Murder Genes (19 page)

"Hey, is that...?
 
Shit."
 
Carl, one of the 'soldiers' of Esperanza, stared at him.

"Get Xiaos for me.
 
No wait," Jay changed his mind.
 
"I'll show him myself."
 
Jay grabbed Bitch's bound hands and pushed him ahead of him.

"Hey wait," Carl said.

"What?" Jay glared at Carl, not waiting and using the boy's body to push through the next doors.
 
Carl shook his head and shrugged as he turned away.

"Ow," Bitch complained.

They walked right in on Xiaos speaking with an Enforcer.
 
What the hell is a Enforcer doing here?
 
"...Hell's going on here?" Jay asked.

The Enforcer turned, when he saw Jay his eyes took a look of amazement, and then fury.
 
Jay recognized him.
 
He was the other Enforcer Jay'd seen up close, the one that had been standing next to Hunter his first day in Morir.

"What's your problem?" Jay asked, dropping Bitch onto the ground.
 
Bitch let out a small grunt of protest.

The Enforcer's gaze snapped to Jay.
 
"Jay," he whispered.
 
The dark rings around his eyes were darker than before, he looked gaunt.

"Something wrong?
 
Maybe something to do with an Enforcer by the name of Paul?"
 
Jay spit.
 
He hated Enforcers.
 
They were like a team of their own, except worse.
 
They used their authority to bribe their way into anything, they found ways to blackmail blackmailers, they moved like a poison, corrupting anything they laid eyes on, encouraging aggression.
 
Encouraging murder.
 
And when someone killed one of their own...they got revenge.
 
Pack of wolves.

Jay spit on the ground.
 
Between the Enforcer's legs.

The Enforcer just looked at him, a barely detectable sneer between his eyes.

The Chief Enforcer--Hunter--was on Jay like a hound in heat.
 
Since Haven and since it became known that Jay was the one saving lives for Esperanza, Hunter made sure to take a life for each one Jay rescued, taking from the same Team Jay'd infiltrated.
 
It made the Teams hate Jay all the more.

If Hunter had his way, he'd make sure the whole city drowned in its own crimson blood because of Jay.
 
The more Jay tried to save lives, the more Hunter took them.

Hunter would stop when Jay was dead.

And here an Enforcer was, standing in the middle of Esperanza, chatting with Xiaos like long-lost buddies.
 
"How 'bout I send a message back to your Chief with your body?
 
One for one right?
 
Get two with one stone?" Jay threatened.

"Jay!
 
Silence yourself before you make matters worse.
 
Mike is on our side."
 
Xiaos stood up and gave a big sigh.
 
"You should dismiss yourself, Mike.
 
We will speak another time."

Mike nodded slowly, circling behind Jay.
 
He suddenly shoulder-shoved Jay face first into the wall.
 
Jay spun at the Enforcer with a growl and met a gun's barrel pressed up between the eyes.
 
"Bang," Mike whispered.
 
"Bang.
 
Bang.
 
Bang."
 
He lowered the gun into his holster and turned around.
 
Then he walked out.

...
the fuck?
 
Jay breathed heavily.
 
His felt his heartbeat pounding in his head.
 
"I didn't know we were working with Enforcers, Xiaos," Jay demanded.
 
"What the hell else do you need to tell me?"

"Mike has assisted us for some time, since before your arrival, actually.
 
He is our man on the inside of Hunter's Enforcers.
 
He informs us each time a new drop arrives, reports what is in each Misk box, who the newest arrivals are, what news there is on the outside.
 
Esperanza is alive because of him.
 
We need him, Jay."

Jay swore.

Xiaos walked around his desk.
 
"If you did not observe, he hates you very much.
 
That is why I did not tell you, or want him to see you here."

Jay grit his teeth, his pulse beginning to cool.
 
"And what's his deal with Paul?"

"They were lovers."

"Damn...Paul was one of us?"
 
Didn't seem like it when I pulled a knife on him.

"No.
 
He never discovered Mike's secret.
 
At the time, Mike was working up courage to tell Paul, we insisted he not because the risk was too great.
 
Regardless, because of you, Mike never got the chance."
 
Xiaos glanced at Bitch.
 
It took him a second, but when he did he didn't hold back.
 
"Jay!
 
Is this...?"

"This is Bitch.
 
Bitch, meet Xiaos."

Bitch lifted his still blindfolded head from the ground and raised his bound hands.
 
"Nice ta mee..."

"No!" Xiaos slammed his palm on his desk.
 
"Absolutely not.
 
We cannot accept Thrillers and Murderers in Esperanza, Bitch especially."

"He begged me to join."

"He is the right hand loyalist of
your
Gamer.
 
Holy-Fuckin'-Damn-Idiotic," Xiaos suddenly cursed, hilariously.
 
It was the closest Jay had seen Xiaos fall into incomprehension.

Jay smirked.
 
"Xiaos, I'm not dumb.
 
He already knew where Esperanza was."

Xiaos mouth clicked shut.
 
"Gamer knows then."

"Not according to Bitch, here." Bitch nodded as Jay spoke.
 
"Bitch says he never told Freckles.
 
I think he's more Survivalist than Thriller, Xiaos."

"You are joking with me."

"Nope."

"Hell."
 
It was Jay's fault for starting Xiaos on the cussing.
 
The last months had gotten Xiaos mostly fluent in common language.

"What do you want to do with him?" Jay asked.

Xiaos sat down in his chair, brooding.
 
Time clicked by and Jay took a seat in the corner to wait.
 
Bitch, he just kept on the floor with his head down.
 
The boy had good sense.
 

"I never thought I would say this," Xiaos finally answered.
 
"But I've trusted you all the way until now.
 
Fool hearty or not.
 
Show him the life, Jay."

Jay nodded.

Xiaos held up a finger.
 
"On one condition."

"Yep."

"He is your shadow.
 
When you are not here, he is MY shadow.
 
Bitch never leaves Esperanza for any reason, ever.
 
If he does, you or I will execute him."
 
Xiaos leaned forward and tried to sound menacing.
 
"Hear me Bitch?
 
You are dead if you take a single step out of Esperanza, you will be our first murder-fuckin'-death."
 
Jay wanted to laugh at Xiaos, but Xiaos would not likely appreciate it just now.
 
The man cursed like any asian--it just didn't work.

"Yes Boss," Bitch said.

Jay smiled and untied Bitch.

"Jay, there is something more.
 
Mike just informed me."

"Yeah."

"Do you remember the rumors?"

"...No shit, really?
 
North Korea?"

"Morir is the only Murderer City large enough to contain North Korea, the DPRK.
 
After Immortal Leader Kim Cho-sung conquered its Southern counterpart, the other nations turned against the DPRK.
 
They are saying the DPRK is the last civilized nation noncompliant with the science of The Code because--the UN claims--the
whole
DPRK has The Code."

"Yeah, right," Jay snorted.
 
"The whole country?
 
Is anyone believing this crap?"

Xiaos nodded seriously.
 
"Yes."

"Well, why do we care?
 
It's Morir, it won't be any different with some ethnic resurfacing."

"Immortal Leader was assassinated."

"Thought the man was immortal," Jay joked.

Bitch snorted.

Xiaos glared.
 
"Not funny," he said.
 
"Immortal Leader survived twenty-eight assassination attempts and war against every major power for the last four years.
 
Of course he thought he was immortal.
 
I
thought the man was immortal.
 
His self-godhood made him and his generals meaner than anyone."
 
Xiaos thumped his finger to the table.
 
"Those are the kind of people coming here.
 
A whole country of them."
 
Xiaos had that frown on his face Jay recognized to mean the sky was falling, at least to Xiaos.
 
"Morir will
become
the DPRK," Xiaos said.

"And you think the DPRK is just rolling over to be shipped to Morir?" Jay shook his head.
 
"C'mon Xiaos!
 
It'll take more than that.
 
Chances are the UN's gonna take a beating before they realize the Koreans aren't to be messed with."

"But the DPRK
will
arrive.
 
Sooner or later they will be defeated and sent here.
 
And there will be a deep grudge against all things American."

"They'll have to find Esperanza, first," Jay said.

"Morir is large, but the DPRK has a population of ten million.
 
In time, they will doubtless find us."

A thought came to Jay.
 
"Hey, you think that's why they built Morir so big?
 
I always wondered why they it the size of New York."
 
It made sense, at least to him.
 
"Think about it, the DPRK has been trouble for like, a century, so much trouble that it'd be easier to wipe the whole country out.
 
If so, the Code's a cover, just political propaganda."

"You speak like Issak.
 
If you are right then The Code is too frail a propaganda to last long.
 
I think you are wrong."

"It's working so far."

"Only for so long," Xiaos said.
 
Xiaos was a firm believer in American ethics, he held faithfully on a hope that someday the American people would realize they'd been duped and demand Morir's destruction.

"Long enough to accomplish their goal?"

"I do not think your explanation is the case, Jay."

"Hey, my idea is better than the Church thing."

"Jay.
 
Please leave."
 
Xiaos rubbed at his temples.

Jay shrugged, grinned to himself as best as he could through the bar.
 
He pulled Bitch's blindfold off and clicked his tongue at Bitch and they left.
 
Let the Damn People’s Republic of Korea come, Morir had something waiting for them.
 
Plus, he'd take Koreans over the Gamers and Hunter any day.
 
Least they believed in something more than a game.

"Serious kind of guy," Bitch said as he followed Jay out.
 
“Hey, you gonna untie me?”

"Yeah.
 
Sometime."
 
Xiaos was serious, but he was also always right.
 
Jay might not see it and he probably didn't have to worry about the DPRK for some time, but he'd be a fool to ignore Xiaos completely.

Chapter 14

WHAT IS EPIGENETICS?

Epigenetics is the study of chemical reactions that turn segments of a genome on and off.
 
These epigenes may be affected by stress, diet, behavior and numerous other factors that regulate gene expression.
 
The factors change over time as environmental factors, physical activity, and even social interactions manipulate them, thus requiring increasingly significant impact or repetitive stresses to alter the epigene as the genome matures.
 
When cells divide, the epigenetic tags are copied and the DNA sequence, however expressed, may become transferred from parent to child.

It is in this that our research begins.
 
How much genetic memory is transferred through embryonic development?

-Raith, Whitley, Epigenetics Study Proposal.