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

by Gary Sapp

sacrificed himself and her mother to the flames, Serena had known nothing else but the Dragon’s way.

  And what she saw…who she’d seen in Memphis had certified all of her faith and personal sacrifices as well. All of the others were fools. I am the only one blessed with an unshakable sense of purpose and resolve to see these last days to their end.

  Rohm was asking her a question for the second time. “I asked you what you saw.” The Dragon’s flame reflected in the young woman’s eyes. Serena shifted her weight. There is much reflection of the flames in your eyes, Rohm. Shooter was full of fire no doubt. There is much reflection…much fire…but little understanding.

  Serena still wished that Rohm had been her—

  “I see order.” Serena said aloud. There would be time for all the reflection she could stand after Xavier and his brood was put out of her misery. “On the horizon, behind all of the uncertainty and ciaos we are sure to face, I see the gift of order as a reward for our work and resilience.”

  “That sounds like wonderful news, Serena. Yet, you seem sad somehow.”

  Serena said: “The order that I seek…that the Dragon commands, usually comes at the highest price. I had hoped to avoid having to unleash the full wraith of the Whirlwind. I’m begging you to surrender, Xavier. Your people will never be seeing life the same after the Dragon’s version of Armageddon. Serena wondered if Rohm could see the fear etched on her face as well. Your people won’t survive the Whirlwind that others have planned for you.

  “The hour grows late. The opportunities grow faint and unlikely that we will be able to contain the Dragon’s wraith much longer. The Whirlwind is coming, Rohm. And sooner than any of us had anticipated.”

  “Will we all burn, Serena?”

  Serena shook her head. She could not expect a nonbeliever to totally understand the inner workings of something so extraordinary. “The Dragon comes to feast, Danielle. Eventually, we all are given to the flames.”

  She felt a chill in her shoulder blades in spite of standing here directly in the path of warmth and graciousness. “Tell me, Rohm, did you feel any sorrow or remorse when you killed Thomas Pepper’s maid a few weeks ago?”

  “I guess that I could best describe my feelings best as an indifference,” Rohm told her. “Until I joined this organization…until I met you, killing was nothing more than a job to be executed as efficiently and quickly as I could squeeze the trigger.”

  “And now,” Serena asked. “You looked specifically at me when I ordered you to execute the second man we discovered had a hand in aiding the traitor in the hostage’s escape attempt. I saw an expression of hardened resolve on your face as you blew the man’s brains out of the back of his head from point blank range.”

  Rohm’s thin eyebrows rose and she smiled. “I consciously hadn’t realized I was doing that. Like I’ve said before, Serena, I’ve changed my outlook over the past few months. I believe in you. There isn’t much that I wouldn’t do for you.”

  “And if I ordered you to kill all of the remaining children, tonight, while they slept?”

  Rohm didn’t hesitate. “I would feel as if I was doing God’s work. As long as I believe in you…”

  “You believe it to be God’s work?”

  Rohm smiled again. “Why do you act so surprised, Serena? I believe you to be a modern day Prophet. I believe this with all of my heart and soul.” Danielle Rohm grabbed Serena’s hands once again and gave them another squeeze. “You’ve gone far and beyond what any reasonable person would do to maintain the peace between Pandora and…them. You were captured. You were nearly…you could have been seriously hurt. And yet, Xavier Prince has pushed his people to the brink of disaster…while spitting on your graciousness. Just look at how he dared to threaten you with a timetable for you to release these children to authorities. Who the hell does he think he is? I’ll tell you…he alone is a threat to everything that is good, honorable, and holy in this world.”

  “And if I ask you to eliminate Xavier as that threat?”

  “I would only ask you why you failed to honor me with that task at an earlier date.”

  Pilot said: “Let’s hope that particular course of action won’t be necessary at this point.” Either woman had heard him enter. How long have you been standing there? My sense of awareness has been poor to say the least since my return from the bureau’s custody.

  Pilot…Raymond Rice, Deputy Director of the FBI, looked as if he were carrying suitcases under his eyes. He also looked and—smelled as if he’d aged 20 years over the past three weeks. Serena knew that carrying on this charade as the leader of the FBI had taken a toll on him. One of Thomas Pepper’s main source of information for his reports—her had provided him proof that Pilot and Rice were one and the same.

  Serena told herself over and again that she did it to test him. Caretaker had picked this man…even over her…to lead Pandora from the shadows in the days before his death.

  And yet, Serena knew that Thomas wasn’t the only one involved in all of this interested in truth. The truth of the matter is that Rice had not told her the real deal behind Adolphus Sweet’s assignation attempt. He didn’t tell her about the connection between Sweet and Ernestine Johnson.

  And he damned sure failed to tell her about what his version of the Whirlwind consisted of.

  She was not above the pettiness that could engulf the most reasonable of human beings.

  She had betrayed his identity to Thomas Pepper because he had betrayed Caretaker, Pandora and her first.

  He was saying: “To murder Prince now would martyr him. We don’t need more distractions do we, Serena?”

  “I’m prepared to keep all avenues and options open at the moment.”

  Rohm must have detected the icy tones that this conversation was rapidly falling into. “You two must have hundreds of items to discuss. I should go.”

  “No, you should stay,” Serena said to Shooter, but never took her eye off of Pilot. “Caretaker wouldn’t seal any option no matter how bleak the operation looked over the horizon. He wouldn’t panic and neither should we. I recommend that we stay the course that we outlined from the onset.”

  “Do I need to remind you that your precious Caretaker indeed panicked? When Xavier Prince saw his brother Chris passing the family’s house, he stopped him from going back. Caretaker not only had those children killed—he cut their throats himself.”

  “It was a dastardly act, I agree,” Serena said carefully. “But he took all of the responsibility for his failure and depended on no one else to do what had to be done.” Just like my father had.

  “And who will take the responsibility for two of your own Pandora agents betraying you, Serena. So far we have one child nearly killed and another missing. That first child tried to commit suicide. And that maniac of yours molested one of those boys before it we gave him permission to.” Rice said. “And somehow Pepper got the lowdown on my identity, so I’m out of the game. So don’t lecture about any of this, Serena. I want you to remember that any action against Xavier Prince unifies everyone against us.”

  Rohm chimed in: “We can still prevail.”

  Serena reached into her purse and pulled a compact disk from out of it. The CD reflected against the fire. “We will prevail.”

  Rice studied the disk at her fingertips and exhaled audibly. “You made the recording.”

  “I did, before we even launched the 411 attacks.” She replied, careful not to smudge the disk with her fingerprints. “I’ve always considered this as a fallback position, sir.”

  Rice asked for the disk and she gave it to him freely. She had dozens of other copies if she needed them. He played it on the player sitting on the desk nearest him as she knew he would. Serena had worked with some of Pandora’s most talented electronic people to edit the content to get everyone up to current events and cleaned up the audio as well.

  The production opens dramatically and to the point by revealing the true identity of the Caretaker, which everyone in this room knew would
take the starch out of the opposition. And those who are angered are subject to errors in thinking and judgment.

  Soon after, it revealed a firestorm of detonating pipe bombs and other various explosives on the city of Atlanta—her Whirlwind.

  Later on it showed in detail, Pandora’s involvement in the initial Atlanta Child Murders. A voice over explained how Pandora was heavily influenced by Muhammad Clark’s activities in the months before their operation began.

  Serena told Rice after he had finished watching that she planned to give the CD to Xavier Prince in exchange for his word that he would surrender himself and the Circle to them and disbanded the current version of a House in Chains.

  A heavily edited version of the disk was to show the first round of kidnappings 30 years ago and the ultimate firestorm of the Whirlwind that was still to be released on the general public. Raymond Rice listened to her in vested silence before he handed the CD back to her. “We’ve proven our point, Serena. More importantly, we’ve proven that our cause if just and fair. There are millions of lives at stake from sea to shining sea if this escalates anymore. We have reached an impasse. This far and no further, Serena, I mean it.”

  “Of course,” She said, taking the disc and storing it into safe keeping. His actions tonight had proven a dozen of her theories. He does not know that I am the source of Thomas’ information. He is playing the role of a peace