Chapter 5

Rachel and Kevin went their separate ways soon after, him to a meeting that he was already late for while she cut across back yards for home. Unfortunately, halfway home she had to cut to the main road to avoid waking up her cousin Jason's Rez dogs, whom he bred for food.

She knew that she was in trouble the moment she heard the engine start up behind her, causing her to look back as the Lincoln began moving forward. They must've been sitting in the dark waiting to catch someone after curfew, as the only people around here allowed to have a vehicle were Indian Agents.

Rachel considered running for the trees again but knew that the repercussions would be twice as bad if they caught her. She continued walking forward as the car matched her pace but stayed ten feet back following along, drawing out her worries.

The car honked causing Rachel to stop. She could see her house twenty yards away but knew she couldn't take this trouble home with her. She turned around to face the car as it stopped. The driver’s door opened up as Damien stepped out and leaned on it.

"You're out a little late, aren't you?" He asked.

"Just a little bit." Rachel answered.

"You know you're two hours past curfew. There's quite the penalty for that." Damien was alluding to adjusting her house rations.

"I know, I got caught up and lost track of the time..."

"Doing what? Where?" He interrupted her. She didn't have an answer. She couldn't give a name or location because that would just get someone else in trouble or at the very least looked at. "Ok, let's see your card."

Rachel moved forward slowly to the driver’s door as Damien pulled out the small scanner. She brought her tag out and held it out to him from as far away as she could. Damien grabbed the tag and scanned it, then waited for the readout.

"Ok," Damien handed the tag back, "Hop in the car and I'll drive you home."

"Um...actually, I just live over there." Rachel's mouth was dry as she tried to keep her hand from shaking as she put the tag back in her pocket.

"Well, actually," Damien closed the door and stepped toward her. "What I'm offering you is an opportunity to avoid that penalty we were just talking about."

"I don't mind." Rachel took a step back, "Whatever penalty you think is fair, I'm fine with."

"I'm sure you are, but I wonder if the rest of the people living with you would be. Don't you just divide it all up? How are they going to feel about splitting a smaller pile?" Damien smiled, this wasn't his first conversation like this and he usually got what he wanted.

It started as a joke with his uncle when he first received the job on the reserve and told his family. His uncle was a police officer from up north before the war with the Indians. He made a joke that Indian women when put in a corner, would do anything to get out of that corner, morals be damned. He claimed to have seen a forty dollar hooker give a sixty dollar blow job to get out of a ten dollar fine.

Damien discovered that was actually the case. The first time was a thirty year old woman caught with a cell phone. Normally he would've locked her up for a month and cut her rations in half for a year, instead he lost his virginity. Since then he's been with quite a few girls of different ages based on who he caught breaking the rules, or who he fancied and could convince they broke the rules. Others he just threatened with a lie and got way with it.

"Maybe, we'll manage." Rachel said and started to leave but Damien reached out and took her wrist.

"Hold on, I don't think you're thinking this through." He said.

Rachel looked at her hand wishing she could detach it but instead just pulled it away. "I just want to go home."

"Lady, I'm warning you."

Rachel turned and walked back toward her house as Damien stood there watching.

"What a bitch." He said and climbed back into his car.

Karen stood out front and center in what was probably the only basement on the reserve as none of the government issued houses came with one. This one was dug out over the last fifteen years by rudimentary equipment and hand. The walls and floor were still dirt and bore the marks of digging. Boards and wood beams mixed with scrap metal to create stability held the house up. The only light came from wax candle lamps.

The existence of this place was known only to the leadership since the risk of it getting out would not only mean its destruction, but also the death of the eight other natives meeting Karen tonight. The government outlawed meetings of three or more Indians unless those Indians lived in the same house. They also disbanded any form of government or hierarchy, but that didn't stop the people. There were eight distinct nations on this reserve from the Nuu-chuah-nulth, Coast Salish, Interior Salish all the way to the Haida Nation, each secretly electing their representation.

Karen respected those that ran, if any of them were found out they would never be seen again. She didn't know if they would be hunted, just that they would disappear into the system.

Even so, she was finding those here tonight were being cowardly, and hiding it behind looking out for their families.

"I don't understand what you’re trying to convince me of. We've passed the point of no return. Our plans are already in motion. We're moving ahead with it without you..." Karen said, "What you're asking me is just..."

"Asking you? At least we're asking." Melvin interrupted her; he was skinny man from the upper valley. "You're coming in here telling us what you're already doing, how it'll affect us. You didn't ask us. You didn't even consult with us."

"So what are you asking? What do you want to know?" Karen said. She looked over to where Peter stood watching. Kevin sat on the steep stairs.

"What the hell are you expecting from us?" Melvin asked.

"To help us."

"Help you? Help you get us killed." Darwin said from the back, big Indian from Salish territory.

"Help us free you!" Karen shouted.

"Like you've ever given a shit about us, when have you ever..." Melvin added. The members in the room shouted their agreement.

"They took Jacob, you know that?" Sara said over the others, a tough looking native from the interior.

"We know."

"Yeah, where were you then? You want us to help you, why weren't you here helping him?" Melvin asked.

"We wanted to help him." Peter stated. The room looked over at him. "But there are plans. It was a risk."

"These the same plans that got him killed?" Sara asked.

"What does that mean?" Karen asked back.

"That's what they told us," Melvin explained, "Two months ago a couple of soldiers went out into the bush, three of them on patrol. All three of them were caught, tortured and then executed. That's why they took Jacob."

Karen looked to Kevin. They both knew they must've meant the hunters.

"You people got him killed." Sara stated, "And then you let him die. It's like you pulled the trigger yourself."

"Yeah, where were you?" Kevin asked Melvin.

"What does that fucking mean?" Melvin turned to look at the other.

"Why didn't you stand up and help him?" Kevin scanned the rest. "Why didn't any of you?"

"Kevin." Karen said to calm him down.

"No, they're shitting on us while all they did was stand around and watch him get carted off. Two of them, thousands of you. You watched it happen."

"Because we have family that we actually have to care about." Melvin argued, "We stand up to two of them now, ten thousand of them show up and take our kids, shoot us and burn everything down. Don't look at me that way boy, don't judge me. They've done it before Unlike you, I was fucking there, and they'll do it again." Melvin's voice was deeper and carried better than Kevin’s, taking control of the room.

Kevin wanted to say more but held back his anger. He reminded himself that sometimes he forgot other people have their own issues going on.

Karen sighed, "Ok, this isn't getting us anywhere. Jacob was my cousin, he was family but right now, the rest of my family...I have to make sure they're safe and they'll never be safe living like this. We want your help, we need your help, please."

"We help you and you lose, what happens to us?" Melvin said calmly. "We all die."

The leadership left one after another, but spaced out by five minutes, into the darkness taking routes they hoped didn't have cameras or motions censors. There used to be abundant equipment used to keep the natives in check but after awhile they started to fall apart then nobody bothered to replace them. Why would you when the populace was already beaten into submission?

Karen, Peter and Kevin left together but while everybody else went west and south they turned North.

"That was a waste of time," Karen said twenty minutes into the bush. "It's getting so we can't count on anybody anymore."

"Cowards." Kevin added.

"Not everybody," Peter said. Karen stopped to turn to him. "There's a couple of them there tonight just waiting to see if we do what we say we're going to do."

"Then they should've spoken up." Kevin said.

"You know you're really grumpy for a guy who just got laid." Peter said to him.

"And you're pretty optimistic for someone's who's never been." Kevin didn't want to let on it's more about having to leave Rachel.

"What are you talking about? I'm just waiting for the right girl who doesn't mind that I don't have a job and still live at home with my parents." Peter looked to Karen. "What I'm saying is Indians don't work that way, sometimes they don't commit till they feel it's getting done."

"Yeah, and we can't get it done unless they commit." Karen stated, "And they're right, we don't have the weapons, we don't have the people. We have nothing."

"We have the Americans." Peter added.

"Do we? What they want is a sacrifice before they do anything." Karen said, "Do you want that on your conscious."

"Yes. And so should you." Peter moved toward her. "What do we have? What? We have about four hundred Indians living in the bush. Across that border is a country with one of the largest highly trained armies in the world and they're willing to help us. All they have to do is put their foot down, and say 'no more', just 'no more' and all this ends. Isn't that worth one life?"

"I'm not doing it." Karen said and then started walking.

"I'll do it." Peter said louder.

"What?" Karen turned back.

"I'll do it." Peter repeated himself.

"You have no idea what you're doing."

"I know where to start, you heard them. We take out a couple of hunters, they serve someone up..."

"No! You don't know what that does to you." Karen grabbed his collar and pulled him a few feet forward. "You...that person will haunt you forever, believe me. And down south, how do you know it'll make a difference to them?"

"I know!" Peter swung his arm, snapping her arm off him. "But those are our choices. One person dies, or hundreds die, either way, people are still going to die and both might mean nothing. But come on Karen, a slim chance is better than nothing."

Karen looked to Kevin; "What do you say?"

"I try to stay out of politics. Just point me at a target." Kevin shrugged.

Karen moved a few feet from them as she thought about it. She took a breath and nodded back to Peter. "I don't want to ever know their name, ever."

The next morning Damien sat at his desk filling out the night’s incident reports. There wasn't too much to report except for a few stray pets he put down and lights on after ten. His desk was placed three cubicles over from Mark’s and one over from Ryan’s but this early in the morning, only clerics were around.

"You're still up." Beth said as she came by, putting folders onto the "In" boxes. She was an early thirties woman in typical secretary skirt and dress jacket. While it was the style for the building, Beth wasn't a secretary, she was a cleric. Damien knew this petite un-intimidating blonde was one of ten people that controlled not only the flow of information for the building, but they also controlled Indian Agent’s assignments. They were the last line of qualified and trained people before the politically appointed idiots that answered to Ottawa. Cleric wasn't their actual job title either, that was just a nickname given to them due to the intelligence they had and power they wielded.

"Just finishing up last night’s shenanigans." Damien said.

"Anything exciting?" Beth asked. Damien liked her. She had a soft voice and always genuinely seemed interested in what people had to say.

"Nope, no. The natives aren't even remotely restless." Damien joked, "Oh, but I do have someone for your trouble maker file of you want it."

"Absolutely."

Damien grabbed the file he printed out earlier and folded it around to show a picture of Rachel along with everything the system had on her. He handed it over as Beth took a look at it.

"Young." She said.

"Yeah, came across her last night wandering about after dark, going door to door and I think, making little speeches." Damien leaned back in his chair relaxed, letting it swivel. "So I checked with some of my sources, this young lady's been stirring up some sentiment. Native pride, get back to our roots kind of stuff."

Beth nodded, "Mmmm." She closed the file, "I'll put her in the system."

"Let me know if her name comes up."

"I will, but when you have time, get me those housing reports eh?" Beth smirked, "I know you have dreams of a better assignment but that won't get you anywhere if you get fired before you get promoted."

"I know, I know." Damien grinned and turned back the computer. It was a gentle nudge.

Beth smiled and moved off from Damien to allow him time to finish his work. She looked down at the file and wondered what the girl actually did to him.