Ancil“You forgot me already?” The man picked up a circular metal ball about the size of a basketball and said, “Maybe this might refresh your memory.”
“Ray Carter?” I was so confused. He looked so real, nothing like the pixilated version of himself I saw back at the Crossings. “You look — real.”
“I am real.”
“But why — how?”
“Ray come to help we,” Anansi, who was standing behind me, leaning against the wall beside the door, said.
“Yes, I came to help in any way that I can.”
“But — your family.”
“My family is dead Jed,” Ray Carter said, his teeth gritted and eyes red. “And I know who killed them.” He started breathing loudly with his eyes frowned and reddened. “Jeremy Duncan killed my family and I’m not going to let him get away with it. That’s why I’m here.”
“Why would Jeremy Duncan have any reason to kill your family? You didn’t do him anything,” I said.
“I have information. Dangerous information about the ACT Programme that if revealed could start a war. From the first day that we were deployed to the Twin Republic we’ve been receiving anonymous threats. Someone didn’t want us taking footage of the chaos. All the footage that we captured while here for some reason was aired as distorted images. No one knows what’s happening in the Twin Republic. A couple months ago someone infiltrated the IBC headquarters and ordered us to abort all our missions. When we didn’t comply, the headquarters was later burnt to the ground causing us to cease all operations till further notice. The fire happened only a few days before the Midnight Robber attacked San Fernando. I wasn’t supposed to be there but I had to see it out to the end. I successfully aborted the mission without detection after everything went down, but one of the jumbies probably saw me when I rescued you from the car. They must have reported me because just a few hours afterwards a man came into my home and shot my wife and daughter. He used an old school pistol and almost got me too but I managed to escape in my car with just a bullet in my leg.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault Jed,” Ray Carter said. “It was my choice to help you. I heard you screaming and crying at the ball for help and I just couldn’t leave you to die. I just couldn’t. It wouldn’t have been human.”
“I guess all of us have a reason to kill Jeremy Duncan” Anansi said.
“I won’t rest till he gets what he deserves,” Ray Carter said.
Suddenly an unexpected tremor shook the place for a split second, then abruptly stopped. However after about another five seconds the tremor occurred once more, this time even more violent than the first time.
“Speaking of the devil,” Anansi said.
“How did he even find us?” I asked, appalled.
“Lagahoo have we scent. Once he pick up on a trail he could find we easy,” Anansi said.
“How did he pick up our scent?” I asked but Anansi didn’t have to respond as I arrived at the answer on my own. “Oh no.”
“What’s going on?” Ray Carter anxiously asked, wide eyed, his neck snapping between Anansi and I awaiting an answer.
“My boots. I left my boots out in the……..”
Before I could finish my sentence I felt a force against my chest. A split second afterwards I found myself rapidly crashing through the wooden hut and out into the large clearing, landing with a tumble into a fog of dried dirt created by my landing. I felt a sharp pain on my chest which seemed to gradually worsen to the point where it became excruciating. I cried out in a voice so intense it felt beyond humanly possible. The sound of my agony seemed to pierce through the air. If it wasn’t for the Midnight Robber inside of me bubbling up from the darkness and onto the surface, I would surely have been dead. I was grateful that I was still alive but I was also so winded that it took me a couple seconds to simply get to my knees. A steady stream of blood dripped from my nose and I could taste it as some made its way down my face and into my mouth.
