Page 7 of Circle of Death
A young boy with an automatic pistol follows behind him. He steps up to the first victim and…
“That’s enough.” Margo stops the video. The screen goes black.
Jericho drops down onto a chair. “Looks like two different continents.” He looks up at me. “Are you saying it’s all connected?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. What you’re seeing is the work of a single tightly organized cabal. It’s called the Command. A lot of people risked their lives to get this footage. And a couple more risked their lives getting it to me.”
“Who runs the Command?” asks Moe. “Who’s behind all this?”
“One man. Identity unknown. He struck first in Java, six months ago. Leveled ten villages in one night. The survivors gave him a name.Pangrusak Jagad.”
Burbank and Moe are stumped. But Jericho comes up with the translation.
“Destroyer of Worlds.”
Everybody’s quiet for a few moments. Including me. I figure they need time to let it all sink in and make it real in their minds. I glance at Margo. She nods. Time to spill the rest.
“These actions seem random,” I say. “But there’s a pattern. The disorder is moving from east to west. Very calculated. Destroying crops and water supplies. Stirring ethnic conflicts. Inciting genocide. Violence and social disorder at every level. Pretty soon, the sickness will spread across the world. Like a disease.”
Burbank blinks behind his thick lenses. He can’t even meet my eyes. His hands are trembling. I can tell how disturbed he is by what he’s seen. “And what?” he says. “We’re supposed to stop it?”
“How?” asks Jericho. “By turning invisible?”
“All due respect,” says Moe, “but I think we’re a little overmatched.”
“Every power has a seam of weakness,” I say. “Our job is to find it, and crack it wide open.”
The room goes silent again. As I look from Jericho to Burbank to Moe, I’m secretly hoping that I picked the right team. I’m praying that these guys are as strong and competent as their ancestors were. And I’m worried about what the hell happened to the other two I invited.
Without their skills, I wonder if we have a chance at all.
CHAPTER 7
MADDY GOMES SITS at a long wooden table in the City College library, huddled over her notes from her Culture & Crime lecture. Her stomach is growling and her eyes are burning from trying to decipher her handwriting. When she looks up at the clock, it’s already 10:00 p.m. Except for a lone librarian posted somewhere on the other side of the building, she’s all by herself. Not unusual. She’s usually the last one here.
Maddy leans her chair back and raises her arms above her head. She takes a long stretch backward and allows herself a huge yawn. Suddenly, her wrists are grabbed from behind, jerking her off-balance. She hears a female voice, low and intense.
“You’re mine now, bitch!”
Maddy pulls free and spins around in her seat. Her assailant stands there grinning.“Gotcha!”
Of course it’s Deva. Deva Keane. Maddy’s classmate and partner in Criminology. Who else would be accosting her in the school library?
“Dammit, Deva, I’m trying to study!”
“Right. I deduced that. From the books and notes and all.”
Deva, slim and pretty, reaches over and grabs Maddy’s color-coded index cards off the table. She shuffles them like a card sharp and then tosses them into Maddy’s backpack. “Study time is over,” she says. “Party time… hasbegun!” Deva swings her hips to a beat that only she can hear.
Maddy can tell that her friend has been partying already. The wine on her breath mixes with the citrusy scent of her body wash. She’s also made a change of wardrobe, from her shapeless classroom sweats to a shimmery dress that rides halfway up her thighs.
Maddy shakes her head. “Youdoknow we have an exam in three days, right? Covering everything from the start of the semester to now?”
“Right,” says Deva. “And we both know you’ll help me cram like a maniac for the next two nights.”
“Lichtman’s tests are diabolical.”
“You’ve got her figured out. You’ve goteverythingfigured out.”
