blue covering her voluptuous curves.
He strode briskly to his ute and climbed in, starting the engine straight away. The woman had to run to keep up and only just made it into the passenger seat before Sly gunned the engine and took off up the drive and out into Ngahere Road. Janux sighed with relief and made up her mind to see if there might be other people, perhaps servants or a housekeeper, still in the house. After all, his usual servant-wife, was now in a Ryxin breeding house being punished for wanting a bit of sun and sand to make her miserable life a little more joyful. Perhaps it would still be possible to get inside and take a look around.
Obviously Sly had no hesitation in satisfying his own needs in the way he liked best - young, beautiful, easily manipulated women. Janux had heard how the power he had over others was like a kind of intoxication for certain young female Ryxins. They were drawn to Sly and other members of the committee like moths to a candle. Except that the light these men emanated was only power and the force needed to administer it was through their ability to instil abject fear in those they wanted to control. Young women often found out the hard way that they were being used and then discarded like worn-out shoes.
Once the sound of the ute’s engine had died away Janux went to the porch and knocked on the door. She listened hard and then banged her knuckles on the hard wood again. Silence reined. She tried the handle but it didn’t budge. In fact the door didn’t even rattle. It felt impenetrable, so she headed off around the house to the edge of the road. After crouching in the long grass and listening hard she raced across to the other side and kept on running until she reached the edge of the bush that bordered the long stretch of native trees through which she must walk to reach Moa Bay. Only when she could hide herself in the undergrowth did Janux stop and take a careful look behind.
Everything was quiet and still apart from some tuis making their happy warble as they supped nectar from the flowers of a nearby flax bush.
CHAPTER 20
Curtis remembered how terrified he’d been as a child when his father told him that the pure-blood Ryxins had no souls and remained that way even when they mated with Humans. But the children of these unions were born with brand new souls just like Human babies. What’s a soul, Daddy? he�
�d asked. His father had looked thoughtful, then said, It’s a heart, son. Something like having an angel inside.
Curtis pulled down his leather-bound copy of The Origins of the Ryxin Population on Planet Earth. He wanted to research the RBP Committee. If they were soulless, as he suspected, then who were their ancestors? From the 150 Ryxins who’d landed on Earth in 1905, ten men and ten women - probably the youngest, strongest and fittest - were paired off and commanded to mate only with each other. Their changed physical form, also came to fruition on that first Changeover Day, the 18th April in that same year. The men who’d chanted until the changes were made had thought of everything. Or had they?
For example, they had ensured that even if only one parent was Ryxin, all their male babies would be born with telepathic powers, bones that glowed at night, eyes that turned a fiery red when angry, and the gift of levitation. But the patriarchs wanted above all to make sure their men were strong, in fact very strong, and all descendants of The Ten became known for their unusual musculature. Meanwhile the female babies, important as they were for the continuation of the race, only needed a physical trait which would set them apart from Human females. Those with Human blood had their extra digits on either their hands or their feet. The pure-blood women always had them on both feet and hands.
Humans didn’t know immediately that the aliens had quietly and successfully infiltrated the Human race. The 130 Ryxins who were told to go out and find Human partners and produce half-blood children were not seen as different for some time. Of course there were some astute Humans who wondered at the disfigurement of so many female babies. Why was polydactyly occurring so often? Moreover, why were the parents of these babies refusing to allow their extra digits to be tied off so the children could grow up looking normal? They all refused and said their babies were quite okay, thank you, just the way they were. And even after the astounded Human authorities admitted that Ryxins had infiltrated Earth, it took some time and many arguments and votes for them to reach an agreement about what should be done.
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