Booker Davis Jr signalled the waiter. "I want a drink. Drink." He gestured to imitate sake. The waiter understood and returned with a cup. He imdiately downed the small cup.
Everyone waited.
"Kazi Hossain...Kazi Hossain..." Booker repeated. "We don’t have that na in our records."
"That’s because I hacked into your governnt and removed it several tis," Kazi replied with a chirpy smile. "I knew soone at CIA headquarters. From there, it wasn’t hard to connect to the military’s servers."
"Hrn." Booker drank and put the cup down. "I have a question for you people: did you think true evil existed before all this?"
"True evil?" Kazi repeated. "I...no, I personally don’t."
" neither!" said Jules. Matty hrned, agreeing with his partner.
"That’s good. That’s really good." Without looking at Kazi, Booker waved a hand. "You ntioned slavery, and you’re right, it exists. The western world pretends that it doesn’t exist but it does. Won and boys get sold like cattle. Used as objects of pleasure or, or servants or children. I’ve seen so grandmothers buy young boys because they miss having kids. So of these people, I had to kill. Others, I spared because they were not pure evil or my mission dictated I avoid bloodshed. Leave the buyers to the local authorities. I was a soldier and I followed orders. In the case of the attack on the plane, I was following those rcenaries because I was already tipped off about a European official who dabbled in human traffic. I tapped his phone and found he was sending n to a plane. I hurried over and fortunately, I got there before it got out of hand."
Kazi rembered that day and when he saw Booker on the plane. Seeing him actually brought relief because if he was here, nothing would happen. Alas, even with the great Booker, a tragedy almost fell upon everyone onboard. If Kazi and Booker had not accidentally worked together, things might have gone much differently.
"I appreciate that," Kazi said. "I appreciate you helping out with this incident too. I guess this battle is different from Gate 10?"
At Gate 10, Booker Davis Jr imdiately left, spouting words of not wanting to fight in a war. Booker signalled for a new bottle of alcohol. He drank fast. He drank without actually getting drunk. "This is different. This is mother nature versus humanity. I prefer to side with humans in this instance. Wherever humanity is..." He poured his cup, staring at his reflection. "...I am there."
"Riight, um, we were here to discuss the plan," Jules said, glancing between Kazi and Booker. "Samantha used your na, Kazi. She said you ca up with the plan. Is that right?"
"Super duper true."
"You expect and Jules to lead the killer whale north," Matty said. "How many monsters were here today? Thirty? If there’s a hundred or a thousand or ten thousand coming at us, then we won’t join."
"You’ll be fine. Co on," Kazi said. "Booker will be with you too."
"I will?" Booker blinked twice and then shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
"You know him. You’ve seen him. He’s superhuman-superhuman."
Matty appeared mildly convinced. Booker’s presence would change the situation. "Hrn."
"Co on, Matty. These people asked us politely. And..."
Jules waved at a group of local children watching. They looked like they wanted to give her sothing. One child inched close, bowed, and set a crown of flowers. Jules put it on and thanked the child. Her smile was so radiant that Matty could not look.
"I want to protect these people."
Was it her smile or her words? Like it mattered. Her very soul tortured Matty and drowned his logical side. "Fine. Fine."
"Oh, Kazi, hey, what about your friend Sun-young?" Jules said. "She’s strong. If she’s with us, I feel confident we’ll be okay."
"I tried contacting her," Kazi said. "But she’s doing missionary work down in the Underground. She said she probably won’t be out for months."
"Months? The hell kind of missionary work is she doing?" Matty asked.
"The kind in literal hell, apparently. That’s what everyone says the Underground is."
"Never heard of it," Matty said.
"By the way, Matty, your arm..."
"Ah, yes. We—sorry, Jules managed to find a Sangoma. Free of charge too. She was very nice about it. Quite old, hard of hearing and hard to understand but incredible at what she did. I closed my eyes, five minutes apparently passed and my arm was back." Matty flexed his new arm, made of flesh and not tal. Indeed, it looked the sa as his old one. "Just amazing."
"Very," Jules said a bit too quickly. "We should start getting ready. If we’re going to fly on Feenie, I’ll need her getting comfortable with multiples too."
"I need to get my sniper ready. First the all important echolocation shot, now this." Booker sighed and stretched. "It is what it is though."
"Sorry for making you do all this."
’But I have to know how strong you’ve beco. So far, I haven’t gotten a gauge on you.’
"One last thing before you go. Booker, you said soone tipped you off about it. I’m curious, who? The politician, you know who he is and what he is like. Mr. Ironheart, they called him in the news. He did not make mistakes. He rarely go nervous and he had an amazing eye for loyalty. Couldn’t find a traitor in his midst even if you wanted to."
"How did you?"
"Another woman I saved ntioned a college girl that whispered she was a princess. Did so investigating, stalked his ho, found them through the windows, deduced where he would bring the princess, used so masterful disguises, infiltrated, found, and then coordinated a proper operation to extract. Mr. Ironheart was very picky with where his slaves were allowed to go. That pickiness opened up an opportunity."
"How long did that all take?"
"A week."
"You probably don’t need to tell you this but politician did not make the slave trade. He was just apart of the system." Booker didn’t continue onward. His brows twisted and frowned. "In hindsight, it was pretty stupid of to listen."
So that was what was bugging Kazi. He got tipped off but how? By who? Who was aware that the Ironheart of Europe kept slaves?
Only soone apart of the system could.
"He..."
"He...?"
"..."
Oh. Booker...Booker was at a loss for words? Kazi put a hand on his shoulder. "You okay, man? You know you can tell ."
Booker looked him straight in the eye. "That day, that morning, I...I think I t the devil."
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