by Gary Sapp
“Are there sure to be consequences? I’m sure that there will some. Perhaps a House in Chains slips through this time. Perhaps they grow in stature and power as a result. I don’t care. They don’t have the numbers or the logistical means to overcome us. What difference will it make if we wear them down over the next five years instead of eliminating them in one decisive blow tonight?” He shook his head wildly. “I’ve made my decision. I can live with it. My conscious is clear. It’s over. All of this is over.”
“I understand all too well.” Serena replied with a brittle tone that she did not mask. “My question to you is this: will you be able to live with the piles of bodies on both sides that have and will continue to die in vain with no resolution to this conflict in sight? Will that satisfy that conscious of yours as well?” She snapped back, the ferociousness in her voice surprising its speaker.
Rice did a half turn.
“Serena…Adrian Browner is dead. Gwyn Cannon and a man she was planning to spend the evening with were also found murdered. Dozens more of Pandora’s friends, business associates, vendors, allies and other supporters have turned up dead or missing in the past four to five hours across the nation. It is time for us to let this go.”
Serena searched his face for clarity.
“Your decision disappoints me.”
“I’m sorry that you feel that way, Serena.”
“You should feel more than just sorrow,” Serena stood at her full height and put her balled fist on her hips. “You should die for your insolence. I thought believed in death before dishonor. I came here with the expectation of receiving punishment for any and all failures I was responsible for. But here…at the end…it is you who have failed me—failed him.”
“Serena—“
“If there is one lesson that I’ve always learned it is this: Great men do what they have to, no matter the personal cost. Isaac Prince gave up his life figuratively and then literary so that his people would someday know peace while achieving dignity while they did so. He sacrificed his own son to start the process because he thought his actions would ultimately save lives. My own father—“
“Your father murdered your mother and killed himself because he was a coward, Serena. He was a coward and a failure.” Raymond Rice said in a sad voice.
Serena snatched him by the collar and pulled him in a single, violent motion as close to her face as she could.
“My father was no coward. He was a tactician and a believer in the Dragon.”
“What?”
“My father’s investments all tanked within a 24 hour period as you say. We’d lost everything…everything. The only value his life had left were the insurance policies.”
He tried to pull away from her vice like grip but was unsuccessful.
“Often, you can’t collect on insurance policies if you commit suicide.”
Serena nodded sadly, her grip loosening a bit.
“I know that. My father’s last scam failed to work. I would not collect my parent’s insurance policies. I would not be taken care of as per my father’s wishes. And I would live the rest of my childhood alone even in the company of foster family after foster family.
“I’m sorry.” Rice unlatched himself from her grip until he was free at last. “I understand now more than ever why you seek out such isolation. You must have been so very lonely.”
“I didn’t ask for you pity.” She said. “I do ask you to reconsider your decision. You are sacrificing everything that we’ve worked for, everything that we’ve accomplished so far—“
“Serena, I have made my decision.” He said in a tired voice. “I’m asking you to drop this now.”
“Then you leave me no choice but to relieve you of command.” She said. “It is not often a man loses two jobs in a 48 hour period, but you leave me no choice. Go home, sir. You don’t belong here.”
Rice pointed a finger at her.
“That will be enough out of you, Oracle. You are out of line.”
“And you are pathetic.”
Raymond Rice reached into his right jacket and produced a gun.
Serena laughed; it was a curt, pathetic sound. How didn’t she feel that piece of steal when she had him in her grasp only minutes before?
“Maybe I am pathetic.” Rice pushed his glasses up, but kept the pistol’s eye focused on her. “Yet, despite all of your bravado and proclamations, I am still in command of Pandora. I am still where the Caretaker left me when he died all of those years ago. I’m not asking for your love, Serena—hell, I’m not even asking for your respect. But if you loved Isaac Prince and all he stood for as much as you claim that you do you will stand down. I am giving you a direct order to cease and desist. If you disobey me at any point from the moment forward, then you are betraying the Caretaker’s memory.”
Both of them glared at the other while they each took deep breaths.
Guardian coughed and spat. Serena turned her back to him.
“You have been my have been my number two, but I haven’t kept you in the loop about everything. More wheels are churning than you think. We walk ever closer towards a tragic path that we soon may not be able to pull back from—“
“No,” She snorted but had not turned back to face him—yet.
“What—“
“I said no. You just admitted to me that you haven’t told me everything that I need to know about our own operation. I’m done with you. I am refusing to recognize your authority.”
Raymond Rice pulled the hammer back and pointed his gun in the space between her eyes.
“You believe you have power when he the only advantage that gun gives you is the gift of choice.”
He snorted.
“And what choice is that, Serena?”
“You can both resume command and order me to continue my duties…or you can betray me and kill me where I stand. The choice is yours alone.”
“I don’t want to have to kill you, Serena.”
“I’ve always been willing to take responsibility for whatever came next in my life, sir. My father introduced me to accountability. Isaac Prince taught me to make it apart of who I am.” Serena showed him her back again and began to step away. “I’m carrying on in my attempt to complete the Caretaker’s mission. Only death will stand between me and completing this.”
“Stop, Serena.”
“Goodbye, Raymond.”
“I am commanding you to stop.”
Serena Tennyson takes two steps…and then a third… and then—
A shot is fired.
She falls to her knees with a scream.
Serena finds that her heart is beating at an alarming rate. She can feel her pulse racing in her ears and she is struggling to contain her breathing.
And yet, everything on her body seems, at first glance, to be intact. She doesn’t see any blood either.
Guardian is laying face first on the asphalt.
Now she see’s blood. She sees a pool of blood spilling out from underneath Rice’s carcass. A single gunshot wound to the back of his head initiated the gushing action of blood and brains.
Serena falls to her knees. She attempts to turn him over, but his dead weight nearly topples her over. She screams for the second time in many minutes. Tears flow freely from her eyes.
“No,” She rests her head on his chest where only a hollow, empty silence greets her in return. “Don’t die. I wanted you dismissed not dead, Guardian. You were right about me, Guardian. I am so alone. Everyone that I love keeps leaving me behind. If someone loves you, why would they do that? Why would they leave you behind?”
Serena heard footsteps marching through the alley from the direction where the kill shot originated. Her first instinct—a protective one—urges her to get to her feet and sprint to the exit through the slim opening by the dumpsters in the back.
A second—more forceful instinct—advices her to collect the still armed firearm resting within her range and shoot anyone who dares emerge from the shadows.
She fail
s to do either.
Serena Tennyson can only lie on Raymond Rice’s chest, mixing her tears with the dead man’s blood.
“Serena?” A small, familiar voice called out to her. “Serena, can you hear me? Are you hurt?”
She shrugged off Rohm’s tiny hand when the younger woman tried to massage the small of her back.
“Don’t touch me,” Serena said in a barely audible voice. “You promised to stay behind, Danielle. You told me that you trusted me to handle this alone. You lied to me.”
Rohm went to one knee and dared to run her fingers through Serena’s hair. With her petite figure and her deep dark clothing, Rohm was barely visible in this dark ally. She was the perfect assassin. She was a perfect assassin.
“I did just that, Serena. I did. I lied. And I would do it again and again to protect you, to protect our work that is still to be done.”
“You took him away from me.”
“I saw things getting out of hand. I saw Ryan pull a gun on you, which means he didn’t live up to his end of the agreement between you. He brought a deadly weapon to this meeting…and I just wanted to make sure that you were as adequately armed.”
Serena looked up at last and Rohm gently pulled enough red hair back to plant a kiss on her forehead.
“You are our leader. You are a Prophet. I wasn’t going to allow him to take you away from us—from me. There are still far too many innocent lives at stake. We still have much work to do. Will you join me?”
Serena felt her heart rate decelerating. She swipes at her tears and ties her long red hair back in a single motion. Rohm stands and offers her tiny hand, which Serena accepts and rises to