Cutting Edge

Rich knew how to stick in the knife.

The reporter continued. “So there’s no love lost between you and Butcher-Payne. Their research lab was destroyed. Do you have a comment?”

Leif crafted his response. “Human life is as precious as animal life. It is tragic that someone died at Butcher- Payne, but I hope that the other people behind the company realize that their research is just as criminal as the actions of whoever set the fire in the first place.” He paused, then asked, “Who died in the fire?”

“It hasn’t been released, pending notification of next of kin-”

“I understand.”

“Jonah Payne.”

“They’re certain?”

“Oh yeah, they just want to tell his son first, then it’ll be all over the news.”

There was no love lost between Leif and Jonah Payne. They’d battled for years about biotechnology in academic journals, mainstream newspapers, and even on national cable news. But Leif didn’t want him dead. He didn’t want anyone to die.

“An accident?”

“They’re not saying.”

“Of course not. Look, I have to go.”

“Don’t-”

Leif hung up on the reporter and sat at his desk, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows, but not seeing the trees or morning sky.

Jonah Payne had died in the fire. That Leif was innocent didn’t matter, for his innocence wasn’t pure. He knew too much. He’d known for a long time. And he’d thought he’d stopped it.

He left his office, computer on, email open, coffee cooling on his desk. He had to find out if the group had gotten back together and if so, what the hell for?

At dawn, Maggie unbolted the door of her small, one-room cabin and carefully carried the cage inside, placing it on the round table that took up most of the kitchen space.

The duck wasn’t making noise; his spirit had been defeated by the cruelty of those so-called scientists.

She locked and bolted the door out of habit-no one lived anywhere near her here in the middle of nature. People called it “the middle of nowhere” when in fact the few places like her mountainside were the only somewhere she wanted to be. It calmed her, and especially now she needed to be calm.

“It’s okay, Donnie,” she cooed, opening the cage and sitting across from the mallard. He looked at her, waddled forward, and stood there, his wing crooked.

She swallowed her anger, knowing that animals had much better instincts than people, and she didn’t want to scare Donnie. First those people did untold things to him, poking him and injecting him with who knows what, keeping him locked in a room for his entire life. What kind of life was that? A prison for innocent animals, yet they were incapable of doing wrong.

And then that jerk, dropping the cage with the ducks still inside! He was lucky she didn’t slit his throat then and there. If one of the birds had died, she would have. Then she’d have to kill the others, too, and that would be messy. Her impulsive nature could get her in trouble-she’d had some close calls in the past-so she worked hard to control her reactions.

Maggie had a better way to take care of them. She’d been thinking about it for several weeks. It had been far too difficult to convince them to reunite and continue their plan. Not Scott, but she had him by his cock.

It was Anya she was worried about. Anya, who had an ill-formed conscience. She was feeling guilty about the fires. How could she feel any remorse for the corrupt businesses profiting from the torture and abuse of animals? It would only stop when they stopped it. People were mostly too stupid to care or understand what was for their own good. Her mother had explained it all to her.

“The masses don’t understand what’s at stake,” her mother said often. “They are content working in a broken system that is spiraling out of control. Until those of us who care about the future take action and protect the earth and plants and animals who were here long before we were, our world is doomed.”

Maggie gave Donnie water and bread crumbs. He ate from her hand, tame for a duck. He sensed that she’d never hurt him. She hadn’t wanted to keep him in the cage, but with his damaged wing he wouldn’t be able to fend for himself. When he was healthy, she’d take him to a lake and free him.

She went to her bathroom and showered in icy water, washing away the dirt and grime from the fire and the lake. Remembered the power she felt when she held the knife to the man who had betrayed her family.

Her mother had told her everything. How Jonah Payne tried to get her father fired only weeks before he died. How he belittled him, embarrassed him in front of his peers. The man was so arrogant in his success, so confident that he was right, Payne never listened to her dad, never even tried to understand his point of view. Just because Payne was the shining star, the kid who could do no wrong, everyone believed him.

While Jonah Payne hadn’t killed her father, he had contributed to his death. And for that, he’d had to die. Because the time had come to destroy everyone who’d turned against her and her family.

Cutting him had been better than sex. Watching the blood flow from his arms and legs and chest … never- ending rivers of blood. She’d avenged her family and it freed her.

Skin burning with cold, Maggie stepped from the shower and dried her thin body, then cleaned the bathtub. While it filled with cold water, she dressed in jeans, a white T-shirt, and her favorite sweater, one she’d knitted from yarn she’d made herself.

When the tub was full, she turned off the faucet and brought Donnie to the room. “No more cages for you, Donnie,” she told him. He waddled around the bathroom and Maggie left him to explore.

She made tea from plants she’d picked and dried and blended herself, and sat at her laptop. It was eight in the morning, time to take credit for a job well done.

To say his brother Sean looked unhappy with his assignment was an understatement, but he reluctantly agreed that Duke’s plan could work.

“Isn’t there anyone else?” Sean asked. “I hated college.”

Duke pulled into a parking slot outside the administration building at Rose College. “And you were so awful at it,” Duke said sarcastically. Sean had an exceptionally high I.Q., started college a year early, and had graduated with two bachelor’s degrees and two minors. He became bored easily, which had been a problem from the time he was little, resulting in his being labeled difficult.

“Duke-”

“A few days. Week maybe.” He turned off the ignition.

“Investigations like this take years.”

“It’s already been nearly two years. They just need a little inside information to give them direction. The feds have rules and regulations they have to follow. We don’t.”

“That’s not what you said when I wanted to get the goods on that embezzler last year.”

“You wanted to break into his office and hack his computer. I’ll stretch the rules, Sean, but I’m not sending you to prison.”

“I’m good.”

Duke shot him a glance. It was true, he probably would have gotten away with it, but Sean was already playing close to the edge and it was Duke’s responsibility to keep him on the legal side of the gray line.

“Arrogance will be your downfall, little brother.”

Sean grumbled. “Yeah, yeah. Okay, I get the plan-get close to the people in Cole’s group and find out if any of them are talking about arson or murder or Butcher-Payne. Or, anyone who seems to be acting weird, guilty, or unusually nonchalant about arson.”

“You’re here to observe, not act-understand?”

“I got it.” He made a move to get out of the car, and Duke grabbed his arm.

“This is serious, Sean. You have good instincts with the brains to match, but you’re reckless.”

Sean brushed off his hand with a frown. “I’m not a kid who needs to be bailed out of trouble, Duke. I know