The Time Killer

Eight

                                                                 Vintem Hill, Rio de Janeiro, August 20, 1966

      Today was a great day for Carlos. Today was his eighteenth birthday. He had taken the afternoon off and was flying his new kite on this summer afternoon. The teenager walked slowly, watching his kite rise and fall gently with the gentle breeze. As he got to the top of one of the hills, Carlos saw what he thought were two sunbathers. As he got closer, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

      The shock of seeing two dead bodies saw him involuntarily releasing his kite, followed by vomiting and several seconds of drying heaving. Carlos doesn’t remember running the two miles to the police station, he only remembers reporting his find.

      The local sheriff only believed the young man because of the terror on his face. Vintem Hill was a small villa and so far removed from any tourist city, law enforcement dealt with mostly domestic issues, drunk and disorderly and minor theft. Neither the sheriff nor his two deputies would ever forget what they saw.

      The two bodies were men. They were later identified as Manoel Pereira da Cruz and Miguel José Viana. They were stretched out side by side, wearing matching formal suits covered by raincoats and what turned out to be lead masks. The masks were not the manufactured type that covered the entire head. These homemade masks were later described as lead blindfolds that completely covered the eyes but left the rest of the face exposed. After examination, the sheriff discovered it would have been impossible for the men to see anything.

      This time Cain had very little cover to hide, however, he had discovered early in his travels that he could block himself from these apes. He could simply make himself invisible by getting inside their minds and, with a slight manipulation of the ocular nerve, the primates never knew he was there.

      He laughed as each part of their discovery mystified them. What baffled them the most was alongside their bodies was a water bottle, two wet towels, and a notebook. Cruz and Viana were electronic technicians and most of the notebook contained bits of information related to that. However, Cain had inserted on one page, in their handwriting “16:30 be at the specified location. 18:30 ingest capsules, after the effect protect metals await signal mask.”

      He could barely make it back to his ship he was laughing so hard.

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                                                     Lexington, KY

                                                 December 15, 1991

      The first time I met Captain Jenkins was by accident. I had only arrived in Kentucky the day before. The four small boxes that contained everything I owned as well as my dad’s ashes were stacked up in the Williams stable.  That first meeting was a pip. I had crawled inside my second bottle of Maker’s Mark, my favorite local bourbon. Living so close to where Maker’s was birthed was another of my reasons for wanting to move here.

      I didn’t know who the Captain was. I wasn’t supposed to report until after the holidays. When the captain sat down I saw someone with a disfigured hand wearing a Santa hat.

      “McCoy?”

      I looked up from my glass. I had just gotten my father’s remains thirty hours before, I was very drunk, trying to bury the pain.

      “Santa?” I slurred.

      “If I were Santa I wouldn’t be visiting you. You’ve been a bad boy.”

      I put my glass down and tried to focus on the person across from me. By this time he had removed the Santa hat. Though no more than in his mid-30’s he was going prematurely gray. His right hand was missing his middle finger, his index finger was bent outward at the knuckle.

      He held out his hand. “I’m your new captain, McCoy.”

      Even in my inebriated state I attempted to straighten up in my chair and ran my fingers through my very dirty hair. I attempted to return his shake, and missed his hand.

      Captain Jenkins laughed. “McCoy, enjoy your holiday. Get settled. Learn our city and come see me on the 3^rd. I have a case I want to discuss with you.”

      I was pretty sure I knew what the case was, it was the reason Lexington had popped up on my radar to begin with.

      “Her name is Betty Gail Brown,” Jenkins said as he slid a file across his desk. In the previous two weeks I had moved in. Sorta. I slept on my dad’s old bedroll. I did owe a car, but I only drove it to work. Normally, I either rode Mags or used public transportation. Over the last two weeks, I discovered Lexington was more than bourbon and horses.

      “She was found around 3 a.m. in her car outside Transylvania University. According to our coroner, the cause of death was a head wound. Based on the crime scene her head was repeatedly shoved into the dashboard.”

      Her handbag and books were still in the car. The only thing missing was her college id. Even the keys were left, thrown into the back seat.”

      I didn’t tell the Captain I had been following the Brown cold case since I was a kid. Like a said, I try to solve puzzles. I was hoping being this close would help me solve it. The Betty Gail Brown file would be the first of many that stayed on my desk until they were solved.

      If only I knew about Cain sooner.

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                                                          Quadrant 7

                                                        Two Cycles + 5

      Cain’s ship moved silently. He was lost in thought, staring at the wall opposite him. Even though he didn’t need them, on the entire wall he had drawn the universe, broken down into the various quadrants. Breaking that down more, it was broken down into the various planets. Furthermore, Cain had made extensive notes on every murder. The year, the places, the names, how many victims. 

      He stared at the wall, reliving every event. That feeling of power rushing through him. He had been in every quadrant, walked on every planet. Even Planet M in the NuFar Galaxy which only had 2,047 inhabitants, now had three less because of him.

     “Just look at it Thing. Little ants running around, trying to convince themselves they are in control. The little drops of chaos I have dropped into their lives they are foolishly choosing to ignore. My first instructor chose to ignore me. Monsieur Ra chose to believe that I was no more important than every other ten year old.” The body of the teacher appeared in front of him. Pieces of the body were scattered throughout the Monsieur’s apartment. “The Ambassador ignored me, but only once.” The scar that now ran down the back of his father appeared in front of him. “I have focused much of my attention on the earth because the apes actually believe,” he began to laugh. His laughter filled the entire ship. “They actually believe they are the most intelligent beings. I’ve dug more intelligent anal worms from my glorious ass than the apes.”

     “I would rather play a prank on an ape than several hundred on those who are only slightly inferior.”

     Thing listened intently. One of the things Cain loved the best about the Augmon was that they did not corrupt conversations by responding. They simply listened. Most beings assumed the Augmons were unintelligent and were unable to speak. Cain fell into this category. He never wanted to hear anyone speak but himself. He never considered anyone else’s ideas but his own.

     However, something that most never considered is that Augmon studied their environment. They were slow. They were methodical. Sometimes they didn’t speak because they truly had nothing to say. But they always remembered.

     Some Augmons go their entire life without speaking. Thing understood that Cain would not have listened to anything he would have said. After the centuries spent living in the Ambassador’s estate, Thing understood that father and son were identical. They were narcissists, violent, abusive users. They took from everyone and everything around them.

      He had seen many, many things, and he remembered them all. Thing saw the abuse. He saw the thousands of times the Ambassador beat his wife almost to death. He also saw the one time he finished the job. He saw the hundreds of thousands of times Ambassador Gra had beaten the staff. Yet they continued working for him, continued catering to his every whim. They continued to grovel.

      He remembered it all.