Lost Angel

by Kyle West

  “Go ahead,” he said. “I’m confident that once you find those bodies everything will be exactly as I said.”

  Makara shook her head doubtfully, but Raine was going to give his brother a chance.

  “Will you come peacefully?”

  Ohlan beamed an artificial smile. “Of course.”

  Chapter 27

  OHLAN WAS PROMPTLY locked in a cell. After surveying the damage of the bomb, Raine tasked his security force with finding the culprits. All of them mentioned the same four men that seemed to have disappeared from the mall, all of whom were new to the mall. Presumably, they were well on their way north back to Reaper territory.

  Raine gave Dan thirty men and five vehicles, tasking him to find the escapees while checking out the site of Ohlan’s fight, and to take copious notes on it. He told Dan everything Ohlan had said, and Dan assured Raine he’d get to the bottom of it.

  Once Dan was gone, and the cleanup of the explosion underway, Raine sat behind his desk, shut the door, and reached for the bottle of whiskey he rarely had need of. He poured himself a double, swirling it and inhaling the fumes. He took a sip, then more than a sip, and leaned back, letting the fire burn his throat.

  For his first drink in five years, it tasted damn good.

  There was a knock at the door, ruining the moment. Raine downed the glass, coughed, and put the bottle back in the drawer. After taking a swig of water, he called out. “Come in.”

  Darlene Sanders stepped in, her green eyes worried behind her glasses. “Bad time?”

  Raine shook his head. “What’s the damage?”

  “Not as bad as we initially thought. No deaths, though a couple of men are in critical condition. We got the supplies to treat them.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Rest of the injuries are relatively minor. Most can be sent home by the end of the day.”

  “What’s it like out there?”

  Darlene took a seat. “People are scared. Rumors flying around that there are more bombs.”

  Raine shook his head. “I doubt that, if my brother’s to be believed.”

  “People are saying he did it.”

  In her eyes was the unspoken question. Did he?

  “I don’t know what to think, Darlene.”

  He shortly told her Ohlan’s version of things, and his own thoughts about it.

  “It just doesn’t make sense for him to come back if he’s guilty,” Raine finished.

  “Maybe he’s counting on you thinking that,” Darlene said. “Your brother’s a wily one.”

  Raine hadn’t considered that option. “I just don’t know what to think.” He turned up to Darlene. “What would you do?”

  Her nose wrinkled. “Is that liquor I smell?”

  Raine mentally prepared himself for her beratement. “No.”

  But Darlene surprised him by smiling slyly. “What the hell. Pour me a glass, if you got any.”

  Raine blinked, but ended up reaching into the drawer, pulling out another high ball glass and the still half-full bottle of whiskey.”

  “Mr. Jack Daniels,” Darlene said. “Haven’t had a taste of you since the Chaos Years.”

  “Sounds like you knew him well,” Raine said, pouring her a double as well.

  She held up her hands, indicating it was enough. “Too well. Hard to be an alcoholic these days. At first there was a lot of free booze. Not so much these days. You’d think after 99 percent of the population died, there’d be plenty left over for the rest of us.”

  Darlene tilted her head back and shot down the whole thing in just a few seconds. She slammed the glass back on the desk.

  “That’s the stuff,” she said, chuckling. “I think I’m equipped to give you my opinion, now.”

  “I feel like I know what you’re going to say, but I’ll hear it anyway.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” Darlene said.

  “I’m ready.”

  “I think your brother’s a lying son-of-a-bitch.” She paused. “No offense to your mother.”

  “None taken,” he said. “We have different mothers.”

  “Oh,” Darlene said. “That’s right, I forgot that. I think he’s lying but not in the way you think he is.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re right about him coming back. Doesn’t make sense if he’s truly betrayed you. Like I said earlier, it could just be a gamble on his part, him thinking you’ll think he wouldn’t do that if he was guilty.”

  “I . . . follow that. I think.”

  “I don’t think he’s betrayed you, Raine, as hard as that is to believe. You did right in sending Dan to check things out. Saw him leaving on my way here. That man will do a very thorough job. We won’t truly know until he comes back.” Darlene thought as she considered. “In the meantime, though, I think all this is a little too intricate, even for Ohlan. I can see him playing the double-double agent, but add another double in there and it gets to be a bit much.”

  That was how Raine felt. “I have to be sure, though. Hopefully Dan will come back with something definitive.”

  “In my opinion, we need to raise our priority on blocking all the entrances we don’t plan on guarding 24/7.” She eyed him appraisingly. “I’d talk to that daughter of yours. She probably knows this place better than anybody.”

  “I can’t encourage her behavior,” Raine said.

  “Why not?” Darlene asked. “She’ll be willful, no matter what you tell her, Raine. Might as well use it to your advantage.”

  Darlene had a point there. Raine had to admit that.

  “Guess all there is to do is wait for Dan to get back, then.”

  Darlene nodded. “Just wait. I should head back to the clinic.”

  Darlene rose to go.

  “One more thing,” Raine said.

  Darlene paused, and Raine reached for his drawer, and held out the bottle.

  “I’ll forgive myself, because today’s been rough,” he said. “I need you to keep this away from me.”

  Darlene looked at him, and then gave a bark of laughter. “It’s like you’re asking another robber to guard the key to the vault.” She shook her head. “Keep it, Raine. We’re all allowed our lapses. As long as our lapses don’t define us.”

  Darlene turned to go, closing the door behind her. Raine sat in there a while, continuing to think.

  Chapter 28

  MAKARA LAY DOWN IN her tiny bed, throwing a bouncy ball she had found in the arcade downstairs off the ceiling repeatedly. Samuel looked over, annoyed, finally closing the book Makara had found him in the Macy’s, using a finger to mark his spot.

  “Do you mind?”

  Makara threw the ball once more, and wondered whether she should throw it again. She did.

  Samuel sighed. “I know you’re mad, but now you’re just being immature.”

  Makara set up, ready to let loose her ire. “So, what if I am? Raine should’ve shot that lying piece of trash on the spot.”

  Samuel shook his head, getting his long brown hair out of his eyes. He desperately needed a haircut.

  “We’ll find out his guilt soon enough,” he replied, coolly. “Besides, if he’d shot him on the spot, we’d still be cleaning up the mess in here.”

  Makara ignored the joke, or perhaps she was so rattled she hadn’t even recognized it. “I know he’s guilty. He bombed the market. It could’ve been you or me, Samuel. Doesn’t that just make your blood boil?”

  “If it was Ohlan,” Samuel said, drily, “he had help. They’re hunting down the ones responsible right now. Ohlan will have his trial, probably a week from now.”

  Makara growled in frustration. “I wish I was the judge.”

  Samuel, despite himself, chuckled at that. “Sorry. Dr. Klein will be presiding, if rumors are true.”

  Makara’s mouth twisted distastefully. “I spent more time with him than I care to think about. The man’s a dreadful bore.”

  “Is he the same one who helped you process things?”


  Makara nodded. She didn’t want to be reminded of that.

  “I should see him myself,” Samuel said, quietly.

  Makara looked at him, her anger ebbing. “You okay?”

  Samuel pushed the book away, all hope of reading it gone. Samuel thought in his slow, ponderous way.

  “Can I function from day to day? Sure. Do I like functioning day to day?” Samuel shook his head. “Not really, no.”

  “I still think about it, too,” Makara admitted, after a drawn silence. “Dream about it.”

  Samuel nodded, to show he was the same, too.

  “I hate him so much.”

  Samuel rolled his eyes. “You can’t stop thinking about Ohlan, can you?”

  “He did it, Sam. I know he did.”

  “You just don’t know how to think rationally yet,” he said, in a superior tone. “You’re still just a kid.”

  “So are you!” Makara said, feeling her anger explode again.

  Samuel smirked. “This is how things are done in the adult world, Makara. People get a trial and a fair shake. You can’t just kill people because you think they’re lying.”

  “I don’t think. I know.”

  “Okay,” Samuel said. “What if someone told you that they knew Raine was lying about something, and that he should die for it?”

  “I’d say they’re wrong, because Raine is a good man.”

  “All right,” Samuel said. “But this person knows. They know, Makara, the same way you know about Ohlan right now.” He paused, to wait and see if she understood.

  Makara did understand, or at least she thought she did.

  “That’s a bad example,” she said, lamely.

  “The point still stands,” Samuel said. “Maybe he’s guilty. We won’t know for sure until Dan comes back with the evidence. If Ohlan is telling the truth, not a boot will be out of place where he killed Cyrus and his men.”

  “Then a boot will be out of place, because I know that man’s guilty.”

  Samuel rolled his eyes, and sighed.

  Chapter 29

  IT TOOK SO LONG FOR Dan Green to return that Makara was starting to get worried. Not so much about him, personally, though she liked him. She was worried there would be no one to bring a case against Ohlan.

  Anytime she had a spare moment, she went to the viewing deck on the mall’s top floor and watched for his return. One day, to her surprise, the convoy actually did come back.

  When Dan came in, he did not look happy. Makara was quick to accost him as something of a crowd started to gather.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Dan ignored her. Several guards cleared a path for him as he marched his way directly to Raine’s office in the command center.

  Makara trailed behind like a dog hoping for a crumb. She followed them all the way to the department where Raine’s office was, but the guards wouldn’t let her in.

  She went her usual way around through the grocery store but was shocked to find it all boarded up.

  She let out a long sigh. “Shucks.”

  DAN GREEN STOOD SILENTLY and at attention in front of Raine. Raine watched him, waiting for Dan to begin his report.

  “You know, you don’t have to act like that,” Raine said, after a long pause. “All official and shit.”

  Dan relaxed, if only just slightly.

  “What’s your report, Dan?” Raine asked.

  Dan cleared his throat and hesitated a moment. At a look from Raine, he began. “We found the site. It was at the corner of Cherry and Artesia, as Ohlan said. Everything was how he’d described it.”

  “That clears him, then,” Raine said.

  “All the men had the Reapers’ scythes tatted somewhere on their arms. The exception was one man, whom we’re assuming to be Cyrus. That’s common, for their agents to have no obvious markers. Despite investigating the site for a full two days, we found no way to identify each individual.”

  “What’re you saying, Dan ?”

  “They’re Reapers, all right,” Dan said. “There’s just no evidence that they’re the right Reapers.”

  “Dan,” Raine said.

  Raine stiffened again, and kept his blue eyes forward.

  “Thank you for your honesty.”

  Dan nodded. “I’ll always tell you the truth, Raine. Even when it’s not the truth I want.”

  “So, in your estimation, Ohlan is telling the truth, with the possibility that these Reapers are just some other group they happened upon that they’re trying to pass off Cyrus’ group?”

  Dan nodded. “That’s a possibility. Of course, if that’s true, it means Ohlan is lying and that he knew about the bombing already.”

  “What is the likelihood of that happening?” Raine asked.

  Dan thought for a moment. “Not too likely, in my opinion. Ohlan was gone for half the day. The odds of them finding a Reaper patrol closely matching his story would be pretty low.”

  “Unless Ohlan found the patrol first, and then made his story to match.”

  Dan shrugged. “Yeah, that’s possible.”

  “But you don’t believe he’s lying.”

  Dan paused. “I don’t trust him, Raine. His story is convoluted and seems unlikely on the surface. But everything is as he said it would be. I don’t think we can pin him with this.” Dan looked at him intently. “Of course, you’re the boss. If you feel like he can’t be trusted . . .”

  Raine leaned back, looking down at his desk’s bottom drawer. It would be nice right now to break out the Jack and have a drink while he mulled things over. He resisted the urge and refocused on Dan standing before him.

  “Between you and me, I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do,” Raine said. “Not enough evidence to convict, and yet even I don’t fully trust him.” Raine let out a sigh. “At the same time, he does have his uses. Almost all our information about the Reapers’ comes from him.”

  “He could be playing us,” Dan said. “But like you said, this might just be how he operates.”

  “It is,” Raine said. “His isn’t a coveted role. By God, though, it’s a useful one.”

  RAINE WENT DOWN TO the security wing on the bottom floor of the mall. It had a few holding cells originally built in, Raine supposed, as a place to hold shoplifters until the real authorities could take care of them.

  It was in the center of these three cells where Ohlan waited, his pale white hands wrapped around the bars. His icy blue eyes seemed to float in the darkness, and his slight smirk gave Raine the creeps.

  “Well?” his voice came, gravelly.

  “Dan didn’t find anything that incriminates you,” Raine said.

  There was a moment’s pause. “Really now? That’s interesting. I suppose I never really did give him a fair shake.”

  Raine nodded toward the prison guard, who came to unlock Ohlan’s cell.

  “No trial?” his brother asked, as he stepped outside.

  Raine shook his head. “I have a couple of conditions.”

  Ohlan gestured, to show he was ready to hear them.

  “You’re to let me in on everything you know. Otherwise, you can go right back in that cell. Kevin Klein would judge you in that case.”

  “Fine,” Ohlan said. “I’ll talk.”

  “Furthermore, this is your last chance to have a royal fuck up like this. You’re my brother, Ohlan. When you mess up, it makes me look like a joke. When you recruit men for your own personal missions behind my back, it makes me look weak. Even this, releasing you early, makes me look bad.”

  Ohlan smiled in a way he probably thought was placating, but only looked predatory. Even his incisors were showing a bit.

  “This is your last chance,” Raine said. “Understood?”

  Ohlan nodded. “Loud and clear. What do you want to know?”

  Raine relaxed a bit. “Let’s get to my office, first.”

  They made the short journey there. The pair of brothers passed half of the mall on the way, including Makara and Samuel. Raine couldn�
�t bring himself to look at either of them, especially Makara. She didn’t say a word as he passed. If he hadn’t disappointed her beyond all hope now, he wasn’t sure how else he could.

  Once situated in his office, Raine did reach for that bottle of Jack. Ohlan smiled as Raine poured him a glass as well.

  Raine raised his cup. “To a new beginning. And last chances.”

  Raine downed the glass without ever taking his eyes from his brother. Ohlan’s eyes didn’t move either as he finished his drink.

  There was a moment of silence after, and then, both brothers started to chuckle.

  “Time to talk,” Raine said. “How long has this sneaking around been going on?”

  Ohlan cleared his throat, and began. “As you know, I’ve always had my ways of getting information. You never complained of the ways I got that information. Not till now, anyway. That’s beside the point, though. I’ve been doing this for as long as we’ve been down here in South L.A.”

  “That’s years,” Raine said. “How have you been able to maintain your ties with the Reapers so long without them finding out you’re playing them?”

  Ohlan shrugged. “Simple. They think I’m playing you.”

  “And are you?”

  Ohlan chuckled darkly. “I feed them information. Nothing useful. Nothing accurate, but things that might seem accurate on the surface. Things they think they can make use of.”

  “Like what?”

  “For example, in the last war,” Ohlan said. “I told them when a patrol of ours would be checking on the Interstate. The Reaper patrol arrived, just a hair too late. That patrol made it back safely. Other examples include troop positions, ammo deposits. To avoid losses, I’ve changed orders last minute to save men’s lives.” Ohlan shrugged. “Of course, if my information was always bad, they’d get suspicious, fast. I through them some nuggets sometimes, but I always make sure what we get back makes up for it.”

  Raine felt sick to his stomach. “You told them where our troops would be?”

  “I’m a gambler,” Ohlan said. “Life’s too boring unless you roll the dice.”