by K M Lovold
“Thank you.” Malaki put the safety on the gun and set it on the console between them. “For everything.”
“No problem.” Jonathan’s hand gripped the steering wheel. “I just kept thinking about how Price threatened me when he dropped you off after you’d been shot. Only to find out it was Price who shot you. And hearing how horrible of a person he is, it just makes me furious. To top it off the stupid security guard—on Price’s orders—thinks he can treat you like some everyday criminal. And you haven’t done anything wrong!” Jonathan threw one hand up in the air. “And from what you just told me, it sounds like what you’re doing is helping us all. Geez.” He shook his head. “So, where are we going?”
“You’re going to want to head straight onto Hwy 51. Take it all the way to Oakwood Road, if you know where that is.” Malaki clutched his arm.
“Yeah, I know where it is.” He glimpsed Malaki. “I’ve got some meds for you if you need them. I’ll give you one when we get there.”
“Maybe. We’ll see.” Malaki didn’t care that his arm was killing right now. All he could think of was he’d gotten out of there, but he wouldn’t feel relief until he was back at Ian’s with the security rigged correctly and the gate thoroughly locked with security code and retina scan. Price would be back, Ian was sure of it.
Oh man, he was going to become more paranoid than ever. Malaki closed his eyes and shook his head. A weight fell on his chest. “He is not going to handle this well.”
“Who?” Jonathan asked.
“Price.” Malaki leaned back and rubbed his temples. “It’s going to get bad. I escaped again, and not only that, you’ve left, too. Who’s going to work on memroth for him? And now he’s going to pretty much know I’m not exactly working for The Circle anymore but against it. Not against the people in The Circle personally, but against D.R.O.P., the memroth, all of it.” Malaki moaned. “It’s going to be bad.”
“Yeah… now that you mention it, I guess you’re right.” Jonathan’s voice was solemn, quiet. “All the more reason to get out of there.”
Malaki rolled the back of his head against the seat of the car to look at Jonathan. “Jonathan, the best thing you could’ve done was get out of there. And never go back. Hide out with me for the time being, and then we’ll figure out what you should do next.”
“Thanks, I appreciate the help.” Jonathan cleared his throat. “I believe I’m a target now, so I’m definitely going to carefully plan my next steps.”
“And this, my friend, is one of the main reasons Ian and I never married. Because of these risks. It’s a good thing you’re not married either. Do you have a girlfriend or anyone?”
“No.” Jonathan chuckled. “Well, I do, but it’s nothing serious. And thank God for that. It won’t be difficult for me to disappear if I have to. Which it sounds like a real possibility.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Malaki spoke with his eyes closed. “For now, you’ll be safe.”
They drove for quite a while without saying anything.
“We’re at Oakwood.” Jonathan turned the car onto the narrow road.
Malaki lifted his head and opened his eyes. “OK, you’re going to take this road about ten miles, and then you’ll see a road on the right—Rock Road. Turn there.” Malaki stared out the window. “We’ll be there soon. Can’t wait to check out this wound on my shoulder. I want to see exactly what Price did to me.” Mostly, he wanted to turn the radios on, check the recording device, and tune in. But how was he going to explain what he was doing there to Jonathan? He’d have to figure out some ruse to explain it away.
“Oh, right there.” Malaki pointed to Rock Road.
Jonathan turned right. “I’ve never been here before.”
“It’s kind of secluded. The homes here are situated on Canyon Lake. Beautiful lake.” Malaki noticed Ian’s driveway up ahead. “Next right, just up there with a security gate at the end of the driveway.”
Jonathan pulled up to the gate, which still swung all the way open.
Malaki got out of the car and shut the gate. “Damn Price for leaving it like this. God only knows who was able to steal in here.” He looked over to Jonathan. “We’ll have to do a thorough search of the grounds when we get inside. With that gate left wide open, any random person could have gotten in here. Hopefully, no one noticed since we’re so far out in the woods, but just in case.”
“Yeah, sure, I’ll help. I’ll do whatever I can.”
To ascertain it was still in good working order, Malaki pressed a few buttons on the security gate and then punched in the passcode, which beeped, and then the scanner flicked over his retinas. The gate popped open again.
“OK, let’s get inside. Once we get past the gate, pull up to that scanner on the other side.”
“Yep,” Jonathan said as they got back in the car. He pulled up to the scanner on the other side and Malaki repeated the process. No one would be able to open this gate without the passcode and Malaki’s retinas.
He got back in the car. “Take the driveway to the end, to the house.”
“Whose house?” Jonathan looked at him with raised eyebrows.
“Ian’s.” Malaki smiled. “Ian Mitchell’s.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“You gettin’ up?” Levi poked Ian’s arm. “You’ve been laying there forever.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m getting up. Go on and I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Ian’s eyelids were heavy, and his heart thudded dully in his chest. After not seeing Waitforit the night before, he tried to fight the loss of hope, but he was failing spectacularly. He sucked in a deep breath and pushed himself to sitting. With his elbows on his knees he held his head. Ugh. He was never getting off this planet. He stood and pulled on his boots and his leather shirt and vest. He slid his fingers through his hair and trudged out of the building.
Most everyone was already at the mountains digging, but there were a few stragglers like Ian. His posture sagged, but he didn’t care. He stared down at his dusty boots as they took one hopeless step after another.
“You’re late!” a nearby keeper shouted at him.
“I know, I know.” Ian didn’t make eye contact.
He looked up and glanced around for Nikolina but didn’t see her. Where was she this morning? She would be assigned to watch over him, so he should see her soon enough. And what was that going to be like? He let out a long, low sigh. His only friend here. Gone. Probably turned against him.
He finally reached Levi, who handed him his pick ax. “Here, I brought this for ya.”
“Thanks.” Ian grabbed hold of the heavy thing.
Levi patted his back. “What’s got you down this morning? Buck up, and let’s get our quota met all right?”
“Yeah. Let’s get our quota met.” Like they did yesterday and the day before that and the day before that and every blasted day of their lives from now until eternity. He pulled his leather gloves on and slugged the ground with his ax, feeling numb all over. Then he pounded it again and again until a flicker of memroth was visible. With that, he dropped to his knees and with his fingers started carving out the gem from the dirt and rock. It took about five minutes, but he yanked out a large chunk of memroth and dumped it in the cart with the ones Levi had already dug out.
“That’s a good one.” Nikolina’s voice sounded behind him.
Ian spun around. Nikolina stood there, looking a bit taller. Was she taller or was it his imagination? All the keepers were taller, maybe it had something to do with the high dose injected in them.
“Hi.” Ian took a step towards her. “Are you OK?”
“I’m fine.” She took a step back, folding her arms across her chest, and Ian noticed the familiar leather band around her wrist that matched every other keeper.
“Are you?” He narrowed his eyes at her.
“I said I’m fine.” Nikolina’s voice was hard, emotionless. “Are you going to get back to work, or do I have to make you?”
Ian shook his head slightly. “No. No,
you don’t have to make me. I’ll get back to work.” He turned and pummeled the ground again. Why would she ask him that? She knew she couldn’t control him even if she tried. What was she getting at? His chest tightened, and sweat trickled down the side of his face. Was his friend even inside there anymore? Maybe she lost her memory again, even her memory of being here all these years, maybe even the memory of all that she knew about him? He had an uneasy feeling in his gut.
He continued digging, motivation reawaking him like a slap in the face. At this point, he wanted to get away from Nikolina. If she was assigned to him, he wouldn’t be able to escape her until he met his quota and returned to his cell. As he pulled another memroth out of the mountain, he felt her eyes watching him, probing him. What was she thinking? Did she remember he was innocent? That he knew everything about this place and planned to end it all? Was she already scheming to stop him?
She could destroy everything in one fell swoop. He had to work fast and get away from her. He had to check back every night to see if Waitforit was here. Next time, he’d take the vials with him, so if he did see his spacecraft, he’d make a run for it on the spot, board it, and get the hell off this planet.
He thrashed the hard-packed mountain. With every piece of memroth he pried out of the ground, there were a few more strikes and another would reveal itself. More and more memroth was in these mountains; it was never ending. The more they dug, the more mountains and ground there was. This prison could go on for a hundred years and collect enough memroth to power Earth until the end of time.
Ian wiped the sweat off his face, while more dripped down his neck and back. He noticed Nikolina from time to time, but she only stood there, her eyes bearing into him. They really must’ve done a number on her, convincing her her only job was to keep her eyes peeled to him, to watch Ian Knockshine at all times, because so far, that was all she was doing.
“Slow down,” Levi said hours later. “We’re almost done.” He tossed a large memroth into the cart while Ian stood wiping another one off that he then dropped in, too.
“I think we’re good to head to the drop-off zone.” Levi clutched one of the carts.
“Yeah.” Ian sniffed loudly. “Let’s go.” He grabbed the other one and looked at Nikolina. “We’re heading to the drop-off zone.” And without waiting for her response, the two of them clomped away, pushing their heavy cargo before them.
“Can you believe she’s a keeper now?” Levi asked.
“It’s really strange.” Ian licked his dry lips. “I don’t know how to get used to that.”
“Yeah, you and her are friends aren’t you?” Levi shook his head. “She was good friends with Jack, too. It’s kinda sad, actually, to see her go from regular prisoner like one of us to a keeper. A female keeper, too. Weird. Hard to take seriously.”
“The fact she’s a woman keeper doesn’t bother me at all, I think they should have female keepers. But it being Nikolina doesn’t sit altogether right with me.”
Because she knows everything about me.
“Why?” Levi nudged Ian’s shoulder. “You’ll have an in with her. She’s your friend and won’t treat you the way most keepers treat us.”
Ian shook his head. “No. I don’t want that.” He picked up his pace and jogged the rest of the way to the drop-off zone. He pushed his cart to the edge of the valley and watched the memroth fall to the moving ground below.
He dropped his cart off where the others sat, waved to Levi, and ran back to his cell. He caught sight of Nikolina standing near other prisoners, and she stared at him as he zoomed by. He looked away.
She was no longer to be trusted.
****
“Wow.” Jonathan clapped appreciatively after they walked into Ian’s stunning house. They’d already done a thorough onceover of the place, and it seemed no one had been here since Malaki left. “This is awesome! But we’re at Ian’s, why?” He twisted and turned, observing the log home.
“Because this is a very safe place with a secure gate around the entire property, and because Ian wants me to be here.” Malaki stood at the doorway where Price had broken the door down. “We’ll have to fix this tomorrow. Ian’ll have the stuff to do so out in his shed.”
“Oh, yeah, sure.” Jonathan still glimpsed around.
Malaki went directly to the ham shack and flicked the lights on. “As I’m sure you’ve already noticed, we use old fashioned electricity out here.”
“Outstanding.” Jonathan gazed Ian’s ham shack. “What’s all this?”
Malaki sat in the chair on the other side of the desk with all the radios. “These here are Ian’s ham radios.”
“Ian’s into ham radios? I thought they were a thing of the past.” Jonathan approached the radios and skimmed a finger along a knob.
“Nope. They’re not.” Malaki turned one of the radios on and static blared. The one that stayed on twenty-four seven hummed quietly in the center of the desk, and he took a quick look at the recording device. No green light. “Sure, they’re not too common in this day and age, but there’s still thousands of hobby ham radio operators around the world. A legitimate means of communication, too. They enjoy it. And Ian’s one of them. Me, too, a little bit. I jump on sometimes.”
“Cool.” Jonathan picked up a microphone to one of the radios and pressed the button on and off. “I’d be curious to see how it all works. Maybe you can show me?”
“Sure. Later.” Malaki left the room. “Follow me, and I’ll take you to the room you’ll be staying in.”
He led Jonathan to a second guest room at the end of the hallway. “You might want to get a rag and dust off some of the furniture in here, but otherwise everything should be clean. There’s sheets and what not on the shelf in the closet.” A queen-sized log bed, with an end table and dresser and mirror, dominated the room, not very different from the one Malaki claimed for himself.
“I’ve got plenty of food here, and like I said, the security is first-class, so we’ll be safe.” Malaki turned to leave.
“How come you got caught then?” Jonathan asked. “You said Price broke in and left the gate open, and that’s when he shot you.”
Malaki sighed. “I made a disastrous mistake. I let Price break in. I knew he’d been trying. I thought I could catch him in the act, call the cops, and get him thrown in jail for a bit. Buy myself some time to talk to The Circle without him. But I didn’t anticipate him having a gun.”
“He’s a snake. Thank you for opening my eyes to who he is.”
“Thanks for helping me escape. I need to be here. To stick by those ham radios, because I hope to hear from Ian soon.”
“Yeah, you said he’d be home soon. Will he contact you when he’s on his way from the mental facility? Does he have a radio in his car?” Jonathan looked at him with raised eyebrows.
“Yeah, that’s about it. He’ll be contacting me when he’s on his way home, and yes, he has a radio in his… um, vehicle.” Malaki smiled. “I’ll go figure out what we can eat later, but first I’m going to look at my shoulder and see how bad it is. Make yourself at home, and I’m sure you can wear some of Ian’s clothes. You and he are about the same size.”
Malaki left Jonathan and returned to the ham shack. He gazed again at the radio he’d eventually hear Ian on. It would take about three days of travel from Reathran before Ian would be close enough to the satellite that would transmit his call to him. But when that happened, it would be the first time they’d be able to speak to each other in over three years. Malaki wasn’t leaving this house until he heard from him.
Waitforit went up many days ago. She should be landing on Reathran soon. Hopefully, Ian was hanging in there and on the lookout for her. He knew the way to the landing strip. But he wouldn’t be able to do it until he’d gotten his specimen from the disposal site, and if he didn’t have that, it would be awhile before Malaki heard from him. But Ian wouldn’t have sent him his message if he weren’t on the right track, so Malaki must have confidence that Ian was ready
to roll with things. He’d get it done.
Malaki grabbed his arm and, groaning, went into the washroom. He took off the tape and bloodstained gauze. A small, badly stitched tear marred his upper right shoulder. Price had gotten him good, but thankfully it wasn’t worse. He could’ve got him in the head or the heart. Malaki wouldn’t have put it past the man to have killed him.
Malaki found Ian’s first aid kit and dabbed his wound with some antiseptic and covered it with clean gauze and tape. “Good enough.” Then he slid his arm back into the sling.
Later that night, Malaki and Jonathan relaxed in the shack, listening to ham radio operators communicate to each other via Morse code.
Jonathan struck a ball on the pool table, which vanished immediately into one of the side pockets. “It’s really interesting”—he bent over, aiming at another ball—“that people still use that stuff, all of it.” With a smack he hit the next one, and it, too, vanished into a corner pocket.
“It’s actually the most dependable kind of communication available. If our world went to pot and we lost service for our phones and everything else, this radio would still be able to transmit.” Malaki patted the top of the largest radio. Morse code was what Malaki enjoyed the most. Creating words with da’s and dits always fascinated him.
“I believe it.” Jonathan rubbed some chalk on the end of his pool stick. “Just listen to those guys go. Do you understand what they’re saying?”
The Morse code was bellowing fast. Too fast for even Malaki to keep up. He was good at it, but not that good. “No. I can keep up with some of it, but not all. They’re fast.”
“I’ll say.” He returned to his game of pool, aiming at another ball. “If you can make a sentence out of this, let me know what they’re—”
Static blared again from the security device.
“Uh-oh.” Malaki turned the other radio down. “Price is back.”
“What?” Jonathan straightened.
“Don’t worry. He doesn’t know you’re here, and he can’t get in.” Malaki stood and headed to the door. “I’m going to tell him to get off this property or I’m calling the cops.”