Jedikiah drove a half hour out of the city and parked inside the trash strewn first floor of an abandoned warehouse. It had always been the rendezvous point, and no more than ten minutes passed before he was rewarded with a flash.
He turned sideways in his seat. "Roger. Figured you had to be back."
"Jed."
The two men warmly clasped hands. "Ten years and you look no different."
"Jed, things got out of hand. Do you know where Joh . ."
"Passed out at my apartment. I had to put him to bed. He's not doing so good. I think he's in shock."
"He didn't take the truth well."
"No." Jedikiah shook his head. "He didn't take it well at all."
"It was necessary, Jed. We had to do it. It was the only way. We wouldn't have done this to him if there was any other way. We could count on him to shoot once and shoot straight. If there had been multiple bullets . . well . . and we couldn't tell him the truth. He could never keep that back from the Founder."
Jedikiah, listening to his brother's troubled tones, asked, "Who are you trying to convince here?"
A harsh laugh and his brother reiterated, "It was war. It is war. Sacrifices have to be made."
Jedikiah nodded slowly. "A lot of people have died to keep up the pretense, to make our story stick. And I've either killed them myself or ordered their deaths. But tell me Roger, how do I break it to him that I was part of this? That I helped set him up. That I convinced the Founder that he needed to kill you to prove his loyalty. That I betrayed him too?"
His brother stared straight ahead. "You don't. At least for now no one can know that we planned this together. Even Marla thinks you're the enemy. It's safest that way. We have to see this through. There's too many lives depending on us."
Roger hesitated and then offered, "When the time comes we'll get Stephen to talk to him. They've bonded." He laughed humorlessly. "I've got work to do there. He's really upset with me. Can't understand how I could do this to John and that Cara! She can't even stand to look at me, and when she does . . .well it's a good thing our kind can't kill. But I think she'll do anything in her power to help John."
Jedikiah nodded slowly. He was quiet for a moment before adding, "I always warned John there were consequences to living in the world with these dark warped individuals." He exchanged a long look with his brother. "What I didn't tell him was that we were some of those individuals."
"He's a casualty. One of the walking wounded. But he is walking. Remember as long as he's not dead we still have a chance to make this right. When this is finally over we can reach him . . we can explain. He'll see we had to do it," Roger spoke forcefully. "I have to get back now. We've moved everybody out of the station. You can let John lead the troops there tomorrow to show his loyalty."
Jedikiah nodded, staring straight ahead.
Roger fumbled for words, feeling like he hadn't said enough. He wanted to offer his brother something, something to make this not seem so bad. "He's a good kid, Jed. He had a hard life and he didn't deserve this, but he was the perfect one for what needed to be done. The last thing on earth I wanted was to hurt him."
Jedikiah turned to his brother once more, his brow furrowed. The glistening in his eyes might have been from the street light angling in through a broken window in the old building. "I wanted to save that kid, and instead I think I destroyed him. I'll lose him for good this time, won't I?"
Roger sighed and placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, squeezing it bracingly. "We still have a long way to go." A flash and he was gone.
Jedikiah sat for another fifteen minutes staring unseeing out into the night before he finally started the car for the drive home.
Tomorrow was one more day of pretense in a long line of days that measured in the thousands. He had to restore John back into the Founder's good graces and then pray that when the truth finally came out John would forgive him. His surrogate father . . . the biggest betrayer of all.
~ FIN ~