Effe found her heart palpitating, causing her shortness of breath over a sight she could barely watch. She was agitated, deeply distressed over the spectacle, and the painful knowledge that she had led Chris to his death.
But the reality struck her forcefully!
Having taken that deadly hail of bullets, Chris should have fallen!
His body should have been bloodied and filled with holes but…
There was no blood, to holes… nothing!
Carl's magazine emptied, and he stared with horror because Chris was still standing where he was! There was no blood, no scream, no moan… nothing!
He was still standing!
Carl and Effe were staring with terror and shock until his cold voice spoke behind them.
"It's called the VCS, Virtual Clone Simulator."
Effe spun around fast with a cry of panic and saw Chris Bawa stepping forward rapidly with a stout branch in his hand. His eyes were filled with death, and she noticed the sinew on his arms as he gripped the branch.
Carl Acquah had unclipped another magazine from the belt around his waist and was trying to jam it into the Uzi, then realized he would be too late, so he dropped the Uzi and pulled out a Beretta from his holster at his waist.
"Shoot me in the back, huh?" Chris asked lazily as he brought the branch down on Carl's head with such terrible ferocity that Carl moaned and dropped to one knee as blood seeped instantly down the sides of his face. Chris crashed the branch on Carl's wrist, and the gun fell. He smashed the branch to the side of Carl's head then, and the agent crashed on the ground with blood on his face and in his mouth.
"Bashard!" Carl spluttered as blood rained out of his mouth. "Yoush bashard!"
Chris kicked Carl between the legs, and the agent let out a long-drawn wail as pain blasted through him a second before Chris kicked him in the chest with such brutality that Carl's body slid across the forest floor and slammed into a tree.
Chris was following through, as huge as a demon, and then he raised the stout branch and made it fall like pistons as he lashed Carl so savagely across the face that Effe shouted with horror and pushed the brute away from Carl whose face had big bleeding contusions.
"Stop it, you animal!" Effe screamed.
"You ain't seen nothing yet!" Chris says with a grim expression as he snapped out his pistol and aimed it at Carl's head.
"No, no, Chris, stop it!" Effe screamed and rushed forward, standing in front of Carl and spreading her arms as she looked at this huge man with terror on her face. "Please, please, Chris, don't… please, don't kill him!"
"You were happy enough when he shot the clone in the back," Chris said grimly. "Let me guess, you want me dead, don't you? Will that appease your bitterness over the death of your brother?"
She shook her head hard as tears came to her eyes.
"No, no, Chris Bawa," she said in a rush. "I want you in prison, but I don't want you dead, please. It is not only about Jeff. It is about the families of one hundred and seventy-one people you slaughtered in that train bomb! I told you already, Chris. I'll keep coming after you until justice is served!"
His eyes narrowed, and she saw the bitterness on his handsome face.
"I have no time to waste on your pontifications. Move away," he said coldly.
Carl was still moaning on the ground, trying to fight off unconsciousness, aware that Effe was standing between him and death and horrified by the knowledge that she was no match for Chris' evident wrath. One push from Chris and she would be off, and Chris would come for him.
Carl's fear escalated as he looked around desperately for something – anything – that would help him escape this certain death! Hell, the other agents were nowhere around, nowhere in sight because they had left them so far away!
His body tracker was on a spot behind his right thigh, and he could barely bow down enough to activate it.
"No, Chris, no more!" Effe said, her voice almost a sob. "You've done enough! Enough killing, Chris, enough! How many more do you want to kill? All the people in SPF? Everybody in Eden?"
He raised the gun to Effe's head.
"Spare me the dramatics! Don't wanna rough you up, Effe. Move away," he said.
"No!" she moaned as she watched him through a wall of tears. "Why are you so destructive? Would you kill me too, after you killed Mr Stanley Adu?"
His jaws moved and gnashed suddenly as she leaned towards her with that look of grief she had seen in her car.
"They killed my brother!" he said with sudden passion, and she knew without a doubt that if she moved, he would kill Carl.
"No!" she screamed. "I told you! It was a…"
"It was no bloody robbery!" he said grimly, and his hand shook fiercely. "Stanley told me! That fucking bastard behind you put a contract on my brother! I'm very angry, Effe, and if I touch you, I'll probably kill you! I don't touch women when I'm in this mood. So move the fuck out of my way!"
Effe looked at him with horror on her face. Trembling, not knowing what she was doing, she raised a hand suddenly and put it on his hard chest.
"Chris, please, maybe…"
"Maybe nothing!" Chris said grimly. "He killed my brother. He pays. Don't let me kill you!"
He knocked Effe's hand off his chest and put a hand on her shoulder to push her out of the way. With a groan of terror, Carl gained his feet and began to flee wildly along the line of the ravine. Chris spun around Effe and lined up his gun on Carl's back, but Effe grabbed his hand immediately and pushed to the side as her heart thudded with terror.
"Chris, please!" she screamed earnestly, fearfully, passionately. "I don't want to see you killing anybody!"
She quickly moved in front of him and held out her arms.
His eyes were bitter as he glared at her. He raised his gun again, pointing it across her shoulder to aim at Carl.
"Chris!" she shouted and threw herself against him, wrapping her arms around his arms and forcing the gun down. "Chris, I beg you, I beg you, don't! You'll go to prison for every man you murder! Please, I don't want to witness this!"
Chris looked down at her face with bitter eyes, aware that Carl had reached a knoll in the distance and had flung his body over it and down the incline at the other side, and was out of sight immediately.
"Damn you, Effe!" Chris hissed and pushed her back, then raised the gun as if he was going to strike Effe in the face with the butt. She gasped with horror and raised her hands instantly with fear, looking so vulnerable and defenceless in her frailty.
"Chris!" she whispered. "Please! I beg of you, please, don't hurt me!"
He was breathing hard, his adrenaline so explosive that he still looked at her unseeingly with his gun raised.
Almost weeping now, Effe raised her hand again and put it on his chest, startling him as he now looked at her as if seeing her for the first time.
He slowly lowered the gun and gazed at her.
"Please, let me take you in," she whispered tremulously and wiped tears from her cheeks. "Thank you for not… hurting me, Chris. Let me take you in now, and your life will be guaranteed. They're hunting you down to kill you, Chris Bawa. And they will kill you unless you surrender, please!"
"I don't run from – or surrender to – thieves and murderers," he said softly as he bent quickly and retrieved the VCS from the ground and powered it off, and his simulated clone image disappeared.
"Chris…"
"You don't know anything!" he almost shouted, his voice a fierce explosion of fury that made her gasp and take a step back from him with fear. He waved the gun at her face. "You don't know anything! Tell Lance they killed my brother. You tell him."
"Maybe you should come in and tell him yourself, Chris Bawa," Effe said softly as her voice trembled badly. "That will guarantee your life! Now the whole SPF, BKI, the police, army, navy… every possible security outfit is on you on a dead-or-alive protocol. Please, come in now, I beg of you before they shoot you down dead!"
Chris Bawa took menacing steps towards Effe with a bitter expression on his furious face.
"I'll say this only once, Effe Kedem, I did not kill your brother! That bomb was not planned by me. Those who know me also know I will never hurt innocent people. That is all you need to know."
"There is enough evidence that you were there, that you planned it, Chris!" Effe cried bitterly as tears wet her cheeks. "You hurt me, Chris! You killed my brother!"
He glared at her coldly.
"I don't care what they told and showed you," he said bitterly. "And your opinion of me doesn't bother me. Now, listen to me. Things are going on here that you don't bloody understand! This is deeper than your bitterness about your brother's death, do you understand? I lost a brother too, and they told you he died because of some damn robbery. Stanley Adu and Carl killed him."
She stared at him helplessly as he took a step closer to her.
"Give me proof, Chris!" she whispered in a choked voice. "If you didn't kill my brother… if you say they killed Roland… please, show me some proof! I listen to facts, Prodigal. Give me something!"
"I'll give you nothing!" he said fiercely as he stopped within touching distance. "I'll tell you this once, Effe. If you keep coming after me, you will die."
He pointed his gun at her suddenly and fired.
Effe screamed and cringed as the shot deafened her, terrified that he was shooting at her. She fell on her knees with her eyes shut and her hands raised in supplication, her terror complete as her body shook violently and for a wild moment she thought her bladder would loosen.
But when she did not feel any pain on her body, she opened her eyes slowly.
She noticed that the dangling from the stout tree and falling down the ravine slowly shaking, but Chris was gone.
He had used the rope to descend.
Effe suddenly heard a thrashing sound near her right calf and turned to see what it was. Her eyes widened with horror when she saw a gigantic black snake bigger than her calf and as long as ten feet lying on the forest floor writhing in its death throes, its head blasted away and blood spilling from the gaping wound Chris' bullet had left!
Effe screamed and jumped away from the snake which was now still as death overtook it. She was trembling as she moved quickly from the reptile, and she finally faced the reality of what had happened!
This horrible, venomous snake had been directly behind her!
Chris had shot the snake to save her life!
This man she had hunted relentlessly, pursued with a vengeance, drawn danger to him almost at every move that he made…
He had saved her life!
They killed my brother…
Oh, dearest Lord, could it be true?
Suddenly, more agents appeared over the knoll, led by Carl Acquah, and converged at the mouth of the ravine. They angled their guns across the raving and began firing recklessly down into the valley below.
Effe took a shuddering breath and with a trembling finger, shut down the locator in her hand.
They killed my brother…
You don't even know how to kiss!
Shut up, Chris! Just shut up!