by Shawn Keys
He walked back to the others, offering something of a wry smile. “Umm, right, so… everyone, this is Claire Erinson. She’s a scientist for the FDPC.”
Yvette gulped, “The same one you used to hack into those email accounts?”
Kyle chuckled. “I know, it’s weird. But this situation is making for strange bedfellows. I asked her to report all this. If anyone ever asks why we didn’t do this properly inside the system… well, tell them to suck it, because we did. Claire reported it up.” He gestured for her to explain further, hoping it would help the others accept her.
Claire looked nervous. She flinched at the site of Dazz, Laura and Danielle who had already held her hostage once, but none of them seemed in a rush to judge her. Indeed, all of them were preoccupied leveling out after the fight up at the safe-house. They had their own demons to slay without adding another. Finding only friendly faces, Claire said, “My immediate supervisor didn’t sound like she was involved. But she was overruled and the file was transferred to another department. Again, I don’t know if everyone in that section is corrupt, but the one I talked to was called Andrew Lark. A couple hours after I told him what we know, two female goons showed up with a poison needle trying to make my death look like an accident.”
Kyle was sorry, and he showed it. “It’s my fault for asking you. I… I guess I wasn’t ready to believe how big this was. I hoped you would tear down the whole conspiracy and prove me wrong.”
Claire scowled at him. “Instead, it tore down my whole life and proved me wrong. I have no idea what to do! I don’t think I can even go home!” She waved at her car and sobbed a little. “I don’t even think that’s going to drive much further!”
Kyle drew her into a hug. “Look, we’re all in the same boat. We don’t know what we can do to change any of this. But first of all, we need to get safe.” He held her out at arm’s-length, staring at her straight and promising, “We’re not going to leave you alone. If you want, you can come with us. We’re going to disappear. Get somewhere safe. Then, when we have time to think, we’re going to do everything we can to drag these snakes into the light and fry them.” He asked around him, “Does anyone have any issue with that? I know it was my choice to get her involved. It’s on me. But are you alright with sheltering her for a while?”
Maybe guided by their own guilt from holding her hostage at gun-point, Danielle, Laura and Dazz agreed readily enough. Lily, Megan and Yvette had both been dragged into the fray each in their own ways, and understood what she was going through. None of them objected. In fact, they smiled in welcome.
Kyle turned back to Claire. “I’d say that settles it. If you want, we’ll keep you safe as long as we can.”
Claire didn’t look all that much less miserable, but nodded. “I don’t think I have much choice.” She rubbed at where her implant was removed. “I’m a fugitive, too.”
Kyle said, “Get whatever you need out of that car. We can’t trust it to make it anywhere, and we can’t leave any breadcrumbs as to which direction we went. Megan, Laura, can you help her pry open the trunk if she needs it?” Leaving them to scavenge what they could, he moved over to his friends and family. There was a lot to say and think about, and not much time. He first checked in the back of the minivan which had become the impromptu ambulance for Steve. “So, here we are. How are you doing, Steve?”
Lily gave him a smile, and nodded in that way that nurses did when everything was going to be alright. “I’ll leave you three to chat. That’ll give Steve a break from my poking and prodding. You’ve had all the pain pills I want you to have, so just try and relax.” She gave Kyle one last smile, then slipped away and gave them privacy.
Kyle flashed her a warm, thankful smile, then focused on his family.
Steve lolled against the inner window. “Feeling stupid. Can’t believe they caught me.”
Kyle gave a dark laugh. “We’re lucky they didn’t cut us all down. We’d probably be dead back there if it wasn’t for Laura giving us the edge she did.” He got down to business. “I wish we could stay around longer. We’ve killed all the agents who knew all of us. But they didn’t seem like the type to act alone. They probably had notes somewhere. And all of you have implants, which means once they know what to look for, they can track you down. We have to make a few decisions.”
Amanda and Steve were holding hands. It was his Mom who said, “You’re scaring the hell out of me, Kyle. I hate that this is falling on you and your friends. You don’t deserve this.”
“Look, Mom…”
She waved him off. “I know, you don’t have much of a choice. You aren’t looking to be a martyr, but they’re going to make you one until you expose them.” She shook her head. “But we can’t do that. I think we’d be a constant distraction.” Once again, she interrupted before he could object, “Don’t argue with me! What would have happened if they had told you to go to the ranch house? What if they had asked you to come here to surrender yourself? The only reason they didn’t is because they didn’t want me to see you die at their hands. That saved us. But what if? Six of them, guarding us… things would have gone a lot worse.” She shook her head. “You’re going to do something incredibly dangerous, and I’m not going to make it harder on you.”
Kyle shrugged. “So, what then?”
“We’re leaving the country. Today. We have friends in Brazil. It’s safe enough there, and we don’t think they extradite people back to the States. We’re getting out of the country before the bad guys start freezing our assets or hurting us to get to you.” She clutched his hand. “I won’t see you for a while, but at least I’ll be helping keep you safe.”
Kyle smiled warmly. “I love you, too, Mom. We’ll figure out a way to stay in touch that doesn’t give away where I am.” He shifted to Nathan and Riley. “What about you two? Are we going to be the Four Horsemen in this fight?”
Nathan held a finger up to Riley, asking for a minute.
His lover nodded easily, knowing this was going to be far harder on Nathan than him. Riley hadn’t known Kyle for that long.
Nathan drew Kyle away from the minivan. Keeping his voice low, he said, “We’re heading for Canada, Dude. You know, friendliest place on Earth.”
Somehow, Kyle wasn’t all that surprised. But he couldn’t hide his disappointment. They had shared adventures in school, then in Europe… it didn’t seem quite right to not have Nathan around. They had always worked well together. Right down to never fighting over women, given their different sexualities. Their whole friendship had been a joy. Easy. And he relied on it.
The reason Nathan would bail was simple enough to guess. What could overrule a friendship like this? Why, love of course. “It’s Riley, isn’t it?”
Nathan nodded. “Partly me. I mean, I love roughing it once in a while, camping under the stars, and all that. Not to mention that turning my life into a real version of a video game might be a blast. But I was hoping my life was going to get more normal, not less. Call me soft. But there it is. And Riley… yeah, he’s not made for this at all. He doesn’t understand it. I love him too much to leave him behind.”
Kyle let go his regret. “Don’t look back, Nathan. Grab the life you want. I don’t want to ruin that for you. I’m sorry I’m uprooting you like this. But you know you’d be leverage.”
Nathan nodded. “I talked to Riley. He’s fine with it. And you know I wouldn’t piss on my family to put out the flames burning them to death. It’s better this way. We won’t be the thing they use to catch you again. We’ll go live in the frozen north for a while. Apparently, Vancouver is about as forgiving as California when it comes to accepting pretty much anyone. Hope that’s true.”
Kyle chuckled. “Hope you find what you want.” They shook hands. Walking back to the others, he said, “Because Steve is hurt, we think you should take the minivan. Mom, I’m stealing your SUV.”
She sighed. “How dare you!”
He laughed a little more, burying the hurt at saying goodbye. “You
take the minivan. We should have enough seats in Megan’s coupe and the SUV to get us where we’re going. Might be a little cramped, especially with Megan’s cats crawling all over us, but that’s fine. Nathan, can you drop my parents off at their house? Steve’s car is still there. He can get them to the airport once he’s ready to go. Then, you can get back to your place to drop Chloe off. I take it you need to grab one of your parent’s cars to make it past the border? You won’t be able to take Lily’s minivan.”
Chloe stepped in. “I’m not going back home.”
Kyle objected, “I don’t think you need to run, Chloe. Like you said, they snapped you up out of convenience.”
Chloe stopped him right there, “We covered this, already. Are you changing your mind? Wouldn’t you come rescue me if I was in trouble?”
He looked to Nathan, who was sort of mocking him too with a ‘of course you would save my sister’ sort of expression. Kyle rolled his eyes. “Alright, so maybe I would. So?”
“So, do you think these people won’t figure that out? They aren’t stupid. They’ll look at your psych profile. They’ll dig through your past. They’ll get to know you. When they do, they’ll know you won’t let helpless people suffer for you. I hope they don’t realize how deep that runs, because then they could probably threaten anyone and you’d come running to save them.”
Kyle was about to object again, but fell flat. Damn, I hadn’t thought of that. Could I let some innocent die just to keep safe?
Chloe smiled. “See?” She sighed. “I don’t have any reason to stick around. I’ve already lost my scholarship. And like Nathan said, leaving home is an easy call for us.”
Nathan was quick to say, “We’ll take you with us. It’s always been us against the world anyway. Fuck our parents. Fuck our brothers. Let them stew here. We can start a whole new life.”
Chloe hugged him. “I love you, Bro. I really do.” She stepped back, then shook her head. “But I’m not going with you. I’m going with Kyle.”
Kyle’s eyes widened. “Chloe, we’re heading into the hills and not coming back.”
She nodded. “I know. Yvette said Dazz shut down your implant. Get her to do the same to mine. I lost my scholarship because of how the FDPC is screwing up this situation. I like living in this country. You say you don’t want to back down? Neither do I. I see what you’re trying to do, Kyle. You have to set up a resistance cell. A little colony in the back woods. That way, we can try to hurt them. For that, you need people with all kinds of expertise. I was learning chemistry in school. Not sure what good that will be, but I’m a smart girl. If that doesn’t help, then I’ll learn something else.”
Kyle felt an odd surge of what some might call patriotism. None of them were big into flag-waving when growing up. But he knew what she meant. The world had been hit hard by Persterim, and this dark entity had totally corrupted the effort to save their country. In fact, they were trying to drag them deeper into a dark age. He didn’t know if this hidden organization was world-wide, or just here in the States. But they were going to find out. Find out, and then hurt them bad!
He nodded his understanding. “Alright, Chloe. If you know what you’re getting into, then go see Dazz. We need to burn that implant out before we go.”
Chloe smiled brightly at his acceptance. “I will.” She bolted toward the SUV where Dazz huddled inside.
Nathan was gritting his teeth, guarding his silence. Once she was out of earshot, he growled, “Keep her safe, Kyle.”
Kyle promised him, “I’ll do everything I can. She’s a tough woman. But I’ll look after her.”
Nathan’s eyes narrowed. “Only look?”
Kyle sighed. “You’re my friend. If you want me to promise that, I will. But…” He glanced over at Chloe, who was bending through the SUV window with Dazz. Her sweet behind floated back and forth, her pajamas not quite hiding the simple fact that there were no panty lines. Once again, his imagination couldn’t help but wonder what he would see if those thin pajama bottoms fell a few inches...
He pushed past that mental picture and said, “…are you sure she wouldn’t be pissed if you forced me to say it?”
Nathan grimaced, knowing he was right. “If it comes to that, then promise me you won’t break her heart.”
Kyle’s smile returned full-force. “I can guarantee that.” He held out his hand.
Nathan rolled his eyes, brushed past and embraced him in a huge hug. “Go be a hero. But don’t get dead, hear me?” He pulled back, sniffed back tears he wouldn’t admit to shedding, then went over to Riley to talk through their next moves.
Kyle turned and shook hands with Steve once more, then hugged his Mom for at least a full five minutes. He used as much time as he dared while Dazz dealt with Chloe’s tracker.
Finally, he knew they couldn’t waste any more of the day. Sunset was close. Worse, they weren’t that far away from the scene of the gun battle. They were able to hear the vague echo of sirens on the air: police, ambulance, and even a fire truck or two. There were two more agents lurking about that Claire had mentioned. People were looking for them, and they needed to get lost.
Final farewells were said. His parents, Nathan and Riley piled into the minivan and drove off so they could scatter to the horizons.
Then, it was only Kyle’s new rebellious cell. They gathered around, as if expecting him to say something inspirational before they ran. He laughed. He wasn’t sure he was worthy. But he would try. They were choosing to follow him, so they deserved whatever he could manage. “Chloe called us a colony. I like that image. We need to stick together, no matter what. If you need something done, ask. If someone else needs something done, lend a hand. Alright? Only by working together are we going to get through this.” He asked Megan, “Where are we going?”
The teacher shrugged, then smiled. “Oh, nothing much. A nice little chalet hidden in the mountains. Hard to get to. Maybe impossible in the winter. We’ll have to see.” She chuckled. “The only way to get there is along a dirt path through the woods. No cars. Hope you all know how to ride ATVs or motorcycles. Maybe snowmobiles once the snow falls. If not, I’ll teach you.” She looked awfully happy about the near-stunt driving along off-road trails that she was implying would be necessary.
Kyle let out a wry laugh. “Guess I should have expected this when I gave you the job. When you say off-the-grid, you mean it. Where are we getting our hands on any of those things?”
“I arranged to have a set of four ATVs delivered to a small town nearby. We should be able to drive them to where we need to head into the woods. Won’t be fun without trailers, but we can manage. Then we can load the supplies, hide the cars and vanish.”
“Alright, let’s go. Megan will be in the coupe. Who’s driving the SUV?”
Laura held up her hand. “I’ll take it. I’m used to driving through the mountains on hunting trips. Been doing it since before I was legal.”
Kyle laughed. “Make sense. Since from now on, everything we do is going to be illegal. Everyone ready to become outlaws?” He smirked. “We just need to think up really cool outlaw names now.”
With a laugh, they all drove off.
Epilogue
Department of Justice Agent Clive Jones picked up the phone with a tired voice. “DOJ, Federal Corruption Reporting Hotline. Please state the nature of your allegations including the offending department and any pertinent details.”
“The subject is the FDPC –”
Clive rolled his eyes and cut off the caller. “– Is your information backed by solid evidence and attestations from involved parties? Or are these vague suspicions of improper procedures and unfairness?” If he had to deal with one more nut claiming he or she was being frozen out of a non-restricted work program because they weren’t fertile or pregnant, he would scream.
“Bullets are fairly solid evidence, I’d say. They attempted to kill me and my –”
“– Wild accusations are not entertained. Please cease and desist. Wasting the time of
a Federal Agency is technically a misdemeanor. I advise you to reconsider your efforts to get attention and channel yourself toward something more productive.”
Ending the sentence with a little extra authoritative snap, Clive smacked the phone handset into the base. “Loser.”
He got back to his real work. He hated when he picked up the FCRH as a secondary duty.
But it was part of the life in the DOJ’s Office of Departmental Accountability.
* * *
DOJ-ODA Agent Fred Miller glared at the clock. Come on. Another half-hour. Go faster you stupid –
The phone interrupted him. He was almost happy for the chance to kill a little time until he noticed it was the ‘hotline’ button flashing. Uggh. Even doing nothing is better than listening to these nuts. He knew the proper greeting, but he didn’t care enough to get it right. “DOJ, Federal Corruption Reporting Hotline. Tell me what you think is wrong.”
“Good afternoon, Agent. My name is –”
“– This is an anonymous hotline, Sir. No need to give your name.” Fred cut him off fast. Last thing I need is his name. I’d have to log this and do real work on a Friday afternoon! Umm, no!
The caller pressed, “I want to give you my name. This way you will know I’m serious. I’m Kyle Hutchings, and –”
Fred tossed the phone onto the desk, leaned back in his chair, and clenched his fists. Goddamnit! He was going to have to open a whole new file! He looked up at the clock again. 23 minutes left. That might be enough time to get a file number, slap a bit of information into it, and link his name to the central FDPC database. If he hurried. The FDPC databases could be wicked slow sometimes.
He grabbed the phone set, cutting off whatever the caller… ‘Kyle’… had been saying. It wasn’t like he had been listening anyway. “– Yeah, OK, we appreciate you sending in that information, Mr. Hutchings. I’ve taken down a few notes here. We’ll look into what you are saying. If there is any hint of truth to it, we’ll action it.”