Chapter Twenty-Eight: Kai
Kai didn’t know the man who was talking to Caryn, but he knew he didn’t like him. This Foreman’s chin was jutted out in the same haughty way that most rich people carried theirs. The kind of tilt that said they were too used to having their way and how dare you think of spoiling it. The kind of person Kai had always wanted to trip so they might actually touch the gutter once in their life.
He also didn’t like the way Caryn changed when she saw him and heard his request, although to Kai’s ear it sounded like she didn’t really have a choice. When they were in the water she had come alive. Her eyes had lit up and she had reached out to him as if every movement had purpose. Even as they were climbing onto the dock she had a spring in her step, but as soon as she saw him she was like a four year old alone in the kitchen when an adult walked in. It didn’t matter if the kid was doing something wrong or not, the surprise of unexpected eyes and the suspicious circumstances would make the kid look uncomfortable which in turn would lead the adult to assume guilt. It also made her shoulders drop despite the fact she had to look up at him. And she raised a wall over her eyes.
Caryn nodded once and took a step away. Then she stopped to face Kai, letting a piece of the wall down for an instant. “I--I would really like it if you were there.”
“Caryn, this boy will have to give a statement to the police and we have to prepare you for the gathering, now.” The man placed his hand on her back and propelled her to the speeder. The speeder’s engine roared, an older model for sure, and drowned out any words Kai might have said. He watched her look back once before climbing in. It was only as the speeder left the ground that Kai wondered if he could have gone with her. His statement could wait a few hours, but it was too late to call them back.
“Excuse me,” a surprisingly burly female officer said.
“Yeah,” Kai said, his brain already considering what he should and shouldn’t say in his statement.
“One of the prisoners told us you have no parents. Is this true?” she asked.
A single glance at the smirk on Red’s face told Kai everything he needed to know.
“Everybody has parents,” he said.
“Of course, but are you living with yours? And if you aren’t, I will need the name of your guardian in order to contact them.”
“Look, the girl that just left needs me to be at her thing in a few hours and I’m sure we can find a way for all of this to work out.” Kai gave her his most adult look, but now she had one eyebrow raised.
“The Gathering is not until the day after tomorrow and I’m sure we’ll be able to sort things out long before then.”
“No, Foreman said they were moving--”
“Let’s go. You can wait at the station until your guardian picks you up.”
For a moment Kai thought about running, but that was another suspicious action. He rode in the front section of a speeder van and from the occasional banging from those in the back, he was glad the wall was sound proof. The last thing he needed was to hear the accusations and taunts Red was screaming at him.
When they arrived at the police station there was a group of ten to twenty police waiting and they quickly opened the doors and began pulling the T-Man’s gang out. At least two escorts per prisoner. Kai was surprised to see that the T-Man was not one of them, but he may have had his own vehicle, or they might have double chained him first in the very back so he would be the last one out. Kai’s own escort didn’t let him stay to see the whole gang unload, but he did see Noah meekly walking to the door, a sharp contrast to Red, Jackknife, and the first Pontelli brother out who struggled against every step and Brandons who openly cried and was practically carried.
“This way.” The policewoman was waiting for him and she showed him into a busy room, shoved an electronic form under his nose and pointed to the cell-system on the nearest desk. “Call someone to pick you up or we will contact the guardian system.”
Doc Hubbard was the only person Kai could think of who was not dead, imprisoned, or drunk, but after finding his house number it was Sara who answered the phone.
“Who is it?” she demanded, even though she was clearly looking at the video screen where his face would appear.
“I need someone to pick me up,” Kai said. “I’m at the police station on 42nd Street and they won’t let me go unless I have a guardian. Can your dad come?”
“My dad’s busy.” Her tone was sharp, but there was concern in her eyes. “My brother isn’t doing well.”
“Please, I--Caryn wanted me to--”
Sara gave an angry grunt and hung up.
“Hello?” Kai tried to call back but the line was busy.
The policewoman looked up from her handheld and was still watching, even after Kai sat back down and began to fill out his statement. The questions were filled with big words that he guessed at and some sections he left blank. It took him two hours and he would have preferred getting another beating from Red over filling out another statement again. When he finished he didn’t see the policewoman. It was his chance. He got up and started to walk to the door.
Three steps were all he took before she appeared in the doorway with another man. Kai was about to turn back to his seat when he realized the other man was Dr. Kendal.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” Dr. Kendal was saying. “Thank you for keeping him.”
The officer merely nodded and let Kai walk past her with Dr. Kendal at his side.
“Dr. Hubbard’s daughter called me and asked me to come,” Dr. Kendal said. The sky was completely dark and it was a few moments before Kai’s eyes could readjust to the reflective street lights. Dr. Kendal turned to the waiting taxi and Kai slowed down.
“Well,” Kai said. “I guess I’ll see you.”
“I can take you to the Compound,” Dr. Kendal said. His open hand gestured at the taxi. “If you don’t mind making a quick stop at my office.”
“Okay.” Kai was glad he didn’t have to walk. He had seen the road leading to the Compound once or twice, but who knew how long it would take to get there. The Compound could be miles from the city and he didn’t want to waste any more time.
The taxi ride took a few seconds and Dr. Kendal got out. Kai was happy to wait, but then Dr. Kendal returned and said, “You might as well come in with me. I am easily distracted and your presence would be an excellent reminder.”
Kai shrugged. If it was going to get him to Caryn sooner he didn’t mind. Up in Dr. Kendal’s office, Kai waited behind the desk as Dr. Kendal opened files on the large, old-fashioned computer screen. Several DNA models popped up, one after the other and they were different, but Kai could also see there was a similarity between them.
“What are those?” he asked.
“These are the DNA samples of the previous four White Lilacs.” Dr. Kendal’s voice was distant. “You can see how the anemone poison has corrupted their DNA.”
Kai nodded, even though Dr. Kendal couldn’t see him. The DNA structure was completely unstable and there was one small section in the center of each strand that had to be pure poison. It had a spiky star shape in a tight cluster that spread out into triangles and squares. He shuttered to think about how quickly it would spread and corrupt.
Dr. Kendal pushed back his chair and walked over to the bookshelf. Light glared off the screen and once again Kai noticed the outline of a flower at the bottom of the current file. It glimmered and almost seemed to disappear in the reflections. It looked different from the other sections of the file, almost as if it was raised from the screen. Kai reached over and brushed his fingers over it to see if it was, but the screen was smooth.
“Have you seen this flower at the bottom of every page?” Kai asked.
Dr. Kendal looked up from his book. “Yes, but I couldn’t open it.”
The light of the screen dimmed and the message “Official markers required” scrolled across. A green laser grid scanned Kai’s face and a small microphone-like tube popped out
of the screen’s side.
“Breathe.” The word blinked. Kai leaned over and breathed on the microphone. The tube retracted and a graph with a line forming peaks and valleys appeared. This screen dimmed too and the words, “Twenty-one markers found. Level 1 unlocked.”
There was a sharp beep. A new DNA file popped up.
“What did you do?” Dr. Kendal asked, rushing over.
“I just touched that flower thing at the bottom of the page.” Kai took a step back. “What is that?”
Dr. Kendal quickly scanned the file. “It’s a DNA model of the anemone poison.”
Kai looked closer. This DNA model had some triangles and some squares, but not a single star. “No it’s not.”
“What do you mean? That’s what this file says it is.”
“It’s not what killed them. It doesn’t have the right center. Look.” Kai brought the other files up and pointed to the poison center.
Dr. Kendal grunted and he flipped back and forth several times before he leaned back and said, “There must be a mistake. This file could be incorrectly labeled. See there is another one.”
The next file that popped up was another poison DNA, this one was covered with spiky stars. It matched the poison that had killed the other White Lilacs, but at the top was the name gangerious poison. It was deadly, one of the information bars on the side said it took less than a minute to kill, but only if it was directly introduced to the blood stream. Kai didn’t have a chance to look at it anymore because Dr. Kendal was turning back to the other files again.
Another file popped up showing the DNA of another person, only this one looked like the anemone had killed him.
“Who’s that?” Kai asked.
Dr. Kendal scanned the file and then said, “Petyr Gurginsk. He was the first person to die from gathering the cure, but according to this he had an allergic reaction.”
“So the anemones did kill him?”
“Yes, but his reaction is extremely rare and it was complicated by having lungs full of the jigger scent which would make it harder to breathe.”
“Would Caryn have a reaction like this?”
Dr. Kendal’s eyes were bright with excitement when he swiveled around. “The chances of that would be less than one in nine hundred trillion. This is big. Whenever I was allowed to study the anemone poison it has always looked like this.” He flipped back to the other files and pointed to the combination of triangles, squares, and stars. “I have heard of the gangerious poison, but never had the chance to observe it. It isn’t common to this planet. However, we are in luck because this building has both anemone and gangerious samples stocked. Come with me.”
They went down to the basement and Kai waited by a microscope while Dr. Kendal entered a refrigerated room to bring back the samples. It didn’t take long before he was back and inspecting them under the microscope.
“Hmm.” Dr. Kendal grunted when he stood back up. He pulled out his handheld and began copying the data from the microscope. “There’s a quick test to see if they are poisonous.”
And he pricked his finger letting a small drop land in each dish. Once again he studied them under the microscope and again he downloaded the data onto his handheld. Kai could see the screen: the first one showed the liquids repelling each other and a white mass started to form along the edges and the second showed one eating the other despite the white mass trying to form a barrier.
“Looks like you are right,” Dr. Kendal sounded surprised. “If this is any indication of the actual poisons, then the anemone poison is no more dangerous than a bee sting, granted by a very large bee, but it wouldn’t kill anyone.”
“Then why do all those people have the same poison?” Kai asked.
“I don’t know.” Dr. Kendal shook his head. “The only explanation I can think of is that each White Lilac was injected with it after they had been exposed to the anemone poison. The gangerious works too quickly to be administered beforehand.”
“But who would do that?”
“It had to be a doctor, because the White Lilacs are not the only ones who have died from this poison.” Dr. Kendal whipped around his handheld and flipped through screens showing patient files. “All of these people died from it too. This is a fisherman who tried to untangle his nets from a rock and touched an anemone. He died ten hours later. This one is a socialite who was deep diving with her friends and hid in an anemone patch. She died the next day. No one who has had contact with the anemones has lived.”
“I have.”
Dr. Kendal looked up in surprise. “Really?”
“Yeah, but I never told anyone about it.”
“You never went to the hospital?”
“No.”
“Then that must have saved your life.”
“But why would a doctor do that?” Kai asked.
“Someone in the Compound must be behind it.”
Kai nodded. The image of Dr. Vos rose in his mind. The man was completely detached from his patients. Now that Kai remembered the whole scene, the doctor hadn’t made eye contact with anyone. No eye contact meant there was something to hide, a hidden motive.
“Either they place their own doctors to care for poisoned patients,” Dr. Kendal continued. “Or they pay for certain services. If the people knew the anemone poison wasn’t deadly they would gather it themselves and the Compound would lose much of its funding. Plus the fact that they have been adding to the cure, essentially experimenting on the population, which would stop once the people knew the truth and the Compound would no longer be in control.”
It made sense. Kai had seen how far the T-Man’s gang went to keep control on their turf. The difference was that the Compound could control a planet. Power was hard to gain, but harder to keep. And the Compound was willing to kill one of their own to keep the secret, and their power, safe. Then another thought hit him.
“They’re going to kill Caryn.” The urge Kai felt to get there in time nearly suffocated him. “We need to stop them.”
Dr. Kendal nodded and looked at the time on his handheld. “Can you check to see if our taxi is still here? I’m going back to my office to copy some of the White Lilac files. I need to send this information to the mayor and then I’ll be ready to go.”
Kai jogged to the door they had entered, but could see the empty street through the glass. He walked out double checking in case the taxi had pulled out of view, but aside from a black speeder parked down the street, it was empty. They would have to call for another one. More time wasted.
He ran back to the elevator and punched the floor button.
“Come on, come on.” The elevator dinged for each floor, too slowly for Kai, but at last the doors opened.
“Get out!” Dr. Kendal’s voice yelled from down the hall. “You have no jurisdiction here.”
Kai paused. There was another voice speaking quietly and he tiptoed down the hall to hear better.
“...once again. How did you access those files?” the other voice asked. Then it added after a moment of silence, “Since you will not cooperate, you leave me no choice.”
“What are you...?” Dr. Kendal’s question was cut off by the hiss of a vaccine gun. There was a thump and the sound of an electronic device being crunched underfoot. Then quick footsteps walked toward the hall. Kai darted back the way he came and ducked into an empty room.
The footsteps came closer and then passed, but Kai did not want to risk peeking out from his hiding place. As soon as the elevator doors shut, Kai ran back up the hall.
“Dr. Kendal?” he asked.
The office looked untouched. Dr. Kendal was slumped over his desk, a shattered handheld by his feet and none of the poison DNA files were available to view. To Kai’s relief, Dr. Kendal was breathing, slow, ragged breaths, but his eyes were open staring at nothing and the entire left side of his body was contorted as if he had a stroke.