by Glen Kenner
They’re both too far away for me to hear their buzz, but I’m sure the man is a First. I recognize him from somewhere. Friend or not, he picked the wrong side tonight.
-Get away from her!
He turns quickly to look at me and then back at Sarah.
-I thought you were dead, Khalid!
He has a thick Scottish accent and his voice echoes off the surrounding concrete.
Khalid. I haven’t been Khalid since the first crusade, since I fought on the side of the Moors. So I do know him. But his accent is throwing me off. I’ve forgotten his name but I suddenly remember how he used those blades.
-Drop the blades!
I lift the pistol and point it at him.
-Drop them and I’ll make it quick. I swear. Right to the head.
-You’ve forgotten my name, haven’t you brother? We joined the Seljuk Turks together, took the heads and hearts of scores of Franks side by side, and you’ve-
I step to the edge of the pool and unload the entire clip. Pop pop pop pop! Over a dozen shots, the noise echoing long after the clip is empty.
Every single shot misses. Fuck me.
The First starts laughing.
-Oh, oh, oh my god! Oh, Khalid, if only I wasn’t face to face with the prophecy! I would love to see your face right now. I can’t wait to tell the History Keepers! Oh my-
I tense up, ready to launch myself at him, when Sarah strikes his throat with the bottom of her bare right foot so quickly that her entire movement is a blur. He drops one blade as he stumbles back and grabs at his throat and starts choking. He then manages to reach down for the blade and she’s a blur again as she kicks him in the stomach and then, with the same foot, as he doubles over, kicks him hard in the face. His nose explodes in a spray of blood and he drops the other blade and flies backward into the concrete side of the pool. Sarah moves forward, putting herself over the fallen blades.
He shakes his head and raises his hands and makes a louder choking sound but then pushes off from the side of the pool and slams into Sarah and knocks her down. He punches her hard and fast, twice to her face and another to her throat before jumping backward to grab the blades. Sarah rolls back on her shoulders and pulls her knees to her face and then kicks up and launches herself forward into the air and lands on both feet a foot away from him. She punches him square in the chest and he flies again back into the wall and this time breaks the concrete with his skull.
Suddenly there’s silence, except for the crickets and a few frogs.
The First slowly pushes himself up and puts a hand to the back of his head.
-I surrender.
His face shows real pain and his breathing is shallow. One of his lungs probably collapsed and he spits up blood.
-You beat me. I’ll leave.
He puts a foot forward and Sarah starts to reach down to grab a blade.
-Wait! I give up. Honor the code.
Sarah straightens up and without looking at me, she calls out my name.
-John?
-He’s lying. There’s no code, Sarah. It’s up to you what happens next.
-No.
He takes another small step forward.
-There is a code. Firsts don’t have to fight to the death. You beat me. I owe you a life debt. Someday I’ll repay it. John and I fought the Franks together. He saved my life one day and I paid him back a few weeks later by doing the same for him. It’s the code.
He takes another small step, his foot inching forward.
-Besides, don’t listen to him. He’s a butcher. Everyone knows he cares only for himself and uses everyone around him. Uses them or kills them. Rips their-
-Sarah, he’s playing mind games. There’s no code. No life debt. Remember, there are no laws. No rules. You do what you feel is right. He’s a First. He was sent here to kill you. He knows the score and he made his decision.
She looks back at me for a split second, confusion on her face. I hate to see her like this. Trying to make sense of everything happening so fast. And then from the corner of my eye, I see him reach his hand down from the back of his head to the small of his back.
Sarah must see my eyes go wide before I even have time to yell out.
She ducks down just as he whips a pistol out from behind him and fires a shot that goes over her head and hits the far side of the pool. Before he can lower his aim and fire again, Sarah grabs up one of the curved blades by the handle, holds the long edge in front of her and pushes herself forward in a blur almost impossible to see. She flies toward and then past the First - his body upright, right arm outstretched, his face pointed at the spot she was in - and the blade in her hand sinks into the concrete behind him. The First lets out a gurgle, drops the gun, and his upper body falls forward onto the pool floor. The rest of him, a few inches of his torso, his pelvis, and his legs, simply collapse.
I hear Glen Ray say Holy Mother of… as I jump into the pool and stumble and run down to her. I grab her up and hold her tight.
-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!
I say it over and over.
-I wasn’t here. I told you I would be and I wasn’t. I’m sorry!
She wraps her arms around me and kisses me hard on the lips and says it’s ok. She’s ok. It’s all ok.
She’s starting to cry and I pull back a bit. But she’s not crying. She’s laughing.
-You missed him! Every single shot! You totally missed him!
-I’ve never shot a gun before!
-But you did for me.
-I did.
-I’m lucky you didn’t hit me.
-You are.
She laughs again and kisses me again and then pulls away and looks into my eyes.
I tell her again that I’m sorry.
-You didn’t need me at all.
-Not true, Johnny. I did need you. Just not as much as you thought.
26 - Heartbreak
Back inside the kitchen, we sit down in the breakfast nook. Glen Ray has pulled Kingsley up from the floor and slammed him into a chair and sits next to him. Sarah is on the other side of Kingsley and I’m across the table. Barry is across the huge kitchen frying some steaks he found in the freezer.
-How is it…
I call out to Barry across the kitchen.
-...how is it even possible that there are no cops here? I don’t understand it.
Barry just bunches up his shoulders but Kingsley clears his throat.
-I made a call before you showed up. I know a guy. I told him to pass along my request. No need to show up tonight, regardless of who calls 911 or what they say.
-This is fucking Town and Country. Who the hell did you call? The police chief?
Kingsley bunches up his shoulders like Barry just did.
-The mayor? The fucking governor? A senator?
Kingsley smiles then and looks down at his nails. That’s his tell. I remember that now. A goddamn U.S. senator.
-Who was that outside? With the Scottish accent?
-Fergus Hunter.
-I guess I knew him from before he was Fergus. One of your men?
-No. That’s ridiculous. He’s with Irvine.
-California?
-Oh really, Jonathan. How do you know so little about the world outside of St Louis? Irvine, Scotland. He’s with the Irvine organization.
-Was. He’s now in two pieces.
Kingsley shrugs his shoulders and looks back at his nails.
-Who was the other group? And why were they shooting tranquilizer guns?
-That was LA. That stands for Los Angeles. It’s in California.
-Now’s not a good time to be a smartass, Kingsley. Now’s really not a good time.
-They were from LA. I couldn’t tell you why some of them, just the women I think, why they were shooting tranq darts but I assume they were hoping to take someone alive.
He nods his head toward Sarah.
-What? Me? Why alive? I thought everyone wants me dead?
-Who knows why LA does anything it does.
They’re self-hating narcissists who probably climax at the thought of the fulfillment of the prophecy.
I look to Sarah and Glen Ray and we all just bunch up our shoulders. What the hell?
-Jonathan, it’s late. We’ve all been through quite a bit tonight. Why don’t we meet at Luca’s tomorrow night, eight o’clock as you know, and we’ll talk some more. I have a compromise on Aka Kage that you’ll like.
He starts to get up and Sarah puts a hand on his shoulder and pushes him back down.
-You said in there, in the study, right after trying to kill John, that you wish you would have told him who you killed.
Sarah looks at me with raised eyebrows. I shake my head. No idea what she’s talking about.
-Who did you kill that you wished you had told John about?
Kingsley looks at her and then down to his nails.
-I’m afraid you’re mistaken, Ms Abe. I didn’t say anything of the kind. After Jonathan, uh, fell, the window blasted in and well, here we are.
-No, you said-
-Hey, Barry…
Glen Ray calls out just as Barry turns around with three plates of steak.
-Is your video system backed up?
-Sure. Of course. I have a huge drive and server in the basement. I keep the last 48 hours of video.
-Can we access it from a tablet?
-Of course.
He puts the plates down and then hands Glen Ray the tablet and shows him how to pull up the recorded video.
-Where’s the sound? You have to have a mic with each camera in order to pick up the buzz to identify Firsts, right?
-Yes. That’s right. Very good. Here’s the control panel. Just unmute the sound right here and here’s the volume.
I look over at Kingsley and he’s focusing on his nails. I think I can see just a slight tremor in his fingers.
-Who was it, Kingsley? Who did you kill?
-Jonathan, I didn’t-
Glen Ray plays the video back and there we are in the study. I’m barely visible, just my hands and feet are showing from the floor behind the big desk. The auto shotguns are pointed at Sarah and Glen Ray and they both look devastated by what just happened. That’s nice, actually.
On the screen, Kingsley looks down at me and says, What a shame. I had meant to tell him that I was the one who killed-
The sound from the tablet cracks as the window on the screen explodes inward. Kingsley yells out, Kill her! His four men turn on cue from the window and unload several shots each into Sarah’s chest and stomach. She’s thrown across the room and up against the wall that was already sprayed in my blood. Then the men turn back to the window and start firing. I can’t take my eyes off of Sarah against the wall as she slowly slides down and slumps over onto her side, her eyes still open. I blink my eyes several times to clear away the wetness. Then Glen Ray moves quickly across the screen, bending down and scooping me up without stopping, and disappears out the door.
Sarah gives him a fist bump right in front of Kingsley’s face.
-Nice job, Dr DJ G Ray Ray!
-Awwww yeah!
-Though you did leave me behind.
-Oh, girl, you were dead. I mean, fuck. You should have been dead.
I take the tablet and turn it off.
-Who did you kill, Kingsley? Who was so important that you wanted to rub it in my face before putting a bullet in my brain?
He looks up and tries to stare me down.
-Jonathan, I- I need your word. Your promise. I need your goddamn solemn oath that, that you’re going to let me go. That I will walk out of here tonight, on my own, no more injured than I am now, and I’ll never see you again. You won’t come after me, you won’t send anyone after me, you’ll just forget me completely. Our relationship will return to what it was two weeks ago. Give me that and I’ll tell you.
-Fuck you!
I reach across the table for his neck. He pulls back and screams at me.
-Give me your oath, Jonathan! Or I’ll never tell you. You kill me and you’ll never know, I swear to God!
-So be it!
I start to go over the table and Sarah puts her arm out and pushes me backward.
-John! Stop! Ok? Just stop. There’s a better way!
I sit back down and catch my breath. It takes me a full minute and no one says a word. Kingsley is trying to pull himself together and hide his fear.
I grab one of the plates of steak and angrily cut off a piece. The knife feels good in my hand and I see Kingsley eyeing it. He knows what I can do with a knife.
Sarah looks from Kingsley to me and back to Kingsley.
-For the sake of negotiation, let’s say that John agrees to let you walk out. No one comes after you, life goes on as it did before. Except in addition to telling him who you killed, you also have Barry scrap the entire tracking program. Aka Kage. Delete it, erase it, whatever. Shut down the program and the whole company.
Barry says what? Kingsley laughs. A real gut-busting laugh.
-You… oh, my. You must be insane, Ms Abe. That will never, ever happen. Take my head now, because I’ll never agree to that.
Before I can take him up on his offer, Sarah looks at me and tilts her head with a frown and looks back at him.
-Why not?
Shit. Sarah doesn’t know that she just handed control over to Kingsley. Words are his greatest weapons.
-Everyone, Ms Abe, everyone wants to leave something behind when they’re gone. Their legacy. Almost always, it’s children. Or jewelry or a baseball card collection. Such petty things. My legacy is Aka Kage. It will bring Firsts out of hiding and eventually set us up as the rightful rulers of the planet. Beyond the planet, given enough time. I plan to be the first ruler, but whether that happens or not, I will always be known as the First that changed the entire course of human history.
Kingsley looks at me and then turns his face to hers and gently smiles.
-John didn’t explain it that way, did he? No. He couldn’t. He has a dark view of humanity, my dear. Not his fault, I know. He’s seen a far more barbaric world than we can imagine. But that’s not the future. With Aka Kage, we Firsts will finally be free. Do you know what that means? Peace! An end to wars! That’s not hyperbole. That’s a fact. Within two or three generations, Thirds will know nothing different than the existence of Firsts who keep the peace. They will insist we protect them from each other. They will set us up as their guardians, their leaders. Their supreme leaders. And you, Sarah, you are the first female First. Imagine your place in this new future!
I try to get Sarah’s attention. She’s looking into Kingsley’s eyes far too intently.
-Sarah, don’t let him get-
-Jonathan, how can you sit there and deny her the future she can have? How is that fair to her? You’ve had your time on Earth. And what have you done with it, other than murder thousands and thousands over the millennia? You can fix all of the water pipes for your poor disadvantaged neighbors for the next eleven thousand years and you’ll still never make up for the atrocities you’ve committed. Besides, Jonathan, at eleven thousand years old, Second Death is just around the corner for you. You’re more likely to finally die in Second Death tomorrow than you are a year from now. You are long, long overdue, my old friend. The kindest thing anyone can do for you right now is to put a bullet into your brain. The future belongs to those of us who are still young.
-Tell me who you killed. Tell me! Or I will rip-
-Yes, you want to know. You really do want to know this. Trust me. But, Jonathan, I want your oath. Right here, right now.
-Tell me!
-Give me your oath, Jonathan! In front of Ms Abe! Give me your oath!
-Fine! I swear it, goddamn you! I swear it! Now tell me!
Kingsley raises his hands, takes a quiet breath, and then slowly reaches into his front pocket and removes his wallet. His eyes never leave mine. He opens his wallet and pulls out a small, pink envelope folded over once. He puts it on the table and pushes it toward me. Before I
pick it up, before I even see the handwriting on the outside, I can smell it. It’s a scent I haven’t known since that day in 1924 when I first saw this envelope and opened it and read the short letter inside.
-No.
I stare down at the envelope.
-No, this isn’t possible.
Kingsley looks down at his nails.
I unfold the envelope and see my name on the outside. That handwriting! I haven’t seen that in almost a hundred years. I take out the letter and read it to myself. Again.
Johnny,
I am so sorry to do this to you. Father wouldn’t approve of us and I can’t live without you. Please don’t be sad. I hope you’re wrong, Johnny. I hope there is a heaven and we see each other again there.
Always yours,
Sarah
-You didn’t…
My voice is cracking.
-You couldn’t have. She jumped. I saw her. Down below. Everyone saw her. She killed herself.
-I did, Jonathan. I did and you should thank me. I did it for you. Well, for me also. But certainly for you, as well.
-Me? Not for me-
-Yes. For you. You were going to marry her. Elope, like teenagers smitten in puppy love. Think about it, Jonathan. If you had, if you had married her, you would have buried her long by now. Could you handle that, Jonathan? Could you handle watching her day after day, getting older, losing her beauty, her health, her mind, and never able to give you children?
-How? How did you do this?
I’m looking down at the letter and I have to blink my eyes to clear away tears for the second time tonight.
-I knew something was going on. You wouldn’t commit to any plans. You were spending all of your time with her, with Sarah.
Kingsley looks over at Sarah.
-You aren’t his first Sarah, you know. A coincidence?
I can see Sarah’s face turn to mine but my vision is too blurred to read her expression.
-There’s so much Jonathan hasn’t told you about himself, I’m sure, Ms Abe. Who he has killed, who he has sold his services to and for how much or how little. Or maybe he did tell you. You know, I take that back. He probably did tell you. Yes, I’m sure he did. He’s turned over a new leaf, after all. Yes, he’s turned over a new leaf these last hundred years. I’m sure he told you about the forty thousand acres of land in the Ohio Valley he took as payment for slaughtering an entire small tribe of Native Americans in the area. Men, women, babies. You won’t find their tribe name anywhere. They wouldn’t sign the treaty and so Jonathan completely erased them from history. That was in 1769, right Jonathan? I believe that was Franklin’s idea, wasn’t it? Clever man, Ben Franklin. So many, many instances like that. Some worse. Some not so much. Oh, there was that work he did for Jeff Davis at Chancellorsville. He told you about that, I’m sure.