Past Prologue: Where are our Children (A Serial Novel) Episode 4 of 9

by Gary Sapp

and nice lighter. I’m gonna pay my debts by giving you a blow job like you’ve never had before, a damned good one.”

  Xavier Prince backed away from her…all the way until he had somehow unlatched the wooden fence. He turned and four Peacekeepers hurried to match his pace getting the hell out of that neighborhood.

  His special moment was ruined after all.

  Thomas

  Who in the hell is Helen Shatner? And how is she involved in this.

  That was the name that Serena Tennyson had texted to him to ask for when he reached the Children’s Healthcare Center of Atlanta. An underling whose breath was of spearmint smiled and paged the woman; Five minutes later Thomas Pepper watched as the Duty Nurse, Helen Sutter greeted him. She was at least 10 years younger than he was. She was wearing her hair in ponytails. She wasn’t cute enough to wear her hair in ponytails.

  “Good evening, Trisha told me that would be coming, Mr. Donovan. Would you mind following me?”

  “Donovan?”

  “You are Arnold Donovan, Trisha’s friend. She described you to a tee and told me you would be visiting the newborns with her tonight.”

  “Ah…Trisha did that. Yes, Nurse Sutter, lead me to Trisha. I’m dying to see her again.”

  One alcohol scented room over Nurse Shutter and Thomas—AKA Arnold Donovan had found himself in the baby wing of the care center.

  And Serena Tennyson was standing with her forehead of the glass looking in on the newborns wearing a trench coat.

  “Trisha, how have you been girl?” Serena smiled at the other woman, but before she could mouth an answer Helen said: “I found your friend up at the front desk. This is the newspaper writer that you’ve been telling me about for months aren’t it?”

  Thomas said: “You two know each other on a personal level? And…Helen, do you know any of my work?”

  “Of course Helen and I know each other, honey.” Serena squeezed his hand and pulled him next to her. “We know each other as much as my weekly visits to see the newborns right, Helen?”

  Helen nodded her ponytails moving. “Right…Mr. Donovan, you don’t think we just let anybody back here do you?”

  “And not everybody in the world knows who Arnold Donovan the famous beat writer of the Atlanta Falcons football squad is honey, I hope you don’t feel insulted?”

  “Of course not…sweetheart,” Thomas replied, playing her game.

  Helen, the Duty Nurse shook Thomas hand and smiled her not so cute smile at him. “It’s good to finally have met you, Arnold. Trisha talks about you all the time.”

  Has she really? “That’s so sweet of you, Trisha.”

  The newborns were kept behind a heavy sheet of glass. The room was lowly lit on their side in heavy contrast to this side of the glass. Two couples were near enough for Thomas to hear their muttered conversations. The room was frigid. He buttoned up his coat and was glad that he’d worn it inside this building.

  He caught Serena’s reflection in the glass. She wore a shoulder length black wig and blue contact lenses to mask her appearance. Thomas noticed something else: She looked fatigued, especially the dark circles developing under her eyes. Her normally flawless posture was affected as well as she was slumped over just the slightest bit. It was something that his journalistic perceptions had aided in him in seeing.

  Duty had called Helen away and she waved her goodbyes at the couple.

  Thomas gave ‘Trisha’ a hard stare. “You’re putting these children’s lives in danger by being here.”

  “These children are as safe as you allow them to be, Thomas. Do nothing foolish or hostile and they will be fine.”

  “Me? What kind of double talk is this, Serena? You asked for me to come here remember?”

  “I did, but you are the one who is being followed.” Serena stole a quick glance at the couples…and then fixed her gaze on Thomas. “I needed to see you. I wanted to see you, but I could not compromise my safety or my mission.”

  “You say that I’m being followed. Who am I being followed by…the FBI? Is it a House in Chains?”

  “Both.” She took a deep breath. Her phony blue eyes did not take away from her normally intense gape. “I know that you won’t believe me, but I’m glad to see that you are well.”

  Thomas frowned. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe that can you?” He asked her. “I could have been killed at my townhouse, for God’s sake. You used me Serena, Goddamn you. You used me to advance Pandora’s cause.”

  “I did.” She nodded. “Using you doesn’t automatically mean that I wanted to see you come to harm.” Serena glanced away. “Or does it mean that I meant harm to those that you were close to.”

  “I don’t want to hear this.”

  “The murder of your housekeeper was unfortunate but necessary.”

  “Unfortunate,”

  “Yes, unfortunate,” Serena managed her tone. “Thomas, we sit at the doorstep of an extraordinary moment in race relations in the history of this country. Every generation has had their time to step up or be trampled: The abolishment of slavery and the Civil War that came of it; The Civil Rights Movement; The election of the first Black President, Adolphus Sweet.”

  “I hope that you don’t call the 411 attacks and the loss of life that it caused as part of an extraordinary event in history?”

  “Much of the advancement of People of Color has come at a high price. Each passing generation has suffered less racial strife as a direct result of what has occurred to their ancestors before them. If Pandora succeeds…If I can fulfill the Caretaker’s vision, then future generations will be spared the pain of what the people of this time must see to its end.”

  Thomas swallowed bile. One couple had moved on, but two others had taken their place. “I’ve gathered enough evidence to go public with the knowledge that President Sweet was not killed by a sniper’s bullet—“

  “But that he was poisoned in a similar fashion to Mayor Ernestine Johnson on 411”

  Thomas laughed heartily, the couples noticed him…but he knew nothing else to do. “You’re still using me, even now, Serena. Why should I believe that any of this information from this so called source of mine is real—“

  “Because he is real, Thomas,” Serena gave the room a slow once over. “I turned the source on to you. When you hear from him again he will tell you that he works in biogenetics lab in Houston, Texas. He will tell you that Mayor Johnson, not President Sweet was the initial target of this poisoning. But after the president was shot his symptoms were turned on, for the lack of better terminology, to see how effective the virus actually was.”

  “I don’t understand, Serena. What is going on?”

  “More than you imagine, Thomas.” She said. “You’re getting the facts as fast as I can get them to you.”

  “So what do you want from me now?”

  “What I want, and have wanted since before 411 launched are for Xavier Prince and the Circle to surrender. I want to see a House in Chains and Pandora disbanded. I left the door open for these very happenings back at your townhouse remember? I was willing to sacrifice myself when I surrendered to the authorities?”

  “Here you go with more double talk, Serena.” Thomas said through clenched teeth. He was angry. But he knew that he was putting every life in this building in danger if these strangers were alerted to who he and his blue eyed acquaintance truly were. “You had Deliverance already planned before you surrendered yourself to the FBI.”

  She nodded. “Of course I did, Thomas. But the operation was not to have taken place until after the FBI took me back to Quantico in Virginia. Pandora had always prepared itself to extract me from either location. Two things happened that changed that location to Atlanta: Xavier Prince and his brood did not surrender themselves as we asked—“

  “And you being nearly raped at the holding station by those two men frightened you enough that you couldn’t wait any longer.”

  Serena nodded her brunette head…and looked visibly shaken.

&nbs
p; Thomas turned his attention to the babies on the other side of the glass and couldn’t help but smile at their innocence. At last the other two couples had trailed off and he and Serena were alone. He wanted some answers. He deserved some answers.

  “Are you responsible for the recent kidnappings of Black Children in this city?”

  “Yes,” She admitted with little hesitation. “And answering your next question before it forms in your mouth is: Yes, we masterminded the majority of the first wave of kidnapping and subsequent killings that occurred during the first half of the 1980’s as many historians and people like you in the media have suspected.”

  He felt his knees knocking…and not from the cold. Thomas Pepper, more than ever, wondered if he would live long enough to tell what he knew to the world. “This Louis Keaton,” He said. “He is the one doing these kidnappings.”

  Serena nodded again. “Special Agent Christopher Prince, Nicholas Sheridan and all the others in this investigation will piece the entire puzzle together sooner or later. Perhaps they know all of the answers right now.” She admitted. “But unless they find these missing children, which I assure you they will not, it will eventually force Xavier Prince to engage in a full scale war with Pandora. That would be a move that would be very unwise on his part. This is a war that he cannot win. And I have no wish to see more bloodshed.”

  Thomas continued to look through the glass. “You said that you needed to see me, Serena.” He found her reflection in the glass and confirmed the desire in her