Manipulate (Book 1, Alien Cadets)

Chapter 22

“Yes. If Greg can prove the killings were not human, we will not renounce our sponsorship.”

Sam watched Greg breathe a sigh of relief. He’d really picked up a lot of idiosyncrasies from his students, Sam thought, as well as the willingness to fight for them.

“I will have the witness, Shara, possibly of Rik, brought at once,” Greg said.

Sam looked hard at Tishing, but he didn’t seem disturbed. He smiled slightly. “Call your witness.”

***

Armen started to remove the third row of bricks, his eyes closed. It was working. An image was emerging behind his mental wall. It was the tower at Pepperdine. The top of the cross was clear behind his wall. He centered on the middle of the wall, clearing bricks faster, downward, though still with deliberation. A sense of urgency, almost panic was taking hold of him. He forced himself to relax his muscles and breathe through his nose. If he rushed the process too much this message from his subconscious would dissolve into nothing.

The tower emerged, with blood dripping from the walls. The edge of the yin yang painted in sheep’s blood became visible. Why this?  Armen had pondered the vandalism over and over, talking it over with Sam and the others, what had he missed?

He continued clearing bricks. Now he could see Oh Li. He was standing at the base of the tower, holding his arm up. On his wrist he wore a leather strap with a metallic yin yang on it. He saw Downy come around the edge of the tower. Nearly all the bricks were gone now. Downy leaned over, looking at the yin yang bracelet and laughing in his puppy dog way. Then he reached up and slammed Oh Li’s head into the wall.

Armen gasped. In a blink, he saw it all. He remembered when they all first met Downy, when he was trying to choose a human name. He’d asked them all kinds of questions, and he’d been struck by Oh Li’s bracelet. He’d said the swirling black and white reminded him of a tiny deathglass.

Now Armen could picture the rest. He saw Downy luring Nat and Jia off campus. He saw him slashing the sheep. How he’d pretended to be enamored of animals, but always with that assumed goofiness. Jia, Oh Li. Armen had even – he caught his breath - Armen had seen Downy cleaning his nails in their shared bathroom the morning after Oh Li’s death. And probably Downy killed Paolo too, before they’d even come back to Earth. When Downy first joined them on Spo, Paolo had nicknamed him Grover.

Armen’s eyes snapped open and flew to the table where Gustav and Downy were sitting. Downy was gone. He would kill the girl. She knew about him.

He jumped to his feet.

“How long has Downy been gone?” he demanded, running to the door. Gustav looked blank.

“He’s the killer!” Armen shouted. “We have to stop him.”

Gustav looked at him, confused bordering on angry. “Stop him from what?”

***

Downy found Shara in the last cage on the right. She wasn’t laughing anymore.

“You’re going to kill me,” she said. “I feel calm now. That must be human. Besides, I think Claudia and Sam will figure it out… and these are good clothes to die in.”

Downy palmed the lock. He wrenched the barred door open. “They’ll believe me. The filthy Rik girl tried to escape. I had no choice but to kill her.”

“What, in the cage?” she asked.

He jumped at her, putting his face only an inch from hers.

“Shut up,” he said. He grabbed her arm, squeezing until he could feel the bone in her upper arm and she moaned. With a vicious twitch he snapped the bone and she cried out.