Organ Reapers

by West, Shay

  “It certainly looks more like a wash basin we’re used to seeing.”

  “Wonder what that knob does?” she asked.

  “What are the two of you doing?”

  Tani and Keena stood quickly. Tani withered under the gaze of Mrs. McCready. She no longer looked warm and inviting. If Tani had to guess, he’d have to say she looked disgusted. She had a small plate of food that she set down on the edge of the strange contraption that held hot water.

  “I asked what you are doing. We don’t allow drugs here and if you are one of those who eats and then throws up, you can just leave right now.”

  “We’ve never seen one of these before,” Keena blurted out.

  The old woman blinked slowly and crossed her arms over her chest. “How can you not have seen one of these before?”

  Keena looked at Tani, but he didn’t know what to say.

  Mrs. McCready’s face looked anything but warm and inviting. “I want to know who you are and what you were doing in front of the toilet.”

  What is a toilet?

  “We’re from far away and we are used to different rooms than this,” Tani stammered, hoping he sounded convincing.

  “Think I was born yesterday? There’s nowhere in this country you could be from where you wouldn’t know what that was.” She pointed to the toilet.

  Suddenly her eyes narrowed. ”Your clothes...” She turned and exited the room.

  “What do we do?” Keena asked.

  Tani left the bathroom and followed the sound of Mrs. McCready’s voice. She was speaking very fast and sounded frightened and angry at the same time. Tani noticed she had something next to her ear.

  “What is she doing?”

  Tani shook his head. “She’s speaking to someone, but I don’t see anyone. Maybe the thing in her hand is somehow alive?”

  Mrs. McCready came into the cot room and came straight for them. “I’ve called the authorities. No sense trying to run. You two will stick out like sore thumbs, so they’ll get you eventually.”

  Tani noticed she carried a knife in one hand and the contraption she had been speaking to in the other. He didn’t have to know much to figure out she’d somehow gotten in touch with the Enforcers of this world.

  “We don’t want trouble,” he said as he grabbed his knapsack from the cot.

  Keena followed suit and did the same, her eyes wide in her pale face. Tani grabbed her hand and turned to run.

  He’d forgotten about the rows of cots and nearly tripped over one containing a large sleeping man. He ran for the door, ignoring Mrs. McCready’s shout to stop.

  At her cry, several sleeping forms sat up, rubbing their eyes, wondering what the commotion was about. When they caught sight of the two strangers running through their midst, they stood, as though unsure what to do.

  “Stop them!” she yelled.

  Tani felt arms grab his knapsack. He lunged forward, hoping to throw whoever had grabbed him off-balance, but he was held fast. Keena shrieked from behind him. Tani turned—she was struggling against a large man who had her in his grip.

  “Easy there, little lady. I won’t hurt you. Just stop fighting me.”

  Keena bit him on the hand. The man bellowed and dropped her. She hit the floor like a sack of potatoes. She scrabbled on the cement floor, trying to regain her footing. Tani struggled against the arms holding him, urging Keena to get to her feet and run!

  Someone else grabbed her by the feet. A second man held her arms down, pinning her to the floor. Tani stopped moving. The arms that held him fast wouldn’t budge. His captor was smart enough not to have his arms near Tani’s mouth.

  “What they done, Missus?”

  Mrs. McCready looked triumphant as she pointed to Keena and Tani with the knife.

  “I think we just caught the people the cops have been looking for. The ones they call the Butcher.”

  CHAPTER 21

  ELI PINCHED the bridge of his nose. “Okay, Charlie, tell me that again, but try using words actual people know.”

  Charlie rolled his eyes. “Okay. I took your guy’s DNA and ran it through CODIS. Nothing came up. On a hunch, I ran his DNA through a program that researchers use to match DNA ethnically for experiments. My wife works for a lab that uses this software all the time.” He held up his hands when Eli looked annoyed. “Anyway, I took his DNA and ran it in this special software. It came up as not matching anything in the database.” He was perched on the edge of his chair.

  “And that means what exactly?”

  Charlie groaned and slouched in his chair. “You really aren’t getting this? His DNA doesn’t match any known ethnic sequences. You would match African-American sequences more so than Asians or Caucasians. Ava here would better match Latino populations. This Satrick fellow should match one of the Caucasian populations. But he doesn’t. Not even close.” He raised his eyebrows and held up his hands.

  Eli went cold. Satrick looked like any typical white person with dark brown hair and light brown eyes. There was nothing to suggest that he was anything other than someone of European descent.

  “You’re telling me that his DNA profile has nothing in common with any Caucasians?”

  Charlie looked smug. “I’m telling you that he doesn’t match any ethnicity on this planet.”

  “It’s not possible...”

  “Oh, it’s possible. I ran the test several times just to be sure. That’s why it took so long to get back to you.”

  “What about the tests on the food he had with him?” Ava asked.

  “Still waiting on that. I handed it over to the local university. Figured it would be a fun project for budding researchers. I told the professor in charge that this was part of a murder investigation, so hopefully they’ll have something within the week.”

  Eli leaned back in the chair and put his hands behind his head. This new information rocked him; and he didn’t like to be rocked like this. In his world, the perps left a trail of evidence that he followed, eventually putting two and two together and catching the bad guys. The perps did what they did for predictable, if sinister, reasons, but it was all part of what was normal for him.

  Nothing about this case made sense, nothing at all.

  “Charlie, have you told anyone else about this?” Ava asked.

  “Only my wife. I had to have her check my work to make sure I hadn’t screwed something up royally. The last time I ran the guy’s DNA, she did all the work and confirmed everything I just told you.”

  “Did she have any theories to explain this?” Eli asked.

  “None that you’ll want to hear.”

  “Try me.”

  “Most of the ideas are preposterous, okay? Just keep that in mind.” Charlie put up his hand and counted on his fingers as he listed them off one by one. “He is genetically engineered like Kahn, time traveler like the Doctor, from another planet—”

  “You’re right, those are ludicrous,” Eli said. “And what the heck does time travel have to do with doctors?”

  Charlie laughed.

  “The ideas may be out there, but it’s not like we have anything better,” Ava said.

  “The genetically-engineered theory isn’t so far out there, not like the other two. If places can add genes in to our food, can’t they do some weird stuff to people?” Eli asked.

  Charlie shrugged. ”Probably. But my guess is it would be awfully hard to do. Working on human beings is a lot harder than plants. Besides, genetically modified food only has one gene, maybe a few at most, that are changed. To alter a human being’s DNA to the point that it no longer matches anything in the databases?” Charlie shook his head. “Seems pretty impossible.”

  “Still, what if the military was messing around with genetic engineering and their little group of soldiers got loose and is going crazy killing people?”

  “But why steal their organs?” Ava asked.

  “Maybe their ‘programming’ went wrong,” Eli said as he did air quotes.

  “If this is something the
military was in on, we’ll probably never know. You really think they’ll own up to it after all this?” Charlie asked.

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “I’ll talk to my wife and ask her the likelihood of being able to give someone a whole different genetic sequence. But I have a feeling it’s not going to be easy, even for the military,” Charlie said.

  Eli stood. “Let us know when you find out anything about the food in Satrick’s pack.”

  “You really think it’s the military?” Ava asked.

  He wanted to answer yes right away, but he hesitated. On the surface it seemed to fit, but his instincts were telling him there was something more to Satrick’s DNA not matching any known ethnicity on planet Earth than a military experiment gone awry.

  “Your hesitation tells me you don’t believe it any more than I do.”

  “Maybe not, but it gives us something to move forward with. I can’t go to the captain and tell him about time travelers or aliens from outer space. Someone that’s been genetically engineered is something we can wrap our minds around.”

  “Still sounds a little far-fetched.”

  “Everything about this case is far-fetched. Not one piece of evidence makes any sense. We have killers who are either identical twins killing in different countries or we have the same person somehow able to travel to distant countries in the blink of an eye, their clothing looks like it came from medieval times, they steal organs and disappear without a trace. Satrick mentioned something about priests, which makes me very nervous, and now we learn that their DNA is like nothing on this planet.”

  Ava blinked slowly. “When you put it like that, it all does sound completely bizarre. But what about the military angle? Come on, if anyone has access to futuristic technology, they would.”

  “But this sounds too complicated, even for them.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I bet they have all sorts of crazy weapons that we couldn’t begin to imagine.” Ava gave him that sideways smile of hers. “But you’re not buying it.”

  “Nope. Not buying it at all.”

  “Then what do you think’s happening?”

  “I honestly don’t know. But I’m going to work like hell to find out.”

  ***

  Tani begged Keena not to resist as they were forced from the shelter and out into the street. It was difficult to walk with his hands fastened behind his back. There were more of those strange contraptions, with flashing blue and red lights, surrounding the building. Men and women wearing blue uniforms of some sort stood staring as he and Keena were brought out. Their eyes held anger. Tani cringed against the man walking behind him.

  Suddenly Keena screamed out and thrashed against the man trying to put her into the conveyance. He shouted to her to relax, that everything was going to be okay, but she was in full panic mode and he could tell his words were doing nothing to calm her fears.

  “What the hell’s wrong with her?” The man forced Tani to turn around.

  “She’s scared of your contraption.”

  “Contraption? You mean the patrol cars?”

  “Yes.”

  The man gave him a strange look. “Hasn’t she ever been in a car before?”

  “No. Neither have I.”

  The man rolled his eyes and spoke into a device attached to his shoulder. “Looks like we got us a couple of dope fiends. Something hallucinogenic, maybe PCP. They’ll come clean after a couple days of detox.”

  Tani had no idea what the man was talking about.

  The Enforcer managed to get Keena into the conveyance. He slammed the door and she continued to thrash around for a moment. Then she sat still as stone, slowly rocking back and forth, staring down at her feet. Tani wanted to go to her, hold her, protect her, but he was being forced into the body of another contraption and told to watch his head.

  The door slammed shut and all was silent. He turned to get a look at Keena, but all he could see was the top of her head. One Enforcer had both of their packs and loaded them into a brown bag of some sort before handing the package over to yet another Enforcer. Tani had never seen so many in one place.

  Two men in blue uniforms got into the conveyance in front of Tani. The one on Tani’s left turned something and the machine roared to life. Tani could feel it vibrating. He listened for the hiss of steam, but there was nothing but a rumbling coming from the front. The Enforcer on Tani’s right pushed buttons on a small device located between the two men. The man on the left gripped a black wheel and when he moved his hands, the contraption began to move, slowly at first, but gaining speed.

  Tani’s breath hissed between clenched teeth. The steam conveyances on his world could not go nearly this fast; in fact they moved slower than a galloping horse. He thought a horse would never be able to catch up to this conveyance.

  He turned and the contraption carrying Keena was right behind them. She still sat with her head down. Tani faced front again and tried to focus on what was to come. He didn’t know anything about the punishments in this world. It was entirely possible he and Keena would be put to death before they could find a way to shut down the gateways. The thought of dying scared him, even though he’d been taught from a young age that death was nothing to fear, that when a person died they were taken up into the home of the gods, there to reside for all eternity.

  Yet he didn’t want to die, especially not on a world of strangers with terrifying machines that sped through an even more terrifying landscape of metal and darkness. We have to tell someone who we really are.

  Instinct told Tani to keep quiet and observe for now, that the time wasn’t right to speak of who he was and where he and Keena came from. Telling these strangers the truth went against everything he’d been taught at the monastery. Secrecy was necessary, the priests always said, never let them see you, and never tell them anything if you are caught.

  To Tani’s knowledge no one had ever been caught. Or if they had, the priests kept it very quiet. Still, Tani thought he would notice if a fellow Harvester suddenly stopped showing up for meals or training.

  The conveyance pulled into the mouth of a tall building. Tani wondered if it was some sort of monster that was going to eat him. The Enforcers didn’t seem nervous, and anything that happened to the conveyance was going to happen to them as well. Unless they take me out and feed me to it.

  The contraption pulled next to another that looked just like it. The Enforcers exited and opened the door to the back where Tani sat waiting for his punishment.

  “Please, I don’t want to die, I’ll do anything,” he babbled before he could control his tongue.

  “Who said anything about dying?” the Enforcer asked, turning to face his partner. “This kid’s high as a kite.”

  “High or not, he’s a damn killer and he’ll most likely be put to death. Just not today.”

  Tani’s bowels turned to water. They know I’m a Harvester! He would have to tread very carefully. He wondered how they would torture him. The rack? Drawing and quartering, perhaps? Each idea was more painful and horrifying than the last.

  The conveyance carrying Keena arrived. The Enforcers pulled her from the vehicle. She still refused to look up. Tani tried to move closer, but the man that held tight to his fastenings didn’t allow him to budge.

  “All right, you two, let’s go.”

  Tani was pushed ahead of the Enforcer that spoke. He listened to the man talking behind him, trying to get an idea of what was going to happen to him and Keena once they entered the building. He was certain it was going to be far worse than anything his imagination could conjure up.

  The Enforcers walked toward a wall. Tani couldn’t see any doorway or even a handle. One of the men in blue pushed a button on the wall and part of the wall slid open to reveal a hidden chamber. They all piled into the tiny room.

  The same man pushed another button and suddenly the room moved. Tani and Keena stumbled against their captors, their ears unused to balancing while the floor w
as moving.

  “These two are gonna have a helluva time detoxing if they can’t even stand up in the elevator,” one of the men said after helping Tani regain his balance.

  At least I know what this is called now. The elevator doors opened and Tani was pushed forward into a room teeming with Enforcers. Though not all of them were dressed in the blue uniforms, they still carried themselves with authority. The same looks of anger and disgust met them in this new place. Tani hung his head in shame, though he wanted to shout at these people that he had only done what he was supposed to do. Surely the fact that he and Keena had changed their minds and refused to ever Harvest again should count for something.

  “Put ‘em in a holding cell. Robins and Aguilar will want to question them,” one of the Enforcers said.

  Another Enforcer took him and Keena to an area where one wall was nothing but bars. Tani noticed someone asleep on a bench along one wall. There was another of the strange basins like the one he had seen in the bathroom of the shelter. The metal confinement devices were removed and the door slammed shut behind them.

  Tani took Keena’s hand and led her to a bench opposite the sleeping man. He sat next to her, still holding her hand. Tani couldn’t say how long they sat in that cage, but his stomach grumbled and his bladder became more insistent as the minutes passed. Tani didn’t see anything that resembled a chamber pot anywhere. His eyes rested on the strange water basin against the wall.

  Maybe that is its purpose?

  Tani blushed when he noticed all the people walking around the cage. Back on his world, relieving oneself was something done in private. He wasn’t sure he would be able to do anything with all of the people watching.

  The need to empty his bladder became unbearable. It was either ask where a chamber pot was, assume the basin was for that purpose, or allow his bladder to empty on its own and be stuck in wet clothing.

  Rather than ask the Enforcers, Tani chose to ask the other occupant of their cage. He stood above the sleeping form and cleared his throat. When that did nothing, he gently shook the man’s shoulder.

  “Wha, wha’s happenin’?” The man rolled over and blinked a few times before covering his eyes.