Prisoners of Paradise

by Brandon Lars Erikson

  Kenny gasped and coughed while he moaned in pain.

  “And I bet you thought I was too dumb to read, eh Kenny.”

  Kenny felt a kick to his ribs as Awa Pilikoa said, “My father is dead! And the whole world seems to know about it! Did you by any chance have anything to do with the cops just showing up out of nowhere that night? You were supposed to hack into Loko Kalaheva’s security system, and shut it down, so my dad could go and take care of some business. Why is he dead now, Kenny?”

  Kenny felt more kicks to his ribs, from even more boots, as the air he had struggled for rushed from his lungs. He heard the voices of the other gang members in the room shouting their approval as someone yelled out, “Yeah! Kick his ass!”

  Awa shouted angrily as he said, “someone told me they saw you speaking with members of The Evil…I’m sure they would want my dad dead just like they would want to see Loko Kalaheva out of the picture.”

  A few of the gang members cheered as someone kicked Kenny again.

  Kenny fought for breath. He felt as if his lungs had collapsed. Awa was still yelling like a man who had lost his mind, “Someone told me that they saw you walking into that Federal Building where they keep all the single mothers and their bastard kids under lock and key. What the hell you were thinking, asshole? You can’t just walk into a government building, they got all those security cameras, they got facial recognition software n’ shit! Going in there might have tipped off the cops, Kenny! Are the cops following you and finding out secrets about my family’s business now?”

  Kenny cried out in pain as Awa Pilikoa delivered another kick to his ribs. He heard the other gang members in the dark room laughing their approval. He gasped for air as he heard Awa saying, “my father’s business is going down the tubes now, Kenny. We aren’t getting nearly the amount of Makani we need…lots and lots of our shipments are going missing…my brother and some of my cousins are dead! What’s going on, Kenny?! Why is all this shit happening? Are you a rat, Kenny? Are you helping someone take us down? What do you think here, boys? Do we have a rat we need to take care of?”

  The gang members’ laughter became louder and they began cheering for more violence, until the room began to flash with the high pitched scream of laser blasts.

  “Freeze! Everyone knock it off!”

  Kenny’s heart skipped a beat as he realized that no one was kicking him. His eyes burned as the room became filled with bright lights. Moments later, Kenny could see that he was inside a small storage area for a restaurant. He coughed and realized that he could see the cans of Hydroplantation produced beans on the shelves, and his own blood on the floor.

  “Aw shit…this is bad,” he thought selfishly. “This shit is real bad!”

  A deep voice yelled out, “I said knock that shit off!”

  Awa shouted back, “And I said this nigger needs a beat down!”

  Kenny breathed a short sigh of relief as he heard the stern, familiar voice saying, “Back off, Awa! You’ve got the wrong guy! Kenny was with me the entire time that night your father was killed, if he had done something to screw us over I would have known about it.”

  “Don’t get involved in this shit, Charlie!”

  Kenny felt his hope of being saved eroding quickly as he heard Chibu saying, “Awa said to beat this nigger, Charlie! And don’t think for a minute we won’t kick your ass next if you try and stop us!”

  Kenny rolled over and saw Charlie standing there, dressed in black, and holding two large handguns in his massive fists.

  “Stay out of this, Charlie!” Awa yelled, “We need to find out who is ratting us out!”

  “Well it ain’t him!” Charlie shouted, “I can see why you have your suspicions. But think about it, your father made headlines because he shot up the penthouse of a news agency. And you’re right, Kenny spoke to members of The Evil, but he talked to them so he could download computer viruses from their file-vaults…it’s how he does his job for us. Just in case you didn’t know, he helped your father make this gang about a million dollars in pure profit not too long ago…that’s money you could be using to rebuild our Cutz production if you would just start acting like the leader your father groomed you to be.”

  Kenny could hear the gang members grumbling to themselves. He could see how Awa’s face wasn’t too happy as he said, “and what about the trips to the government building, Charlie? How can he explain that?”

  “His wife and daughter are in custody there!” Charlie said with a stern, gruff tone, “That was an honest mistake…he meant nothing by it. A few of us have had to go there to visit our babies and their mommas…but I can assure you that Kenny won’t be making that same mistake again. Will you, Kenny?”

  Kenny gasped and said, “Believe me, Awa…me and that bitch are done…”

  Awa looked down at Kenny as said, “Believe me, Kenny…I am so happy to hear that.”

  Kenny closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he heard Chibu shouting, “Yo! Fuck this rat! I say we fuck him up some more!”

  “Shut up, Chibu!” Charlie shouted and looked back at Awa with a kind face, “Think about it, before you act upon it…we need a good computer hacker, Awa…Kenny may be a bit dishonest, but we all are. We’re criminals, Awa…and the quickest way for us to get caught is if we start killing are own because we have nothing but a hunch to go on. If there is a rat in our organization, we’ll find him. But first we need make some money and get some Cutz to our dealers or else we are going to implode and go bankrupt. Your father told you that someday you would be in charge Awa…now start acting like it!”

  Awa’s face became like stone as he walked up to Charlie and poked him once in the chest with a long, thick finger and said, “What did you say, Charlie? Start acting like what?”

  “I said,” Charlie made himself a bit taller as he became more soft spoken, “start acting like the leader your father would want you to be.”

  Awa’s jaw dropped a bit and his eyes became wider. He looked around the room and said, “Ya hear that, boys? Charlie here, is acting like he knows my father…don’t ya’all find that hilarious?”

  Chibu giggled as he said, “Like this bitch even knew your father!”

  Charlie puffed his chest out. His eyes became wide as he said, “I knew Makula long before any of you fools did…and I know how he would want you to act in this situation, Awa…and I think you do too.”

  Awa’s cocky grin melted into a serious frown as he said, “you’re right, Charlie…I know exactly what my father would want me to do…in this…situation…”

  Awa pulled his gun from his jacket, and in one fluid motion, shot Chibu in the middle of the chest.

  With a surprised look on his face, the heavy-set Kupano man dropped to his knees and made one last gasping sound before he fell onto the floor next to Kenny, who froze in a fetal position on the concrete floor.

  Awa’s eyes narrowed as he said, “the rest of you park his fat, traitor ass in the alley behind this place. That way, the Kukane brothers and cousins…of the three boys he shot dead last night…will think the retribution has already been served…that way…they won’t come after any of us.”

  Kenny began making squeaking noises as Awa sized up Charlie one more time and said, “Is that what my father would have wanted, Charlie?”

  Charlie nodded and holstered his guns as he said, “Well played, my brother.”

  Awa gave Kenny one last kick and said, “Good…I’m so glad we see eye to eye on this, Charlie. Now pick your little brother’s punk ass up…park him in front of a computer…and make the little bitch steal me some goddamn money before I change my mind about how useful he is to my family.”

  Location: Mau Ulu Residential Housing Complex…West Side Polynea…Ailana

  Ailanian Standard Time: 2100 Hours.

  Jhett Jones felt contemplative and a bit angry. “Our employer, Marco Giraudoux, is trying to m
ake a name for himself by providing the good people of Earth with the finest quality Ailanian made Cutz. Unfortunately, we have employees in our ranks, who are unscrupulous, and have been doing things like cutting the good stuff we asked them to hold onto for us, and turning it into impure crap. That’s why we need to do this simple litmus test. If the stuff turns purple after you test it, go ahead and kill the guy…Marco doesn’t want anyone who double crossed him left alive.”

  Jhett contemplated the instructions he had given to his mountainous partner, before they had embarked on this mission, as he drew his fist blade out of the dead man’s throat. None of the blood that had gushed from the wound had found its way onto Jhett’s person. He wiped the blade clean on the man’s pant leg and retracted the vicious weapon back into his forearm by using the mechanical locking mechanism that had been surgically attached his ulna and radius.

  “This goddamned job is getting ridiculous,” He sighed as he walked out of the room leaving the dead man where he lay. Before he left, he stuffed a test tube full of purple liquid into one of the pockets in his vest, and grabbed a black suitcase off of the floor. Bloke was already out in the hallway with two cases similar to the one Jhett had. He was polishing off a large submarine sandwich that had more meat and cheese in it than lettuce and tomato.

  Jhett had an annoyed looked on his face.

  “Did that stuff there turn out to be tainted like this crap?” Jhett said as he pointed at the suitcase Bloke had with him.

  “Yeah…the stuff turned purple when I tested it…but I felt better about the selfish nature of people, once I made myself a bite to eat.”

  “You mean to tell me that you killed a guy for double crossing us, and then you helped yourself to what was in his refrigeration unit?” Jhett asked sounding puzzled.

  “Well, I didn’t want good food to go to waste…he wasn’t going to eat it,” Bloke said as he shoved the rest of his sandwich into his mouth. Jhett was still amazed by this man’s eating habits. It seemed as if he didn’t even need to chew the light snack before swallowing it. They began walking down the hallway in a casual manner, as if they were tenants, who were heading off to work.

  “Man, this part of Polynea really gets to me,” Jhett said. “All these unemployed people, living in this enormous place, doing nothing all day long but watching the monitor, and snacking on all this artificial crap that they pass off as being food. No wonder these miserable people are all so depressed. They are all just a bunch of highly unmotivated, government supported, second hand people…with no ambitions in life…and no reason to live…they are just souls on hold…waiting…for the next big nothing.”

  “I just hope the next guy, who messed with Marco’s merchandise, has some fresh fruit…I’m starting to feel irregular.”

  “This job sucks,” Jhett said calmly.

  “Hey at least these people are easy to find and so far most of them seem to be home.”

  “Of course they’re home; they’re a bunch of unemployed losers. I just can’t believe it….ya give a guy a job because ya feel sorry for him and he pulls a fast one on ya. It just amazes me how hard it is to find good help nowadays.”

  Jhett and Bloke seemed to move quite casually as they walked down the hallway. The security cameras on the wall, which were supposed to move back and forth, sat lifeless as they passed by them. Bloke took note of this and said, “At least Herb did his job right…he’s always been real reliable.”

  Jhett scoffed as he said, “That doesn’t make me feel any better, we still have a lot more people to visit…things could get real messy.”

  Bloke raised his arm up and made a fist. A small power saw extended out of the back of his hand and began buzzing in a high pitched squeal. “Don’t worry, Jhett. I just put in some fresh batteries…we got nothing to worry about.”

  Location: Cellblock Four…HanaPaloiFederalBuilding…Downtown Polynea.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 1600 Hours.

  “Hey Tavin,” Audrey looked worried as she entered his small corner of world. “I could really use your help here.”

  “Anything for you, my lovely lady,” Tavin smirked as he cast flirtatious eyes at her.

  Audrey was getting used to his attitude, even though she stopped finding his antics amusing a while ago. She reached out and put a stack of ReadyFiles on his desk. She took a deep breath and said, “I think I’m getting close to finding some importance evidence in some of these murder cases, but I still can’t get past some of the cryptilocks on these security camera files. The damned things were designed so that people couldn’t break into them and insert false pictures that could falsely implicate or exonerate people…but in this case, the codes are working too well. What can you do for me?”

  Tavin appeared to bite his lip nervously as he said, “nothing…I’m sorry. I can’t do anything for you unless I have some greater Internet access. I can strip the codes with a MENIX double wash, but to do that, I’ll need access to programs and data that your boss won’t let me have just yet.”

  “What do you need?” Audrey said impatiently.

  Tavin could see she was feeling desperate. He narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. “You need to up my security clearance, at least two levels. I can’t help you where I am stuck at.”

  “Alright,” Audrey said as she realized that what she was doing was not technically permitted. But her overwhelming desire to crack this case made her reach into her pocket and take out her DataKeys against her better judgment.

  Tavin felt his heart skipping a beat with a rush of joy as he saw her stick the DataKey into the one of the computer’s J-Ports. His mind flooded with feelings of enormous expectations as he saw her type in her security clearance and press the enter key.

  “There you go,” Audrey said. “That outta do it. Can you have this done as soon as possible?”

  “Absolutely,” Tavin said with the most humble smile he could fake. “You have just made my dream come true.”

  “Good,” Audrey said with an annoyed tone of voice. “Can you please get to work on cracking those codes?”

  “Oh yes…I will,” Tavin said as he watched her leave the room, unable to take his eyes of her backside until she was completely out of site. When she was gone Tavin felt his heart fluttering with anticipation as he turned to his more powerful computer system.

  A malicious grin crossed his face as he thought; “now…it’s time to get some real work done.”

  Location: The 18B Laser Highway, heading west…Ailana.

  Ailanian Standard Time: 1329 Hours.

  “It has become quite apparent to me, over the last several days, that some people on this planet…need to be taught to be team players…while some other people…simply need to learn the hard way.” Van Dien exhaled a long stream of smoke as he realized the overweight man, who sitting in the seat across from him, was now talking about something pertinent.

  Van Dien rolled his eyes as he heard the overweight man say, “So this basically means, that I’m the lucky sap…who gets to take the fall.”

  Van Dien took another drag and said, “It is, what it is…please don’t be so dramatic about it.”

  The overweight man, with the neatly styled hair, was wearing an expensive, blue suit. His name was Rex Broadstein. He was the owner and operator of BrodMart, a huge chain of shopping centers located all over Ailana, and he was outraged as he said, “You’re doing this to me so those spineless High Senators named Glik and Semnor don’t have to go to jail for the rest of their natural lives like they deserve!”

  “No, not at all,” Van Dien replied as he sat back in his comfortable limousine seat. “Think of it this way, Rex. Things are changing on Ailana. This simply means that we have upheld our end of the bargain, and now it is time to uphold yours.”

  “What bargain?!” Rex cried in frustration, “I don’t remember this being part of any bargain!”

  “The b
argain,” Van Dien replied, “was that we allowed you, no let me rephrase that…helped you…make a lot of money during your tenure as a pseudo-capitalist on this planet. Now, because of that, you need to help us out. Bill 32-T was created just for you. Think of this, as early retirement, Rex. You’ll be leaving Ailana, and going back to Earth with millions of dollars and credits. You’ve made your fortune as an Ailanian pseudo-capitalist, and now it’s time to enjoy it…someplace else.”

  Rex looked like he was ready to explode. “This is a crock of shit! I heard High Senator Glik, that repulsive leach, got caught illegally channeling money to your organization.”

  “Yes, you might have heard that…just a simple misunderstanding is all.”

  “A simple misunderstanding, I also heard that High Senator Semnor took a few too many illegal campaign contributions from the Spaceport Mechanics Union!”

  “Again, nothing has been proven…”

  “You think that you have proof that I did something wrong? It’s not my fault those assholes didn’t read the rule book! There is a rule book ya know! How long did you think you could pull off this little power trip of yours without getting into some heat?”

  “Rex, Rex, Rex,” Van Dien said calmly as ever. “The only problem is that we actually need Glik and Semnor…despite all their personal quirks, we really like the way they cast their votes in the High Senate. Unlike you, they play a good game of ball. You see, they appreciate what we gave them. Unlike you, they are thankful, and that gratitude deserves some reward.”