The Mark of Cain (13 page)

“And that worked?” Despite herself, she was fascinated
in learning what had really transpired that had caused Judas to betray Christ.

“Well he turned Him in, didn’t he?”

“Yeah,” she said, finally taking a bite of food as
she let it seep in. Once it had, she asked, “Why isn’t all of that in the
Bible?”

“Plenty of reasons. For one, are you sure that a
Mokolio didn’t help translate the Bible?”

“But…they
couldn’t
!” she cried, almost
spitting out her food. “You said they
hated
God!”

He shrugged. “They’re masters of every language.
Even ones that have long been forgotten. That’s where their name comes from.
Loosely translated in a language that is so ancient it doesn’t even have a
name, it means ‘Owners of the Earth.’”

She was horrified. If a God-hating society was
responsible for translating the Bible, then how much of it was false?

“Don’t worry, though,” he said, probably upon seeing
her world crashing down around her. “They only messed with things that had to
do with them. They didn’t want to appear in history written by so-called
‘prophets’ and ‘disciples.’ In fact, only a couple of members from the sect are
actually mentioned by name. And don’t even ask who because I’m not going to
tell you. Just know that before you get yourself all worked up.”

“Were they always bad then? Are their deeds all as
horrible as that?”

He shrugged as he took another bite of noodles.
“Sometimes. It always depended upon the sanity of their leader. But even mad
men have their uses. Think about the scientists who were before their time and
killed as heretics. They were considered mad, but today their teachings are
almost scripture themselves in the scientific community.”

“So what have they done that’s good?”

“They were responsible for the Age of Enlightenment.
Of course, they were responsible for the Dark Ages as well, but…” he said,
shrugging again. “That just goes to show you how different the sect was
depending upon the sanity of the leader. Before you judge them, know that, if
not for them, we’d still be living in the Dark Ages today. The sect has always
been comprised of the most brilliant minds of the time. As you probably know,
sometimes brilliance can bring about madness.”

“What about now?”

“At the moment, the leader is the sanest of any of
them.”

“So they’re doing good?” She just couldn’t believe
that Inac could be a part of something evil.

“At the moment they’re pretty much neutral. They
aren’t doing evil like when Vlad the Impaler had been in charge, but they
aren’t doing the good they did during the Age of Enlightenment. They’re kind of
just chilling, keeping the world in as much control as possible. Right now a
lot of countries are interested in warring with one another, to gain the world
for themselves, but the sect leader is sick to death of war so he’s forcing
them to behave. If anyone doesn’t listen, then they’ll be killed. You might be
interested to know that the sect has been involved in every war in history.
Maybe not every disagreement, but any of the major wars.”

“But that’s doing good; stopping war, I mean. It
sounds like you have a good leader now.” She was so interested in what he was
telling her that she hadn’t eaten more than a bite of her noodles.

He laughed. “He still has a pretty bad temper,
though, so who knows when that could take over.”

“But there are wars going on right now…?” The
thought just occurred to her. If they were stopping the fighting, then how come
people were still dying?

“Not involving anyone from the sect.” He furrowed
his brow before amending, “Well, some countries are part of the sect, but their
wars are against people
not
in the sect. Besides, nobody’s really
winning any of them. The leader will only get involved in wars if he has to.”

“But why not? If he can stop the wars, then why
doesn’t he?”

“Because it’s human nature to war. He can’t stop
everyone
from fighting. Especially those who deserve to be attacked for violence they’ve
committed. Besides, he can’t tell those
not
in the sect—like small
terrorist organizations—to stop fighting, and he hasn’t really had much
interest in the third world.”

“You just mean that he won’t get involved unless it
challenges his interests.”

He looked her over for a moment before saying,
“That’s partly it. But really, if someone deserves to be attacked, then they
deserve what comes to them. Some countries have attacked sect-controlled ones
first. Can the leader really tell them not to protect themselves or retaliate?”

“Yes.”

“Then they’ll just be bullied until all of their
countrymen are dead or enslaved.”

“So why doesn’t the whole sect get involved when
that happens?”

“We don’t like world wars, which is what would
happen if they did. When wars get that large, the sect loses money. Wars aren’t
cheap, you know.”

“Well that just makes it all better,” she said with
a sarcastic snort.

“We don’t get involved in squabbles. We have more
important things to do. Besides, the leader lets each ‘elected’ person run
their own country to a point. He wants a life so, as long as they aren’t
ruining things, he gives them some leeway to do their own thing. If not, can
you imagine one man ruling billions of people firsthand? He wouldn’t have any
time to enjoy himself. I mean, think about it, we re-elect a president at least
every eight years because that much time without a vacation and the leader will
no longer have a fresh pair of eyes. If he can’t change things by then, he won’t
ever change things.” He seemed vaguely annoyed. When she kept staring at him
with the unbelief she felt, he added, “On top of all that, the leader likes
things challenging. If the whole world coexisted perfectly, then he wouldn’t
have anything to work at to obtain. Right now his eyes are set on the Middle
East. The Middle East is very dear to him and he hates seeing it torn apart by
civil wars.” With a curl to his lip, he said, “He
despises
civil wars,
or really any war based on racism and sectarianism. There is no point in
murdering your own brother because he was born to a different tribe or believes
in a different god….”

She ignored that, instead scoffing as she asked, “So
what on Earth could be more important than world peace?”

“There’s a prophecy that we’re trying to keep from
being fulfilled.”

That was the last thing she’d expected him to say.
When he didn’t go on, she asked, “What kind of prophecy?”

“The kind that I’m not at liberty to discuss.”

His terse reply let her know that he was finished
with the interview. She had another question, though, that she had to have
answered before she could drop the subject.

“And where do
you
fit into all of this?”

He smiled, obviously trying to charm her with it.

“Me?” he asked. “I’m just an Adamson.”

***

Inac couldn’t believe everything he’d told Hara.
None of his wives had even known the Mokolios existed, let alone had heard
stories about them. There was just something about her that made him want to be
honest, as well as she responded so well that he enjoyed conversing with her.

She was probably the only living person he could
honestly say that about. He enjoyed talking to her so much that his gut had
even wanted to tell her the absolute truth; that
he
was the one who had
founded it, and that
he’d
always been the leader. But his head had won
that battle. Everything would be lost if she knew the truth about him; if she
knew he was Cain.

Because of how disarming she was, he hadn’t talked
to her in days. He just had to give adequate time between his big reveal and
moving forward. If he didn’t, then he might end up prolonging the inevitable.
As much as he no longer wished her harm, if he didn’t get rid of her, he would
have obsessed for five hundred years for nothing. His life’s work would be meaningless.
She
had
to die.

A few days had worked wonders in clearing his head.
During that time he’d become reacquainted with the man he really was; with the
murderer that God had cursed and Marked so all would know him. He remembered
what he had to do and would take care of it. The days had been what he’d needed
to push the emotions away. Now the part that enjoyed her company was safely
locked away. He just had to get this over with quickly before that part of him
found its way out into the open again.

“Hey you,” he called to Hara as she walked up to
him. He was waiting by her car outside her school.

“Hey yourself,” she said with a large smile. “You
remember Tracker,” she added, gesturing toward the boy beside her. Did the
puppy always have to follow her everywhere?

Acting as though he wasn’t annoyed by the kid’s
presence, he said, “Of course I do. And how are you today, Tracker?”

The kid just glared at him in much the same fashion
as he had last Thursday when the kid had shown up at Hara’s for study group,
which had thus ended the evening. Inac still hadn’t had the chance to make a
move on Hara…but that would change tonight.

“What are you doing here?” Hara asked. “And how’d
you know where to find me?”

“I’m here to give you a surprise. And Crystal told
me what time you got out of school.” Obviously he’d already known, but he’d
asked Hara’s roommate so that Hara wouldn’t know he’d been following her.

“What kind of surprise?” she asked, her smile
widening.

“Come with me and find out,” he said, gesturing
toward his black and silver bullet bike parked behind her car.

“You want me to ride with you on
that
?” she
asked in a voice suggesting he was mental…which he was. But
she
didn’t
need to know that.

“Yeah,” he said, making a show with the best smile
in his arsenal. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”

“Nuh-uh. I’m wearing a skirt.”

“You always wear a skirt. Besides,” he added,
holding up a pair of denim shorts in her size, “I brought you these to put on
under it. Now you don’t have any more excuses.”

“What about a helmet? I only see one.”

“That I bought for you too.”

“You don’t wear a helmet?

“Don’t you know I’m invincible?” he asked, making it
sound like a joke even though it was, in actuality, the truth.

Hara laughed but, to his dismay, Tracker’s scowl
deepened as though he believed what Inac was saying. Something tugged at the
edges of Inac’s mind, making him think that the kid knew more about him than he
was letting on….

Inac had good instincts; instincts that were telling
him that this kid’s hatred of him wasn’t just because Hara liked Inac versus
him. The kid had the look of one who knew Inac’s true intentions. But, if he
did, then he would have warned Hara….

For the first time in his life, Inac doubted
himself. But he didn’t have time to dwell on it. Right now, he had to work on
Hara so that he could kill her already.

“Come on, Hara,” Inac plead. “Or do I need to play
Angel versus Devil with you?”

“Play
what
?” she asked, giggling.

“Angel versus Devil. You know, like, ‘Hara, God
wouldn’t want you to hang on to a man so closely,’” he said, his voice all
sugar. Letting a wicked glint in his eyes match his wicked smile, he added,
“‘Hara, you know you want to live on the wild side. Besides, it will get you
closer to Inac. You can hang on to him for dear life. You know you want to.’”

Hara’s face was red, a combination of embarrassment
and laughing as hard as she was.

“And then how would the angel reply?” she asked,
almost clapping her hands like the little girl inside her mind was probably
doing.

All sugar again, “‘Hara, no! If you go with him,
you’ll be tempted to do something immoral! You know what he does to you. If you
hold on to him, you’ll want to kiss him!’”

“And how would the devil respond to that?”

He was glad that she liked this game as much as she
did; especially since it was making Tracker angrier by the second.

“Well, the devil would respond by saying something
along the lines of, ‘Hehehehehe. Yeah, you
do
know exactly how he makes
you feel. How
good
he makes you feel. And kissing? What are you, five?’”
he said as he walked closer to her until both his body and face were almost
touching hers. “‘You know you want him to do much more than that to you.’” He
knew the combination of his words and actions would get the reaction he was
after from her.

She opened her mouth, taking in shallow gasps that
made her chest quickly rise and fall. He was about to kiss her, an exclamation
point to his words, when Tracker grabbed her arm and pulled her back, the air
rushing between them like a slap in the face.

“Hara, don’t you see? He’s just playing with you! He
isn’t even
trying
to hide it. Don’t you see how blatant he’s being? He
just wants to sleep with you! And, once he has, he’s gonna hurt you.”