by T. H. Moore
“The Society you mock had been watching Gabriel for years, and when they decided it was time … well, that meant it was time. They had no interest in me. But Gabriel is my brother, and where he goes, I go. He insisted they bring me along, as well, or choose another candidate.”
“Meu Deus!44 Carlos? Have you and Gabriel been taking turns being president, like a game children play?”
“It’s not as bad as you make it out to be, Elaina,” he argued, but still averted her probing eyes.
“Carlos! Answer me!”
“I have stood in for him, physically, when it was deemed necessary.”
“When is it ever necessary for anyone to impersonate the political leader of a country, Carlos?”
“We’d played each other so many times throughout our lifetime, it was almost second nature. We could turn it on and off whenever we wanted.”
“What you two did was reckless and illegal. Have you ever made decisions in his stay?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Have you ever viewed classified information?” she demanded.
“God no.”
“Now, please tell me the two of you have never done that with me … in our bedroom or elsewhere.”
He looked startled by her question. “No! Never! I swear it! It wasn’t a game to us or the Society. I only sat for him when he was summoned by the Society to secret meetings with their chief council. It was my obligation—”
“Your obligation? Couldn’t you both just say no?”
Carlos’s face grew cold, straight, and stern again. “Elaina, I truly don’t expect you to understand, but as members of the Society, and as twin brothers, we were always obligated to one another. The Society meetings were more important than the daily cabinet meetings with his most trusted advisors. The Society determines the direction of the entire world, and Brazil is a mere cog in the machine. Nobody in their right state of mind rejects the Society unless they wish to be made to disappear.
“Virtually no one knows about our membership, what we are called, our methods, or that we even exist. You are literally one of a handful of non-members to be made knowledgeable of our existence.”
“I refuse to believe it,” Elaina snapped, shaking her head. “This can’t be happening.”
“I know. I struggle, too. But what am I supposed to do? Should I fail my brother and country? Or should I continue to fail my wife, who’s caught in the middle of these lies?”
She remained silent, as though she had no answers for him.
“I’ve had to mourn the loss of my brother and remain riddled with guilt about you,” Carlos continued. “I didn’t realize that someone had discovered that Gabriel and I were trading places, or that you were being sent anonymous pictures to twist your mind.”
“Looks like your Society isn’t as powerful and all-knowing as you give it credit for,” Elaina taunted. But her words seemed to make him ponderous instead of furious.
“Whoever it was didn’t want Gabriel’s vision to be realized. They put all the pieces in play and crafted the perfect scenario where you could commit murder.”
“But, why me?”
“Only they know for sure,” Carlos said earnestly. “But my guess is that they hedged their bets that you’d confront Gabriel and expose the secret. The scandal alone would have been enough to impeach him. I’ve been meeting with the Society, and we’ve come up with a way to protect the legacy Gabriel was forging for Brazil.”
“I’m listening,” Elaina said, though she was still a bit befuddled by all this news being dumped on her at once.
“They used you, but you may also be our salvation. There are two years left in my brother’s term to govern a country on the edge of an economic boom. You, unlike me, understand the environment and the players after managing his campaign. You know his platform and policies as well as anyone among his cabinet. You can help me by guiding my governance as I take his place.”
Elaina shook her head. “Are you insane?”
“Me amour,”45 he said unabashedly, “we’ve always supported each other regardless of the circumstances. You continued to love me, and worked to start a family even when you thought I’d been unfaithful to you. Stand by me now!”
Elaina broke eye contact and remained silent to deliberate the points he had made. After a few minutes of mental gymnastics, she looked at him. “How would you do it?”
“I will continue playing the part of Gabriel,” Carlos said. Then he dove into the details with a glimmer of madness in his eyes. “Since the plastic surgeon has altered your appearance, nobody will suspect you as Elaina. When we return to Brazil, we’ll announce our engagement to marry. You’re intelligent, beautiful, and personable, so the country will love you. But, erring on the side of caution, we’ll keep you behind the scenes as much as possible. To the public, you’ll be my unassuming first lady, but behind closed doors, we’ll usher in my brother’s legacy.”
“You are my husband, but you are not a politician,” Elaina declared. “It’ll never work. But more importantly, just admit that all you want is to continue to preside over Brazil. Admit that it has nothing to do with Gabriel’s legacy or your love of the country.”
“If I did so, I would be lying,” Carlos said. “The only admission I’ll make is of my selfish intentions to finish what my brother began and to bring my wife home. If you’re by my side, I can endure anything. I didn’t have the courage to do what was necessary to prevent his death or your exile, so I owe at least that much to you both.”
Elaina went into deep contemplation. She questioned how she never had gotten the slightest hint that something was afoot, and she marveled at how quickly her initial joy of seeing her husband was swept away by his true deception. Elaina loved him, but Carlos’s revelations bred a doubt that challenged whether the man she loved was really the man who stood before her.
Tears welled in her eyes, and she pulled at the sleeves of her gown to wipe away her tears. Upon doing so, she caught a glimpse of what remained of the discolored bruise that marked one of the scorpion stings. A flood of emotion rolled over her as she wondered at Charles’s whereabouts.
“How did Charles come to play a part in all this?” Elaina asked her husband.
He paused for a moment to consider the question. “I’m not entirely sure,” he admitted. “As perverse as it sounds, I wanted to thank him for bringing you back to me, but he had already gone by the time I arrived a few hours ago.”
Elaina scoffed at the blind praise of the depraved, murderous pedophile she had come to know over the past month. “You speak so graciously of a wicked and soulless man,” she said, clenching her teeth.
“Absolutely!” Carlos said with sincerity. “He brought you back to me, and that’s all that matters right now.”
“Carlos, you’ve made a bargain with the devil.”
“That’s a debt to be paid in the afterlife,” he replied bluntly. “Being right here, right now, in this place and time with you, makes it worth an eternity in hell.”
A tear fell from Elaina’s eye as his words melted her heart. Her new distrust in him faded, and she knew she would learn to forgive him. She believed only a man pure in heart could wield such blind naivety but she also knew she could protect him from himself.
“Tell me how I made it here,” she said as she reached out for his hand.
He nodded. “At first, I was useless. All I could do was grieve. In one fell swoop, I’d lost my brother and my wife. You hadn’t even reached Katingal yet when I received a letter. It simply demanded that I meet the sender, since they knew my secrets.
“I went to the address to meet the author of the letter. When I arrived, I met with a man in obvious disguise who proclaimed his undying love for Brazil. He described how a scandal like this could derail everything Gabriel had done, but he wanted Brazil to continue to thrive despite being governed by an impost
er. The man threatened to expose our secret unless we helped him bring you back from exile. He didn’t explain why, but once I heard him say you would be home, the reason became unimportant to me.”
“Did you know this plan required the participation of WICC’s most wanted fugitive?” Elaina interrupted.
“Not initially. I knew it involved an inmate on the same prison transport as you. It wasn’t until later that I learned it was Charles Gravo. From that moment on, the man I met knew everything about you and Charles down to the minutes and seconds of every day. He had a man on the inside.
“I knew when you entered the headquarters gates, the moment you and Charles were banished to the outback, and when you escaped after killing one of the correctional officers. Apparently, your KPPs were being tracked by K-City’s dedicated satellite.”
Elaina struggled to comprehend the significance of that. In their trek across the outback, for every moment of every day as she and Charles struggled to survive against impossible odds, watchers in air-conditioned rooms and comfortable chairs were monitoring their progress.
“When the warden reported that you had died in K-City, we knew that was a cover-up. We ensured that a vessel would be available to you once you reached Channel Island so we could smuggle you into Indonesia and change your identities. The rest you already know.”
“You think these people who helped you can be trusted?” Elaina fired back. “All that for love of their country? You can’t be that naïve, Carlos.”
Carlos stood up from the bed and looked down at Elaina.
“Ask yourself,” she said. “What are they getting out of this that buys us their loyalty?”
“Charles Gravo goes free,” he responded. “That’s the price I paid for him bringing you back to me. The both of you are ghost now.” Carlos looked at her intensively, sensing her hesitation. “Elaina, I fly back to Brazil tomorrow morning. Come back with me so we can have the family we started before all this madness took place.” Carlos reached down, placing his hand on her stomach.
Elaina recoiled from his soft touch. “Don’t touch me like that!” she snapped. “The last thing I need to be reminded of is how I’m unable to give you a child!” She watched the slightest smile grace Carlos’s lips as he reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out two sealed envelopes.
“The first letter is from Charles, and the second from me,” he explained. “I’ll leave you alone so you can read them in private. Take your time.”
When he leaned in to kiss her tender lips, another tear traced a trail down her cheek. She watched him leave the room. Once the door shut, she ripped open the letter from Charles.
Elaina,
By the time you read this, I’ll have gone. I’m sure by the end of this day, you will have many questions, many of which will go unanswered. Although our time together on Katingal has ended, it will not be our last encounter. We will meet again.
Now that you are free, do not squander the opportunity before you. Death comes for us all in its own time, but we are two of the lucky few who have managed to delay its final summons. This delay will be temporary, so until it comes calling again, never forget that you have endured while cowards died alone. Peace is merely assimilation in disguise!
— Yäbälay
Elaina placed the letter neatly back into its envelope before she picked up the much thicker one from Carlos. She pried it open with her finger and looked inside to find medical forms and a single photograph.
Her memory shot back to the anonymous manila envelope that had sent her life spiraling out of control. With hesitation, she unfolded the forms to discover the letterhead of the fertility clinic she had used for her in vitro procedures. She scanned the documents, confused as to why her husband had chosen to give her this now. It read:
Mrs. Souza,
We are pleased to inform you that your latest round of in vitro insemination was successful. As of the date of this letter, you are four to five weeks pregnant, placing your expected delivery date to be December 5, 2017 . . .
Elaina couldn’t read anymore. She clutched her fists with the form letter inside her palms. Her rage had returned. The child she had been carrying was Carlos’s child, and not the product of the string of rapists who had ravaged her body in K-City. A gambit of emotions swirled in her like a tornado. She had thanked Eloah for terminating her pregnancy in the cave. Guilt washed over her, followed by sorrow and despair.
Tears streamed out of her eyes, and her mouth stretched wide as a silent cry poured from her soul. She collapsed onto her side, clutching her stomach and trying to comfort the pain of losing the child she had longed for. Now that she knew that her wish had been granted and taken away, she wanted to disappear. She wished that she had fought harder to remain in the tube and accept the chemical-induced death alongside the Japanese prisoner. At least that would have spared her this pain.
She pulled herself from off her side and looked around the room through tear-soaked eyes. She dropped the letter to the floor, then crushed the envelope still lying on her lap. The stiff resistance inside the envelope reminded her of the photograph inside. She straightened the envelope out and removed the photograph. She looked at it, discovering that it wasn’t a photograph, but a sonogram.
Her head spun. She hadn’t taken any sonograms following any of her insemination procedures. But there in the top, left-hand corner of the picture was her name, and under it, the name of the hospital to which the machine was registered. In the right-hand corner was the date and time, May 2, 2016, 8:18 a.m.
Elaina scanned the room and found the digital clock hanging on the wall that displayed the date and time. May 2, 2016, 10:23 AM.
“This was taken today?” Elaina asked aloud. She pulled up her hospital gown and pressed against her stomach with her fingers. Tears of joy streamed down her face, rejoicing at the rush of love that filled her the moment the weight of the surprise hit her.
“Car—” Elaina caught herself. “Gabriel!” she shouted.
The door swung open.
“Querida.”
“We’re having a child.”
“Yes, meu amor. We are.”
Elaina looked at her husband, and for a moment, everything that had happened for the last month washed away. All that mattered to her in this moment was the flood of love she was experiencing, knowing the man standing before her would be sharing the child growing inside her. She looked down at her belly again, caressing it.
“Are you okay?” Carlos asked, rushing to her and taking her hand.
“Sim, meu amor. Tudo está perfeito agora. Leve-me para casa.”
“Our driver downstairs is waiting to take us to our plane,” he said with a smile.
“But you didn’t know I would say yes,” Elaina said, smiling wide.
“Ah, querida, meu amor,” Carlos replied, pointing to the heavens. “You belong with me, and I with you. It is not for us to tamper with fate. It is for us to let Eloah’s will be done.”
As Carlos walked out the door of Elaina’s room, she sat perplexed at her husband, who had just recited the same phrase as the beauty queen the moment before Elaina fired a bullet through her eye.
Chapter 33
THE SUN STOOD HIGH AND strong over a small, bustling marketplace in Indonesia. All around, countless merchants were peddling their merchandise while customers haggled for better deals.
At a small makeshift café, Charles Gravo sat alone, sipping his green tea. With his oversized hat, sunglasses, and unassuming attire, he should have blended well with the locals of the city, but most people couldn’t fight the urge to stare at the large bandage covering his nose.
Charles scanned the crowd from side to side until his gaze fell upon a young, petite woman who looked even more out of place than he. He set his cup of tea on a wooden table beside him and raised his hand to gain her attention.
Upon seeing Charl
es, a bright smile graced her face. She traversed the busy marketplace with skill, bouncing around any person that impeded her path and arriving almost out of breath.
“Good seeing you again, Dr. Peña,” Charles said with a subtle hint of affection.
“I thought our paths would never cross again,” she admitted. “I’m so excited to be wrong, though.” She took a seat then fired off a barrage of medical questions at Charles about side effects and intellectual aptitude.
Charles smiled in amusement at her enthusiasm. “Well, there weren’t many deep, intellectual, or stimulating conversations on Katingal.” He then shifted his weight on the wooden stool and crossed his legs, followed by a slight wince that reminded him of his prison hardships.
“Are you in pain?” the doctor dutifully inquired.
“I’m fine now,” Charles said, eager to change the subject. “Did you bring the passport?”
Dr. Peña observed his shoulder slump and watched him cross his arms. When it became apparent that he had no more words to share, she handed him a new passport. The new credentials bore a computer-generated photo of his new face and one of the many aliases he had used to successfully evade capture for many years. He pried at the plastic corners with his thumbnail to test the credibility of the lamination, and nodded in approval.
“So our agreement stands?” she asked.
“You get your lab rat back for six months and not a day longer.”
Dr. Peña pulled her wooden stool closer to Charles and slid her hand under the table while Charles continued to bend and fold pages of the passport to break it in. When her hand grazed his upper thigh and reached for more, he recoiled.