18. Imry
18
IMRY
I’m rather impressed Loren’s still in these meetings. I’m not sure if Dad insists he’s here or if he voluntarily joins us. Either way, Loren is in his usual seat, looking just as uninterested as he possibly can.
If I didn’t know Loren as I do, I’d say it could just be an act. Otherwise, why bother being here at all? If you’re maintaining your retirement status and have no interest in participating in the contracts, why show up?
I don’t actually think Dad insists he be here. We all know Dad better than that, and it’s just far too unlikely. Dad’s maintained since we were kids that you can’t force anyone to do what they don’t want to and expect excellence and total compliance. Those are the people who will turn their back on you at the first chance they get.
That’s how he operates the entire Van Doren Technologies empire. He’s made it a company people are proud to support. A business people want to work for and stay at for their entire working careers. You can’t actually buy loyalty. All it will take is a higher bid than yours to break said loyalty. But you can earn it, and my father is a master at earning loyalty.
“Voss,” Dad says, and we all turn to the big screen where Voss’ face is larger than life right now since he’s the only call. “How’s your contract?”
Voss nods. “Going as expected. Not running into anything noteworthy. Lorissa’s been an amazing help, and I’m happy to report that Uncle Noaz’s crew hasn’t lost another person since I arrived. Even considering I came home for a couple days over Christmas.” He shrugs. “Feels like a success, though I’m not letting myself get too complacent or excited.”
“Estimated time until full delivery?” Dad asks.
He shakes his head. “That’s a good question. Getting the codes planted and monitoring them to make sure they’re not detected are easy. However, there are far more sites than I expected. The death toll is going to be high.”
“Including civilians?”
Voss nods. “My primary targets are obviously going to be the heads of these families and then every single person for the next four ‘ leadership ’ roles.” He puts leadership in air quotes. “My goal is to leave them without organized leadership so Uncle Noaz’s crew can pick them off.”
“And the police departments?” Dad asks.
“No idea,” he says, laughing. “Arguably, without being bought off, they should go back to being respectable.”
I’m not the only one who snorts.
“Honestly, I think we’ll be able to gather enough evidence to indicate those being bought out and send that information to internal affairs readily enough. We’re tracking almost a hundred bank accounts across the three families. We’ll absorb some, but most of them I think we can liquidate to families they’ve injured and charities that they’ve organized against. The last ‘ fuck you ’ in their name, you know?”
“Sounds good. Be careful.”
Voss grins. “Sure. How’s it going there? What’s next on the list?”
Dad nods and looks at the tablet in front of him. Since I haven’t looked at a contract in weeks, I have to assume that these come from Avory and Ellory.
“Over 5,000 members of Ryan Johnston’s megachurch, New World Temple, have applied for relocation to this new island,” Dad says. “Almost 1,000 have already made the journey to this island with more to follow over the following month.”
“Megachurch?” Loren asks.
I can’t tell whether he’s interested or surprised.
Dad nods. “Yes. Historically speaking, ‘New World Order’ has been used as a radicalist movement that calls for genocide and population control, leaving only those who can buy their protection alive.”
“Then they can kill each other off,” Myro mutters, shaking his head.
Dad nods again. “It has a lot of radical and extreme ‘ rules to live by ’ that are portrayed as the method for creating a utopian civilization when in reality, it’s a group of people killing off everyone not like them.”
“Basically, learning from the wrong side of history and taking it as holy law,” Voss notes.
“This particular megachurch is shockingly similar to one from the seventies with a little Manson family horror and some strange, so-called ‘ cleansing ’ rituals that sound suspiciously like sex slavery mixed in,” Avory says. “Their religious figurehead, Ryan Johnston, calls for peace in a world where there is no rich and poor, but everyone works the same jobs and lives off the same dollar.”
“When has that ever been a thing?” I ask.
“It’s not,” Dad says. “Not to sound blasé, but people who are so desperate to change their lifestyles for the better see this as their answer. They get to work elbow-to-elbow with those who had been incredibly wealthy in this ‘ toxic ’ world, and they all eat the same rice and corn for dinner. Both from the same paper plate. They think that’s how it should be.”
“Nowhere in history does that show a realistic way to live,” Loren says. “There will always be those in power and those under their power. This Ryan guy is the one in power. Is he scrubbing toilets with them and eating rice and corn off paper plates?”
“Exactly,” Ellory says. “But he’s seen as a god, so the rules are different for him.”
“Really?” Loren asks, eyes narrowed.
Ellory and Avory nod.
“We now have four contracts paying for the takedown of Ryan Johnston. One contract states they lost their daughter to the cult. Legitimately lost their daughter. She was an active member one day, talking about how wonderful this guy was and how he treats her specifically like she’s something special—an angel on earth. Then she literally vanishes. The church has no recollection of her. Ryan’s supposedly been questioned, and he doesn’t know who she is.” Ellory waves his hand.
“Another enclosed a diary their son left behind when he left for the boat to this island. There’s suspicion he was coerced because everything in this diary is ugly and incriminating, not only the cult as a whole, but Ryan himself, with this son being one of Ryan’s favorite ‘ cleansing bodies ’ and most abused victims,” Avory adds.
“So, what’s the deal?” Myro asks. “We go in and take out Ryan? Is that really going to disband the entire cult?”
“They’ve moved on the pretense of peace. That peace is protected by an army of people with semi-automatics,” Dad says. “However, the goal is to find the entire truth about what’s going on so it can be exposed to the world and take out Ryan with whatever other figureheads he has under his wing without mass death like we saw in the Jonestown massacre of the late 1970s. Ideally, we’d like the innocent to survive and go home.”
“How do you think that’s going to happen?” Loren asks, ever the pessimist. “If they’re on an island you said inhabitants arrived on by boat, that means no airstrip. It means no sneaking in. It means someone would literally have to drive up to the dock and hope they’re not shot. All those people on the island are prisoners now. They’re not getting out, and they’re not getting rescued. They chose their path.”
I nod subtly. Not because I agree with him, but because that’s exactly the kind of answer I expected from Loren. He strongly believes people make their own choices. They make the bed they lie in. That’s why when someone beats up their kids or rapes their employees or whatever, he doesn’t so much as question the death he’s delivering to them. Those predators made their decision.
Their decisions are leading to their deaths. People in power don’t think there are consequences to their actions because money can buy them their freedom. Loren can’t be bought. Yes, he gets paid to kill and has a nice, fat bank account to support him, but that’s not why he kills. He kills because he’s a born killer. We give him the target to kill.
We have chosen to play gods and choose life or death for people. I don’t believe in the concept that ‘ all lives matter .’ Not in the way people try to use it. Victimized people’s lives matter. Their abuser’s lives? Not so much. The world will be a better place without them.
“Let me ask you something,” Myro says. “If one of your brothers, if Dad, had somehow been led to believe that this was a legitimate option, if a utopian society could be made, and we were holed up on that island, what would you do?”
Loren frowns.
“Some people truly believe the life they’d been living wasn’t worth living. They see this as a happy ending for them. Somewhere everyone is treated the same. A place where the god leader knows them specifically. He makes them feel like they matter. Like they’re valuable. That’s a big deal in life—to be made to feel like you’re important to someone. So many people suffer because they believe they don’t. They believe no one will miss them when they’re gone. I’d be willing to bet that those who went without their families were among those who believed it, which is why they’re the most vulnerable. That’s why they were so easily persuaded. They went from a life where they didn’t think anyone even knew they existed to being ‘ special and important ’ to the god-like figure running this cult,” Avory says.
I can tell Loren isn’t quite buying it. I understand what Avory’s trying to get at, but talking to someone who can’t fathom caring what other people, never mind strangers, think of him? Not caring if someone thinks he’s special or important? He’s not quite getting there.
Myro was more on the money when he tied it to his family. Giving him a scenario that would get him interested in acting.
“How about this,” I say, and he shifts to look at me. “What if Oakley was on that island? What if he felt like this new way of life was the answer? What if he left on the boat with them and now he’s stuck on that island, whether he wants to be or not? What if he doesn’t want to be there anymore, Loren? But now he has no choice?”
I can almost feel his possessive anger rise at this hypothetical situation. If he were a dog, his hackles would be standing on end, his ears back, and his teeth bared.
“That’s what these contracts are facing,” Dad says. “Their Oakley, their sons or daughters or parents or siblings, are now prisoners on this island. You make very good points about how to approach. These are things we’ve already been considering.”
“You know as well as I do that if someone here, or someone we love, somehow became mixed up with this megachurch cult, we wouldn’t give a fuck what took them there. We wouldn’t stop at anything to bring them home,” Myro says.
“Thus, why they took out contracts to kill Ryan and free the cult members,” Ellory says. “Legal means weren’t working. That’s why people turn to us.”
“Fine,” Loren says. “If you were on that island, I’d find a way to get you off. If Oakley was on the island, I’d kill everyone who stood in my way to get him back.”
“I see where we rank,” Myro teases.
Loren shrugs. “But you’re not, and he’s not, and the obstacles still stand.”
“You’re not interested in considering this one,” Dad says.
I’m surprised when Loren hesitates. I think he does so because he’s fascinated. Nothing like this has ever been presented to us. This is arguably the biggest, weirdest, most fucked-up situation we’ve been presented with.
There’s no doubt in my mind that if this was set in front of him before he met Oakley, Loren would be all over it. It’s not that he’s not hungry for this kind of blood. It’s the promise of facing down men who think they’re winning at life. Powerful without consequences. Those are his favorite targets.
The only thing holding him back is that he doesn’t want to leave Oakley.
“I’ll stay with Oakley,” I promise. “You know he’s completely safe here anyway, but I will keep him right at my side the entire time you’re gone, Loren.”
Myro frowns. “That means Loren goes alone?”
“You can go with him,” Voss suggests.
“We can go with him,” Avory says.
Not going to lie, but my heart nearly stops. I’d be absolutely devastated and unconsolable if something happened to any of my brothers or dad. Or uncles. Even asshole Uncle Kairo. But my two/thirds triplets? If something happened to them, it would be like my soul being torn in half and expecting me to live without that piece for the rest of my life.
“Maybe,” Loren concedes. “I want to see this in person.”
“You like the challenge,” Dad says.
Loren nods and shrugs at the same time. “I don’t care about the challenge of getting on the island, but I like the idea of murdering a god. Do you think their blood is a different color? Will they die just as easily?”
The entire room stares at him. Because Loren has such a dry sense of humor, it’s difficult to determine whether he’s serious. Is he just messing with us, or are these actual questions he has?
“Do you think they have a flagpole?” he asks.
“I’m afraid to ask why you want to know that,” Myro says.
“I could make the island a flag out of the god-leader’s skin,” he says with a wide smile.
Dad shakes his head. “Let’s just focus on the necessary for now and leave flag creation for another discussion.”
I laugh because how can I not? This is an actual conversation.
“Think about it, Loren,” Dad says.
“You want me to do this one,” Loren says. “Not someone else. I’m your first choice.”
“You are,” Dad agrees.
“Because I haven’t killed anyone in the last few months, and you think I need to?” he guesses.
“No,” Dad says. My answer would have been yes. “In every business, the right tool gets the job done correctly. You need the right people involved with the right skills to make everything successful and efficient. You are the right person for this job, Loren. Your skills, your efficiency, your lack of giving a fuck what everyone else wants. And, admittedly, your lack of fear.”
Loren stares at Dad for a long time before looking at me and giving me the same hard, studying examination. Last, he turns that same considering look on Avory and Ellory. He sighs. “I’ll think about it. I’m not making any promises.”
“That’s fair. One more thing,” Dad says, making Loren frown. “Even if you decide not to accept this job, I’d still like you to think about exactly how you’d navigate the obstacles. I think we need to take this job, regardless of who goes, so I want everyone to think about it. Okay?”
“If I don’t accept this, someone else will,” Loren states.
“Yes,” Dad says.
Loren looks around the room, his frown once more firmly in place. Loren might not experience love in the same terms that the majority of the world does, but in a way, he loves a whole lot stronger than everyone else. He’s incredibly possessive of the people in his life. Insanely protective. I think if Dad led with the idea that we are taking on this job, but it’s just a matter of whom, Loren would be closer to accepting it right now.
In the end, I think Loren will. I’m going to have to get on planning entertainment for babysitting a grown-ass man for a while. I can easily pass it off as keeping Oakley busy while Loren is away, but the truth is, I’ll need the distraction more than Oakley does. If something goes wrong, I don’t just lose three brothers in one fell swoop; I lose the two I was once the same cluster of cells with.
I don’t know that there’ll be life after that.
Ironically, I can see that as the same kind of hopeless existence that would lead someone to being vulnerable enough to get sucked into the megachurch bullshit.