VIXEN - The Legend of the Five Totems

Chapter 18 - General Betrayal

The moment Cheetah killed Richard Jiwe, General Maksai's niece begins a tirade that threatens obscenities that actually rather impress the man. Some of them are creative enough that if he could actually get her to shut up, he might actually consider putting them to practice on future victims of his torture. The moment she starts repeating her insults and threats, he signals one of his soldiers to punch the young woman unconscious.

"Let's leave the family to their privacy," Maksai tells his entourage.

He does not even look back at his deceased brother.

~

Rain pelts against the glass doors to the porch outside Maksai's large lounge. The rain has continued past the usual hour or two common during the rainy season. It is a somber weather pattern that just might wash his brother's blood from the earth. Maksai learned long ago, however, that the blood on his hands could only be covered by more blood.

He strides into the large room with Tabu and Cheetah behind him. They join Hyena and Barrera, who have been numbing their boredom with the television mounted on the left wall of the room. Grodd is nowhere to be seen, but Maksai is little bothered by this detail. The gorilla has proven himself time and again to be loyal to Maksai's cause, and tonight was not about loyalty, but rather: acquisition.

"Good. You're all here," Maksai says.

Cheetah paces the right side of the room, where she ostensibly checks out the artifacts in a glass display case. Her eye lingers on the forearm-sized earthenware vase decorated in raised markings. It was this vase, she recalls, from which Maksai summoned the ghost named Secret. Ostensible as her investigations are, she has an eye out for Maksai, and for the soldiers flanking him through the room's large entryway. Off to the far end of the room, near the two pool tables elevated off the main floor by several steps, another half dozen of Maksai's soldiers are sitting or standing, watching the arrival of their General. They don't exactly stand at attention, but nonetheless, his presence utterly commands their notice. Another trio soldiers are seated around a table near the refrigerator and microwave, sharing some cold chicken.

"Not much else to do on a night like this," Barrera says equitably. He glances over at Cheetah and she tilts her head ever so slightly.

"No. Indeed not. Which is what makes it such a perfect night."

"How do you figure?" Hyena asks. "In Arizona, we got some rain, but nowhere near this much. It leads to flash floods. It can drown out entire crops of cotton."

"Are you finished?"

Hyena scowls at the general.

"Moments ago, Cheetah here eliminated the thorn in my side that was my brother."

"Fratricide is some cold business, man," the Hasaraguan says.

"I am after bigger and better things." He looks over at the six members of his army that are on the pool dais, and then at those seated around the table. His loyal Tabu, as ever, is right behind him. Best of all, in his left hand, he is carrying the silver box containing the two totems that he has been holding onto, as well as their recent compatriot, recently acquired from Vixen.

"And just what are you after?" Cheetah asks, pretending to look over one of the more handsome men from Maksai's army. In reality, she is seizing up the force in the room. She doesn't like being surrounded this way, nor does she trust Maksai. He is intelligent, but reckless, a combination that makes him difficult to predict, considering his acting without clear consideration of the consequences. Allowing Tabu to kill the sangoma was as much an indication of that as any. Had they allowed the old man to live, he – and only he – might have figured out a way to get the totems working for Maksai. But without him, there was no chance. It was the short-signedness of a serial killer getting his first taste for blood.