76. What The Hell, Marcus?

Carl

Kubra and I exited the teleporter in the heart of Washington. Another embassy for alien relations. I followed him through the halls and up an elevator. He led me to a room, and I went inside. It was dark, and on the other side of the two-way glass was an ample conference space. Full of very influential people. Some I recognized and some I didn’t… And there was my father.

“Okay, Carl. I’ve to go…” Kubra’s voice brought me back to the present. I sighed. Another person I had come to know would disappear out of my life.

He left but came right back. “I have to go get Marcus. Make sure you listen carefully. I’ll be back in an hour.” Kubra patted the door frame like he always did. He was acting so weird... why would he reassure me? But it did help. And knowing Marcus as coming meant that maybe we wouldn’t split up as much as I thought we would.

There were a lot of figures in the room. One was Qadir. The other was the Chief of Staff of the United States Army. The last one was a man in a black suit with Qadir. It had to be Jabin… The others were all foreign nationals from other countries. I suspected all the Generals of their countries’ armies… But just major ones... China, Russia, France, Brittan and of course Spain...

“We had an agreement, Qadir.” One started talking.

The attitude of a four-hundred-year-old man was just different from the sixty-something men that were seated around the table. The humans were stressed and anxious. Qadir was strumming his fingers on the table. “Our agreement expired when Chris left the planet.” Qadir’s voice drolled.

There was a murmur around the table.

America [“If you think we will take this lying down, you have to think again… We know your father won’t come to your aid if we start killing vampires.]

The general’s eyes flashed to Jabin, who had to nod. It didn’t phase Qadir. He had his own plans. For a long time, he had not looked to daddy for help. That was the wrong tactic to play…

France [“The whole world will rally against you. You will never last.”]

Qadir [“A few sacrifices are nothing for the greater good. I will last, but you will all die out eventually with the bio-attack… I have already launched in Indiana.]

Another few murmurs.

Russia [“We will just kill them all. It can’t spread that fast. There was one case, and it has been contained.]

Qadir [“Over the last two hundred years, I have diminished the werewolves to almost nothing. I have nothing but time. It will happen, however slow. Not even if you bomb my compound.”]

More talks among the humans.

Qadir [“The fear of not knowing if you are faced to face with a vampire alone is going to cause massive panic. Not to mention if we start showing them a full moon werewolf… This will become a dystopia if we cannot come to some arrangement.]

America [“What do you want, Qadir?”]

Qadir {Now you are starting to ask the right questions… I want control. It is as simple as that. The world is ruled by officials in office. Now it will be governed by me. I will make it better. There will be peace, and it will be mine.]

His speech created a deadly silence in the room that no one said anything for several minutes.

Qadir [What does it matter who rules?]

America [“We saw how you rule your compound. It will never work under humans. And who will feed you? Will we have a lottery every day of who dies? Or do you decide who lives or dies? You eat our people for food. That alone is already more than you should be getting.”]

Russia [“It seems that you think humans have never fought in any wars. Or have conquered anything in their lives. It seems… that you believe we will be negotiating with a terrorist.”]

Qadir manifested and moved so fast to behind the Russian man, digging his nails into the man’s neck. The others stood up.

Qadir [“You forget that I have been creating a general worthy to take on this battle for the last two hundred years. I have been creating an army with guns and gas masks. An army with soldiers much better than yours… And… let’s not forget the tech and the monsters…”]

America [“You forget Qadir that the watchers are linked to your men. You’re so-called army… We have already called back the hundreds of thousands of watchers you helped create. We know everything about the enemy. Where you are and how much you have to work with.”]

Qadir actually scoffed and let go of the Russian. “I commend you for wanting a level playing field. I’ll adopt the thought.” He checked his watch. “Right about now.” Qadir hinted.

A soldier in military clothes opened the door to the conference room and rushed the general. His face paled. He bit his lip. Wanted to say something. He lifted his hand into the air and made a fist. Gas fell from the roof. In seconds Qadir was knocked out.

My first thought was to call Charlene… tell her everything. But my phone wasn’t working…

***

Kubra

I didn’t want to leave Carl, but I couldn’t take him with me. I needed someone there we could trust. He would have to grow up… And really quickly. He had proven himself paternal… But like the girls… In some aspects. They were just eighteen. Carl had some areas he was lazy in. Needed prodding to do better... Marcus had a way with him. Soon Carl had grown twice in size. His way of thinking had improved... Marcus had that same way with a lot of the young men on the army base. He didn’t follow his father’s footsteps of indoctrination. He had treated them with respect.

The one thing Carl had… He loved those girls to bits. And that meant anything that stemmed outwards from them. Carl was loyal to Juliet and to Charlene. Even though their relationship might not go any further. They would stay friends.

I dreaded going back to the compound. None of us wanted to be anywhere near that place. It would be a bitter pill to get Marcus to leave Juliet on her first night. She was going to flip out… I hatted doing it. Because there we didn’t have anyone we could trust.

***

Juliet

We landed in America… Waited to refuel and flew west closer to our old town. I needed to get into that safety deposit box asap. To see if Kubra had the correct information.

Louis and Marcus walked into the bank with me. Quickly getting the manager’s attention and having an escort down into the vault.

We stood opposite the table when the steel box clanged as it hit the desk. It had a fingerprint screen on the front. The manager stepped outside of the vault door. A security guard patrolling the basement floor.

“Please, gentleman.” He called Louis and Marcus out of the vault. “It’s a personalized box. Just one person allowed in there at a time.” He closed a curtain as Marcus and Louis joined him on the other side.

I didn’t know if my fingerprints would work. I slowly lifted my hand and placed my thumb onto the screen. The mechanism automatically unlocked. The little door sprung open.

I bit my lip when I saw the old cellphone box that carried all Chris letters he wrote to the “invisible girl.” I wanted to smile but couldn’t… Thinking about the first and last time I touched him. That day I found out he could. The first time I got in his car and went with him. I softly drew in a breath, remembering that was where we ended up having sex in his car. I had completely forgotten it was the same place.

I opened the box. All his letters were in there and the present he had talked about.

Picking it up… I drew in another breath. It was a swatch like the birth certificate. I studied the picture on the top and the emblem. It was Chris’s. Proof that I would be able to… What? Go to Zoreah and tell them I know this guy. Take me to your leader… The same little picture on Caleb’s little butt and on the tattoo on my arm. I placed it on every part of my body to see if this was a marriage certificate. But nothing happened. I sighed.

I tried searching between the letters and the old box for something else that resembled tech… There was nothing. I felt around in the safety deposit box. No magic buttons. “It’s not here.”

Both my husbands were quiet. Marcus pushed open the curtain and past the manager. Double-checking my efforts. His eyebrows raised when he saw the swatch. “Will this make it official? The long last… marriage certificate you were hoping for?”

I shrugged, pumping him in his side with my elbow. “It doesn’t come off. I think Chris has to do it… Or it’s for Chris’s father… Just another birth certificate… I don’t know.”

“Wouldn’t they have done that when he was born? Chris doesn’t have any weird tattoos on his body, does he?” Louis asked.

I shook my head from side to side…. “We have to find Michael. Why would he lie?”

“He didn’t lie… Jabin was there, remember…” Louis replied.

I turned to the manager. “Is there a log for accessing a box?”

The suited-up guy nodded and typed into a computer next to the vault door. “Do you know someone else connected to the box?” He asked.

“Why? Who was here? A name…?”

“The name Warden... comes up.”

“When?” Louis asked.

“Only a day ago.”

We all sighed. “He was also at the cages that night.” I was talking to myself

“He got slashed open… Maybe he is just following orders?” Louis suggested.

I shook my head. It couldn’t be… “Warden has never liked me… Has anyone tried to get in touch with my uncle? Does he even know I’m going back?”

***

Juliet

The last time we drove through the compound gates. I was drugged, and my parents were the only ones in the car. From the outside, it seemed like any other gated community. With one exception… It was guarded with men holding massive guns.

Marcus was driving. The men saluted as the gates opened even before we were close. He slowed down. All of our identification was checked. They searched the car and my mother’s bag. Marcus was greeting all the men he recognized. Allowed to talk to him through rank. Men that worked for him. The rest of us got back in the car. Even if he said that he didn’t want to be back. He was visibly more relaxed… I even heard a dig about getting his lost wife back. And coming back the victor over me. There were so many red flags going up my spine.

I peeked back over my shoulder. The gates closing… Made it final. The massive wall connected to it on either side made the compound impenetrable. I saw Marcus trying to get my attention in the rearview mirror from the corner of my eye. He wanted reassurance. But I was the one that needed it. I couldn’t give him any.

The wall had watchtowers every hundred meters or so. It spanned as far as the eye could see. My mom was on my one side and my dad on the other.

We drove in the direction of our old house. It took us a while to even get there. The place was larger than I could remember. More homes than I could remember. Why was my memory of it so distorted?

Marcus parked the car where he always had when I was just a kid. I would be jumping the trampoline and see him come driving up the street. The memory flashed in my mind and how happy I was to see him. There was something between us… Even back then. Even if I was too young to understand. I could see Marcus trying to make eye contact with me. Again and again. My peripheral vision had improved. But so had my facial expressions. I could be as stoic as he was. And payback tenfold. My resting bitch face was back.

Our house... was the same. The garden was done. The grass cut. It had fresh paint where it needed it. There was even a car in the driveway for my dad.

Getting out of the car brought back such a flood of emotions that all I could do was grab onto my mom’s hand. Hers was also a little sweaty. She held mine tightly. I knew we both felt the same way.

Engines got our attention. Three cars came driving up to the house before we could even step foot on the stone path that led to the front door. We all paused and stared until they stopped. Kubra got out of the one. My heart dropped. My stomach flipped. Louis’s words kept echoing in my mind… “You would have to suffer a little while” I didn’t want to. Kubra waved for Marcus to come over and get in a car. Kubra whispered into his ear when the door closed.

I could not hear them. I was sure Louis couldn’t read them from there. Kubra was taking every precaution. There was a moment when it seemed like Marcus would send them all away. Stay with me… They had heated words. Kubra leaned closer and whispered more into his ear. Whatever he said did the trick.

Marcus walked over to us. I turned around and headed towards the house. Away from him. Unable to face him. Like a woman that would wait for her husband to come home every day after work. Be deployed for months. One of those women that would have no life and her husband had his. I could hear him greeting my father and mother and lastly Louis. Deep in my heart, I hoped he would run after me. Make me listen to him as he reassured me that everything was okay. Tell me what was happening. But he didn’t. I heard the cars leave. My eyes cast down to the ground. Suddenly, with him not there, I was back at the compound for real. Alone.

The one thing about marriage that I’ve learned was that everything could be fine one moment. And an absolute disaster the next. Two lives needed to merge. I hated it. I hated not fighting and sorting things out. Chris was the only one that forced me in that way. I thought about him and Caleb in the mountains… My chin quivering.

When I couldn’t hear the cars anymore, I turned back to the street. There was one car left standing in the road with the doors open. The confusion must have shown on my face. “You’re not staying, babe,” Louis said.

“W…hat… do… you mean?” I stuttered.

“I can’t live with you there at Qadir’s house... And you can’t live here with your parents… and me.” Louis’s voice was as tight as I felt.

***

Marcus

Juliet and I had always had a difference of opinion about how our relationship would be at the compound… I had always wanted it both ways… Maybe I had made some assumptions. I wasn’t back for two minutes and I was already needed because of my father. She would be alone… What she always hated…. My leaving would break down what we had tried to build in France. Above everything, it’s after we kissed for the first time… After sooo many years. I had to shake myself because I couldn’t believe it really happened. I could think of nothing else. Our kissing… Was fatal in the demise of Marcus Ahmed. She had me… mind, soul, and body. I always knew there was chemistry… but I had never thought it would be on that level… when our lips parted for each other. How her body responded in all the right places. I didn’t know if it was because we had wanted it for so long… Only when it happened again… I would be sure. If it ever did.

Suddenly the fear of losing her was more than it had ever been. All I had was Juliet, and if she decided to take it away… I should have stayed with her… Juliet was already disappointed. She probably thought that Louis would stay with us at my father’s house. If I could’ve made that happen… I would’ve. Louis hated Qadir. He and my father would be at each other the whole time. No one would accept the fact that Juliet had two husbands. Even if she was branded… My biggest problem was trying to keep both her and my father happy…

Qadir’s capture report gave me an idea. A way out of one part of my predicament. Before I could change my mind, I sent Louis a message. Every minute there was proving to be a mistake. I just wanted to put her in the car and take her back.

Me {Please go with her to my house. Qadir’s in custody in Washington.}

I got an immediate reply.

Louis {Juliet left already with her father. She is livid. She is mourning… How could you not take a minute to think before you left? I was the one that had to explain what would happen... She wanted you to say something, Marcus.}

“F-!” I yelled, hitting the dashboard. Never before did I need to be a boyfriend, let alone a husband… Since Chris had left. Louis had been cornering me at every turn about my behavior towards Juliet. He wasn’t holding back anymore. The understanding he showed me during the last year had run out. Now only proof would satisfy them, or I would lose both… I was going to have to do better.

***

Kubra and I teleported immediately to Washington. Qadir still in custody. Jabin was standing at the door to a room. He held out his hands to take my phone and my bags. He was in a hurry. Wanting to usher me through. I kept holding onto my phone. Not wanting to let it go. He kept holding out his towards me. “Sorry, no phones.”

I needed to know what was going on over there at the compound. How could I give him my only means of communication with Juliet? I had sent Louis a message, but he hadn’t replied yet. Angry, I pushed it at him. Every time I gave in, I saw Louis’s disappointed face.

The room was filled with men. A few big-screen TVs were mounted on the wall in the back of the room. Each to another country. Another news channel telling about similar incidents. Reports of a disease that was making people rabid and violent. Qadir was behind it, of course. He was using it as a scare tactic. The last cub had made the difference, it seemed. Rodrigo’s experiments were a success.

The attacks were so random that as soon as one was killed, another would come out and start causing havoc. They weren’t invincible, but the death toll was mounting up. How was he even executing this? Who was doing his dirty work? If the monsters weren’t infectious… where was it coming from?

“Marcus…” Jabin called out to me and introduced me to Carl’s father.

“I need five minutes.” Bertram acquiesced and escorted Jabin and me to a room.

“Why are you here?”

“Your grandfather wants you to come home. He couldn’t care less what happens to Qadir. Or what he plans with this place. To tell you the truth, I think this is a mistake… If you want to go back to En-gannim… I’ll take you, Louis and Juliet, right now.”

My first thought was that… It was just too easy. If I couldn’t be close to Juliet here on earth… I would see less of her there. If Louis wasn’t allowed close to her here… She didn’t want to be on the compound. How could I take her to a planet way worse?

“Juliet would be one galaxy closer to getting back to Caleb. One planet away, Marcus. We could take Rodrigo… She can undergo her treatment there.” Jabin kept going.

“What about Carl and Charlene?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know?”

“What about Liam and Cindy… Samuel?” I stated.

He shook his head. “They will never go back.”

“Well, then you have your answer.”

“Come on, Marcus. All of this for a girl that doesn’t even love you!” My eyes cast down to the floor. “You’re obsessed. She won’t make this worth it. She’s spoilt and selfish. All women are. In the end, you will regret it.”

It was part of his job. The manipulations. The doubt he needed to sow. But he was trying too hard. Too good to be true.

“Where’s my phone.” Jabin handed me a room card and said everything was there waiting. I turned around and left. He followed, but I turned back at him before entering the conference hall. “Where is Kubra?” Jabin pointed to an adjoining room.

I opened the door. Kubra and Carl were sitting in the dark listening to the conversations. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“Qadir wants control… Over everything.” Carl mentioned.

I shook my head. There was a ruckus at the other side of the glass. The screens lit up all with the same broadcast. Hawaii had been affected. The island was under severe attack. The army was moving in. They were having a difficult time getting the situation under control. There were too many civilians involved. They couldn’t just open fire.

“Carl, what do they want me to do?”

“They want to kill Qadir and have you take control of the compound and bring back peace between humans and aliens. Stop whatever he’s doing there. They can’t find the source.”

“They don’t want the relationship to end,” Kubra interjected.

“I need to see my father.”

We watched Jabin talk to Bertram. He escorted me down into the holding cell, where Qadir sat on a steel chair. His one leg was draped over the other. As if he was very comfortable.

We sat in locked gazes for the longest time. Said nothing. All I needed to do was look into his eyes. He had one very long and plausible explanation for doing all of it. He would have all his arguments backed by facts that would support his government.

“You will do this, Marcus.” My fist balled on my lap under the table. Again I was going to do what I was told to do… “It is time you rise up to your proper place next to me. Enough of this… playing house. Once we have control… I’ll even let you keep her.”

Yet again, too good to be true. Liar.

“You will have to stop the attack.”

He nodded slowly. “Of course, as soon as the negotiations begin.”