by Gary Sapp
Rising: Where are our Children
(A Serial Novel) Episode 8 of 9
By Gary Sapp
Copyright 2015 Gary Sapp
Table of Contents:
Our Story so Far
Chris
Angel
Chris
Hugh
Serena
Thomas
Angel
Roxanne
Serena
Thomas
Sneak Peek at Whirlwind
Dedication
Nest Egg Publishing Note
Nest Egg Presents Where are our Children
Where to find this author online
Our Story so Far
While incarcerated as an inmate at Calhoun State Prison in southwest Georgia, Xavier Prince, the leader of A House in Chains, confronts Michael Davenport; a man that he believes has knowledge of what turns out to be the 411 attacks upstate in Atlanta. Serena Tennyson and her Pandora associates carry out the highly coordinated, highly lethal attacks weeks later against the Andrew Young Youth Center, The Fox Theatre and the mayor of the city itself, Ernestine Johnson. On her deathbed, rotting away from a yet to be identified poison, Mayor Johnson enlist the aid of Thomas Pepper, a freelance reporter, to find out the answers to the three questions that every Person of Color in America wants to know. The FBI recruits a renowned Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Angel Hicks-Dupree to consult on the crisis in Atlanta—and after a confrontation with her husband, Dr. Seth Dupree, she reluctantly agrees to help. Her childhood friend, Special Agent Christopher Prince, turns out to be one of the hostages being held at the Fox Theatre. Meanwhile, his half-brother, Xavier, is confronted with his own problems as a siege breaks out at Calhoun Prison on the eve of his scheduled release. In the meantime, Christopher Prince escapes the theatre alive, but immediately faces a new predicament when he receives a series of text messages that his 20 year old stepdaughter has come up missing.
Roxanne Sanchez, formerly of the FBI’s training program, is now a private detective and has been hired by Chris’ ex-wife Denise to find her daughter Erica. Roxanne can tell from her conversations with both parents that they are hiding a deep dark secret from their time together as a family. Serena Tennyson show up at Thomas Pepper’s townhouse looking to confess on his blog for her role in the deadly 411 attacks as well as present a new warning to a House in Chains and all People of Color: Xavier Prince and his organization is to stand down or face a new round of attacks centered at Atlanta’s children. The FBI, led by Agent Prince, capture her, but not before paying a high price in casualties. Xavier learns of a plot to kill him upon his exit from Calhoun Prison as a volatile siege and riot takes place. Serena sees a series of frightening visions including the much prophesized Whirlwind coming to fruition. Yet, it is in real life where she is traumatized after being nearly raped by an APD police officer. After she and Thomas Pepper give separate but hotly contested interviews with the bureau, she escapes in a series of daring synchronized stages that leaves Christopher Prince and the FBI befuddled. After celebrating her freedom with her closest Pandora agents Serena instructs an increasingly fragile Louis Keaton to begin rapturing Atlanta’s children.
Chris and his ex-wife, Denise Prince, meet for lunch to discuss Roxanne’s search for Erica. The FBI Agent is promptly refreshed to the fact of how volatile his complicated relationship still is with her. Both parties are also reminded of the hostility that existed in their household that aided in their dissolution…and the catastrophic secret that has yet to be revealed to the general public about an event that occurred many years ago while they were still together. In the meantime, Roxanne Sanchez is far closer to finding their missing daughter than they both realize. The private detective’s tenacious search leads her to the Carver Housing Projects…just in time to witness the Peacekeepers launch a major offensive to liberate its citizens from underneath the rule of the Choir Boys. Xavier Prince and his Circle had decided that this community would no longer wilt under the oppression of thugs, drug dealers and gang bangers. Roxanne makes two starling discoveries while barely surviving the incursion at all: She meets a self-proclaimed Pandora mole named Joseph Champion and finds Erica Lovings dead body in a dumpster. At the same time, Chris and Angel began investigating staged crime scenes that they question whether they unlock secrets of the past, or disclose clues to future abductions. Chris learns of his step daughter's death and travels to Denise’s apartment to tell her the horrible news in person not knowing that Seth is secretly on the premises as well. Louis names Moses Jackson, the first of his new child captives, his general, and instructs the boy to watch over the other children he plans to rapture from Atlanta’s streets. And then, under increased pressure from Serena, Louis reveals a startling revelation of his past that so enrages Pandora’s leader, that she takes the time to journey to his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, to avenge a terrible wrong.
Thomas continues to fend off threats from retribution from both elements of a House in Chains and Pandora as he continues his final preparations for announcing his findings in front of a national TV audience. One of the most frightening aspects of his investigations is the discovery that America’s first Black president was not assassinated by a sniper’s bullet, but killed by the same unidentified poison as Atlanta’s Mayor, Ernestine Johnson. Even more unsettling to the blogger is that Serena herself is feeding him such vital information. Their relationship grows ever odder, ever more intimate. Upon Serena’s request, he meets with her and she discloses the physical remains to Thomas of Templeton Healy, the uncle of Louis Keaton who she took a brutal vengeance against for his past indiscretions against Keaton as a boy and other Memphis residents over a number of years. After a testy interview with Muhammad Clark, the other perpetrator during Atlanta’s first round of child abductions, an emotional Chris tells Angel the entire truth about the time he spent with Keaton while kidnapped. He was never sexually abused unlike the other captives who were taken. He was given the responsibility of watching over the other youngsters by Keaton. Yet, the emotional trauma that Chris suffered knowing the other boys were killed specifically because of his escape has continued to trouble him even to this point of his life. Seth and Denise show up at the agent’s hotel room with Chris’ ex-wife believing beyond a reasonable doubt that the two old friends have resumed a sexual relationship. Desperate and heartbroken, Denise commits suicide by throwing herself out of her apartment’s window while Seth is helpless to do anything but watch. After her funeral the two Prince Brothers have an impromptu reunion with both men concerned about the other’s decision making and general welfare moving forward. Roxanne had been following Seth and confronts him with her findings and rationale behind her decision that his estranged wife must die for her role in this crisis—and that she is the one that must kill her.
At Thomas Pepper’s long awaited press conference, he reveals all of his findings on his investigations into Pandora to a national TV audience that raises the tension between Serena Tennyson’s people and a House in Chains. But it is Lucy Burgess, Thomas’ former colleague and lover that steals the spotlight and the headlines from underneath him with her own revelations. A controversial episode in Special Agent Christopher Prince’s life is at the center of her report. Now, his already chaotic existence is thrown entirely on its ear. But for Chris his troubles are only beginning as he learns from a highly unlikely source that his father Isaac was indeed the infamous Caretaker and he did not perish in a car accident as he and the rest of the world was led to believe. And then Chris learns that he himself is suffering from the same stomach ailment that kil
led his mother.
Dr. Seth Dupree and Thomas Pepper get up close and personal samples of the strife that has broken out in the streets of Atlanta. The question is will either them survive a night in hell itself to divulge to anyone what they have seen. Chris Prince is reinstated to his posting with the FBI while Angel loses consultant status at the same time. Chris gains an unexpected ally from within the Circle in a desperate search to find and save his brother Xavier from certain betrayal from Quincy Morgan and the Peacekeepers loyal to the Sargent at Arms of a House in Chains. There is a change in leadership on tap for Pandora as well, as Serena Tennyson decides to forcibly remove Raymond Rice from his posting.
The betrayls don’t end with removals of Xavier Prince and Raymond Rice