Hunting Indians - Chapter 11

Chapter One can be found: https://steemit.com/fiction/@andrewgenaille/hunting-indians-chapter-one

Chapter 10 can be found at: https://steemit.com/fiction/@andrewgenaille/hunting-indians-chapter-10

1. Chapter 11

Kevin spent an extra two days waiting around as he healed.
Leila came to visit him. She changed the bandages and explained to him all the things that could go wrong with his stitches. She was a confident woman that spoke with authority on the subject so Kevin decided to take her advice.
He spent most of that time in the bedroom listening to the music that Carlton suggested, only to come out to eat. He started to feel his anger dissipate a bit though, only to be replaced by the deep sadness that came from losing someone close. In those moments he would move to the living room and sat on the couch either listening to Jenny talk about her weird, spoiled customers or as Austin crunched numbers on his computer. He wasn't ready to face that feeling yet, he worked really hard to keep his emotions in check, looking for an excuse to feel mad again.
It was near the end of the third day that the anger came back.
"What did it say?" Kevin asked Austin after catching the tail end of a news report.
"That there's a fire." Austin answered. He could've just re-winded the television but didn't want to upset his house guest.
"The Indians started it?"
"That's what the government is saying. That they started it to get away but got caught in the...the weather changed on them." Austin said.
Jenny watched from the kitchen area where she was re-reading her copy of Sense and Sensibility. She could see that Kevin was lost in thought and had the look of a bomb about to explode.
"I need that address again." Kevin said to Jenny, he headed to the room for his things.
"Address? What address?" Austin asked.
Kevin put on jeans and a buttoned up dress shirt that Jenny bought him at work. He borrowed one of Austin's jackets and a baseball cap. Then the two men drove halfway across the city to the middle class area looking for the address Jenny provided.
Kevin kept low in the back seat, on top of the blanket put down to hide the blood he left there a few days before. He spotted the right numbers on one of the buildings. "There, let me out here."
"Here?"
"Just stop." Kevin opened the door slightly so Austin quickly pulled to the curb. "I'll find my own way back."
"Yeah but..." Austin started but Kevin got out and shut the door. Austin chuckled nervously and pulled back out onto the road.
It wasn't that hard getting into the building.
Kevin checked the buzzer for Elizabeth's name and noted which apartment it was. He considered not pressing it but decided to try anyway. He waited a minute and smirked. Even if she were home she wouldn't want to be seen with him. It was too dangerous for her.
He walked half a block away to stand, and then pretended to check his watch every few minutes. Half an hour later an older couple came up to the building, unlocked the door and went in. This gave Kevin just enough time to catch it and follow.
Inside though the building was falling apart, the carpet was thirty years old and smelled it too. The paint in the staircase peeled. It was a complete reversal of how the building was presented on the outside, in such a nice neighbourhood; a façade used to jack up the prices beyond its real value.
Welcome to Canada, Kevin thought.
Kevin still considered it better than where he lived out in the bush though, as he climbed five flights to the top floor. He found her door and knocked, but like the buzzer, knocking didn't bring an answer.
Kevin moved back to the stairwell and waited with the door propped open an inch. He didn't know what Elizabeth looked like but figured it was a safe bet she'd be the one with the keys to the door.
Over the next two hours several people came home from work while two others went out for dinner, but Kevin was patient and didn't see this as any different than hunting in the bush. He grew up waiting.
Then Beth came off the elevator fiddling with her keys, dressed in a white overcoat holding a black briefcase. Kevin knew the girl he was looking for was described as a petite blonde and this person fit that bill.
Kevin waited until she had her key in the lock before he came out of hiding and stepped silently down the hall toward her. She crossed the threshold into her apartment and he bolted the last few feet while he pulled out the Berretta.
Kevin grabbed her with his free hand, pushed her against the wall and used his foot to close the door. His hand covered her mouth while he held the barrel to her ribs.
"You scream, you die." Kevin said as she stared at him in terror. "And it'll be painful."
Beth nodded as best she could with the hand over her mouth. Kevin studied her eyes while he considered what to do. Anger clouded his judgment.
"Her name was Rachel, she was...she was nobody, nobody to anybody but me," Kevin gritted his teeth as he talked. "You put her on the list. What the fuck were you thinking? She wasn't part of anything...why!?"
Kevin removed his hand, "Because she was…nobody."
Kevin growled and pushed the gun against her temple.
"The gun isn't loaded." Beth stated softly.
"How do you know that?" Kevin challenged her.
"’Cause I'm not an idiot," Beth shoved him off her and moved toward her living room. "I can see there's no fucking magazine in it."
Kevin lowered the weapon then smashed it into the wall causing the gyprock to break. He pulled it back and moved toward her. "There was no reason for her to be on that list!? She wasn't a part of what we're doing."
"And what would you have me do? Put the fricking leadership out there?" Beth yelled back. "People that are a part of what we're doing? You know what that would've done to what's happening? How does that make any more sense? So yes, I chose. I picked her and she died, so everybody else could live, so we can have a chance at stopping all this. And you know what! I'll fucking live with it."
Kevin tossed the gun aside and moved to the small and cheap entertainment center. He kicked the television over.
"But that doesn't matter now does it?" She continued. "Everything I did, everything Karen put together. You undid."
"I did?"
"Everything. You killed a very well connected person and they came down on everybody. Everybody. The army's out there, they rounded up and killed the god damn Leadership. They're chasing Karen and her people half way across the country and burning everything in the way. Because you…Because you can't see the big picture."
"You don't know what's going on..."
"I don't?" Beth moved toward him. "You don't think I've been there! Having to sit back and watch while the people I care about die. But I do, because that's what we have to do. Because if we don't, we give them an excuse, and you gave them a good fucking one. They've got people coming in from Ontario now to find you, you! And the rest of us suffer for it."
Kevin got his anger in check and considered what's happened as he connected the dots to himself. He turned to the window to see it only looked into an alley to the next building.
"You need to disappear." Beth continued. "You need to leave here and cross the border. Find a new way because they've shut down our only access but you get across, you ask them for asylum and then you disappear. Because, all you are up here is damage."
Kevin looked back at her. "I won't abandon my friends."
"What friends? Don't you get it? The resistance is done, it's finished. You killed it. If the survivors are going to have a chance, it's without you." Beth hated saying this to him. It was a mixture of anger and despair but she knew that if anything, he was the one at fault. "Don't look at me that way. You have to stop before everybody dies."
"It's that easy for you?"
"How?"
"You work in an office, you come home every night, you wake up every day knowing your family is safe. And you sit around deciding who lives and who dies..."
"That's not fair."
"You decide! Who lives and dies, so it's easy for you to just say who leaves, while we're the ones dying. We're the ones they kill when you chose."
"That's not fair!" She yelled it causing him to calm down. "And you know it or you wouldn't be here."
Kevin spoke calmly now. "I'm not leaving."
Kevin moved to the couch and sat. Beth took a deep breath to not cry, and walked into the kitchen to lean on the counter. She rubbed her eyes before she opened them to watch Kevin.
"I don't know what to do anymore." She said after a moment. Kevin tilted his head to listen. "Karen's running...or dead. Peter’s locked up and I can't see him. I don't know who you are except as...the last five years of my life has been protecting the body even if that meant cutting off limbs. But the body’s dead. Do I keep cutting?"
Kevin frowned and sat back.

Peter was on his side staring at the wall and wondered about what would come next. Two days passed since he was interviewed and so far nobody had told him what became of the information he gave. Three times a day someone dropped off food and took the empty plates. No utensils though as he was still a risk to himself. Someone came earlier today to check his bandages and put on smaller ones but they didn't say anything to him, not even to respond to Peter’s questions.
He also spent a lot of time wondering what time it was. The lack of clocks or real light was starting to affect him.
The familiar click at the door caused Peter to look over as it unlocked. He smiled to himself when he saw Damien standing there. Damien wore his dark hunter outfit and scowl.
"You do not look happy." Peter said.
"Get up, you're coming with me." Damien held up cuffs.
"Basement again?" Peter slowly got to his feet.
"Field trip." Damien moved forward and turned Peter around, cuffing his hands together hard enough to pinch skin. With any luck it would cut off the circulation.
Damien controlled Peter into the hallway where his usual Agents stepped aside as they moved past. One of them nodded to Damien.
Peter felt a sense of relief.

"Do you want something to drink?" Beth said from the kitchen, bringing Kevin out of his thoughts. The last ten minutes he had been sitting back, resting his head on his hand while Beth toiled in the next room.
"I could use a water."
"I was thinking something stronger." Beth carried two glasses of vodka tonic.
"I don't drink." He remarked, she put the drink next to him and moved to the other side of the couch.
"I'm starting to think it's all I do now." Beth sipped and waited. "I signed the papers to kill Peter tonight."
Kevin looked over at her, digesting what he heard.
"I've known him…for years. He used to come visit when Karen did, when she...after she recruited me, he would come with her to the drops and again when Karen was put in charge. He was funny, really funny. Not what I was used to when meeting you guys. The rest of you, you're all about death and that wears you down, not him though. He was always smiling, and teasing. I liked him for that. I thanked god for that." Beth drank, recollecting. "He was there when Karen said, when anybody in leadership was caught, and the opportunity presented itself, I should make sure they were killed...he's leaking information. Good information that had our people racing all over; accurate information. And the other day he listed off everybody in the building working for the cause...everybody but me. I don't know how he did it, they have these drugs you can't get away with anything, but he didn't give me up. He saved my life, he saved my life and today I signed a piece of paper ending his. How is that fair?"
Kevin looked forward, he had nothing to say. He didn't particularly want to spend any amount of time trying to make her feel better. She might say that she was doing it for the right reasons but she was still the one that decided their fate and no one deserved that power. "He's my mother’s brother."
"Why are you here?" She said.
"Why?"
"You didn't come here to kill me. You didn't come here to lecture me about your girl. Why are you here?"
"Names." He said after a moment. "Addresses."
"I can't give you those."
"It's not a choice." He stated.
"And if I say no?"
"They've told you what I'm capable of. Do you really want to find out if they're lying?" He watched her. She fiddled with her empty glass as she considered her options. "I can make it easy for you. Your laptop's on the desk in the corner. I'll take it when I leave. Stay out of my way and we part ways as friends."
"It's useless to you without the password."
"I already know it." He said. Beth raised her eyebrows at him as the ramifications of that statement hit her all at once. It meant he knew more about her life than she was comfortable with. It meant more people in that world knew who she was and would eventually give her up. It also meant he had what he came for and things would get worse from here on in.
"Please don't do this."
Kevin lifted the drink she put next to him and put it in front of her. He moved to the corner of the room for the computer. He carefully packed it up and put the power cord in his pocket.
Beth didn't look back as Kevin left the apartment.

Peter's head was against the window as he watched the buildings pass by as they turned into corner stores, then smaller apartments and then eventually houses. Damien took them to the highway and then east out of the city.
Neither of them said anything and Damien didn't play the radio. For an hour there was only the hum of the electric engine. Occasionally Peter had to adjust how he sat, his hands went numb a long time ago and his arms started to cramp up.
He has a moment where he missed his mother. That was random.
"Did they torture you?" Peter asked. Damien glanced at him through the rear view mirror. "I only ask because I know you're angry at me for that."
"Shut up."
"Probably not though. Probably just that computer and the drugs. I think that's worse though. It's degrading." Peter was calm. He wasn't trying to anger Damien but didn't want to think about his family now. "You tell him your whole life story whether you want to or not. Did you do that?"
"Not as much as you." Damien felt like he was being poked, so decided to poke back.
"True."
"Boy, did you screw your people." Damien snickered, "And what we did with it, was a work of art."
Peter lifted his head from the window to stare at Damien. "And what did you do with it?"
"Scorched earth."
"What does that mean?" Peter said. He feared the details but wanted to know. He needed to know.
"Your Chiefs, killed them all. Went out looking for your rebels but they ran. You were right about where they went. Nothing left of them but torched corpses, all burned to a crisp when they firebombed them." Damien enjoyed this. "Thanks to you, you're the only one left and I'm about to fix that."
Peter took a breath, he wanted to react but controlled it. Part of it was not wanting to give Damien the satisfaction of seeing him panic. The other part was professionalism. Peter knew what he did was going to be bad, but hearing the reality of it was going to take some time to digest.
"And the reserve?"
"Nothing but well behaved little bitches. Place is on lock down."
They win. Peter put his head back against the window and looked out at the passing trees.
"Awww. Did that upset you?"
"It's not the best news you could've given me." Peter replied. He had hoped that what was happening now could've come sooner before the damage was irreversible, but the rebels were gone, the survivors on the reserve submitted. It had all been a waste.
Peter slowly realized that his death was meant to save his people and the rebels, but with them gone there was no one left to sacrifice for. The Indians on the reserve wouldn't be in any less danger if he died. This was also pointless.
He was going to die for nothing.
Under the new circumstances, people on the reserve would need him. The last of the free Indians but if he died that ideal life died with him. If he lived, there would still be hope.
But hope from where? He couldn't start a rebellion, he wasn't a leader like Karen and those that came before her. He also wasn't a war machine like Kevin. He didn't stand a chance against what they'd throw at him.
He wondered what good he would be.
And smiled when he looked at the bandages around his feet, he considered the damage in his mouth from the missing teeth and the fact he couldn't feel his hands anymore. All incased inside an orange jumpsuit marked with the seal for The Department of Indian Control and Canadian Government.
I'm the proof something isn't right, Peter thought to himself. It's just a matter of getting that proof somewhere it'll do the most good.
"I don't suppose you want to stop for something to eat first?" Peter asked. Damien glanced at him through the mirror. "Kind of a last meal type of deal."
"No." Damien answered.
"I'll pay."
"Shut up."
Nope, Peter thought. Yeah, that would've been too easy.

Kevin hit the buzzer for Jenny's apartment, and then waited, keeping his hat low as the lobby guard watched him from inside the building. The guard was a man in his sixties so Kevin figured from twenty feet away and through tinted glass he couldn't see he was looking at an Indian.
"Hello?" Jenny asked through the intercom. Kevin looked up at the small camera, a second later the front door buzzed allowing Kevin to go in.
Kevin walked to the elevator and hit the button. He adjusted the laptop under his arm and made a point of not looking at the guard. The door opened, he quickly stepped on and hit Jenny's floor, only turning to face the front when the door closed.
It was like that when Kevin was walking back to the building, trying to look casual while hiding his face. A drunk looking for a light stopped him once but overall nobody paid him much attention.
Kevin didn't bother knocking when he reached the door. He walked in to find Austin and Jenny waiting in the living room. He glanced in their direction and started setting up the computer on the kitchen island.
"We didn't know if you were coming back." Austin said.
"Not that we rented out your room or anything but did you find who you were looking for?" Jenny added as she moved to the island.
"Yes." Kevin took off Austin's coat and hat as the computer booted up.
"And did she help you?" Austin asked.
Kevin looked up at the other man, considered it and nodded. He looked back at the computer as the user name and password prompt came up. Beth's name was already in there so all he had to do was type in the password 'Edward.' The screen went blank and then the Operating System appeared, the desktop showed rows of file folders.
Kevin smiled. Of course it was Edward.
"What is all this?" Jenny asked softly.
"Department of Indian Control" Kevin clicked on the first folder to see more folders open up. "Everything."
"What do you mean everything?" Austin continued.
"Everything." Kevin didn't know how to explain it further, nor did he care enough to.
"All their files, and everything they do?" Jenny asked. She looked to Austin. "These are...these are their secrets?"
Kevin glanced at her and knew where she was going, but ignored it as he opened the search feature and typed in "Indian Agents."
"If you have their files, this is big, this is what they're talking about on the news, this is what that lady at the UN is looking for." Austin moved around to see. "This is your proof isn't it?"
"This is nothing," Kevin said, he tried 'Field Agents' in the search.
"What does that mean?" Jenny asks.
Kevin sighed, "It's clean records, nothing is written down that's the truth. It's double speak and hidden words. We've tried. Nobody believes it."
"What if the girl that gave it to you gives it to them, and she tells them what she knows." Jenny stepped away to give Kevin some room, seeing that he was annoyed.
"Last two people that tried that disappeared at the border." Kevin didn't know what other words to try. He tapped his fingers on the table as he thought.
"Can't sneak her across?" Austin continued to ask questions.
"That's what the last two tried."
"Yeah but..."
"What do you want to hear? You don't think we've tried everything? We've been doing this all our lives. We've tried. We're watched, they watch each other. She can't get ten kilometers from the border without them calling her to ask why she's there. She can't call across without some computer redirecting her, they're good at what they do. They've had decades to think about it and the technology to back it up." Kevin stopped and controlled his tempter. He then typed in 'representatives.' Several files came up and he started checking them.
"Right, sorry." Austin felt rejected and moved to the fridge to lean on it.
"How do they know where she goes?" Jenny asked, "Or when she calls, even if she uses someone else's phone?"
"I don't know." Kevin said as he tried another search. Peter once told him the government used voice recognition software that identified people on their list but he had always doubted it as millions of calls were made every hour. How could any computer listen into all of them? Peter's answer was they just needed the first ten seconds of the call to hear both people in the call.
"You can't police the Internet. It's too big."
"You can if you're watching specific people." Austin said. "We do that at work. We tag someone that we want to keep an eye on for an audit. I've got a program that'll follow any banking and credit stuff he does. It'll even start tracking where he logs on to programs so we can see what he's buying online...wow, that's kind of creepy now."
"Ya think?" Jenny smirked.
"What about personal computers?" Kevin asked. "Can it track those?"
"When they log into their programs, it'll tell us what IP address it's from, then it can follow those." Austin shrugged, "What do you mean?"
"If they're tracking her computer, and it goes somewhere else, can they track it there?" Kevin's voice emphasized his concern.
"Yeah? If it connects to someone's wifi network, yeah, it can be made to report back to someone it's on a different system."
"Shit." Kevin looked at Beth's computer. "How do you tell if it's connected?"
"Bars on top." Jenny said as she looked the screen over. She saw the wifi signal on and it dawned on her why he sounded worried. "Austin, is our wifi password protected?"
"No, I had the walls upgraded so the signal stays in here. Nobody can get it but us..."
"He's connected...her computer is connected to our wifi." Jenny worried. Austin clued in but he had to process it.
"Yeah but...what does that mean?" He asked.
"I'm sorry." Kevin answered. "You need to leave."
"Leave, why leave?" Austin said.
"Because you can't explain why someone else's top secret files were accessed in your apartment and they'll be coming to find it. You have to go." Kevin looked to Jenny, who was in shock.
"What'll they do to us?"
"No one knows." Kevin said.
"We can't just leave. We have lives, they can't just take that from us..." Austin blurted out. "We're white!"
"I'm sorry," Kevin said. "They won't care."
"Where are we supposed to go?" Jenny asked.
"The border, if you want to live." Kevin wondered why they weren't scrambling. There seemed to be a part of their brain that didn't want to accept that the worst case scenario was happening to them. "Go!"
Jenny backed away, then headed off down the hallway to her bedroom as Kevin looked at Austin.
"It just doesn't happen to people like us." He said but didn't break Kevin's stare. "It just doesn't."
"You picked up a dying Indian on the side of the road. It does now."
Austin understood, and in that moment of regret he followed Jenny to the bedroom. He turned back to Kevin. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to wait for them. Then I'm going to kill them."

Chapter 12: https://steemit.com/fiction/@andrewgenaille/hunting-indians-chapter-12