The Kota Read online

  “Okay…” I looked back at the president. “So you want me to write a statement about these lights?”

  “I didn’t send for you to discuss the press.” She leaned forward and folded her hands on her desk. “It’s about your brother.”

  My face probably drained of color. Given recent developments, my brother was the one topic that unnerved me. “Now what did he do? Am I on temporary leave again? I can’t stress enough that Lee’s beliefs are not mine and I don’t plan on-”

  “No, Kandoya, just listen. I explained after the last incident that it wouldn’t happen again.”

  This was reassuring. “So what do you need from me?”

  Mr. Abbas frowned. “Find your brother and give him the straight facts. The last thing we need is a religious nut claiming the world’s going to end.”

  My heart dropped somewhere between my feet. “Is he saying that?”

  The president held up a hand. “Not yet. We want you to make sure he doesn’t start a panic. When Lee went public with his outcries concerning the DRK virus, it took weeks to settle the rioters. This time, I’d like to handle the matter more swiftly. What do you know about his cult?”

  I answered reluctantly. “It’s not a cult, really, but the Kota do share a common faith. They try to live as their faith sees fit and focus on charity work. Until recently, they kept to themselves and drew little attention.”

  She nodded.

  I paused, uncomfortable with the rest of my information. “At our father’s funeral, my brother met an elderly Kota man distantly related to our father. We have Kota roots, apparently. The man gave Lee a book of prophecies, and some of the writings supposedly mean Lee’s important to their cause. And, one of the prophecies was about the DRK virus. That’s the one he went public with, but I guess they have several more. The Kota have tried to interpret the rest ever since the Virus Prophecy was confirmed. Personally, I think these prophecies cause drama and are a waste of time.” I wanted to stress this last point.

  “Well,” said the president, “since the Kota just happened to have a prophecy about the virus, it wouldn’t surprise me if they also have one about these lights.”

  Mr. Abbas agreed. “They mustn’t alarm the public further. Your brother caused enough commotion about the DRK virus.”

  I nodded. “I see what you want. You hope I can control Lee this time. His followers might cause another stir if they aren’t stopped. What if he won’t listen to me?”

  “Try,” said Mr. Abbas. “Euro religious sects are already fighting over who’s responsible for the lights. Twenty people have been murdered in the Euro state where our light anomaly appeared. I don’t know everything about the cult your brother is leading. But when Lee went public with his Virus Prophecy, he got more attention from my people than he did from your own. Now, who knows what he’ll do? Things are bad already, and we don’t need your brother adding fuel to the fire. From his past achievements, I think it’d be in both our countries’ best interests if we got him under control.”

  “I see. I’ll do what I can, but I can’t promise anything.”

  The president nodded. “All I’m asking is that you try. Please, wrangle your brother quickly, Kandoya. And quietly.”

  “I understand. Thank you, Madam President.”

  She waved her hand, informing me I could go.

  As I walked home that evening, I saw people leaving their houses and peering up at the sky. A few children played in their families’ yards, but the majority of the parents in my community made their kids play indoors that day. Walking into my apartment building, I noticed my Muslim neighbor kneeling on his floor in prayer.

  Once alone in my apartment, I turned on the lights. Toto ran to me and danced around my legs, expecting a walk.

  “Calm down. I know the sitter let you out twenty minutes ago.”

  Toto harrumphed and followed me as I walked to my bedroom. Here, I threw myself on the bed in defiance. I landed on my phone. Taking this as a sign, I took the phone and held it before my face.

  “Call Lee.”

  While the phone rang, I sat up and took off my shoes. Toto jumped on the bed and sprawled, whining at me.

  How can I make Lee listen? I thought. Yelling at him has never worked. I need another approach. Besides, it’s been a while since we talked. I feel a little guilty about that. He is my brother, even if I’m trying to hide that fact from the world. As long as Lee doesn’t try to peddle his Kota movement off on me, we’re fine. Maybe enough time’s gone by since the Virus Prophecy conflict that we can talk now without fighting. Maybe.

  Eventually, Lee’s energetic voice spoke through my phone. “Greetings, Troy. Any messages from your boss?”

  I took off my tie. “Good evening, Lee. I take it you’ve heard about these light clouds? Tell me, did we sound like as big of fools as I thought when we addressed the press this afternoon? We need to work with China on getting our lies straight.”

  Lee laughed. “No, it was a good cover.”

  I rubbed my face in my hands. “Sometimes in this job I feel like the kid sitting in the corner wearing the funny, pointed hat.”

  He laughed again. “Well, maybe the lights are fluke manifestations of rainbows like Aaron reported.”

  “They’re not, but we have no better explanation.”

  “I figured as much.” He sounded like he expected what was coming.

  I frowned. “Lee, President Weaver implores you not to stir up your Kota followers again. She doesn’t want a religious war started.”

  “The Kota are peaceful. You know that, Troy. And anyway, the majority of my ‘Kota followers’ are in eastern Asia, so I don’t see what business the president has telling us to do anything.”

  “Well, Omar Abbas attended the meeting too.”

  “The WSP Euro division guy?”

  “Yes. He also fears you’ll incite a worldwide hysteria. Both he and Weaver wanted me to talk to you in case your cult is-”

  “For the hundredth time, we’re not a cult. We just want to distinguish ourselves from the many other forms of our religion because we don’t believe they hold to the essentials anymore. We try to follow the correct faith. And prophetic visions have come to our people, so we’re meant to proclaim these warnings to the world. We have to do what we can to help mankind see the truth before it’s too late.” He paused, and I heard pity in his voice. “You and I are Kota on Dad’s side, even if you don’t want to include yourself in our beliefs.”

  I rolled my eyes, glad he couldn’t see this. “I suppose everyone who isn’t Kota will be swept away, then?”

  “You know the Virus Prophecy.”

  So does the rest of the world, I thought. Thanks to you.

  “’The Virus

  When the mind of man abuses all known by him

  and calamity comes most unnatural,

  the sons of men shall be tested.

  Some will revolt from truth;

  others faithful will remain.

  Only the true Kota, the un-tainted,

  shall escape the curse of man’s corruption.’’’

  “Yeah…” I rubbed my face again. “You’ve made a lot of enemies with that, Lee. Everyone thinks you Kota created the virus just to scare people and get more followers. If you’re the only ones spared, smart money is on the Kota being behind this.”

  Don’t start a fight, I thought.

  “Lee, just please don’t stir up your followers. You've caused enough panic. I share the president’s concerns.”

  “I've only done what I can to make the world wake up, Troy. The fact that the Virus Prophecy is true isn’t my fault. Now these…churning lights.”

  The delay between his last words worried me, and I looked at my phone. “Lee, are these lights in another prophecy?”

  He paused. “I thought you didn’t want to hear any more about that… What’d you call it last time?”

  “We don’t need to repeat it.” I was worried by his dodginess. “Lee, do you know something?”r />
  The phone again was silent. Then, “These lights should be taken seriously, Troy. From what I’ve researched, miracles are being shown to us to get our attention. The lights might be a warning. The world is falling apart as a result of our own doing, despite our feeble attempts to pretend otherwise.”

  Here came the sermon.

  “We’ve been slaves to the wrong things for so long that we’re blind to why we’re in the wrong. We still serve the same gods of old; we’ve just lost the mystic creativity to give them personalities and names. We call greed ‘greed,’ sex ‘sex,’ and war ‘war.’ Man today should be held more accountable than those of old – we know what and why we idolize. We’re starting to pay for how far off the path we’ve wandered. Our nation’s been declining in prominence for a while – you know that better than I. The power is shifting as we fall apart internally. Other countries around our epicenter are moving ahead of us. Our growing weaker is building them stronger. We don’t even care as we see it happening. We’re numb. It’s Rome all over again.”

  Being a part of our nation’s government, I didn’t like what he was saying, mostly because I knew he was right. Still, he was trying to lead me away from my question.

  “Lee, what are you hiding from me?”

  “I’m not hiding anything from you! You nearly lost your job when I publicized the Virus Prophecy. I won’t let that happen again. I know you’re ashamed of what I've taken up, but I can’t help it – everything I've learned is just too incredible, and it rings true. These Kota men and women really are an amazing bunch, and I've enjoyed learning about our family’s heritage.”

  I groaned and couldn’t hold back any longer. “How can you be so sure we’re Kota, Lee? Maybe that old guy at Dad’s funeral was just yanking your chain. We don’t look Asian.”

  Lee laughed. “Haven’t you listened to anything I've told you? The Kota are a mix of races rolled into one. Few people living in the Kota communities are biologically Asian. It’s like the British in India or the Spanish in Middle America – the culture may look native to the region, but the people are from outside that culture.”

  I had to concede. “Yes, you've told me before.”

  “I am sorry if I’m causing you career trouble, Troy. Tell the president I’m under control. With everything going on, I promise to stay out of your way. Anyway, I’m traveling abroad for a while.”

  “I don’t want you to avoid me, Lee.” I sighed. “Where are you going?”

  “Tibet. To the Kota Council. We have decisions to make.”

  “What decisions? –No, I don’t want to know. Just be careful, Lee.”

  “I will. Stay safe. May Heaven bless you.” He hung up.

  I made a face at the phone. With a sigh, I flopped onto my bed and scratched Toto’s ears. He lay by my side, oblivious to the developing upheaval. As I looked into his naïve, ignorant expression, I wondered how much my country and my dog had in common.

  The DRK is just one danger lurking on the horizon, I thought. Lee is right; we’ve been pretending everything is fine. We’re numb. But political tensions have been building internationally and internally for a while. The president can blame Lee all she wants, but many other problems are afoot. The world is just waiting for an excuse to justify open hostility. These red and yellow lights could be the trigger that sets off the explosion.

  As I lay on my bed, the parallels between my improperly comfortable, uncaring wolfhound and my country made me stop scratching Toto’s ears.

  2

  “Dominos”

  Over the next several months, I didn’t hear from Lee again. I honestly was too busy to pay him much mind, however. On top of my regular workload with the DRK virus data, I tried to help sift through incoming reports about the light anomalies. For our part, we followed the World Space Program’s advice and called them just that – ‘light anomalies’ – in an attempt to keep the matter scientific.

  Around our conference table, my colleagues and I sat and shuffled through reports.

  Reading from a folder, Aaron told us, “The Euro physicists’ best running theory is that the light anomalies are rifts in the dimensional frameworks of our universe.”

  “Duh.” Joanne snorted a laugh. “That vague answer won’t satisfy the masses.”

  “It’s better than what I’m reading.” Scott leaned back in his chair. “These theories on alien wormholes will hardly calm people down.”

  James made a face. “But no one has a more plausible explanation?”

  I shook my head as I scanned printouts. “Not that I’m seeing.”

  Aaron put his elbows on the table and rubbed his face. “What a mess.”

  For once, I agreed with him.

  Thanks to the internet, any new report in one area spread around the globe before it was confirmed. This had resulted in thousands of theories by the end of the first month.

  Joanne looked at James. “Anything from the meteorological investigations?”

  James shook his head and scanned his folder. “There’s not much conclusive data. No scientific experimentation has proved any theory accurate. The WSP launched thirty more probes into the three anomalies, but no readings of any kind came back.” He raised an eyebrow at whatever the folder held. “It’s like the probes disappeared. Satellites took pictures of the anomalies from space, but they look identical from every perspective.”

  Scott chimed in with info from his folder. “China’s anomaly is the most remote from any metropolitan area. They sent explosives into their anomaly, but nothing happened once the signal was sent to detonate.”

  I shook my head. “That was pretty damn risky.”

  Scott shrugged. “Desperate times…”

  We took a moment to peruse our files. Our little group was tense, but I knew we were an accurate representation of the general population’s mood.

  Every government on the planet was scrambling to keep their peoples calm about these unexplainable lights, but few succeeded in quelling conflict. As I’d predicted, the light anomalies were not the real cause of strife, but they created an excuse for age-old tensions to resurface.

  “Did you hear about Egypt?” asked Joanne.

  “Yeah,” muttered Scott. “War with Sudan.”

  James sighed. “Bound to happen. Most of Africa’s at war. Their governments have collapsed entirely.”

  “Not any worse than Eurasia.” Joanne frowned. “Their economic breakdown started the dominos. Now with Eurasia engulfed in civil war…”

  “And the Euro media is reporting threats of nuclear warfare.” Scott snorted and tossed his folder on the table. “Like that’ll solve anything.”

  Aaron sat back and crossed his arms. “Africa’s wars, Eurasia’s civil war… It all puts pressure on the rest of the world’s resources. The president is already discussing her options. We might have to stop aid to warring countries soon. We can’t go broke just to help countries that are tearing themselves apart.”

  Joanne frowned. “The trickier issue is not taking sides by giving aid to some countries and not others.”

  “Did you see the latest polls?” asked Scott. “The country’s split right down the middle as to whether we should get involved abroad in the war.”

  Since when aren’t we split down the middle? I thought. Still, America’s disconnected from most of this hell. But for how much longer? Once the DRK hits our soil…

  I leaned back in my chair and shook my head. “These light anomalies are the least of our problems.”

  Aaron nodded at me and began stacking his folders. “We have other work, so why don’t we table this for now?”

  Everyone agreed, and together we collected our various files and headed back to our offices.

  What a mess, I thought. Other nations’ leaders don’t have the luxury of sitting around, discussing the state of the world. They’re in the thick of it while we’re over here…

  I sighed as I entered my office. Sitting at my desk, I tried to be optimistic.

  The glo
bal situation grew worse and worse, but humanity was fighting back. Or at least, our country was fighting back. This wasn’t because of our superiority by any stretch of the imagination. Really, it was because we…could. America, geographically the most isolated, was therefore the most spared from proximity hostility. We’d constructed acres of greenhouses to feed those abroad who lost everything. Our economy even boomed as new technologies were invented out of necessity.

  I reactivated my computer and continued reading an article on hovercrafts. While our government held out on making many of its military inventions common knowledge, we’d introduce hovercraft to Eurasia. The article onscreen suggested that hovercraft alone made transportation possible because the majority of Euro roads had been blasted away in battles. One picture showed a crowded metropolitan area spared from bombing, and car-like vehicles hovered at various heights between the buildings.

  Joanne is right, I thought. The aid we provide some countries makes it look like we’re taking sides. We’ve stayed out of the Eurasia conflict so far, but… It’s coming.

  I clicked off the article to open a file pertaining to my main job.

  Soon, I knew America would be rolled into the global turmoil because of one very serious danger thrown in the mix – the DRK virus. We could beef up our security and isolate ourselves all we wanted, but eventually the virus was going to reach our shores.

  I read the file onscreen, which was a sum-up of the CDC’s conclusions over the past few months.

  These were the pertinent developments: Although our government intended to help the public by releasing its technological advancements, warring factions abroad infiltrated each other’s governments to ferret out dirty little secrets. Those motivated dug deep and found confidential programs. One such group discovered that the DRK virus had in fact been accidentally created during undisclosed, government-funded genetic research conducted in Eurasia. The precise details of the virus’s genesis were too complicated for me to grasp, but CDC sources assured me it was plausible. Knowing of the DRK’s origin answered a few questions, but this still didn’t point toward a cure. Unfortunately, those who’d developed the DRK were either dead or factored. Whatever the scientists’ original intent, the DRK now infected indiscriminately with no sign of weakening. As the war rampaged across Eurasia, so did the virus, doubling or perhaps even tripling the war’s death toll.