The Cost of Being Special (Survival of the Fittest Book 1)

by Shawn Keys

  Yvette reminded him, “Everyone was using code names and numbers.”

  “Sure, but they weren’t being careful. Did anyone the agents were messaging sound like they were in the same office? You know, saying things like ‘we’ll discuss this more tomorrow at work’, or that sort of thing?”

  Yvette looked regretful. “Sorry, we haven’t looked through enough of it to be sure. The answer is no, we haven’t seen anything. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”

  Kyle griped, “I wish we could get live access to that email server.”

  Dazz shook her head. “That’s going to take time. I’ve clued a couple of my hacker friends into the hidden IP address, but so far no-one has been able to crack the hard-key requirement. You need to be at a designated computer to get access.”

  Kyle asked, “Is it a piece of hardware?”

  She shrugged. “Dongles like that often are. Built in or plugged in. We didn’t have time to check last time we were in the office.”

  “Hmm. Too bad.”

  Dazz went back to the subject of Claire, “I don’t think she is involved. She really was surprised. I saw the way you were talking to her, Kyle. You think the same thing I do. She’s FDPC in the pure sense. Not only that, but these agents were filching her genetic work and perverting it. If she was involved, she could have done this ‘baseline’ test herself and just handed them the results. I don’t think she is in the loop on this. And I think she’ll be pissed at what they are using it for.”

  Kyle nodded. “Alright. Then we have a chance. They could be using a different FDPC site to hold my parents. That office wasn’t secure at all. So, where do they keep their weapons? Vehicles? Anything like that? They have at least one other warehouse-type place. She’ll know where that is.”

  Danielle wondered, “Even if she isn’t guilty, she might have already turned us in. We don’t know what she did after we left. She could be the reason your parents were taken, if the agents knew you had tapped into their mail.”

  Kyle nodded. “Maybe. It’s a chance I’ll have to take. Otherwise, we’re dead in the water and right back to the idea of me surrendering.” He held out his hand. “Anyone have a burner phone you haven’t used yet?”

  Dazz tossed him one. “I’ve been online the whole time. Haven’t touched it.”

  “Alright. I’m going upstairs to make a call. Megan, if you could start hunting for a safe spot where we can run to when this is all over, that’d be great. Dazz, Yvette…?”

  “We’ll keep digging through all these emails. Maybe one of them mentions a place they can keep people hostage. Don’t count on it.”

  “I won’t. Laura, Danielle… shopping again?”

  Laura smiled. “What do you need?”

  “Like I said, we’re going to war. We need more than a couple pistols this time. I hate to do this to your fathers, but we don’t have time to buy our own. Not only that, gun checks these days require implant certification.”

  Danielle kissed his neck again. “Like I said, my Dad will understand. He’d be the first to give you a couple.”

  Laura added, “We’ll get some other stuff, too. Food and supplies for if we have to hole up somewhere remote.”

  Kyle nodded. “Great. Also, we need a few things like ear-pieces for the phones so we can talk while we’re not near each other. I’d love to go all ‘spy craft’ on these bastards, but we’re on that clock. Grab a few gizmos we can use and that’ll have to do.”

  “Sure thing. We’ll see what we can find once the stores open.”

  Kyle tossed her a set of keys. “That’s for my Mom’s SUV. Megan’s coupe is great for speed, but won’t hold all of us. Bring it over and load it up with the stores.”

  Once again, they spread out to their various tasks. Kyle envied them the straight-forward problems they had. His phone call was going to be touchy and emotional. He mounted the stairs slowly, fishing the number for the FDPC scientist out of his pocket. She could already have tipped her agents off. If she’s too loyal to them, her phone could be tapped and waiting to trace me.

  He had to believe in her. She wanted answers. She wasn’t exactly on their side, but she knew something was rotten. He could only hope she was holding out for more information before giving them up.

  He dialed the number and waited. Obviously, it would be showing up as an ‘unknown number’ on her end. Not to mention, it was the middle of the night. It wasn’t a surprise that it went to voice mail. He listened to the sweet tones of Claire’s voice telling him to leave a message after the beep. He waited, and when it beeeeppped, he spoke his phone number only, hoping she would recognize his voice.

  Then, he hung up and dialed again.

  Then, again.

  That time, there was the e-click of her making the connection. “Whoever you are, you’re persistent. Stop bothering me at 4 in the morning!”

  Before she could hang up, he raced to say, “It’s Hutchings! This isn’t a telemarketer or anything! It’s Kyle Hutchings!”

  He spit out enough that Claire had stopped to listen. By the end, she gasped back, “Mr. Hutchings? Are you crazy? What are you calling me for? You’re a fugitive!”

  He took a long inhale, then rushed to say, “I’m keeping my promise. I told you I would call if I found out what was going on. I’m keeping that promise. And I need your help.”

  “My help?” Claire laughed in disbelief. “You are crazy!”

  “Not the best sign that you already think that. Because after what I’m going to say, you’re probably going to hang up.”

  A pause. Then, Claire answered in a tone that suggested she was angry at herself for her own curiosity. “You have one minute.”

  “People always say that in movies. And they always give longer.”

  “55 seconds, Mr. Hutchings!”

  “Alright, alright. Whoever these agents are in your office, they aren’t loyal to the FDPC. At least, not your idea of the FDPC. When they talk about population control, they mean it. They want to pick who lives and who procreates. The latter one being the most important. That’s why they want to kill me. Or, well, at least sterilize me. Do you know what CRAGG is?”

  Claire sounded confused, “Of course. But they would never use it on you! It’s only used on fertile males who have serious genetic disorders that will do more harm than good to pass on. And there has to be a court mandate or… preferably… signed consent by the male before it is administered.”

  “Yes, well, they want to kill me or inject me with that crap because I didn’t pass their stupid test on being ‘worthy’. It’s more than genetic disorders, Claire. This is WWII ethnic cleansing happening, only on a much larger scale and carried out under the radar. I don’t know if Persterim was engineered by them or if they are taking advantage of what happened naturally. We haven’t gotten that far. I’m not even sure what we would have to do to find out. But whatever the truth, they’re doing their best to make sure the only part of the fertile 0.5% of the population that survive are their kind of people. Whoever they are.”

  “That’s… insane!”

  “People like this have never been totally stable. Hell, even I know that.”

  “I… I’m not sure I can believe all this.”

  “Fortunately, I’m not asking you to. I just need you to want to find out the truth.” Kyle took another of those deep breaths. “But I’m going to need two things from you.”

  Suspicious once more, Claire asked, “What?”

  “First, you need to know that they are holding my parents.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. They hauled them out of their house and are keeping them somewhere. They texted me to say I need to surrender myself or my parents will suffer.”

  “That’s completely improper!” Claire sounded genuinely aghast.

  “Doesn’t sound so innocent of them, now does it?” Kyle humphed. “Never mind that. I’m sure they have some cover story or way to explain it all away. I don’t care. I’ll deal with it. B
ut I need to know where they are. Where could they take my parents that they would think as safe? Do you have a warehouse or something?”

  Claire negated that idea. “The storage facility in back of our office is where they keep a few spare vehicles and a secure cash of weapons. But it isn’t large, and it’s like a self-storage facility. You couldn’t really live there. And we don’t own the entire space. We share it with other businesses who need secure lock-ups.”

  “Please, think hard, Claire.” Kyle scrubbed at his hair, trying to think. “Anywhere else?”

  “Umm, well, there is the FDPC safe-house on the edge of town.”

  “Safe-house?”

  “Mmm hmm. If there is a witness that needs protecting, or if a victim of sexual battery or target of a stalking, we have a place where we can keep them under protective supervision.”

  Kyle seized on that. It wasn’t necessarily the answer. Maybe the agents had chosen a different place. Or maybe this Shadow Organization behind the FDPC had arranged something else. But why? If only the FDPC knew about it, then they’d probably think it was safe. Carefully, Kyle asked, “Did you tell the agents what we took?”

  Claire snapped, “No. But I should!”

  “After all I’ve said? Look, Claire, I don’t know everything. But I know those two agents at your office are dirty in some way. If you tell them what we know, you’ll rob us of a chance to figure it out. They’ll move that email server, and any details on it will be considered compromised. They’ll move stuff around. We’ll be right back to where we started. They’ll be ahead of us again. If you call them after this and tell them what you’ve told me, they’ll move my parents. Then either them or me are as good as dead.”

  A long pause. Then, Claire said, “I can’t do nothing.”

  “I’m glad you said that. Because that brings us to the second thing you can do.”

  Back to being suspicious again, she asked, “What do you mean?”

  Kyle thought about what lay ahead. “I am going to get my parents back. Whether I give myself up or something else entirely, I don’t know if I’m going to survive. Even if I did, I don’t know who will ever believe anything I say ever again. That’s the cost I’m going to pay. That means I need to do something really awful; I’m going to hand this all over to you, and play the biggest guilt trip on you than has ever been seen.”

  Claire snorted. “My mother was great at those.”

  “She’s got nothing on me, this time. You know what we found, Claire. You’ve heard it all. Take a small step and believe me that the FDPC agents working with you kidnapped my parents. Did they have a right to do that? Do they have a right to kill them? Or me? Do they have a right to use this CRAGG shit on me? If you can’t square that circle in your head, then report it.”

  “I thought you said you didn’t want to warn anyone!”

  “Of course, I do! I just don’t know who. And I know I won’t be believed! I’d be calling a random phone at the district FDPC or whatever you call it.”

  “Division.”

  “Sure. I’d call whoever I could get on the phone. They’d call me crazy, or… worse… it would be one of these damned eugenicists who’d track me down and kill me anyway. Game over. But you know who to trust. All my friends agree. You aren’t in on this. If you are, well… damn, you’re a good actress. But if you aren’t, you should be even more pissed off than we are. Because there are moles dug right into your organization subverting your life’s work. These fuckers are trying to kill me because I’m not their kind of person. Get mad with us. Decide who to call, and have these traitors investigated. You have people for that. Call them in. Carpet bomb the whole mess and see how fast they scramble to get away.”

  Claire sniffed, not quite as disdain this time. “You aren’t asking for much, are you?”

  “If everyone’s innocent and I’m a nut, then all you’ll lose is a few thousand people-hours of work and maybe some reputation points. Burn my life and hunt me down. All will be right with the world. But if I’m right, then you could help save us all from a very dark future. There have to be others out there who suspect. Find them. Do the right thing.”

  Another long pause. “I can’t promise anything, Mr. Hutchings.”

  “Call me Kyle. And I don’t need any promises. You don’t have to say anything at all. I’m asking. Maybe you can call it challenging you to think this through. I’ll let your conscience be the judge.”

  “You could give my mother lessons.”

  Kyle chuckled. “Told you. I learned from a master. My Mom. I’ve got to go now. There’s a lot to do. You can leave me totally out of whatever you do, if you don’t want to be connected to me. Take all the credit. I don’t care. I just want these bastards found and stopped before they destroy everything.”

  “I’ll think it over.”

  Kyle sighed gratefully. “Thanks. Will you text me the address of the safe house?”

  “Yes.”

  It was a start. Kyle smiled. “Thanks again.” He touched the button to end the call, then sank down on a chair in the upstairs corridor. “Not sure if that went well or not.” Taking a few more seconds to settle his stomach, he went back down the stairs.

  Entering into the living room, he found Yvette and Dazz back at work on the emails. By then, his phone had buzzed with the information he needed. “I’m not totally sure, but I have a possible location on the hostages. Nathan and Riley are going to owe us huge after this.” He chuckled, trying to keep things light.

  Dazz considered that. “You weren’t wrong to send Laura for a few guns.”

  Not sure where she was going with this, he nodded. “I know. I’m not about to go in there helpless. Both Laura and I can shoot, and Danielle says she isn’t half-bad herself. And I know you learned how a while back to blow off a little steam. Did you keep it up?”

  “I’m not going to be entering any shooting contests, but I won’t drop it when it goes ‘bang’ or anything. But that’s not what I mean. You know they’ll probably shoot back. And they’re going to be way better trained.”

  Kyle shrugged, not dismissing the issue but not really dwelling on it either. “We’ll have the element of surprise.”

  “Uh huh. That and a buck-ninety-five will get you a cup of coffee. Remember the whole ‘non-implants’ thing? As soon as we go into a hospital, they can’t access our health insurance or medical records or anything. Which means they call the cops and we die. Or, conversely, we die and then they call the cops. Neither is all that good.”

  Kyle chewed on his inner lip. “You’re worried one of us is going to get hurt, is what you’re saying.”

  “I’m worried about me getting hurt!”

  He chuckled. “Fair enough.” He tapped his fingers on the back of the arm-chair. Then, he smiled. “Maybe I have an answer for that. Or… well, maybe not. Hard to say. She helped us once already, and she has no reason to love the system. It has been against her all her life. Might be nice to have someone to patch us up along the way.”

  “Sounds reasonable. Are you sure? I mean, why will she listen to you?”

  He shrugged. “I have no idea. But we don’t have many other options. Worst thing she does is slam the door in my face. But we connected a little…”

  “Ohhh… you had a really busy couple days, you know.”

  “No, it wasn’t like that!” He paused. “Well, it was a little like that, but this was before I knew. Look, I’m talking about Lily. From the church, remember? I think she’ll care whether I live or die. Hopefully, she’ll be willing to get in that deep. Maybe even help save all of you along the way.”

  Dazz answered sarcastically, “Yeah, that’d be nice.”

  “Alright, guess that gives me something to do while the rest of you are doing your own things. I don’t want to put any of this on AIT, but I have no idea where she lives. I’ll have to catch her going into school in the morning. I should be back well before noon either way. Then I’ll send the text to the agents from here so we can all see what
happens.”

  * * *

  Jill walked out onto the back porch of the safe-house. It bordered on the very edge of town, meaning the view off the deck was out into the darkness of the surrounding Washington forest. With spring in full swing and summer fast approaching, the chatter of nocturnal animals was a pleasant hum on the evening air. It was approaching five in the morning, and the moon had long-since set. The early-June dawn was not far off.

  She paced over to where Jack was creaking the wooden swing back and forth as if he was a farmer gazing over his crops. “They’re all finally asleep. We should get a little shut-eye. Who’s on watch?”

  “Hodges and Verne.”

  “When do Mueller and Zimms take over?”

  “Seven.”

  “Alright. I’ll go grab a couple hours if you’re willing to watch their turnover, then I’ll supervise while you sleep till around eleven. We’ll be up for the deadline.”

  Jack scowled. “Thought he would have texted by now. This guy has ice water in his veins.”

  Jill shrugged. “It is the middle of the night. We won’t be sure till morning. We gave him till Noon for a reason.”

  Jack grunted. “We should have applied more pressure. Played it harder. Show him he can’t ignore us.”

  Jill tried to relax him. “If we play our cards too quickly, we might break him. What if he’s a coward that doesn’t care for his Mom. We could be wrong about that. If we play things too hard, he could bolt. Let it simmer.”

  “Are we really going to use CRAGG on him? I mean, once he’s here, we can shove him in a room for a couple days and test him to see if it worked.”

  Jill didn’t even think twice about it. “You heard the boss. This is bigger than him. We’ll show him the CRAGG vial to earn his trust, but we’ll hit him with the Terixim. He’ll be dead in two weeks, tops. Their Mom might think it was us, but it’s biological and will be missed any normal autopsy.”