War Girls (The Juniper Wars Book 5) by Aaron Ritchey (best short novels .TXT) 📕

because in the Juniper you are very, very dangerous. Once, daily, you are going to scan your eyes to let me know where you are. I refuse to lose any more sleep worrying about where you might be and what you might be doing.”

“My ID ain’t in the SISBI database.”

He lifted the slate to scan my eyes and I shut them immediately.

“Open them,” he said softly. The Regios pried my eyes open and he scanned them, and no matter how hard I fought, or how hard I tried to close them, I couldn’t. I was helpless.

And I felt it. Right then, I knew Hoyt could do whatever he wanted with me.

I couldn’t fight him then, so I’d have to be patient. I’d wait out that jackerdan. Then I’d put an end to him.

“Once a day, you will scan in.”

“And if I don’t?” I asked.

“I’ll murder Anjushri Rawat, from your school in Cleveland. I’ll also kill her boyfriend, Billy Finn. And if I can, I will put your sisters and the priest, Father Peter Pilgram, in their graves. They have proven to be very difficult, so I can’t guarantee I’ll be successful, but Ms. Rawat and Mr. Finn would surely be easy to take care of.”

“And that’s how you’re gonna make the world a better place?”

“A few lives don’t matter. Come now, you understand that. In all your battles, I think you’ve been willing to make sacrifices. It’s common sense. Billions will benefit if I remove a few dozen lives. Lives that would end soon enough.”

“But not because of your evil,” I said. “What else? What about the money Micaiah promised?”

“He thinks you have it. But I have spent the gross national product of Portugal on you already. No, I’m not going to give you a single dollar. I’m giving you your life. That’s enough.”

“Good,” I spat. “I wouldn’t want your goddamn money anyway.”

He laughed. “Well said, Ms. Weller. The character you are playing is very heroic and defiant. I am moved. Yet, in the end, you are inconsequential. You have always been inconsequential. You are nothing but a line item, and I’ve taken care of you.”

“And if I tell everyone that you have the cure?” I asked.

Hoyt shrugged. “Oh yes, like there isn’t that rumor already. The problem is proof. You have none. Say what you want. And keep in mind, June Mai Angel has been trying to get the media’s attention for years now, about the injustices of the veterans sent to the Juniper. No one cares, Cavatica. Americans have their great peace and their love of God, and really, they don’t need much else. The ARK provides babies, and all is right with the world.”

“But it’s not, is it? Which is why you want to change it.”

He glanced at his watch. “Another few decades, another generation, and my work will be done. I’m a very patient man.” He paused. “I saw you in the alley with Alice. The poor creature wanted an end to her suffering. I don’t blame her. But you are to blame. You did kill her after all.”

My throat was clogged with fury and sadness. I knew where he was going, and I glared at him even as tears of rage trickled down my cheeks.

“You and your family fought me. You created this chaos. And you broke the terms of the deal you and Micaiah set. I had no choice but to murder Alice. I could kill you, now.”

I coughed out my sorrow. “Then why don’t you?”

He grinned. His eyes were dead, like a rattler’s. “Because I want you to live a long time, and I want you to know how little and useless you are. In the end, perhaps you might even understand that all the terrible things I did, I did for the good of the world.”

“Don’t hold your breath.” If my eyes could’ve cut him, he’d have been marbled steaks on the floor.

He shrugged. “You are free to live your life as you please, but you will scan in daily, and if you don’t, your friends and family will suffer. And one more thing. Say what you want about the cure and my experiments, but you will keep our deal a secret. You tell anyone, I mean anyone, about scanning in daily, and you will regret it. There are worse things than death in this world. For you. For Anjushri Rawat. For Billy Finn.”

Hoyt stood. And I thought he’d walk out, but he didn’t.

He took the knuckles of his right hand, and he thumped them on my skull as hard as he could. Stunned, hurt, I didn’t think to retaliate, and I was held down anyway.

“Remember me knocking on your bones, Ms. Weller. Remember your own common sense. And leave me and my work alone. Again, this deal is between you and me. My son has nothing to do with this.”

He walked out of my line of sight and then I let loose. “He’s not your son, Hoyt! Micaiah isn’t your son, he’s you, only he has a soul, and I won’t ever stop, not ever stop, and you’ll have to drown me in the blood of my friends and family ’cause I’ll never stop!”

The Regios let go of me. I spun from the chair.

But the soldiers were already gone, slamming the door, locking it.

A hammer laid on a shelf, and I took it up and bashed the door, but I couldn’t knock it open. I slammed that hammer on the door, over and over, and I wasn’t crying. Too busy hammering. I still felt his knuckles on my scalp, the humiliation, the powerlessness.

Keys jiggled on the outside and some Marriott manager finally opened it.

She paled looking at me—me huffing, the hammer in my hand.

The door was open. I was free.

Only I wasn’t. Hoyt had caged me...caged me up but good.

I’d talked so tough to Hoyt, told him he’d have to kill me to stop me, but the truth was, he had killed me.

I just didn’t know it yet.

(v)

The manager didn’t know