Estranged (11 page)

He studied her closely for
a moment, both hands interlocked in front of him as he watched her
through the phone. It was true, his nails were black. Then he
unlocked his hands, leaned back, and said, “Neither do I. Of
course, I’ve heard some rumors, I have some ideas, but the truth
is,
no one knows
.
And that’s how SWORDE operates. With secrets. When they confiscate
the body of a victim, it is never seen again. When they arrive on
the scene of a crime, nobody is allowed beyond the tape. Even the
Wardens themselves all wear masks. That is not how a branch of the
government should operate. This city deserves to know who is
entering that burning building to save their child. When a family
member dies, they should be allowed to bury the body and properly
grieve their lost loved one. Or if the person has turned, they
should know that too so they can protect themselves from a possible
attack. SWORDE is protecting nobody with these secrets, least of
all the people in the Victim Protection Program. For all we know,
those people could be dying at the hands of the very same Estranged
who are supposed to be protecting our city. But I want to put an
end to all of that.”

Kalei clenched her jaw, and she felt
her jaw muscle flex and strain beneath her cheek. When he paused,
she asked, “How?”

“
I need someone to get
into SWORDE and start uncovering those secrets. I’m working on a
device right now that, once plugged into SWORDE’s main computer,
will upload all of SWORDE’s files directly to the
39
^th
district police station. It’s going to take some time to get
the device ready, but it will also take time for this person to get
close enough to SWORDE that they can gain access to those
computers. Will you be that person for me, Kalei?”

“
What makes you think I’m
the one to do it?”

“
There are people within
SWORDE who want to see you become a Warden. You won’t have any
problem getting in.”

“
Who?”

“
The less you know, the
easier it will be for you to avoid suspicion.”

Kalei’s jaw flexed and relaxed. Flexed
and relaxed. Here was an opportunity to get everything she wanted.
As a spy, she could find the whereabouts of Fenn and the girls. By
exposing SWORDE, she could take them down. But it seemed too good
to be true. “What’s in it for you?”

“
A safer city,” he
replied.

“
One where you’re in
charge of the policing with your Tusic group, right?”

Franklin sighed. “I’m not going to lie
to you, Kalei. Right now, that is the plan. The truth is, I just
don’t trust anyone else to do it.”

“
And why should I trust
you?”

“
Why not? You’ve seen what
I’ve done for this city. I’ve been in every magazine, every
newspaper, I’ve been on every channel. Out of all the things you’ve
read or heard about me, do you have any reason to think that I’m
not fit for the job?”

Kalei recalled the stories. In them,
she had heard inspiring tales about Landen Franklin, of course, but
there were also character flaws she tended to disagree with, such
as his lack of funding for SWORDE and other anti-Estranged groups.
Although now, she could see why. If she had to choose between the
two Estranged, between him and Flower-boy, the answer became clear.
“No. You seem to be the better candidate.”

“
So, will you do
it?”

“
Sure.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Recruited

Kalei returned to SWORDE. Stepping
over the threshold again, the knot in her gut pleaded with her to
turn and run the other way. This was a bad idea, and she knew it.
She was never a good liar, she was never particularly good at being
stealthy, and now she was going to be a spy in the home of a
murderer? She could feel her hands shaking. Kalei clenched them
into fists. She had to do this. It was a necessary evil if she
wanted to take down SWORDE.

A new person was at the front desk, a
young woman with storm clouds on her fingernails. She was happy to
escort Kalei to Erit, stepping out from behind the desk and leading
the way with a warm smile. She didn’t even ask Kalei for her
name.

The warm welcome set Kalei further on
edge. She expected she was being led to an ambush. Down one of
these halls, a door would open and she would find herself
overwhelmed by hungry Estranged, and they would drag her away to—
Kalei stopped her imagination from carrying the nightmare further.
They wouldn’t ambush her. Surely, they wouldn’t? She remembered
what Franklin had said; someone in SWORDE wanted her to become a
Warden. It must be someone with some pull in the organization. She
remembered how sincere Erit had been when he had offered her a
chance to become a recruit. Could he be that person? Or was he a
puppet for someone else’s agenda?

They arrived at the conference room.
Kalei recognized it as the same room from her last visit. The woman
smiled and left Kalei with a warm “Best of luck.” Kalei wondered
why the woman thought she needed luck. What did this training
involve?

Kalei swallowed back her concerns and
opened the door. She was surprised to find Erit and the old woman
exactly as she had left them, sitting at the end of the table,
working away at their lessons. Did they ever sleep? Then it
occurred to Kalei, she couldn’t remember the last time she had
slept since becoming Estranged...

The boy looked up from his work and
said, “Ah, you’re back. Always a pleasure to see you. Have you
changed your mind about becoming a Recruit?”

Kalei paused. This was it. Time for
the lies to start. Time to become a SWORDE Recruit. She swallowed
hard, trying to mask her nerves with a more cheerful tone as she
answered, “Yeah, I did.”

“
Excellent! Come. Have a
seat.” He indicated the seat to his right with a smile and a light
pat of his hand on the wood of the table.

As Kalei moved to take her seat,
someone came to the door. It was the man from the foyer— the one
who’d pinned her when she attacked the murderer. “Hey! What do you
think you’re doing?” he demanded, walking up to Kalei, still fully
uniformed and holding a helmet in one hand.

Kalei remembered her first week at the
police academy. Lesson one: don’t show weakness. She plopped down
into her chair and looked up into his face as she crossed her arms.
“I’m a Recruit,” she replied stiffly. “I hear you people are in
short supply of ‘em.”

The boy said, “Walker, this has been
approved. Now would you kindly leave us to our lessons?”

Walker replied,
“
Was
approved,
and then the girl refused and took off. I don’t think
that—”

“
Walker,” the boy
interrupted again, retaining his mild-mannered tone. “If you have a
problem with this, I suggest you take it up with Terin. You have no
business here.”

“
Erit, you know better
than I do that—”

“
Walker.” A slight edge
crept into Erit’s voice. “Go.”

Walker shut his mouth and scowled at
Erit, then turned and left.

When he was gone, Kalei
asked, “Who’s Terin?”
Let the spy work
begin
, she thought to herself.

The boy replied, “The Director. You
may recognize him by the flowers in his nails.”

“
Ah.” Kalei regretted
becoming a mole already. She preferred to keep her demons
anonymous.

And thus, Erit, the little boy with
the arrogance of a teacher, took up his role. As Erit and Kalei
worked, Mar, the old woman on the opposite side of the table, sat
by and worked on some “exercises” Erit had assigned to her. From
what Kalei could tell, all she did was stare at the wall. Kalei
quickly dismissed the old woman as she tried to feign interest in
her own lessons.

“
SWORDE,” Erit intoned.
“This, as you may know, is an acronym, standing for the
organization’s full and official title: The Special Wardens of
Retrieving and Detaining Estranged. Now, SWORDE has a long and
tragic history, going back some eighteen years to when the
Estranged first appeared in the heart of the city...”

Kalei lost track of his words. She was
lost in her own mind as the calmness of sitting made it more
difficult to block the darkness out. It drained her. She felt as
though the darkness had grabbed hold of her existence and had begun
dragging her down into the void...

Bang!
Kalei’s reflexes kicked in and she jumped to her feet,
knocking the chair aside. In front of her stood the old woman, with
both palms flat against the surface of the table. A small crack in
the worn wood spoke of the force the woman had brought to it when
her hands crashed down. Mar lifted a veined, accusing finger to
Kalei’s face. Kalei resisted the urge to knock it away. “You need
to take this seriously, young lady.” The old woman’s hand shook,
and her face flushed red as a snarl grew at her mouth.

Kalei looked straight into the woman’s
craggy old eyes, “I am.” She turned away from the lady, retrieved
her chair, and forced herself to sit back down. She looked to the
little boy. “You were saying?”

Mar didn’t take kindly to
being ignored. She lunged across the table at Kalei, but before her
bony hands wrapped around Kalei’s neck, Erit stopped her forward
momentum with a single hand on her shoulder. Then, using that same
small hand, he pushed the enraged lady back into her seat as
though
she
were
the child. Kalei couldn’t be sure if this was a testament to Erit’s
strength, or to the old woman’s weakness.

Through it all, Erit remained calm and
amiable, a bemused tutor through and through. He patted Mar kindly
on the shoulder, set her back to her assignment with a few kind
words, and then moved to stand behind his own chair. “So, Kalei,
what can you tell me about the work SWORDE is tasked
with?”

Kalei pulled away from her thoughts
and begrudgingly took on the role of obedient student. “Basically
anything the police are tasked with, except their jurisdiction, is
Estranged. Any Estranged found outside of Downtown are to be
collected by SWORDE. Any incidents caused by Estranged are handled
by SWORDE. And once SWORDE has the Estranged in custody, they are
tasked with keeping them Downtown and maintaining the peace within
the fence.”

“
We
are tasked with keeping the peace,” Erit corrected as he
stepped around the chair and sat down again. He leaned back and
brought his hands up to his face, forming a teepee in front of his
nose. He peered out at Kalei, studying her, deep in
thought.

Kalei tried to ignore his scrutiny and
found herself staring at the wall much like Mar was. Her heartbeat
raced. She wondered if he suspected. Did he know about her meeting
with Landen? What if...

He said, “You know, you handle the
darkness remarkably well for someone who has just
arrived.”

Kalei released the breath she was
holding. “From what I heard, it’s been over a year.”

“
Ah, hardly.” He leaned
forward and waved his hand. “You were high for most of it—that does
not count.” Kalei gave up trying to find out where he got his
information. “Look at Mar here,” he continued. “She has been on
this side of the fence for a couple years now. She has been working
and learning with us for almost a month. Around the effort it takes
to maintain control, she can hardly spare enough of her
concentration to form a full sentence.” Mar glared at him out of
the corner of her eye. “My apologies, Mar, I did not mean any
offense. Would you care to join our discussion?”

She growled, “No. I’m not
going to join your fucking discussion
.
” She seemed to be making a point
of articulating a whole sentence. She returned to staring at her
wall.

“
It’s not that becoming
Estranged makes us stupid. It is because the darkness is so vastly
overwhelming. Not only do we have the addiction to contend with,
but there is also the severe physical and emotional pain that comes
when we don’t feed that addiction. The pain alone drives most
people to exist in a constant state of high as a form of evasion,
or coping. That aside, those who have the will and the genetic
predisposition to resist the addiction have to fight with the
darkness for control of one’s body and even of one’s own emotions.
The expression of this conflict is different for everyone. For
some, it manifests in violent outbursts.” He nodded to Mar. “In
others, it becomes a debilitating depression.”

Kalei glanced up from her limbo. She
knew which category she fell into.

“
It takes a great deal of
focus to function around such obstacles.” Erit paused and shook his
head. “Alas, here I am rattling on while I can see you are slipping
away from me. It is time to start with the more practical aspect of
our lesson. May I?” He pointed to Kalei’s right hand and waited for
her answer. Instinctively, she started to pull it away. He smiled
genially. “I am not going to hurt you. And do not fear; I am not
seeking a high. This is merely for demonstrative
purposes.”

Kalei reluctantly held her hand out
between them. He easily picked it up in his own and ... nothing
happened. Kalei was amazed. For the first time since she had become
an Estranged, she was touching the skin of another person
without...anything. No surging high erupted at the touch, no
overwhelming sensations, just...a touch. Kalei was relieved, even a
little excited. Erit gave a small laugh. “That wasn’t the lesson. I
was just taking a moment as I remembered something I had forgotten
to— oh, never mind, I will tell you after.”