BEYOND THE PALE: ( The Outlander ) Page 29

  River grabbed hold of Dakota’s hand, “I've got you now; you're safe, and you don’t seem to have anyone on your tail. Although, I think we should leave through the front exit of this building to be safe.” River led the way at a quick pace and Dakota fell into step behind. However thirty yards further down a corridor, River froze and turned around to whisper to Dakota, “See that window. I climbed in through there and closed it after me.” Dakota looked and could see that it had been left slightly open. She gave him a quizzical look and shrugged her shoulders. River pulled her by the hand and led her into a set of adjoining rooms. He whispered, “There is someone definitely in here with us. You are being followed, but obviously not by sight, because I checked. He must have put a tracker somewhere on you. Dakota, undress down to your underwear and leave your clothes behind that door over there.” Once she had undressed and placed her clothes where he had asked, River told her to hide in a cupboard on the other side of the room, and whilst she climbed in, he removed the light bulbs to darken the room and then found a place of concealment for himself.

  He only had to wait a few minutes before the door to the room opened and he was able to watch one of Shondran’s men called Baker walk in. River barely knew the man but he still didn’t want to hurt him unnecessarily. He watched Baker unsuccessfully try the light switches but then proceed towards the door which Dakota's clothes were behind. He obviously was reading some tracker which was in them. Baker struggled to open the door, which River had placed a small wedge under; he gave it a powerful kick and backed up to give it another. This was very convenient for River who silently stood behind him. A simple hit to the back of the head knocked him unconscious. River proceeded to give Dakota the all clear signal, but this turned out to be premature because Cortez had just stepped in through the open door with his drawn firearm pointed directly at him.

  “You are not going to use that Ramon, because if you do, you are going to have to kill me, and I suspect you have to bring me back alive.”

  “Whatever it takes River. The last time I was asked to kill you, you pulled some kung-fu nonsense on me and took me by surprise. This time, I think I might drop you instead,” Cortez was referring to his gun rather than his fighting skills.

  “Do you think Shondran would allow you to kill me?”

  “Yes actually River. I think that he is more than okay with that. You are a big headache to him right now and he wants you gone.”

  “Not as big as your headache,” said River.

  “What headache?” he asked puzzled.

  “This one!” said Isa as he cracked an iron bar over the back of Cortez's head. Isa had followed Cortez into the room and was quietly standing behind him and waiting to oblige his brother.

  “It did occur to me that you might have got away,” said River to Isa.

  “I was on the roof when they came. I have been watching them ever since. I saw your pathetic attempt to conceal yourself across the road. I also saw these two; I have been following them as they were following Dakota. There is another one back there in a parked car outside your place.”

  “And there is the guy I saw going up into your apartment,” Dakota’s announcement caused both Isa and River to turn and look at her. She was still dressed in her underwear.

  “What guy?” they both said in unison.

  “He is a young thin black guy. He doesn’t look like one of Shondran’s men,” explained Dakota.

  “That sounds like Anton,” River said excitedly. “I have to get back to the flat quickly.”

  “Give me your stun shot, and let me sneak up on the stake out guy in the car first,” requested Isa “When you see me wave, it will be clear to go in.”

  River turned with a sense of urgency to Dakota, “Here are my keys to a dark blue pinto parked nearby on Goodge Avenue. Get dressed Dakota, and find the car and drive it to the front of my apartment block. Oh and when you get in the car, take off your clothes again and throw them out the window to lose that tracker.”

  All three headed out the front of the building and Dakota headed in the opposite direction to the brothers who ran back in the direction of the apartment. Isa took River’s stun shot and walked up behind the parked car with Shondran’s last man staking out the apartment. The shot was silent and the man just slumped sideways on to the passenger seat. Isa signalled River who then ran up the steps and bounded upstairs hoping to find Anton.

  River was not disappointed. He found Anton sitting in his bedroom downloading the data contents of some multimedia computer console.

  “Look at you still trying to find a technical solution to every problem.”

  Anton looked up with a surprised and joyful expression on his face, “I have been searching so hard for you.”

  “Well you won’t find me looking through my film and music collection, and next time you come looking for me, try to leave my front door still on its hinges.”

  “That wasn’t me. You seem to be in some trouble here.”

  “I know. Perhaps this is a dangerous time to be socializing, but it is great to see you again my friend.”

  “I haven’t come to socialize River; I have come to help you.”

  “Help me how?”

  “I can help you escape from New Denver through the tunnels. If you can gain access to the tunnels, I can map you a route out and open an exit hatch.”

  “Listen we cannot talk here. Come with me. We have to get away from here.”

  Anton followed River out of the building and into a waiting vehicle outside. River sat up front with the driver who was a girl wearing only her underwear. She looked beat up and he recognised her as the girl whom he had passed earlier on the stairs. Anton sat in the back with another native who seemed to be another outlander like his friend.

  River spoke to the young woman, “I need to speak with Ramesh.”

  “Shondran told me that he willingly gave you up. He also said that he has got him under surveillance,” stated Dakota.

  “We will go and see my father. He will have access to Ramesh,” said River as he input a destination address into the navigation console. The Pinto pulled away and headed in the direction of District 19.

  River addressed Dakota, “Ramesh only confirmed what Shondran already knew. He was being a pragmatist. You on the other hand were foolhardy today, thinking that you could hold out on Shondran. But I love you for your bravery and loyalty to me Dakota. I will always remember what you did for me.”

  Isa turned around to introduce his friend Anton to both Dakota and Isa. He noted how the air of seriousness, danger, and the lack of social skills induced both Isa and Anton, to sit in the back ignoring each other. He tried to introduce some levity into the situation by joking and revealing his friend's and his brother's idiosyncrasies to each other. He had achieved a certain familiarity amongst everyone by the time he reached his father’s private residence.

  River climbed out the vehicle and went to page Eli through the intercom. He had not visited his home before, but he had visited him at his congregation again and his father had given him his private address and an open invitation as a result. Eli answered the door and listened whilst his son explained the general scenario and predicament that he was in.

  Isa watched the scene intently from the vehicle. From this safe distance, he observed his father but could hardly remember him and felt no connection or desire to meet him. Except now he had no choice, and so he studied his father’s tall slim frame, and facial features. He could see that he and his brother had inherited many features from this tall mid fifties white man with a full head of shining silver hair. He watched him walk away and then return with a long overcoat which his brother brought back to cloth Dakota in. River then invited everyone in and Dakota, Anton and Isa all sheepishly followed him inside and into the living room.

  Eli had disappeared to talk privately with his wife. However he soon rejoined the others in the living room along with his wife, whom he introduced as Maryam, and had been married to for twelve years. Maryam
looked slightly older than her husband. She too had turned grey but she had maintained the proud and regal features of an Arapaho full native. She had kind eyes and a warm nature and she took Dakota by the hand and led her into the bathroom collecting a first aid case on the way. This left Eli standing awkwardly by himself and staring at both his sons, and Isa in particular. Isa returned his awkward stare and looked very uneasy about his circumstances. Eli broke ranks first and went to check on his wife's progress with Dakota. He knocked on the bathroom door and entered to find his wife working with a small pair of scissors and restyling Dakota's hair into a shorter but pretty style. Dakota was sitting on a chair and now wearing a dressing gown; she was holding an ice pack to left side of her face to reduce the bruising. Eli asked her if she and his son were an ‘item’, but Dakota was quick to set him straight. She told him that unfortunately another girl had captured his River's heart. A girl that she initially thought was dead, but now realised was alive and well and the sister of Anton who was sitting in the living room.

  ~~~

  “So do you think you will be able to get access to the tunnels” Anton re-raised his earlier topic of conversation. “Dad and Ray Scott are under the impression that you can.”

  “I think we can if I can get my friend Ramesh to help me” stated River. “I have never been underground, but Isa came in through a tunnel entrance in old Denver.”

  “Oh really,” said Anton with interest as he pulled a map of the local area tunnel systems from out of his satchel, and laid it across the table in front of them. “Where about was the tunnel entrance?” he asked.

  Isa studied the outline map of old Denver and located the tunnel exit which was marked X31 on the map. Anton enquired how long the journey along the tunnels had taken, and Isa replied that it had taken about six hours walking at a fast pace. Anton studied the map studiously for a few minutes whilst the brothers tried to familiarize themselves with it as well.

  “X37 here!” Anton pointed to an obscure tunnel exit in the hills to the north west of Denver. “It is not likely guarded and less likely to be monitored than those in old Denver. The one that Isa came through will be definitely off limits now. But this X37 is only a further twenty miles west of X31. That should take you another few hours or so. I will access the system and open it the day you set off.”

  “That is good Anton, but how will we find it.”

  “With this,” Anton had pulled out a large yellow hand held device with an eight inch touch screen. “This is a tunnel mapper from my office. It has got a copy of this map here on the table, and all the tunnels leaving New Denver. It has a 60 hour battery life and GPS positioning that will identify which tunnel you are in and show you all the exit and access points within range. The route that you need to go to access X37 is along the support tunnel that adjoins 5W1 which heads due west. So you need to get down to the 5th sub level. Please don’t get caught with it. These are restricted items, and so it could incriminate me.”

  River picked up the Tunnel Mapper and began to navigate through the different displays and functions. Anton looked impressed at how River had recently become more adept and familiar with gadgets and technology. Apart from an exit route west through the tunnels, there was much that River wanted to talk to Anton about, and he asked Isa if he might allow them some privacy to talk. Isa had little choice but to go and seek out the others. This meant he should probably go and talk with his birth father.

  Once alone, River wasted no time before enquiring about Audrina, Valerie and Nathan, and how Anton had found him.

  “I found you through your credit actions once you had re-activated your identity bracelet. There are still many people hunting you down but they didn’t know how to find your new identity like I did. As a result Dad and Ray have been searching for you for a long time using your last known transactions.”

  “Yes I know, I got some of your father’s messages that he left at Wendy's restaurant.”

  “Why didn’t you reply?” asked Anton.

  “I didn’t know whether I could trust him.”

  “Nor did I for a while” agreed Anton, but we worked together on saving your community at Avana from being located and taken out by Rangers. After that I trusted him,” River looked astounded by this news. “River there is so much that has happened,” Anton continued. “…Audrina is three and a half months pregnant. She was instructed to terminate it when they found out, but despite all condemnation, she wants to have the baby. It’s a boy.”

  River was dumbstruck, “Is it my child?”

  “Of course it is. Why do think you got in so much trouble.”

  “Because she said I raped her,” replied River.

  “She is very upset about saying that. However, that was not the real reason. Somehow you both managed to conceive despite your contraceptive implants. You may have rejected yours, but hers was also nullified. They assumed that you had intentionally disabled it. Intentional conception without a license is a big deal. You know she misses you badly and that she has left home. She lives near the financial district now.”

  “I have to see her.”

  “You cannot do that River. She is under a lot of surveillance by those men that took you when you were with my father at his Headquarters. They are called Psych-Ops. They want to detain you as a priority. They will not give up searching because they consider you to be a bio-threat to the citadel. They will experiment on you if they capture you and then probably kill you. You have to leave; it is only a matter of time before they capture you.”

  River looked desolate at this news but also amazed that Audrina was having his son. “You are such a good friend Anton. If I leave this citadel I will miss you sorely.”

  ~~~

  River had so much on his mind right now; love, revenge, anger, and thoughts of impending escape. However he had to keep it together and stay in control. He needed to talk with his father, and so he went to seek him out. He found Eli sitting in the kitchen with Isa and asked if he could talk in private. Isa gladly obliged and looked relieved at the prospect of being anywhere other than with his father.

  “Father, as you have probably guessed, I am in trouble and so is Isa. We need to leave the citadel and return to Avana, and Anton has helped map us an underground route to get out. However, I need my friend Ramesh who is in your congregation to get both me and Isa underground. I cannot contact Ramesh directly because he is being watched. He might not want, or be able to do this, as he may get in trouble. But could you contact him, and ask him if he will help me.”

  “Of course I will son. I know he will help you if I ask.”

  “Why are you so sure? He has a lot to lose if he gets caught.”

  “Because the redeemer wills it; of that I am convinced.”

  “Oh Lord, Father ..!” -River was shaking his head- “I just don’t get your religion. In my heart, I feel that your religion robbed me of a Dad.”

  “Son, leaving you, and your brother and mother, was the hardest sacrifice that I have ever had to make. I will always bear that pain in my heart until I die. I loved your mother like I loved you, but there is some love which is destructive.”

  “What do you mean by destructive love?” asked River.

  “I know about the great love that torments your own heart my son. A girl like Dakota who is loyal and loves you would make you a perfect wife, but there is someone else that has captured your heart and you do not want to let go of this love.” Eli paused to see if his words were welcome in River's ears. His son seemingly wanted his advice. “There are only two kinds of love, the kind that is constructive, and the kind which is destructive. All love is profound and meaningful, at least to one person who is feeling it. However if it is not in balance and mutually constructive then it will inevitably drive that person’s spirit on a course to destruction. Sometimes you can feel that loving a certain person is both profound and meaningful. But if it drives you to sacrifice everything that makes you just you; that being your core spirit, then you have to walk away
, no matter how much it hurts you, or that other person, or others.”

  “Is that what you recommend I do,” River asked his father.

  “Yes son.”

  “Is this why you walked away from us?”

  “Yes son. If I stayed it would have been destructive. I would have denied myself my own destiny, yet your mother would have been destroyed by mine. If I hadn’t walked away, I would have brought you here.”

  “You are right,” said River to his Father. “Mine is a destructive love, but now I have a son too, and you will be a grandfather. I do not know whether I can walk away. And you are also correct about Dakota. That girl is special. She withstood torture for me today. I should love her back, but I cannot control the way my heart feels. Please Father; do me one last favour and look out for her. She needs to be protected from a man called Shondran. Will you let her stay here with you for a while, and can you help her find work somewhere else in the metropolis, somewhere safe.”

  Chapter Forty One

  Alan Stanton declined his co worker’s offer to collect him ‘something’ from the canteen. Not that he wasn’t hungry; quite the opposite. For this was his first day back at work at the Citizens Protection and Security Headquarters in Central, and his work detail had just rotated to the middle shift for the next four days. He was a Surveillance Officer and his work entailed managing numerous automated surveillance alerts and allocating security officers and assets to higher priority alerts. He had just returned to work from his four day break and was two hours into his eight hour shift which started at 4pm, and usually he would be having his main meal at this time of day.

  No he declined for two other reasons. Firstly, because he had to adapt to the regiment of the new rota hours to which he would be keeping for the next eight days, and secondly because he didn’t approve of his work colleagues taking ad hoc breaks. This guy was always doing that, and offering to run errands for others was just one of his tricks to walk away from his desk. Stanton looked down the row of five work stations unimpressed that now two of the five designated officers were absent. It was still two hours until their designated lunch break when all of their calls would be diverted to the other teams. But right now, three of them would have to cover the overspill of feeds from their absent team members. Stanton popped another appetite suppressant pill into his mouth and resolved to manage as best he could. He couldn't abide slackers who shirked work or had no pride in their job. Personally, he liked working as a Surveillance Officer because it was fast paced, interesting, and allowed him to take charge and control the actions of Security Officers and other CPS officers who often out ranked him.