The White Lilac

  Chapter Four: Kai

  The murky water of the Malte Lake clouded Kai Garrett’s vision, as he looked up through the water to the dock and the two shadowy figures standing by the edge. He had been under the water for five minutes and still they waited for him to surface. Come on, he was dead already. They could leave now.

  His hands glided through the water keeping his body far enough from the surface so they couldn’t see him in the early morning light. The lake was filled with jiggers and electric eels, some more dangerous than others, but he wasn’t worried about them. It was the guys on the dock he watched. His lungs gave him the familiar twinge they always did when he used the water as an escape. Twelve minutes was his longest time, but at the rate these guys were waiting he would be setting new records.

  “Come on, Red, let’s leave. He’s not coming up.” The garbled voice drifted down to Kai’s ears. “He probably swam to the other side by now.”

  “No, he’s down there watching us. I can feel it.” Red Redford’s voice was a bit clearer, like he wanted Kai to know that he knew. “Get back here, Brandons.”

  “He’s been under for five minutes!”

  “Seven, now.”

  “Nobody can stay under the water for that long without some kind of aid.”

  “Doesn’t matter. If the T-Man wants him, I’m staying here ‘til I get him.” Red’s voice seemed to project across the lake. Anyone else probably would have started swimming to the next closest dock on 5th Street, but Kai was feeling confident. There was no way Red was waiting on this dock for the next five minutes, not when Kai could be halfway to Space City by now if he had swam to the other side.

  The next two minutes the dialogue was too quiet for Kai to make out. The short shadow disappeared for a minute and then came back. Kai was familiar with most of the T-Man’s crew or at least knew them by sight; this Brandons guy wasn’t a shadow he recognized. The twinge in his lungs became a silent throbbing, but Kai had felt this before too. He was actually pleased he had gone nine minutes before the throbbing started. It usually meant he could go another five minutes until his lungs screamed and at least another minute before he started to pass out. Kai had never tried to push it further than that.

  “Come on Red. It’s not even seven o’clock.” The new guy’s voice whined.

  “Noah said he’d go to the water and he did. Now we’re going to wait until he surfaces or dies.” Once again Red’s voice seemed unnaturally loud.

  So, Noah had been serious this morning. Noah Peterson used to be Kai’s best friend. This morning was the first time Kai had seen him since the day Noah was tagged four months ago after trying to finish a job for the T-Man. A job Kai told him would not work, but Noah’s family needed the money, and food, so Noah did it anyway. And when Kai tried to see him later Noah’s little sister came out and said Noah didn’t want to be friends anymore. All the names Kai called him before the job may have also had something to do with it.

  Kai was sound asleep when a bucket of cold water had splashed on him at 3am.

  “The T-Man’s lookin’ for you.”

  Shaking the water out of his eyes, Kai squinted up at the figure towering over him. Already adrenaline was coursing through his veins at the T-Man’s name and he was just about to kick that guy as hard as he could right where the sun doesn’t shine when he recognized Noah’s face. All those months seemed like a day. Kai had to blink once to remove his happiness over seeing Noah again. It would not do to show emotion at a time like this.

  “Thanks for the warning,” Kai said. His voice was scratchy from being woken up early.

  “Look, we were friends once and I know how you feel about people working for the T-Man which is the only reason I am here. This is the last time I’m going to warn you. I work for the T-Man now and I can’t have any conflicts of interest. I could get in big trouble for warning you like this.”

  “I said thanks,” Kai said. He quickly stood and grabbed the worn jacket he had been using as a pillow. It was soaked. He tossed it in the corner; it would only slow him down and it still might be there if he was able to come back.

  “Do you think you look more like your mom or your dad?” Noah’s question took Kai completely off guard.

  “What?” Kai froze.

  “Who do you look like, your mom or dad?” Noah asked again. There was a look in his eye that Kai couldn’t read.

  “I don’t know. I never knew either of them, you know that.”

  “Grew up in the orphanage on 18th street?”

  Kai nodded. “Yeah, until it closed down and they threw us out.”

  “Yeah, well, avoid all your usual places unless you want to find out what the T-Man has in mind for you.” Noah started to walk away. “Oh, and next time I see you I have to bring you in. I can’t look incompetent twice in a row. The T-Man might kill my family.”

  “Fair enough.” A chill shook Kai’s body, whether it was from the early bath, Noah’s expression or the thought of any plan the T-Man might have for him, he wasn’t sure.

  Kai didn’t wait to see if Noah was still hanging around. He turned and began to climb up the alley wall. He had headed for the water then, since the T-Man and his gang were after him, the streets would no longer be an option.

  Now, with two men staking out the dock, it looked like nowhere would be safe, not if Noah was revealing all of his strengths.

  Brandons was still whining on the dock. “But the T-Man needs him alive. Wouldn’t it be better to check around--”

  “We’re not leaving until I say we’re leaving. So shut up.” Once again Red’s voice was loud, only this time Kai didn’t think Red meant for others to hear. He sucked his cheeks in to keep from smiling and to distract his mind from the way his lungs seemed to be collapsing inside him. Red sounded irritated, as if he might be worried someone else had already found Kai and brought him in.

  It shouldn’t be too long now, he told himself. Even though he thought he had gone longer than twelve minutes he wasn’t sure how long he would be able to hold out. His fingers were starting to tingle and the motions his arms made to keep him under were sluggish, not as effective as they were several minutes ago. The seconds ticked by, he could count them by the pounding of his heart. Each beat seemed to send out tiny ripples he hoped no one could see. How long was it now, fourteen minutes? Fifteen? It had to be close.

  Kai’s head nodded and he jerked himself back to keep from falling into endless sleep. He looked up at the dock and saw no one. The shadows had gone. Kai tried to remember when they left, but he couldn’t. He watched the surface, as far up the dock as he could see for fifteen seconds, until he knew he would have to risk it. Without the air in his lungs it took him several strokes to get his body pointed up and moving in that direction. The moment his mouth broke the water’s surface he took a deep breath and pushed back down hoping if someone was waiting they had not heard him. This time he could only stay below four minutes before he had to resurface, but the whole time no shadows moved on the dock.

  Once his head was above the surface he listened waiting a full minute for any noise out of the ordinary and when he heard nothing he climbed onto the dock. Three empty rowboats and one speeder tied closer to the shore bumped against the dock in an alternating rhythm. High on one of the warehouses a window squeaked in the faint breeze. The sound of the water dripping off him seemed to be the only sound out of place.

  Kai crouched as he rushed from one docking post to the next, always making sure he could leap back into the water at the first sign of danger. When he reached the land he paused again to see if he could hear any sound coming from behind the many crates, boxes and buildings that could provide a multitude of possible ambushes.

  The second warehouse had a loose door he knew he could squeeze through if he needed a quick escape, but since that door was also the only exit, he didn’t want to use it unless it was his only option. A sense of unease filled his mouth as he drew closer to the warehouses, he felt like he was being watched. Whether thi
s feeling was from the multiple cameras at the corner of every building, or because someone else was there, Kai couldn’t tell. He knew half of the security cameras weren’t transmitting data and, if they were, the likelihood that the guy watching them was asleep by now was very high.

  Not much happened at the docks ever since 2651, Beta Earth years, when the High Crimes Bill was passed, placing strict, immediate punishments for even the smallest of crimes. The Betan Parliament decreed that a three-strike rule would take effect.

  The first time you were caught in an illegal activity, like vandalism, stealing or fighting with a weapon, you would be tagged. A tracking device was placed into your blood stream and all your information was entered into the galactic database. This tracker would alert authorities if you fired a gun or were even in proximity to a weapon firing and you would never be allowed to work certain jobs.

  The second time you were caught you would automatically be sent to a hard labor prison camp on one of the outer planets for a predetermined time depending on the crime you were accused of doing. If you survived and served your sentence, you were returned to civilization and a more detailed tracker that included a momentary paralysis code was inserted into your spine. This tracker would also alert the authorities the moment you entered certain population zones.

  The third time you would be sent to the prison colony on Slayer’s Sun, a small planet that orbited Beta’s far sun very closely, one of the hottest, habitable planets in the known galaxy. Kai heard that they dropped the condemned off on the barren wasteland with two weeks’ worth of water and a week’s worth of food. As far as Kai knew no one had survived the sentence of the prison colony.

  Kai walked forward being careful not to step on any broken glass or rusty metal that might be lying around. He had to get out of the docks and into the Commercial District or, if he could, the Elite District. Both districts would limit those the T-Man could send after him because all of his guys had been tagged, most more than once, and they would be barred from entering those districts. However, he could not reach either without using the streets. Malte Lake was located at the far north of Highton City, the majority of society, especially the elite, worked and lived to the south because of the sharp pungent smell the jigger released into the air during mating season. This year the smell was worse than any year before, but it had never really bothered him.

  He passed a row of crates and was nearly past the first warehouse when he heard something move. There was a scrapping of wood and then something grabbed his arm. Kai kicked behind him in the direction his arm was being pulled, but his foot missed and he found himself looking up at Red Redford’s sharp green eyes and his thin lips pulled into a tight smile. Immediately, Kai relaxed his muscles and let Red pull him to the side of the warehouse.

  “I just knew you were out there,” Red said. He shook his head, the curls of his red hair would have bounced around like they normally did, but the black cap he wore held them plastered to his face. “So what, do you have an oxygen tank down there? A private room?”

  “Didn’t you know? I can breathe underwater. Evolution is finally moving to the next step. Soon we’ll all be fish again,” Kai said. He glared up at Red, the muscles in his arm hurt from how tightly Red held them. “Okay, okay. I’m really a superhero.”

  “Shut up.” Red shook Kai once. “I’m taking you to the T-Man and then we’ll see how good your jokes are.”

  “Oh, you’re taking me to the T-Man? And all this time I thought you were going toI’m not even going to say. Well, in that case, I’d love to meet your fearless leader, just drag me in the right direction,” Kai couldn’t keep his right eyebrow from arching, like it did when he was being obviously sarcastic, but the rest of his face held as much of an open, innocent look as he could muster. Red glared at him, but he hesitated. Just then the second man appeared around the corner of the warehouse.

  “Red, are you ready.” Brandons stopped short at the sight of them. It was a new guy. Kai had never seen him around the neighborhood or the kitchens before and by the looks of his round stomach and limp arm muscles, he had probably been picked to join the gang for a reason aside from his athletic skills. The guy’s clothes were clean and pressed, no holes or tears, and his light brown hair was recently cut and more recently combed. His soft hands were wrapped around a bag from the donut shop down the street and he stood at the corner taking in Kai’s wet clothes and the glare on Red’s face.

  Kai didn’t wait another moment. Red had slowly relaxed his grip over the last minute, since Kai wasn’t struggling, and with the sudden arrival of his partner he was distracted. Kai ripped his arm free, spun around and raced for the dock.

  It must have taken Red a moment to realize what had happened because by the time Kai heard Red’s feet pounding on the pavement he was almost on the dock. He sprinted to the end of the dock, dove into the air and heard Red curse an instant before his ears hit the water. This time he did not wait around. Kai swam for three minutes to the north and then surfaced so Red and his partner could see he was heading to the north side of the lake. Then he took a deep breath, dove to around ten feet underwater and turned south. He didn’t surface again for another ten minutes. It was harder to hold his breath when he also had to use energy.

  There were three main docks on the south and since he was most familiar with docks Cambridge and Greene he went to the third, Kempton. Kempton dock would make him backtrack some if he wanted to get to the Elite District, but it was a straight shot to the Commercial District, where he could hang around without drawing unwanted attention. He had gone to the Commercial District before to avoid the T-Man’s gang press.

  Once again as he approached Kempton Dock he listened for several minutes before he started to climb out of the water. Everything was quiet. Kai felt more confident because no one knew he was going there. He shook the water from his hair and walked toward the land without double checking the safety of the dock.

  The near sun was peeking over the east side of the city, so when a shadow separated from one of the boats he couldn’t tell who, or what, it was until it was too late. Kai caught a glimpse of Noah’s face right before a fist crashed into his forehead.

  “I told you not to go to any of your favorite spots.” Noah’s voice faded with the light, as Kai fell to the dock.