Lethal Influence

by Susan Bohnet

  She nodded. “The drive-thru.”

  “I need to know your secret,” Beth blurted out as they waited at the window for their order. She had obviously been thinking during the trip as well. “You can’t just say, ‘I’m not married but I do have stuff I can’t tell you.’ What’s it about, Kai? Don’t you trust me?”

  “It’s not a matter of trust. I love you. There is no other woman in my life. But … there are things I just can’t share with you.” He swallowed, feeling the tension pulling at his shoulders. “It’s about protecting other people’s privacy.” He knew he wasn’t saying it right. That the words he used would just make her more frustrated. And he knew he couldn’t do anything about it. The truth was something he couldn’t share with her. Not unless he wanted to put all the other Trebladores at risk.

  The drive-thru window slid open at that moment and Kai handed money to the clerk in exchange for the bag of burgers and two large root beers.

  Beth took the bags from him. He pulled the truck into a parking spot.

  “What are we going to do?” said Beth, picking up the conversation as soon as the truck was in park.

  There was no way he would endanger her any further. “You have a great opportunity to work with a scientific legend. When are you supposed to leave?”

  “Tomorrow. But I don’t even know if that is legitimate now. If those men who came and told me you had a wife were not telling the truth … how do I know this opportunity even exists?”

  “Oh, it exists. While those men were not my real family, I do know them well and if they offered you a chance to work with Paul Denton, then they meant it. My father used to work with them and now I work with them, too. They thought if they could get you to agree to leave then I would forget about you and devote myself to my work with them.”

  “It must be pretty important work. What do you do, then?”

  “That’s the secret I can’t tell you about. It’s not dangerous work and it isn’t illegal … it is just very, very private and something I’m not allowed to talk about.”

  Beth was silent for several seconds.

  “I’m not going to keep you from going,” he said, firmly. “You’ll get on the plane tomorrow and be glad you did.”

  Her burger lay unopened on her lap. Tears filled her eyes.

  “This isn’t goodbye, Beth,” he said. It was difficult to hold back his own tears. “We’ll keep in touch, but you need to do this.”

  She nodded. They ate in silence, Kai feeling a heaviness in his chest that was almost suffocating. When they were done Kai took her back to her friend’s apartment. He walked her to the door. “My cell phone is gone,” said Kai. “I’ll get a new one and text you right away.”

  “I’ll give you my new number,” smiled Beth. Then her smile faded. “I’ll miss you.”

  “I’ll miss you, too.”

  As soon as Kai was back in the truck, he popped it into gear and sped away from the curb. A smile crept up on his face. He had killed Ronan!

  He drove to Lincoln’s house, took the steps two at a time and rang the bell. Then he pounded on the door. Lincoln opened the door and stood back as though he was afraid Kai might take a swing at him. Kai entered without waiting for an invitation.

  “Tell me more about this rebel group of yours” Kai said.

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  There was a glint of excitement in Lincoln’s eyes but he kept his cool. “This is unexpected.” His voice was even. “You’ve had a change of heart.”

  “Yeah.” Kai was jittery, pumped with adrenalin. He walked past Lincoln, into the living room.

  “You’re here because you want to know more about the rebels?” Lincoln had one eyebrow raised. Kai realized that what he’d thought was excitement was really anxiety. Lincoln’s solid stance was classic fight or flight–ready for whatever came his way.

  “I suppose you aren’t sure if you should believe me.” Kai paced the room. “But this is for real, Lincoln. I’ve seen the awful things a person is capable of … to children no less. There are no higher intellectual theories that give any comfort–we can’t just say, ‘Oh well, we tried.’ Not when children are hurt.” Kai came toward Lincoln and stopped a foot from him. “It’s time to do something to protect the innocent, Lincoln, something that stops the cruelty now … not years from now, not in slow, painful increments. Sometimes, it’s a fact, you have to kill one to save many … I have seen it.”

  “Jessip didn’t send you,” said Lincoln, so softly Kai almost missed it.

  Harrison came from the kitchen with a monster-size sandwich in both hands. When he saw Kai, he dropped the food and lunged toward him. Lincoln stopped Harrison in his tracks with a word. “Harrison.”

  Harrison pulled up short but grabbed the front of Kai’s shirt anyway.

  “Kai is here to talk with us,” said Lincoln.

  “That’s what he says.”

  The accusation hung in the air for a moment while Kai met the appraising looks of the other two men. “I believe him,” said Lincoln, finally. “Let go of him.”

  Harrison released the grasp on his shirt. He stared at Kai and then grinned, fingering one of the medallions around his neck. “Why?”

  “I realized you’re right. Some people need to be stopped. And death is the only way to do that.”

  Harrison chuckled and rubbed his palms together. “Ho, this is gonna be good.” He reached out and grasped Kai’s hand. “I’m going to enjoy working with you.” Once again Kai was struck by the incongruity of seeing a Trebladore excited about harming a human. The sight brought a sudden heaviness to his chest. Was he doing the right thing?

  When he pulled his hand away, Kai noticed a smear of mustard on his palm from Harrison’s sandwich, which now lay scattered. Lettuce and mustard-covered pastrami surrounded his feet. Lincoln grunted at the mess. “I got it,” said Harrison, crouching down to gather the ruined sandwich.

  “Come with me,” said Lincoln. He led Kai down the stairs. It struck Kai that this was the third time he had been down these stairs. The first time he had fought them, the second he had crept in. Now, willingly, he was heading down. How idealistic he’d been before. How naive.

  Lincoln stopped in front of a wall of paneling. He reached up and lifted a ceiling tile above his head. While the tile moved, he slipped his other hand into the cavernous space. He must have pushed a button or something because the wall of paneling swung inward.

  The secret room was the size of two large bedrooms. There were two computers on desks, a rectangular worktable, and bulletin boards along every wall covered in photos and printed or hand-scrawled notes. On one table, under a heat lamp of some kind, was the striking plant from their home planet–big green leaves and florescent pink stripes. He hadn’t noticed the pink berries growing just under the canopy of each leaf when he saw it in Jessip’s office. They were only supposed to be at headquarters, Jessip had said. Well, compared to the other aspects of the rebellion, taking a plant out of the building was minor. Leo was at one of the computers. He jumped to his feet when he saw Kai.

  “It’s okay,” said Lincoln.

  Leo stared.

  Kai saw he’d have to convince them all. With every eye in the room glued on him, Kai rose to his full height and met their suspicious stares. “I just had an experience that’s made me re-examine everything I believe.” They waited; no one seemed to breathe. “I found a hive of men stealing children and selling them as sex slaves.” A few of the rebels muttered disgust. “I told the police and we went to their base. Rather than be arrested, the leader stood on the porch of a cabin with a small child in front of him. He held a gun to that little boy’s head. Said he’d kill the boy if the police didn’t let him go.” Kai swallowed, his fists clenched at his sides, his shoulders hunched. “I killed him. I’d do it again. I don’t regret it.” He swallowed hard. “There are more like him out there. They need
to be stopped. Earth needs a new form of help.”

  “Excellent,” said Leo. He beamed for a moment; his teeth seemed especially bright in the dim room and against his mocha complexion. “I’ll show you around.” Leo pointed at the computers. “Here’s where we go looking for the worst people. We search the news sites, look for eyewitness reports, see if we can track original data from Twitter or Facebook, too, since you can’t always trust the media to give you unbiased news. Then, when we think we have a candidate, we transfer his or her information to the bulletin boards. To the most terrible, we send out a Treb team to check it out first-hand.”

  Kai nodded his approval. They weren’t leaving anything to hearsay. If they were going to take drastic measures, they wanted to be a hundred percent sure the guy deserved what he’d get. Like Ronan did.

  Kai heard the sound of metal on metal and was not surprised to see the false wall open and Harrison stride in, his chains singing their own peculiar song. Wearing them wouldn’t be a good idea in a recognizance mission, Kai thought. “Great timing, Kai.” Harrison said.

  “Why?” asked Kai.

  “We have a Treb team getting back from Africa in a few hours,” explained Lincoln. “If the information we’ve been getting is accurate, we have our first target.”

  Leo pointed at a spot on the bulletin board directly opposite the door and they all moved toward it. ‘Mohammed Isacar’ was written in block letters with a thick felt-tip marker. Under the name was a photo, obviously copied from the Internet. The news items tacked underneath told a gruesome tale. One word jumped out at Kai from the clippings. ‘Genocide.’

  “These are all from western press agencies,” said Lincoln. “We’ll reserve judgment until our own team gives their report. Then, when we know what we’re actually dealing with….”

  “We’ll deal with him,” finished Harrison. “He’ll deal with him!” He tilted his head toward Kai. He seemed especially eager to use Kai’s “skills”.

  “What were you going to do without me?” asked Kai.

  Harrison shrugged and Lincoln read the news clipping aloud.

  “How were you going to kill him?” Kai repeated when Lincoln was done.

  “We would have found a way,” said Lincoln. “We have contacts to help us get weapons, but there’s a danger to that. Weapons transactions leave a trail. You, on the other hand, won’t leave a trace.”

  Kai thought of the African Treb team. Genocide. He had to admit he felt eager.

  ——<>——

  The Treb team would be back any minute. Kai had found snacks in the kitchen and been given a bedroom. There was no going back to his old house. The other rebels could mix with the mainstream group, but not Kai. When he thought of Jessip’s fatherly advice, he gritted his teeth. The Master tried to take Beth from him. It was with wry irony that Kai noted he’d found her and then sent her to do exactly what Jessip had planned, anyway.

  The Treb team came in the front door. Tall, black skinned, their gold flecks sparkling out of deep brown eyes, their hair close cropped–they were exotic to Kai, so different from the pale Trebladores common in this part of the world. Kai had a hard time taking his eyes off the three men. Harrison brought up the rear. Lincoln pushed a button on the remote and the TV went dark. Silence settled over the room. They joined Leo, Lincoln, and Kai in the living room, engaging in small talk about their safety while in Africa and the flight home.

  Then one of the Treb team, a broad man with shoulders like a linebacker, took over the conversation. Lincoln had called him Angus. “The genocide claim is valid. Mohammad has some crazy ethnic cleansing ideas. The number of mass graves he’s filled is staggering.” Everyone was quiet as his words sank in.

  “The rumors about the girls are true. Stolen from their villages, their entire families killed. The girls are staked out, raped repeatedly, and then, when they are finished, they chop off their hands with a machete and send them out into the jungle to die. There are boys as young as seven years old, near as we can figure, in his army. They are brainwashed early and think they’re part of a noble cause. Kent has the photos on his pen camera.”

  Leo handed the tall, thin man next to him a laptop and Kent connected the pen to the computer. The images added a dimension of reality to the horrific story. Kai felt that familiar anger pulsing through him, but now it was mixed with the satisfaction of knowing he could do something to stop this maniac. As strong as his feelings were, there was no outlet for it here. He had to have the target in sight. Kai ran through the experiences in his mind. Not only did he have to be able to see the target, it seemed the target also had to see him. In every instance, there was eye contact before Kai stopped them.

  When Angus, Kent, and the third man–whose name was Roger, finished their report, Leo stood and moved toward Kai who was sitting on the couch. He reached out his hand and brought Kai to stand beside him. “I’d like to introduce you to Kai.” Kai nodded.

  Angus sank to the chair beside him. He stuttered. “Kai? The Kai?”

  Harrison grinned. “You betcha!”

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  The sun was just beginning to rise as Kai, followed closely by Lincoln, Angus, and Roger, slipped out of the Range Rover and into the jungle. Kent hadn’t returned with them. The heat was sweltering, and Kai was acutely aware of the color of his skin. The sun was going to bake him a bright red by mid afternoon if he wasn’t careful, and he wondered how he was going to get into position to kill Mohammed if he stuck out like a snowman in the desert.

  He glanced over at Lincoln and knew he wasn’t the only one who would have to try to fit in here. Two white guys in the land of black. And he had to look this Mohammed in the eye to kill him. His abilities had their limitations and he was newly aware of just how limiting they were. Back in North America it wasn’t so hard to get close to anyone of any color. Here in Africa, in the center of the Congo area, blacks were the norm and whites were the proverbial sore thumbs.

  “Okay, we will be traveling along a very thin and winding trail through this jungle for about four hours. Think you guys can do that?” asked Angus. The question was aimed at both Lincoln and Kai. They were all Trebladores, but this was not something the soft North American Trebladores were used to doing. There was very little hiking involved with their missions back home. The realization that other groups of Trebladores, in other parts of the world, lived vastly different lives than he did, struck Kai. Perhaps he had been a trifle protected in his youth.

  Kai’s musings were interrupted when Lincoln poked him in the ribs. “Think you can handle it, Kai?”

  “Of course I can,” he answered.

  Angus’s gaze was hard. He turned and headed into the jungle, following a trail that Kai couldn’t discern. He disappeared within seconds and Kai and Lincoln looked at each other. Roger cleared his throat and then gestured for them to follow Angus. With a shrug, Kai stepped into the jungle, shouldering aside huge leaves and branches and doing his best to see the trail Angus was following. He couldn’t hear anything moving ahead of him and he hesitated, then moved forward, trusting that his instincts would take him where he needed to be. Roger was bringing up the rear and he would tell them if they missed the trail and headed off in the wrong direction.

  It was hours later that Kai, sweat dripping off his nose and chin, his shirt soaked and his pants almost dragging off his damp hips, broke through the underbrush and almost stumbled over Angus. He was crouched in the bushes, wildly gesturing for Kai and the others to drop low and join him on his perch. Kai crept forward, easing himself up beside Angus.

  Below them, half hidden by the surrounding jungle was a small clearing. There were several soldiers dressed in army fatigues lounging in front of a small hut. They looked like they were all of fourteen years old. Kai felt Lincoln and Roger join them; all four crouched behind the underbrush. Kai had heard of these resistance militia groups of course. He knew who Kony was. He
knew that this kind of thing happened all over the world. Child soldiers. They were young boys stolen from their villages after being forced to stand by and watch as their parents and siblings were shot, or worse. They were marched for days into the jungle, beaten, abused, starved, and injured. Then, when the mind was broken and the heart was beyond repair, they were handed guns and told to kill. And they did. They killed anything that opposed the group that had replaced their family.

  Kai was here to kill as well, and the irony of it did not escape him. In parts of the world, it was kill or be killed and the Trebladores were finally going to do some housecleaning. There were good humans out there — people who cared about the heart and souls of each other. People who would die to help protect children from soul-crushing experiences like this one.

  But Kai wasn’t here to kill randomly. He wasn’t here to exact revenge. He was here to bite off the head of the serpent. He was here to kill the leader and release these children from the hell they were living in.

  One of the boys suddenly stood up, his shoulders tense, fingers gripping the gun in his hands. He watched as a man walked up the trail out of the jungle. When the man appeared, the other boys stood, too. They shuffled uneasily behind the first boy, their guns held loosely. The man, tall, handsome, carrying a rifle of his own and dressed in sand-colored clothes, approached the hut, his face impassive. He spoke something in a language Kai couldn’t understand, his voice guttural and sharp. The boy nodded and stepped back from the front door of the hut, letting the man pass through and disappear inside.

  “That is Mohammed,” Roger murmured. “He runs this camp with an iron fist. It’s a land of shoot first, and don’t bother asking any questions.”

  Kai’s eyes met Lincoln’s. So. This was the man he was here to kill. And the only problem was that he had to look him in the eye to do it. How was he going to get close enough to a killer like that to look him in the eye? And could he drop him before he was shot himself? Trebladores were strong, but that didn’t mean they were invulnerable. They could die as easily as any human if shot. And the gun Mohammed carried wasn’t small. Kai knew that it would only take seconds for Mohammed to kill all four of them. And that he wouldn’t hesitate if he saw them.