Zero Hour: Where are our Children (A Serial Novel) Episode 5 of 9

by Gary Sapp

“When he heard the Kevin boy suffering from Keaton’s transgression he knew he had enough. He used a silencer, killed his partner and left his body in another part of the building where our people found him a few minutes ago. And then he set the hostages free.”

  Louis smiled. “Sometimes things go wrong.” He licked his thin lips. “And sometimes I’ve seen them go so terribly right.”

  But then he had a thought that must have snapped him back to at least a semblance of reality. “Do your people think they can find them?” He asked in sudden concern. “Just like you said, they don’t stand much of a chance on foot of reaching the highway and civilization. They must be found. We need to get Moses and the others back safely.”

  And then just as suddenly…Louis Keaton broke out in a song. He began to croon an old Elvis tune of yesteryear and began to howl when the tune moved to the choir verses of the track.

  “Excuse me,” Serena snapped at him. “Louis Keaton, are you alright? Are you in need of some medical attention? What in the hell is going on with you?”

  “I’ve never felt better, Dragon Lady.” And he had not. He could never remember feeling so whole before. He sat totally erect in the backseat of the car until he was practically nose to nose with Serena. “You do know that she was right about me all along. She’s always been the only one of those shrink types who has truly understood me…my nature.”

  “Who are you talking about?” Serena wanted to know.

  “Angel, of course,” He said as if it were a manner of public record that everyone on the planet knew except these two dullards riding in the car with him. “Dr. Dupree-Hicks has always understood what my potential was. She’s always known that someone had to reach my true self.”

  Serena pulled a gun from the glove box and placed the barrel of it on his temple. “You will answer my questions right here and now or you will die, Louis. What in the hell are you talking about?”

  He tilted his head downwards ever so slightly, to guarantee any shot the Dragon Lady squeezed off would be a lethal one for sure. “This is but a hiccup to you and your Pandora organization achieving its ultimate goals, Serena. Your people are highly trained, highly skilled and ruthless. Those children will be found. It is a simple matter of time and space.”

  He felt her pull the gun away. She looked momentarily confused. Rohm had had enough this escapade so she slid the car over into the emergency lane and stopped the car. “Oh. My God, Louis,” She said unnecessarily. “You’ve changed.”

  Serena searched his blue eyes and the rest of his face for clues that Rohm’s hypothesis had merits. She seemed to find what she looked for at last. “Hugh…Rohm, I think we are now in the company of Hugh Keaton at long last.”

  He sat all the way back in his seat once again. He put his hands on the back of his head, closed his eyes and exhaled long and deep. “Dr. Dupree-Hicks was so damned right about me.” He said. “But I think I should validate both of your points by . . . agreeing. I am most certainly back. Hugh Keaton is back again for the first time.”

  He actually saw Serena smile.

  He sat up abruptly again and said, “Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard, Serena. You’ve been trying to reach this persona for so long, to suit your needs. I just want you to remember that Angel always warned you against playing doctor.”

  “You are here…Hugh. I would name my efforts as being successful.” After a long minute of silence between the three of them, Serena’s cell phone rang once again.

  She said into the receiver, “That is not the entire news that I wanted to hear, but I will accept this at least for a start. Code Red is still in effect until that final child is found.”

  Serena told Hugh and Rohm what she had learned: Mathew Clifton had decided to try to find his way home alone. He was still unaccounted for, but Moses Jackson and three of the boys had been tracked down with the security guard who tried to aid in their escape. The boys were scared. They were cold and hungry, but otherwise had been found unscathed.

  The security guard who had betrayed Pandora was shown the error of his ways with a bullet launched into his brain by Serena’s command.

  “It makes no true matter whether Mathew is recovered or not.” Hugh said exhaling his relief that Moses and the boys had been found. There only two scenarios that can happen to Mathew and they both benefit you and Pandora.”

  “How so,” Serena asked him.

  “Regardless to whether he is miraculously discovered or if he dies out there in the wilderness, you will have placed even more pressure on Xavier Prince and the Circle to comply with your demands so that the other boys can be released. You will have achieved an appropriate amount of escalation of hostilities in the short term regardless.”

  Serena nodded, seeing the same scenario playing out in her own mind as well.

  “What about the other boys,” Rohm asked. “Why didn’t they follow Mathew instead? Why stay together at all…especially with a man that they were unsure that they could trust to lead them home?”

  Hugh’s smile grew large and disingenuous at best. “There is a human sense of comfort and relative safety when you are sheltered under the umbrella of company and fellowship.” Hugh Keaton said. “Even the scared, the cold and the hungry knew this to be true.”

  Thomas

  A shapely production intern with South Pacific Islander features led Thomas Pepper by the elbow into Studio A of the superstation. She politely asked him to wait in a corner of an entanglement of cameras and cords and promised to return for him in five minutes.

  He nodded at her and watched the woman disappear back into the door from which they’d come. Her bosses had already done they’re round of thanks and appreciations again for him choosing their network for his important announcement.

  Studio B was well lit though a wee bit to warm for his liking. Thomas’ tie fit too snugly around his neck, enough to feel as if it were beginning to choke off his breathing. He was sweating gallons underneath his armpits and he had maintained a dull headache since before dark.

  He stole a deep breath…the studio unleashing the stench of polished wood, mop and glow and a fresh paint job on the nearby wall. It was a big and potentially prosperous night for this station as well. One of the executives smiled as he walked through the door and squeezed his right hand. Tonight’s director, a man that Thomas had worked with in the distant past when he was still at the Times, welcomed him back. Thomas asked for a bottled water—anything to wet his ever drying mouth. The director was more than happy to fetch it himself.

  He’d spoken underneath lights and in front of camera’s like this and in studio’s just like this one a hundred times before—why was this do damned different? Because, you idiot, tonight you join a rare list of men and women who potentially hold the fate of tens of thousands of your fellow countrymen in your hands…or mouth rather.

  His pants were squeezing him around his waist if he needed a reminder. Every eye in this studio and many throughout the country and the entire world would be watching him and listening to what he had learned. He was the savior or the Judas depending on one’s personal view.

  The intern had returned. Everyone else on the set was taking their collective places. She flashed him all five fingers of her right hand reminding him that there were only five minutes before they went live. So that meant that he had less time than that to do what exactly…to change his mind…to run away from his word to Mayor Ernestine Johnson. Would he ultimately save more lives by walking right back out the door from which he came—or telling all that he’d learned, especially in the past 24 hours or so.

  And was it more important to him save his reputation…or maybe save his own life?

  “Mr. Pepper,” The intern’s face had lost its pleasantness. She was old enough to understand what was at stake too. “They are ready for you.”

  “Okay,” He felt his fat head nodding. “I’m ready.”

  She grabbed him by the elbow again—and to his surprise—wrapped her arm in his. You are too yo
ung and far too single for my taste, young lady, but I thank you all the same for being the instant friend that I so badly needed at this moment. She walked him over to a specified area where he would be standing in front of a blue screen. The producers had promised that the digitally enhanced image that the viewers would be something both neutral in color and in definition. You are but the messenger, he reminded himself. Others have dictated the message.

  He’d worn one of his favorite tan suits in anticipation of the blue screen turning out to be a panoramic view of the city’s skyline after dark.

  “It’s a brave thing that you are doing,” The intern whispered to him just out of sight of the others. “Still, I don’t envy you this task.”

  He nodded his thanks to her.

  She left him there and another woman showed up seemingly out of nowhere…or had he been unconsciously checking out. She finalized his makeup and propped him in anticipation for his moment.

  She told him that if his suit caught on fire that she wouldn’t piss on him to put it out.

  The lights blinked from red to yellow to green…and finally settled on a solid green when she had left him behind.

  Thomas Pepper waited.

  He thought about his father’s last sickly days on this earth like he thought about him most days. He remembered how the Alzheimer’s had eaten his brain cells and the cancer’s had settled for the rest