by Gary Sapp
he actually felt. And then a sudden realization struck him. “God almighty, what have they done to you Lucy?”
Lucy moved her head so subtlety that Thomas barely realized it. It looked to him as if she’d mustered all of her remaining strength and energy to accomplish such a small feat. She was alive…but probably only for a few minutes longer.
Thomas used an old boy scout knife to quickly but carefully cut her down. He had to be careful though and not let her shifting dead weight topple him over as well. Just as he had with the dying man at the front desk, Thomas laid her down on the carpet as gently as he could. Her eyes were blackened and swollen nearly shut from being pounded on repeatedly with someone’s fist. Lucy’s nose had been broken in more than one place, her lips busted and several of her teeth shattered.
The more Thomas looked at his former lover’s body, the worse it had been for her and the worse it was for him right now.
There were burn marks of X’s all over her upper torso that nearly covered every inch of skin. She coughed up blood—and when Thomas held her close so that she wouldn’t choke on it, he got a good feel of the bullwhip marks that shrouded her entire back.
“What have they done to you?” Thomas asked as he began to cry. “What have I done to you, Lucy?”
Lucy would have cried with him, if only she had the strength. She would have cried with him if only she had the tears left inside to offer. Instead she managed only a pained cough…and rubbed his hairy squared jaw with her tiny fingers. Lucy’s hand never looked more childlike than it did right then.
Thomas heard himself say, “I’ve got to get you some help, Lucy. I’ve got to get you to the hospital right now. Maybe there is time—“
Lucy had found another small bout of strength and shook her head at him and it broke his heart all over again.
“It’s too late for any of that, darling.”
Thomas teared up again.
“I’m sorry, Lucy. I’m so sorry.”
“And I forgive you,” She said with what must pass for the moment as a smile. “At the end we all pay for our sins.” Lucy hesitated for the longest time and Thomas thought she was gone. “I’m paying for all of mine right now. And you will as well…darling. You will pay as well.”
And then Lucy Burgess’s small frame went instantly heavy as she died.
Thomas finished laying her down and took the time to cover her nude and scarred body with the spread off of the nearby bed.
He numbly made his way back out her hotel room, down the stairs and out of the hotel into the streets again.
It wasn’t until Thomas Pepper was a block away until he looked down at his palms and saw that he had blood on his hands until they—and the entire world shook uncontrollably for a minute a longer.
And one block from there Thomas Pepper wondered who had survived the earthquake?
Chris
A flat tire;
What else could possibly go wrong tonight? Special Agent Christopher Prince thought to himself as he removed to deflated tire and rim from Blue’s car.
“I don’t believe this. I refuse to believe that this is happening right now.” He said more to himself than the two women who were accompanying him.
“Well, believe it,” Blue said, pacing. She had her government issued piece out and scanned the perimeter again for dangers seen and possibly unseen. “It happened—get over it. The proof is in your hands.” And then she saw Chris scoop out the spare from the trunk she sighed and added: “And it looks like my spare is a piece of shit to.”
Chris examined it quickly and rolled it away, the wobbling action convincing him that he and his partner had come to the same result.
“Damn,” He said.
“Why did you take this street anyway, Chris?” Blue asked, using her gun to mark their recent path to this neighborhood. “It would have been quicker to hop on Marion and take it all the way up to the 285 junction.”
“You’re right, Blue. It would have been the quicker and more direct route—if we were going to drive back to the FBI field office?”
“And why wouldn’t we, Chris?” Blue pointed her free hand at Grace Edwards, who was leaning against Blue’s useless car. “She needs to be fully debriefed and the sooner the better.”
Grace folded her arms and took a deep breath exercising extreme patients. She turned her attention solely on the senior partner.
“We didn’t agree on that proposition.”
“We aren’t exercising the democratic process here, sweetheart.” Blue shot the other woman a stern glance. “You don’t get a vote.”
Chris said, “But I do, Tabitha. Remember, our original orders were to find the leaders of a House in Chains. She still is an asset. We can still use her help. She knows where any potential rendezvous point with the Circle may be. She could potentially lead us to them.”
“She might do that,” Blue nodded in admittance. “Or she might also be manipulating you, Chris.”
“Manipulating,” Chris stood up straight and bit back the first rising tide of anger he was feeling. “Have you been listening to what’s being reported on the radio? Suicide bombers are igniting themselves in shelters, malls and other heavily populated houses of commerce or socialization. Thousands of civilians have been estimated of dying here in such attacks in greater Atlanta alone. The other members of the Circle, led by Quincy Morgan betrayed my brother and are acting without impunity. There is no longer a reason for her to be overly loyal to them. No, I don’t have to completely trust her, Tabitha, but in my opinion following where she leads is the most productive course of action.”
Grace shifted her weight off of the car.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, Chris. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about the specifics of Scar. I know that I kept the knowledge of the bombers from you. Again, it was our plan that if any of the Circle were out of communication with the others—that it would not stop the others from deploying them when the Zero Hour. We had a choice to use them or lose them.”
Blue frowned at that.
Grace noted the other woman’s expression but continue to focus her gaze and conversation on Chris.
“Xavier and Quincy Morgan worked out the specifics and provisions for unleashing each escalating phase of Scar. Percy, Warren and I were not included in those discussions.”
“You see, Chris? You want us to trust her and yet the members of this so called Circle didn’t even trust each other with this vital information.” Blue said in an increasingly unhappy voice. She showed her overbite.
“Even amongst the Circle, the less that each individual knew about timing details, the less the chance that our operations could be compromised,” Grace finally turned her full attention on Agent Blue. “I felt it was totally necessary, especially if any of us were subjected to capture or torture.”
“Alright, you were protecting yourselves and this…heinous operation of yours. I get it, Grace. And you protected the location of this rendezvous of any survivors up to this point as well?” Chris asked.
“Yes, that is correct.” Grace was nodding. “The signal would be in the form of a specialized text over our cell phones only after Scar had been initiated in full fury. We have the potential to utilize eight different locations depending on what the surviving senior officer feels is the most secure facility at that time.” Grace raised her cuffed hands up so that the other two could see her wrist clearly. “As you can see, I’ve been a little too busy to make that call, even if I had wanted to.”
Blue frowned up again.
“Honey, you should find someone who cares. I don’t think that anyone of your people outside the Circle expected Quincy Morgan to have Xavier assassinated. More people in your little organization would have tried to stop him. You can’t go around terrorizing white folks if you are involved in petty bickering at the top.” Blue rubbed her thick brows a second. “I say we confiscate a ride and take her down to the field office, Chris. She’s proven that she can’t be trusted beyond a reasonable doubt.
It’s more to this than she’s telling. I know that I’m right about this.”
Grace planted her shoes into the street.
“Then you had damned be prepared to kill me because I’m not going anywhere near a FBI Field Office or any other government agency building with you or anyone else, Agent Blue.”
“The hell you aren’t,” Blue raised her gun and pointed it at Grace’s temple. Chris heard Grace’s braids rattle as she turned to facedown Blue’s gun. His partner took an unnecessary step in the other woman’s direction. “Lady, I’m done talking to you, I’m done playing with you.”
“Good,” Grace said as seriously. “I’m glad I don’t have to listen to you anymore. But you should listen to me: You better be prepared to use that, Agent Blue.”
“I don’t think that you will continue to cooperate under the terms that Chris set out for you so in my opinion you are useless to us. The only thing that you can do is to try and escape. And I can’t let you do that—
“And I can’t let you do this.”
Special Agent Christopher Prince had pulled his own gun on his partner.
“Chris,” Blue said in a voice partly stained in surprise, partly stained in hurt. “What are you doing?”
“Grace Edwards is trying to serve the greater good of all Americans by remaining here and fully cooperating with us. Thousands have died tonight, Tabitha. How many more thousands will die over the next 24 to 48 hours from now as this thing gets further and further out of hand. I don’t see