The 5th Cycle

Maybe next time

On the flight back, Bryan asked more questions about my past dealings with Katie. This time though, the questions were of a more personal nature. It kinda put me on edge. No one had asked me things like this before and I didn't like it.

"So how does it feel to have the same person get away so many times?"

"How would you feel if your fugitive got away repeatedly?"

"I'd feel like shit. Especially if they killed so many people afterward. Do you know how many she's killed?"

"No one knows but her. We have a rough estimate, but as I said before, those are just the ones she wanted found."

"How is it she keeps outsmarting you and your company? Not to mention the countless law enforcement agencies."

"She's old and clever. She had centuries to perfect her craft before she was even noticed."

"I read that she killed someone close to you. A brother from one of your past lives right?"

Again a chill had gone down my spine. I hadn't told the company that. Only 2 people in the world knew that. Katie and me. It still didn't make sense though. Katie died that night. I watched the life leave her eyes and now was chasing her yet again. The company must've done more research on me than I realized.

"Yes. She killed my brother. That's why I joined the company."

"Is that why you've killed her so many times, instead of capture?"

"If you think I would let my need for revenge get in the way of my job, you have misjudged me! Each time she gets away, she kills more people. I wouldn't sacrifice them just so I could kill her over and over. What's in store for her is much worse than death."

"My apologies. I didn't mean to insult you."

We sat in silence for a little while. I turned on my bracelet and sent a message to Merida.

"You said that what's in store for her is worse than death. What do you do with the people you capture?"

"We put them on ice. They are preserved perfectly. As long as the life support system continues to work, they will survive indefinitely. Never dying, never to be reincarnated again. A true death for someone like me."

Bryan's face paled for a brief moment, then it was back to normal. He didn't speak again for a bit.

About an hour before landing, my bracelet chimed with a message from Merida. As I read it, my heart rate jumped up and my mind started racing. Bryan was sitting across from me staring out the window. I slowly started to reach for my Browning.

"What gave me away?" Katie asked as I pointed my gun at her chest.

"The company doesn't know that you killed my brother. If they had, they wouldn't have put me on your case. How did you survive?"

"You saved me. Your last act was to perform CPR on me. Shortly after you died, the cops arrived with an ambulance. An emergency surgery or 2 later and I was on my way to recovery."

"The cops knew you were a murderer. Their hire ups would know to call the company. How did you avoid capture?"

"By being smarter than the cops of course. It's not hard. I pretended to be worse off than I was, so they kept me in the hospital. I got lucky with one of my nurses, she was a fan of my work. She told me how to fool the monitors to make it look like I was getting worse. I waited for an opportune moment and killed the cop on my detail. After that, I was home free."

"But you're a Marshal and you look completely different. None of this makes sense."

"It's called surgery, Jordan. As for the Marshals, well I needed to lay low until you got back. That got boring real quick, but I knew I couldn't kill in the same manner as before. So I became a killer of killers. I caught enough people to stay off the radar, but a few of my cases are still open. The suspects have been hard to find." She had a smile on her face for that last part. She was enjoying this.