The Good Kill

by Kurt Brindley

  “Take it easy, sweetie,” RJ said calmly. “We’re going to help you. Can you tell me where you’re injured? I think we need to get you to a hospital.”

  Toni lashed out at RJ, pushing her away. “No! No hospitals!” she screamed as she tried to get around RJ. “I need to find my sister.”

  RJ grabbed Toni by the shoulders and wrapped her up in a tight hug. “Killian,” she called out again as Toni struggled violently to free herself from RJ’s hold, “I really need you to get your shit together and help me out here.”

  Killian stood up slowly, reluctantly, his face puffy and tear-streaked. As he walked over to the women, Toni saw Killian for the first time, having not realized there was anyone else in the room. The sight of him made her even more frantic. Foggy images from last night’s scene down in Savage’s basement began clouding her mind. She vaguely remembered a large man all in black. She vaguely remembered a mask. She vaguely remembered a face. But she remembered vividly Savage’s hacked off head staring at her from upside down eyes. As Killian reached out to try to help RJ calm her down, she clawed at his face, her long, manicured nails raking away layers of its skin.

  “It’s you,” Toni screamed out. “You’re the monster who killed Mr. Savage.” The adrenaline of fear and anger pumped through her veins, making it impossible for her to be contained. She broke free from the two and ran toward the hatch.

  Killian, blood streaking down his face, rushed after her. He caught her by the waist in the passageway leading up to the root cellar and brought her kicking and thrashing back into the bunker. He set her down away from the hatch and then ran back out into the passageway, quickly dogging the hatch behind him. He then ran up to the open blast door, pulled it closed, and then spun the banker’s wheel until the fourteen-bolt locking system was fully engaged. He could hear RJ struggling with Toni against the hatch at the bottom of the passageway. He punched a code into a keypad next to the blast door’s frame, which activated the compression locks to fully secure the door from any form of physical penetration. He didn’t bother setting the vapor lock that would have, with a dramatic hissing of air as it engaged, set a seal around the door that would prevent the penetration of any chemical, biological, or radioactive airborne elements.

  He ran back down the passageway and undogged the hatch, opening it just enough so he could squeeze back inside and not give Toni any opportunity to try to escape through it. He then quickly dogged it shut behind him and then leaned back against it. “Okay,” he said breathing heavily, “no one is going anywhere for a while.”

  By now Toni was down in the entertainment section of the bunker on her hands and knees pulling up panels of the raised floor looking for a means of escape.

  Killian dug into his pants pocket and pulled out a plastic bag filled with pills. He held them out to Toni, as if he were trying to entice a wild lion with a steak. “Ma’am, if you calm down so we can help you, I’ll let you have one of these.”

  Toni looked back at Killian and froze at the sight of the pills, her body instantly craving them. She stared at the plastic bag for a moment and then, as if hypnotized, crawled over to the leather couch and obediently sat down.

  RJ snatched the pills from Killian’s hand and studied them. “What the fuck are these?” she demanded.

  “Some kind of opioid, probably,” Killian said. “My guess fentanyl. Baltimore has been flooded with it lately.”

  “Why do have them? Jesus, Killian. Where did you get them?” RJ asked quickly, desperately.

  Killian shook his head slowly. “Honestly, RJ… I don’t know. I didn’t even know I had them until right now when I found them in my pocket.”

  RJ, stunned, looked from the drugs to Killian. “What the fuck, Killian? Who the hell are you?”

  “I’ll tell you who he is, bitch,” Toni said standing back up. “He’s the mother fucker who murdered the man helping me find my sister.” With surprising quickness, she snatched the pills from RJ’s hand. “Now give me my damn drugs,” she said, and then immediately popped one of them into her mouth.

  RJ didn’t seem to notice. She just stared at Killian in disbelief. “What is she saying, Killian?” she said softly. “Is it true? Did you murder someone last night?”

  Killian’s eyes turned hard and the corner of his upper lip rose as if he were going to growl. “I didn’t murder anyone. I ridded this world of a piece of shit predatory sex trafficker. A beast who hooked vulnerable girls on drugs and then turned them into nothing more than his sexual slaves.”

  RJ thought back to the crosses hanging from the rafters. She didn’t need to ask him how many other predators he had eliminated. “So, ridding the world of sex traffickers has become your life’s mission? Is that what you were talking about after you had tried to...” She left the sentence unfinished and looked over at Toni sitting on the bed, clutching the bag of pills to her naked bosom as if they were a security blanket. She walked over to the haggard, desperate woman and sat down next to her.

  Toni leaned away from RJ, clutching the pills even tighter to her chest.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart,” RJ said. “No one is going to hurt you.” She picked the blanket up from the floor, placed it carefully around Toni’s shoulders, and then hugged her. Looking back at Killian she asked, “So how does she fit into all this?”

  All the hate and venom dissipated from Killian. He shook his head as if he were dazed. “I... I don’t know,” he said. “She wasn’t supposed to be there. In all the time I spent profiling the guy he never brought any of his girls back to his house.” He wheeled a chair out from a computer terminal and collapsed down into it.

  RJ thought he was going to start crying again. But he didn’t. He just sat there staring off into space.

  “And then what?” RJ insisted. “When you realized she was there, what did you do to her? Why is she covered in blood?”

  Toni looked at RJ indignantly. “If you’re going to talk about me, use my name, bitch. It’s Toni. And I’m covered in blood because that madman over there threw me to the floor, a floor covered in blood from the man who’s head he had just chopped off.”

  RJ looked at Toni as if she had just spoken in an alien language, unable to imagine Killian ever being able to do what had just been described.

  Toni continued. “And just because you murdered Mr. Savage, you sick mother fucker, doesn’t mean someone else won’t be coming after me. I’m worth a lot of money to someone, and these fuckers don’t like it at all when someone fucks with their investment.”

  “What do you mean investment?” RJ asked. “Are you saying someone...”

  “Bought me?” Toni said, finishing the sentence RJ was unable to finish. “Yeah. I’m owned now, just like a piece of property. And whoever it is I now belong to, I can damn sure tell you that they are going to be coming around soon to claim their property.”

  “But why? How?” RJ wasn’t sure what questions to ask, or how much she even wanted to know.

  “Girl, you don’t really want to know,” Toni said as if reading RJ’s thoughts. “In fact, it’s better for you if you don’t.”

  “But we have to do something.” She looked at Killian and, speaking on his behalf, said, “We want to help you.” She took Toni’s hand. “We have to help you.”

  “No, we’re not doing anything. It’s over,” Killian said with resolve. “I’m taking her to the hospital and then I’m turning myself in.” He stood up and walked over to Toni. “I’m sorry for what I did to you.”

  Toni laughed. “You think you’re the one responsible for what happened to me? Sorry. I know you think you’re some white superhero mother fucker on some mission to save all us poor colored people from ourselves, but I didn’t need to be saved. I wasn’t there because I was oppressed by my color or by my place in life. I was there because I chose to be there. My sister went missing and for me to find her, I had to become this, some drugged out whore. It was the only way I knew how to find her, doing what I had to do to get on the inside, to gain the tru
st of the one man who could help me.” She held out her arms, showing them the needle marks. “And it was working, too. Until you came along and fucked everything up.”

  Killian looked away from Toni to the floor. “I’m sorry,” he again said lamely.

  Toni seemed to lose whatever strength she had. The tears came. “Sorry? Your sorry doesn’t mean shit to me. All I sacrificed...” She held out the bag and shook the pills at him. “All I’ve become has been wasted because of you. Now, I’ll never find my sister.” She leaned onto RJ’s shoulder and cried.

  RJ tried to comfort her, promising her that she and Killian were going to help her find her sister.

  “No way, damn it,” Killian said, still staring at the floor. “I will not let you get yourself mixed up in this mess I created. I will not ruin your life, too.”

  “You self-righteous bastard,” RJ said through her teeth as she gently rocked Toni against her shoulder. “You think, just because things didn’t work out as you planned that you can just give up? You think you can decide whether I can offer my help to help fix something you fucked up? I’m sorry, Killian, but you don’t have that kind of power over me. The only thing you get to determine is whether you’re going to man up and help me unfuck this mess you created or not.”

  RJ pulled Toni closer and stroked her hair soothingly, trying to settle the wild, loose afro into place as she gave Killian a stern look. “Now here’s what’s going to happen, Killian,” she said with decisive authority. “You’re going to hop in that truck of yours and head on over to…” She paused to consider something. “Hold on.” She shoved her free hand into her right front pants pocket. “Since we don’t know how long this will keep me from my business, I’ll need you to take my truck back for me and park it in front of the garage. I don’t need anyone thinking I’ve abandoned the place and try to clean me out.”

  Instead of pulling out the keys for the tow truck from her pocket, she pulled out the magnetic case, the purpose of her being there. She stared at it momentarily as if she had never seen it before and then tossed it carelessly onto the couch behind her back. She then shifted Toni around to her other shoulder so she could reach her other pocket. After digging out the keys, she tossed them to Killian. “Your Demon’s out front in the lot all ready to go. The keys for it are hanging on the board behind the counter in the reception area. The key to the reception area door is on the keyring I just gave you. After you pick up your car, you haul ass over to Walmart and buy this beautiful young woman here some clothes, comfortable stuff like sweat pants, a loose sweatshirt, socks, sneakers, underwear, bra…” RJ looked down at Toni and studied her figure. “My, you are a lovely one aren’t you, honey. You’re what, a 34C? D?”

  When Toni didn’t answer RJ looked back to Killian. “Better buy her both a 34C and D, just to play it safe. I’ll take her to get some real clothes after we get things figured out. Anyway, you buy all that and then you’re going to come straight back here. Got that?” She didn’t wait for a response. “While you’re gone, I’m going to take Toni up to the house so she can take a nice hot shower and get something to eat.” She paused to give Killian a skeptical look. “You do have food, right? I mean, the last time I was over you didn’t have hardly a thing.”

  Killian shook his head. “No, there’s not much to eat up there. Besides, your best bet would be to just stay here anyway. It’s got all the accommodations, plus a lot more food…” he looked around the compound, “not to mention much better security.”

  RJ’s eyes followed Killian’s around the bunker. “I don’t know. Being this far underground, this place feels like it’s closing in on me. But you’re probably right. Best to just lay low here until we figure out what our next move is. But I can tell you one thing right now, Lebon, whatever our next move is, it won’t involve you turning yourself in to the cops because you are going to help us find Toni’s sister.”

  Before Killian left to follow through on RJ’s orders, he led her to the operations area and powered up the bunker’s surveillance system. He then briefly explained to her what sector of the farm was being displayed on each of the system’s four monitors’ six-paneled split screens. Just about every inch of the farm and its structures were covered, including large portions of the field, the entrance and exit points of the trail through the eastern portion of the forest, as well as key segments of the roads that ran along the farm’s eastern and southern boundaries. He set it up so that the system would alarm when any of the cameras’s motion detectors were triggered.

  “Okay, so the motion detection alarms will start going off when I leave,” he said as if he were briefing her for a mission. “They can be cleared and reset individually at the keyboard, but since we don’t have time to get into how to do that, you can clear and reset them all at once right here.” He pointed to two toggle switches located on a desk panel next to the camera monitors that was busy with other similar buttons and switches. “The first switch will disable and reset all the audible alarms, the second will do the same for all the visual alarms.”

  RJ was impressed. “Jesus, Killian. Paranoid much? It’s like a CIA Black Site down here. I’m surprised you don’t have a feed from a drone patrolling overhead.”

  “Got one,” Killian said flatly. “Up in the cupola of the barn. It’s just not launched. We also have the capability to monitor camera feeds from smart phones, headset cameras, dashboard cameras, whatever. This place has its own T1 line coming into it so as long as you have a camera that can connect to the internet and you know the IP address for the surveillance system’s network, you’re in.”

  RJ shook her head in disbelief as she studied all the images on the screens. She then turned back to him and said, “So, where is it?”

  “Where is what? The drone?” Killian said sounding annoyed by the question. “Like I said, it’s up in the cupola. The place has been converted into—”

  “No, not the drone.” RJ said interrupting him. “The arsenal. As decked out as this prepper’s wet dream of a bunker is, there must be one hell of an arsenal stashed away somewhere in here.”

  Killian ignored the question and said, “Just keep an eye on things while I’m gone.” He then turned to leave.

  “Wait a minute, Kill,” RJ said, grabbing him by the arm. “You’ve got to tell me why. Why in the hell would you build something like this? What are you afraid of?”

  Killian looked hard at RJ and then down at her hand on his arm. Not liking what she saw in his eyes, she quickly let him go. “Sorry,” she said. “I was just wondering.”

  Killian continued to glare at RJ for a moment before looking away and closing his eyes. After taking in a deep breath and letting it out, he turned back to her. His features had softened and the anger was gone from the eyes. “You were right when you mentioned paranoia earlier,” he said. “It’s exactly why this place was built. Because of an extreme and dangerous paranoia.” He turned and began walking toward the hatch. “But not mine,” he said without looking back. “My father’s.”

  RJ stood and followed him to the hatch. “Jesus, Killian. I had no idea your father had become so…” She paused to look around the bunker while searching for an answer. “Well, I don’t know what he became, but Diego still saw him from time to time and occasionally I’d hear from him about how your dad was becoming more and more influential throughout the DC circles. Maybe the politics of it all got to him?”

  Killian stepped halfway through the hatch and paused. Straddling it, he sighed heavily and said, “Yeah, I think that’s exactly it. The politics of it all. You know, ever since my mom died…” He leaned back against the hatch’s metal frame and closed his eyes briefly. “Well, I guess without her my old man no longer had a rudder to guide him. He became lost without her. Lost interest in everything he once loved, his farm, cars, all the things that had kept him grounded, you know.” He looked at RJ with clear eyes. “The only thing that mattered to him anymore was his business. He became obsessed with it. Just about that same time, the field of
cyber security began to blow up. The more his business grew, the richer he became, the more he wanted more. I think the only reason he stayed so focused on me, on my education, was that to him I was nothing more than another means to further his ambition – I was the one who would carry his legacy into the future. And when I decided to join the navy after 9/11, when I could no longer be regarded as an asset for him, well, long story short, what little relationship we had left at the time ended.”

  RJ stepped closer to him and took gentle hold of his left hand in both of hers. “Hey, Kill, I’m so sorry. I had no idea that’s how things ended up between you and your father. All I have are the fond memories from when you and I… from when we were younger. Things between you and your father seemed so loving then.” She looked back over her shoulder at Toni who was still wrapped in a blanket on the couch, lost once again in another fentanyl high. “When this is all over here,” she said comfortingly, “maybe we can talk about your father’s death. I don’t know much about it other than what Diego told me; plus, I think it could do you a lot of good, too.”

  Killian sniffed sharply, as if waking from a spell. He then shrugged indifferently. “What more is there to talk about? Seems somehow my father managed to get himself into something shady. He’s a cyber guy. Maybe he, or his firm, hacked their way into something ugly, got too close to something politically explosive, I don’t know. Could be anything in such crazy, divisive times as these. But whatever it was, I’m certain it’s what got him killed.”

  “Politically explosive? You really think your father was murdered over politics?” RJ asked in disbelief.

  “I don’t know, RJ. Politics, organized crime, insider trading, who knows. The higher you get up the food chain, and my father was pretty high up there, the higher the stakes get. Whatever it was, it had him scared shitless.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because just before he got killed, on the same day as a matter of fact, he called me up in a panic just before I was about to go on a mission, my last mission, talking crazy shit, saying he discovered something big and that I needed to come home to help him. Obviously I couldn’t.”