It should have been, but amazement was the last thing Lilith felt.
“We must do something to celebrate,” Echo continued. “A feast and some wine. We can sit and talk. I want to know you, sister. Intimately. Just like I’m sure you want to know everything there is to know about me.”
“Lilith, I must go and see to my duties,” Sister Peter interrupted. “You’re welcome to use the meeting hall to talk and get…acquainted. Also, I’m sure the monks would welcome your guests.”
“Absolutely.” Sister Joseph beamed. “Please make yourself welcome. Any friend of Lilith’s is naturally welcome here. We’ll leave you to catch up. I am sorry for your loss. Both of you. Sometimes even those people who don’t play a large role in our life can still make a horrible dent when they leave it. God bless you both.”
Echo clutched a hand to her heart. “God bless you, too, Sister. Thank you for those kind and meaningful words.”
Lilith watched Echo watch the nun walk away. She watched her make a gesture behind her back and thought again that every word she said would have to be scrutinized for truth.
“Nuns, huh?” Echo asked. “This place is crawling with them. Does that mean you’re one, too? Makes sense, I suppose, since you can’t ever let anyone touch you.”
“No. I’m not a nun,” Lilith said carefully. Instinctively she knew that information was power to her sister and the less said the less power she might have.
“We could leave here,” Echo offered Lilith. “I could snatch you up in my helicopter. We could find the closest piece of civilization and hope they have decent curry. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Lilith shook her head. She wasn’t going anywhere with this woman if she could help it. “I prefer not to leave the village. The meeting area is this way. There we can sit and talk. We have food, but no wine.”
“Oh, well. Boys.”
Lilith started walking in the direction of the lodge that was referred to as the meeting hall. It was where the sisters took their meals together. Prayed together. Where the elders in the village met to discuss issues. It was a simple single-room structure, but it would serve their needs. Glancing back over her shoulder, she could see Echo’s men following close behind, their faces strangely neutral as they passed many inhabitants who were covered to hide their faces or missing limbs.
She’d labeled them as men of violence and instantly the label made her think of Tarak. But these men seemed different to her. Colder. Tarak’s face had never been so neutral. Certainly not when he was in the grip of the fever. And definitely not when he was looking at her.
They reached the wood structure and Lilith led them inside. Sunab, daughter of one of the village elders, offered to feed the guests so that Lilith could visit with the newcomers. Lilith accepted the offer and together they sat at a long table. Echo on one side, Lilith on the other. Her men sat at the opposite end apart from the two women. None of them spoke.
“So,” Echo began. “What shall we dish about?”
“I am sorry…dish? I speak English. Sister Peter has taught me some idioms, but I am not familiar…”
“Dish. Chat. Talk. Converse. I think we should start with Mummy’s gift. You got one, too. You don’t seem all that surprised by my being here, which means you must have accessed it somehow. Where is it?”
Lilith smiled graciously at Sunab as the girl poured her a cup of water. She reached for it and took a few sips, watching Echo scrunch up her nose at the fruit and flat bread being offered.
“There is another one like us,” Lilith said, avoiding the question. “Are you aware of that? Do you know her?”
Echo focused her gaze back on Lilith. “Of course I know we had another sister. She was murdered. Sad that we didn’t get to know her. But she was also killed by that woman I mentioned. Not her directly. One of her minions. Still, Gracelyn was behind it.”
“You make this woman sound dangerous.”
Echo chuckled. “Allison Gracelyn is a very powerful, very bad woman. Her mother founded an academy where Allison now sits on the board. A school for girls. She trains them in her image. These pupils destroyed our mother, acting on Gracelyn’s orders. Then they went after our sister. Dangerous? Yes, I would say she’s dangerous. But that doesn’t mean I’m afraid of her.”
“Of course not,” Lilith said. “Our sister. Who was she?”
“Her name was Kwan-Sook. She was special like us. A real giant of a woman, if you know what I mean. But deformed. As an invalid she was easy for Gracelyn’s girls to eliminate.”
Killed, murdered, eliminated. The words came so easily. “This woman killed Jackie. Then Kwan-Sook. Why?”
“I told you why. For revenge. For the information in Mummy’s control. Information is power. Information over powerful people is, well…really valuable stuff. Anyone would kill for that.”
Not anyone. But at least Echo confirmed Lilith’s belief that information was a tool that she liked to use. “I meant to say why now? Was there something that happened that triggered this woman to act?”
Echo lifted her shoulders. “Who knows. Maybe she stumbled upon something. Some thread that led her to Mummy. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that there is only us left. And if you think she won’t be coming after us and Mummy’s gift then you’re wrong.”
“You think she could find me here?”
“She found Mummy. She can find anyone. So where are you keeping it?”
To ask Keeping what? would have been foolish. Lilith didn’t completely understand this woman yet. Maybe hopelessly, she still found herself looking for some commonality between them. But she knew one thing for certain. Her sister was no fool.
Keen intelligence resonated in the glint of her brown eyes. Just like they had in Jackie’s.
“It is hidden,” she answered finally.
Slowly Echo nodded.
“Excellent idea. Precautions are necessary. Have you read everything?”
“No. I could only open some of the files. Others were filled with gibberish.
“Encrypted.”
Lilith accepted Echo’s statement. “What I did read did not make much sense to me.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. For a woman who tried to adhere to Buddhist precepts the acts of depravity those people committed didn’t compute. However, Lilith knew that she was deliberately misleading Echo. It was obvious that Echo couldn’t hide her disdain for the humble place where she’d found her sister. It might be useful to let her believe that Lilith was as simple and uneducated as Echo wanted to believe she was.
“It is a lot to take in for me, as well. I, too, only had access to part of the data. But tell me more about you. This skin condition you have. Is it terribly annoying?”
Given the way she reacted when they first met, Lilith had already determined that Echo knew about her condition. Suddenly she felt at a disadvantage. She hadn’t read enough to know what skill Echo or the other sister who had been murdered possessed.
“It is manageable. Sometimes I can use it to help people.”
The woman’s lips turned up in what should have been a smile. “Help people. That’s sweet. You’re a softy, aren’t you? I can tell. Help people. That’s priceless.”
Echo looked away as if she were studying the structure. Analyzing. Calculating. Lilith could practically hear her brain working.
When she focused her gaze on Lilith once more the smile was gone. “We could do that together. We could take this information and use it somehow to help people.”
“How?”
Echo shifted on her bench. “I don’t know exactly how this minute. But we’ll think about it. We’ll discuss it. You’ll show me where you’ve hidden her…computer?”
“Laptop.”
“Laptop,” Echo repeated slowly. “We’ll pool the information that we have and we’ll see how we can use it to make this world a better place. Wouldn’t that be fun? Two sisters working together to fight evil and injustice. Our first mission would be to take down Allison Gracelyn and
her academy. Finding justice at last for our poor dead mother and sister.”
Lilith wondered if Echo could hear the insincerity in her voice. “I think it is important that the right thing be done with the information we have been given.”
“Ditto.”
No longer able to stay in Echo’s company, Lilith stood and worked to keep her knees from trembling. “I have chores I must see to. Please stay and eat.”
“Maybe you could get the laptop now. Why wait?”
“I would have to retrieve it from the hiding place. Tomorrow morning would be best as dawn approaches. The forest is not safe after dark. You can sleep here—we have extra mats. Or at the monastery.”
“Here is fine,” Echo said between clenched teeth. “After all, we still have so much catching up to do. You go do your chores. Then later you can tell me about your life. I will tell you about mine. We can make up stories about our dear Mummy. What it would have been like if she had raised us together. So sad for us. If only we’d had the chance to meet her and know her, everything might have been different.”
“I did know her.”
Echo blinked. Once. Twice. “Excuse me? What did you say?”
“I said I knew her,” Lilith repeated carefully, watching the change ripple over Echo’s expression. The facade Echo had presented faltered under true emotion and for the first time Lilith actually believed the emotion that Echo was now displaying: rage.
“Knew her.”
“She visited the village. Regularly. She did not tell me who she was. I thought she was a philanthropist. Our benefactress. She gave us much-needed money for medical supplies.”
“You spoke to her.” Echo’s voice was soft and throaty.
“For hours. About the work that needed to be done. About the sacrifice the nuns had made. About religion in general. She was very intelligent and had strong opinions.”
“She never mentioned a…daughter?”
“No. No family. Ever. You can imagine how shocking it was to learn that this woman whom I had spoken to so many times was in fact my true mother.”
“Yes.”
Lilith walked backward toward the door, her eyes on Echo as she watched the woman process what she’d learned. It was like watching a chemical reaction at the point right before the explosion.
“Echo, you should know. You have her eyes. The shape of them. If that is any comfort to you.”
Lilith stepped out of the hall, letting the tarp fall back into place. The sound of a fist hitting the table, rattling the cups and serving trays, was loud.
“Ahhhh!” Echo pulled at her short hair until the pain in her skull was almost as much as the pain that seemed to rip through her body. “How could she! Here? To this shitty little mud village! That bitch!”
One of her men made the mistake of shifting in his seat, turning toward Echo as if to offer comfort. Echo stood abruptly, tipping over the bench behind her. She marched to him and slapped him as hard as she could across the face.
“What are you looking at?”
The pain in her hand and the pain she’d inflicted did nothing to ease the emotional storm that was rolling inside her.
Jackie had visited Lilith. Seen Lilith. Spoken to Lilith. It wasn’t fair.
From the moment Echo had read the files on her mother, she’d known an instant connection. All her life she’d grown up knowing she was different. Accepting that she was special. Waiting for a time when she would finally find her place in this world.
She’d found it in the file on her mother. A woman of strength, focus and purpose. But beyond that was ambition. Lots of ambition that had transformed into a ruthless need-to-be-on-top obsession. This is who her mother was.
This is who Echo was.
It was difficult enough learning that there were two other daughters. Harder still to know that her mother had given them each a piece of what rightly should belong to Echo. It was only when she learned that all three drives needed to be brought together to reveal the true scope of her mother’s empire that it made sense.
Her mother’s inheritance would go to the most worthy.
Who was surely Echo.
She had to be. Because her heart beat the same as Jackie’s. Her mind worked the same as Jackie’s. Was it wrong to want some acknowledgment that she, more than anyone, was her mother’s true heir?
Instead Jackie had come here to Lilith.
What was it about that simple little waif that made her so special? With her pathetic robes and missions of mercy, she was the antithesis of what Echo imagined her mother to be.
Help people?
According to the file, Jackie had never helped another human being in her twisted life. It was part of what Echo loved about her.
No, Lilith wasn’t special. Echo wouldn’t let her be. Lilith was nothing more than a pathetic afterthought. A genetic mistake who had chosen to hide herself in this wretched village rather than use what she’d been given to make herself stronger. More powerful.
Weak. Not in body like Kwan-Sook. But in mind and will. To Echo that was a greater sin.
“What’s next?” This was from her man Kent. Insolent animal, but a ruthless killer. She wanted to hit him, too, but she forced herself to focus.
“We wait until dark. We trash the village and find the laptop.”
“She said she hid it,” Kent reminded her.
“She lied. No need to hide it from the nuns or the lepers and she had no idea I was coming. Rolf, go watch her. Make sure she doesn’t try to take off into the jungle. As soon as it’s dark meet back here with your weapons fully loaded.”
Rolf jumped up and left. The rest of the men remained, picking at the bread and fruit. Passing time, Echo knew, until they were called upon to kill.
“Sweet little Lilith,” Echo murmured. “Mummy may have liked you best, but I can promise you I will have the last word.”
Lilith reached her hut and placed a hand over her heart to settle it. How foolish she’d been to think that the women who shared her genes would share her beliefs, as well. Or maybe she was the outsider. Given what she knew about Jackie, maybe Echo and Kwan-Sook had followed in their mother’s footsteps of crime and blackmail, while Lilith had been spared. Echo’s words about helping people rang so false it was almost comical. All she wanted was the flash drive. And the power that came with it.
Everything else was a lie.
Except her anger over Jackie’s visits. If Lilith had any darkness in her soul she might have taken satisfaction in finding the one weapon she had over Echo: jealousy. Sibling rivalry at its worst. There was no mistaking it. Echo was jealous of Lilith’s past with their mother. It seemed ridiculous given Echo’s cold nature, but if Lilith had to use it she would.
After a deep, meditative breath, Lilith worked through her options. She was certain of two things: Echo couldn’t be trusted and Echo couldn’t get her hands on Lilith’s files. She didn’t know if Echo had Kwan-Sook’s drive, but it wasn’t a chance Lilith was going to take.
She could run now. Hide in the forest. Echo would come looking for her. With her men they were six to Lilith’s one. Plus a helicopter to aid in the search.
Subterfuge was more practical. It would buy her the time she needed to find help. Tomorrow she would hand over the laptop; pretend it contained the documents and pray Echo left before she realized the truth.
Once Echo discovered her mistake, she would be back. There was no question. But when she returned Lilith knew that she would have found someone to trust with the information. She knew that because there was no choice.
Calmer now that she understood what needed to be done, she pulled the computer out from under her mat and turned the power on. Patiently, as the sun went down outside, she watched the battery monitor on the screen drop from medium, to low, to empty.
A warning appeared that the computer needed to be powered off. Lilith, however, left it on until the screen went black. She confirmed it would not turn on again and slipped it back under the mat.
Lying wasn’t something she practiced much so tomorrow would be a test for her. But it was a test she knew she could not fail.
Echo would not add to the information she’d already received from Jackie. Once Lilith was able to prevent that from happening then she would need to work out how to destroy what Echo had already been given by their mother.
Because there was no doubt in Lilith’s mind that her sister was very, very sick.
Chapter 6
W hen Lilith would look back on this night she would remember the first thing she heard wasn’t the gunfire.
It was the shouting.
She sprang up on her mat and knew by her heart rate that her body had reacted faster to the threat than her mind.
Night had fallen, but she hadn’t been able to sleep. Hadn’t expected to. Instead she’d been rehearsing over and over again the story that she would tell Echo in the morning. A story the woman had to believe.
Only, morning was several hours off and something was already starting. The sudden popping sound left no clue as to the cause of the chaos. Lilith rolled off her mat and reached for the robe, then stopped. She could feel the dew on her skin, could see it glow even in the darkness.
Tonight her curse could be her salvation.
Dressed only in her short slip and the necklace she hadn’t removed, she found the leather satchel that held the laptop and slung it over her shoulder. She was prepared to face Echo and her men, but when she pulled the heavy tarp back from her hut it was as if the world had suddenly erupted into flames.
People were running with children in their arms. She could see the nuns out of habit running alongside them, directing them away from the center of the village where flames were consuming individual homes as well as the meeting lodge.
Why? Why had she needed to do this?
“Oh, Lilith! Come out, come out wherever you are!”
Lilith turned her head at the sound of Echo’s voice. Her shouting could be heard even over the cries of the children. Without hesitating, Lilith followed the call until she was standing in the center of the village amidst a whirl of smoke and falling ash. Through the haze she could make out Echo’s men holding torches in their hands. Deliberately setting them to the straw and mud-caked roofs until bursts of flames ignited. Some of the villagers tried to yell at them, some tried to fight, but any resistance was met with gunfire. Shots that were quick and lethal.
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