Sons of Abraham: J-17's Trial (6 page)

Zena hadn’t bothered to turn towards the question, her body still facing the empty wall before her. Her pale skin was turning pink, her heart rate soaring to an uncomfortable level. Part of her wanted to order Harper to pull the trigger.

“Plenty,” she snapped, turning towards the Agent.

“Then why choose him for company?” he asked, still staring at the gun.

“Because those bodies deserved to be bodies,” she snapped. “Not one of them were decent people, you know that. Same reason why I left you in that alley, Calloway. Don’t act like you forgot.”

He ignored the gun. He ignored the other three people in the room. At the moment, the room only consisted of himself, and a ghost from the past. It’d been seven years, best to his recollection since he’d seen her ass end tailing away from him. Seven years since she’d left him in that alley to die.

“The hell with you,” he hissed, pushing through her once more and making for the stairs. “Good luck with the MA. Hope you know how to deal with a Cyber.”

Jaws dropped.

“Cyber?” Harper gasped. “Ya didn’t say nothing bout a Cyber Cap!”

“Wait!” Zena shouted.

It was too late as Nathan was already halfway down the stairwell. His feet stomped every step, sending thundering echoes through the stone dwelling. Zena looked back to Harper, before groaning and chasing after the Agent. Her feet were quick, descending the stairs before the man could get a hand upon the wooden door handle. She reached out with one hand, clasping onto the Agent’s shoulder. He turned, faster than she’d anticipated. As his plain features skewed, a menacing face bore down upon her.

“Tell me why I should give a fuck what happens next!” he whispered hoarsely. “Huh? Give me one damn reason why I shouldn’t have all of you hauled to the Colony. Go ahead Red, gimme one good reason.”

The blue eyes stared back into his simple brown. For a moment, she had to remember to breathe. How long had it been since that horrible night? Six years? Seven? How many more had to pass before he forgave her? Worse still, how many more until she forgave herself. She’d been pushed to her breaking point, but it had nothing to do with her former partner. If not for him, she’d snapped long before that night. The anger was fading quickly, humility settled in.

“I’m so sorry Nathan,” she cried. “I know you can’t forgive me, but at least, try to understand me. Take me in if you want, but leave them out of it. You know they don’t deserve to be drug back to him.”

There was something about the face she was showing him, the side of her he hadn’t seen in so long that he doubted its existence. Time heals all wounds, but some wounds need more time than others need. He knew she was right, he had zero intentions of dragging Yomiel and Elzana into their war. They were good people, by any standards. The type of people that needed him the most. He wouldn’t sacrifice them just to get petty revenge over his ex-partner, no matter how deeply she’d wounded him.

“You know me better than that,” he snapped. “What I can’t figure out is why there aren’t twenty rings between those two and Parasus. This is the first place he’ll look for her and you know it. You got a plan that doesn’t involve handing them over to him for a bigger payment than they’re giving you?”

“Don’t you dare!” she whispered back. “Don’t you dare talk to me like I’m a backstabbing bitch. You think I didn’t tell them to run. You think I didn’t feel for them when she told me what Elsmere and his men were doing to her. I’d have them on the other side of the galaxy by now if they weren’t so damn stubborn.”

Despite her inner demanding, tears had begun to stream over her cheeks. The drops amplified the tiny freckles on her face, reminding him of the younger woman he’d once known. He leaned away from her, sensing the trap.

“Can the waterworks Red,” he replied solemnly. “Don’t think you can just cry your way out of this one. I don’t need you to tell me what that bastard was doing. I met the man and wanted nothing more than to put a bullet between his eyes. I don’t say that about many people, so you know I mean it. You know I’ll just walk away and say they weren’t here. I’ll say it, but how long til they send someone else. Elsmere has a ton of power. He’ll have hunters in here by tomorrow morning. Hell, he may just send a message and find some right next door to this place. Mesa isn’t exactly the pinnacle of proper citizens.”

“The tears aren’t fake,” she snapped, wiping them away. “Wouldn’t waste the water on you anyways. But don’t you go acting like some hardass neither. You got a soft side to you. That’s why you’re here to warn them instead of waiting for a squad to help you take them back.”

“I HAD a soft side,” he replied. “Must have fell out when they dug that bullet outta my chest.”

“Oh don’t you even go there,” she whispered, the anger returning to her face. “I called the medical team in and you know it. I saved your life damn it!”

Nathan’s hands shot forward, clutching both of Zena’s wrists and pulling them up between them. He leaned in, his face only inches from hers. In another life, the act would have symbolized a much different intent. This time, it meant that years of built up anger and resentment were about to be unleashed.

“You better get your damn head checked,” he snapped. “That bullet I took was meant for you, and you just left me there, bleeding out on the street. How long til you found out if I even survived, huh? Did ya find out for yourself, or was today the first time you thought about it?”

She tried to pull away, but his hands were stronger and he outweighed her by fifty pounds, at least. She wouldn’t let the tears return, but the ball of guilt in her throat was demanding to be heard. The lips turned to anger as she tried to rip herself free of his grasp, but the tears were still threatening, still lingering.

“I think that’ll be enough!” Harper snapped from the stairwell. “You two been carrying on for a little too long. Maybe I’ll just heave a bucket of water on ya and be done with it. Whatever history you too are pissing and moaning about won’t mean squat when that MA gets here. Think it’s time we start talking bout that instead.”

She managed to wiggle her wrists free when Nathan fixed his stare to the man. True, they had to come up with a plan, and quick, but he wasn’t feeling too worried about the Cyber at that very moment. He felt her pain, felt her pulling herself away from him. It was like living a dream all over again.

“Yeah, the Cyber,” she started, keeping her face hidden from both of them. “What do we do when IT gets here?”

“Don’t go calling him an IT,” Nathan snarled. “Thought you were better than that.”

She stopped crying, the Captain returning to her helm. Her blue eyes dove right to his brown, her stance finding defiance once more.

“Seems to be a bad habit for you, Agent,” she replied. “When IT gets here, we’re all fucked, even you.”

“Even me?” Nathan laughed. “Why the hell would I be in trouble?”

“Cuz you ain't taken her back yet,” Harper replied, coming down the last few stairs. “That can’t look too good for you, now can it?”

Calloway turned his attention to the older man, wishing he’d come this close to him ten years ago. Legendary law-breakers were prized commodities for lawmen, especially one with the reputation like the Rattler. The locals always liked to tell the tales of how many men he could drop before any of them could return a single shot. It always seemed like an impossible stretch, but that was the problem with legends.

“So far,” Nathan replied. “I’ve done everything the MA and I agreed to do. I said I would come here and find them, which I’ve done. Right now, I’m just waiting for him.”

“You won’t have to wait much longer,” Elzana cried out, racing down the stairs.

The young woman jumped down the last few, bouncing off Harper as she stumbled and regained her balance. She pushed through the arguing crowd, reaching for the doorway and throwing it open. They could hear the reaction long before they could see anything from the doorway. Cries of joy echoed through the small collection of buildings. Calloway pushed past Zena, rushing out the open door to see what caused the commotion. The sight lifted his heart. Not a hundred paces away, the back of Elzana, her arms stretched out wide, could be seen running towards three smaller figures. Nathan didn’t need to see past Elzana to know what was happening. Somehow, some way, the Cyber had proved to be the hero.

Nathan thought of running to meet them, but a brush of wind sailed by as Yomiel raced out to catch up with his daughters. The three arguing adults set aside their differences, each happily striding towards the reunited family. Tears fell over dark faces without an ounce of shame. The girls hugged their sister, their father, and each other in turn. The happy man could scarcely contain his joy, smothering the returning daughters with kisses on their foreheads and cheeks.

Behind the joyous scene, a tall figure loomed. Gradually, the shadow drew closer to the small crowd. Agent Calloway smiled, uncertain if a Cyber could appreciate the scene that he’d created. It took many more seconds for Zena to see the approaching MA, but that was what she hired the Rattler to do. The longhaired man had his pistol drawn, the sites splitting the eyes that glared back at him.

“Put it away,” Nathan suggested.

“Don’t see that happening,” Harper replied. “Not when I got that thing dead in my sites.”

Harper felt the metal push against his skull long before he heard the Agent move. He lowered the weapon, feeling it being removed from his weathered hand. The MA slowly closed in, still focusing upon the threat of the gunman.

“He just saved your life Mr. Harper,” Joseph started.

“Doubt it,” he replied, unable to look away.

The MA looked the man up and down, his eyes shifting to the mirror once more. The scanning eyes saw everything that Calloway could not, an inventory being taken of the arsenal under the man’s jacket.

“You should return the weapon to him,” Joseph continued. “He has six others on him anyways.”

The MA turned to watch the happy family, his eyes returning to a more humane appearance. The others stood awkwardly around them, their various thoughts all geared towards similar topics. A storm was coming, and this family was right in its path.

“We should get inside,” Zena said, noting the many faces that were taking notice to the scene. “Like now.”

Without another word, the group agreed. They returned to the house, everyone gathering in the center room of the second floor. Calloway felt uneasy as he handed the weapon back to AJ Harper, pondering whether it was a wise decision on his part. The grizzled man simply nodded before returning the oversized weapon to its home.

The cheerful scene carried on for another hour before Agent Calloway reluctantly threw the wet blanket over the happy family. He gathered the two smugglers, along with the MA and Yomiel, and took them downstairs.

“You can’t stay here Yomiel,” Nathan started. “Elsmere will have hunters here before long. Do you have any family on another planet you can go to, perhaps an old colleague?”

The man opened his mouth to answer, but the MA was quick to interrupt him.

“Look, Cap and I would take em,” Harper started. “But we won’t gain clearance for using the big rings, which means they’d be stuck within the same system. They need to avoid anyone they know too. First place hunters would come looking.”

“He’s right,” Zena added. “They need to drop their names and disappear if they wanna survive. Maybe we could get them on the next transport back to Earth or something.”

The MA remained quiet, allowing for the others to exhaust the possibilities. He knew that none of them would devise a plan that would yield a high chance of success. Nonetheless, he felt obliged to let each of them take a turn at correcting the glaring problem that Yomiel and his family were facing. After Calloway passed at his opportunity, the Cyber politely intervened.

“I’m afraid that none of those solutions will work,” he replied, facing Agent Calloway. “While your intentions are admirable, the four of you are lacking the foresight to elude the justice of Parasus, as well as that of the Earth. What I would suggest, however, is for the three of you to take your leave.”

“But, we haven’t come to a decision,” Zena responded, looking to Nathan. “You can’t just let him decide their fate, can you?”

Nathan looked to Joseph, his mind trying to grasp what intentions the Cyber had in his artificial mind. To this day, he’d never witnessed a Cyber doing anything that wasn’t directly in line with the laws of Earth, or the planets whom he served. Something was off about the whole situation. The I.I.U. agent had suspected as much the moment he saw the girls returning.

“You know something you’re not telling us,” Nathan added, his face growing suspicious. “What happened back there on Parasus anyways? How’d you get Elsmere to let the girls go?”

The Cyber looked to everyone in the room, one at a time. He weighed the options before him before calculating that he could not give the Agent the information that he’d requested. To the humans, the decision had taken only a fraction of a second. To the Cyber, however, it’d taken far longer than he’d suspected to meet his conclusion.

“I believe it best to not inform you,” Joseph replied. “The less you know, the better the chances Yomiel’s family will have of surviving this ordeal. Telling you what happened, as well as my future intentions for them, would place everyone in peril. I respect your right to know Agent Calloway, but I must insist that you remain in the dark this time. I hope that you will understand.”