VantaBlack Justice

VantaBlack Justice

Bruce Lockhart 2nd

“Miss Adelita Juarez?” The deep voice coming from my dark apartment startled me, and I dropped my bag of groceries to the floor.

“Who’s there?” I called out as calmly as I could muster. My eyes quickly adjusted, and I saw an outline framed by moonlight; he was an imposing man, tall with broad shoulders.

He walked forward and picked up some of the things I’d dropped, then said politely, “Please, come in and take a seat.” He pulled back his dark jacket, revealing the distinct flash of a gun tucked behind his expensive-looking leather belt.

I walked slowly from the foyer into the living area, noting that furniture had been moved. My dining room table was pushed against one wall, and piles of books and papers were everywhere.

Everywhere…except where a lone chair beckoned me forward like a hangman’s noose.

Once seated, I noticed he’d started my fireplace. My brief struggle to catch-up began to dissipate.

This was it, the thing I knew would eventually happen. The dark forces, both known and unknown to me, had finally sent forth their agent of chaos. Someone to either intimidate me into silence, or to silence me permanently. They wanted to quash my voice, to make me disappear into nothingness, to wrap another blindfold around the woman who would dare seek out justice.

I took a shuddered breath. Expecting this to happen was one thing, but it was possible all my planning would falter and tonight I would die, by undoubtedly horrible means. I hadn’t anticipated they would find my apartment. I had been very cautious, apparently underestimating them.

I had no choice but to play along. “W-what do you want?” I asked, feigning innocence.

“Come now, Ms. Jaurez. We both know the answer.” He smiled down at me, but the coldness in his gaze made me feel as if I were facing the devil himself. “Let me cut to the chase, and tell you what I know, about you and your family.”

My body stiffened. Although the possibility of them finding out about my brother had crossed my mind, I’d deemed it nearly impossible, since we had been split up as children. His screams for me as they had pulled us apart still haunt me.

Several years ago, I had finally found my beautiful baby brother, who’d grown into a good man despite the harshness the world had thrown at him. I had carefully covered my tracks, or so I thought. The fact that this diablo knew made my blood turn to ice.

“Oh yes,” he said, enjoyment gleaming in dark eyes. “Finding out you had a sibling was quite the happy accident. Say what you want about immigration and that nasty caging business, they do keep pristine records.”

The initial shock began wearing off, replaced by righteous anger at the mere mention of the horrific conditions when we had first arrived in the country. The audacity to come into my home and threaten my family, when men like him had torn it apart in the first place.

I found my voice. “You find our tragedies funny? One could only develop such a twisted sense of humor by serving a lawless thug.”

His eyes widened in surprise, offering me a tiny bit of satisfaction, “Now now, we needn’t result to petty insults. For all you know, I could be working in the interest of national security, perhaps even at the behest of the President.”

“Nothing would surprise me.” I was seething now.

He sighed impatiently. “Let’s get back to the matter at hand. Besides, Adelita, I’m not the only criminal in the room tonight. You’ve been an awfully bad girl, like Edward Snowden level bad, and well, that simply cannot be tolerated.”

With that came my second shock. Diablo stood thumbing through my special black book. I knew by sight it was the genuine article. It was not just any black notebook; it had been designed and bound using Vantablack…the darkest substance known to mankind. It’s uses had expanded since its creation a few decades earlier, but it still was not commonplace.

Of course, since the pages were made from Vantablack paper, he couldn’t read anything in my log of illegal activities. Not without a specially designed blacklight, ironically. All this created specifically by connections that supported my cause, using the twenty-grand they had tried to pay me off with.

Before I had a chance to react, he callously tossed it into the fireplace. My body went numb; I wanted to scream, I wanted to run, but instead I forced myself to stay planted in the chair, determined to see this through.

I had prepared for this. I might not win completely, but neither would they. Those greedy parasites at the top didn’t give a damn about anything beneath them, using the little people as pawns in their twisted game of chess. The one thing that bound together their blackened souls was that never-ending hunger to consume, to suck up everything in sight…a collective gluttony to control the most and best.

An acidic stench oozed from my fireplace, and I heard the plastic vinyl popping, like a hundred bags of the Pop-Rocks candy alive in my mouth..

Then the man spoke again as I gazed at the fire, reminding me of the harsh reality that innocence could only exist through sacrifice. “Your brother, Mateo and his two sweet little children…what an absolute tragedy it would be if he got deported, leaving them all alone, with no father to help them grow up.” The smirk on his face reminded me of a hyena.

I wanted to hurt him then, really hurt him.

“Without that little black book of leverage, you don’t have much left to offer. Although perhaps we could come to an arrangement,” he said as one hand reached out to creepily stroke my hair.

I looked up, offering a smile so murderous that he stopped. I did not give him a chance to pull away, instead using the opportunity to grab his wrist and dig my hard acrylic nails into his skin.

His astonishment doubled. “Bitch let go!” he growled, fumbling for his gun with his non-dominant hand.

“Now you’re going to listen to me,” I hissed and snapped my fingers so that my apartment lights came on. “Look really close into my eyes, Henry, and tell me…what do you see?” I watched his eyes widen in horror.

“How the hell do you know my name!?” he demanded.

“You’re not the only one who’s done their homework. Aww, don’t look so shocked. Your name is in my book.” I kept my voice even, determined to get control of the situation.

“What are you talking about? That book is in the fire—” He stopped short as he squinted to study my pupils. “What…what’s with your eye? It looks like—augh! Somethings moving in there!” He backed away, visibly disturbed as he drew his gun and pointed it at me. “What the fuck are you?!”

This was my opportunity to turn the tables. I would take hold of his fear and consume him, and those employing him, with it.

“I had Vantablack nanites implanted in the pupil of my left eye, similar in nature to the material that you just threw in the fire. It includes not only a microchip of everything in that book, but a live camera as well. It records every moment of everyday. In fact, it is recording right now, so smile for the camera, Henry.”

I always had such a smart mouth.

“W-why?” He was beginning to lose composure.

“I thought it would be obvious. Your government royally screwed me out of my tech. I knew sooner or later they would send some goon, despite cutting me a big fat check,” I scoffed. “We all know my tech was worth way more than twenty G’s.”

“Well, how clever of you. I’ll make sure to put a bullet straight through that eye,” he informed me as he released the safety.

“You don’t want to do that,” I said. “I was smart enough to create that tech. Do you really think I wouldn’t back up the video feed?”

“You’re bluffing,” he said, blinking sweat out of his eyes.

“Maybe, but I doubt your client wants to take the chance that I’m not.”

As if on cue, his cell phone began ringing and vibrating furiously.

“You might want to get that.” I said.

“Don’t you move,” he warned, still pointing the gun in my direction as he answered his phone.

I had a code on speed dial in my cell and had managed to send it before things escalated. It was only a taste of the vast quantity of dirt I had.

“Yes, yes sir, I understand,” he said, hanging up the phone and lowering his gun.

“That’s a good boy,” I said callously.

“My employer wants to know what you want?” he asked, his bravado deflating like a balloon.

I stood. “Oh, I’m quite sure he does. You see, Henry, I’m a believer in things coming full circle. Your employer has made many enemies during his time on this planet, within the last two years he had a very prestigious doctor disavowed, discredited, and stripped of everything he’d worked so hard to achieve. The very doctor that discovered a rather large tumor pushing in on his brain. Now listen carefully, this is where you come in. You were sent to make sure the good doctor never had a chance in hell of rising back through the ranks and becoming the man he once was. He literally couldn’t ever because you broke both his legs, remember?” I walked over to my ransacked desk and reached under the false bottom of an inconspicuous drawer hidden beneath.

“He was rather eager to help me with this little project,” I said, handing him the flash-drive I’d retrieved. “You take this to your boss, tell him to make sure everyone gets a good look, okay?”

He licked his dry lips and nodded curtly.

“Oh, and Henry…if anything ever happens to my family, prison will be the least of any or your worries, understand?” I said, then after another nod, I added, “Good. Now get the fuck out.”

***

I was originally born in Mexico. I only became a citizen because of the Dreamer’s Act. My mother, rest her soul, genuinely believed in the ‘American dream’, that anything was possible in this country. Mostly, she was wrong. I learned that the hard way simply by existing here; I’ve been spit on, called disgusting slurs, told I was not allowed in certain places, threatened, beaten up, and yet here I am. America, you see, is built on a graveyard of lies and deceit. Albeit the few good men and women who have tried to pave a better path, time after time it’s proven to be on the wrong sides of history. First with the Native Americans, then with the horrors of slavery, and then the glorified hatred of illegal immigrants. Well, it became clear to me early on that things were not fair, and once I’d been granted access to the NSA, I discovered just how unfair things really were.

If you’re watching this, most likely you’re part of the elite, that top 1%. Congratulations, and condolences…for life as you knew it is about to end. I have come to wage war on the greedy men and women of this country, because you have threatened my life. You are now the minority, always demonizing the very people you hire to tend to your avarice, but we are here, everywhere. Understand that many of us see you, great numbers are involved in getting this little operation done, in order to record your hateful deeds. Many more have joined my cause to sus out the dark corruption in this country, and we only ask once that you start to play fair.

It is far passed your time, to pay, for the price of freedom.