by Edwina Fort
He quickly made his way to the server room. There was one guard standing outside the door. Silently he came up behind him putting him in a choke hold and didn’t stop until he heard the satisfying crunch.
Before he could get into the door he heard rapid fire in the distance before the blare of the alarm.
“F***”
What part of finesse didn’t the Politician understand?
Rome drew his weapon, there were about eight people in total manning the computers, whose jobs ranged from IT personnel to computer programming.
“All right, everybody, exit with your hands up and your mouths shut and today won’t be your last.”
When they looked up and saw him standing there in Jordan’s, jeans, a white tee, and a gold watch, they froze in fear, instantly assuming they were being robbed by a gang-banger.
“Here, take my wallet!” One man said reaching for his pocket. Rome shot at the floor by his foot causing the man to wet his pants.
“I don’t want your wallet, nasty bastard. I want you and these other geeks to get the f*** out!” He didn’t have to ask again, they nearly trampled each other running out the door.
Chuckling he quickly set up his arsenal. But first…
He killed the alarm and put on some working music…The sound of Bone Crusher’s Never Scared filled the building speakers.
“Alright killa, you got twelve minutes before them boys in blue have the place swarmed, let’s see what you can do.”
“I like the music.” The Politician’s deep voice came back at him as he used the body of one of the guards to block the array of bullets that was coming his way.
Rome pulled the security footage up on the big screens in front of him and watched as the alter did damage.
“I bet you do…” He told him as for a second he watched, enthralled as the man made quick work at breaking bones and just smashing sh*t. No wonder the alarm had begun blaring. The Politician was not trying in any way to be discreet.
He’d taken the stairs three at a time to the top floor gunning for his targets, plowing through the guards like King Damn Kong. Bodies were flying everywhere. Rome cringed as he watched the alter throw a man in the air before catching him and bringing him back down hard across a railing. He imagined he could hear the sound of the guard’s back breaking.
The Politician had the guards so shook they were firing at him, not caring that they were shooting each other. The alter was like a ghost, he moved so fast they could not aim quickly enough to take a good shot at him.
“That mutha f**** is a beast…” Rome muttered to himself as he inserted his jump-drive directly to the company’s mainframe and uploaded the bleeding program he’d designed especially for them. It will take his little bug eight minutes to do its job, he settled back in his chair and kicked his feet up to continue watching as the Politician destroyed.
********
He was not the only one watching as the destructive force came for them. Disgusted, Jeff looked over at the senator and his wife, who clung to each other shivering in fear. Quickly he set up the shields he’d programmed to prevent anyone from getting through the doors of his office area as he tried to shut down the mainframe.
“Dammit!” He yelled when he saw that something had taken control of his system and had locked him out.
Grabbing the phone, he called down to his server room.
“Joe’s poolhall…eight-ball speaking.”
All the blood drained from Jeff’s face as he stared at the phone in shock. “Who the f*** is this?!” He yelled once he’d found his voice. “And what the f*** are you doing in my server room?!”
“I am death, you punk mutha f****!” The voice came back to him. “Your world is over.” The phone went dead.
With hands that shook, he grabbed the remote to change the footage on the security screens from that of the hall that still showed the guards standing there silently chatting amongst themselves to that of the server room that showed his overnight tech team still busy at work.
“Dammit!” He yelled again throwing his remote control into one of the screens causing it to darken.
“What is it? What’s happened? Are they not able to stop Jo?” The senator asked as he tried to quiet his wife’s weeping.
“We’ve got bigger problems than your freak show of a son. Somebody has hacked into my system and is bleeding out all of my information—” Before he could finish, there was a loud crash at the door.
Mrs. Warren screamed as another loud boom followed. Jeff smiled, pleased that his shields, that thank God, was not connected to the mainframe still held.
Rome sat up in his chair as he watched the Politician throw guards toward the door to Jeff’s office and the guards being electrocuted by some kind of invisible gate.
“A little assistance.” The alter’s voice came to him.
“Give me a sec.” Rome said as his hands flew across his laptop. “Looks like our little buddy Jeff has a few tricks up his sleeve.”
It didn’t take Rome long to find Jeff’s back up system and power down his shields.
“Should be good to go.”
As soon as Jeff saw that his back up computer had been taken over he called for his helicopter to meet him on the roof. He didn’t want to leave before he could at least set the self-destruction program for his lab, the last thing he needed was for this information he had here to get into the wrong hands, it would be the end of Macon Tech for sure.
But from the sound of it, Jo was at the door and right now, he needed to save his own life. He had a team of lawyers that he was paying a fortune for, at the very least he knew they would make sure he didn’t serve any jail time.
However, it was time for him to shed some dead weight.
“I will be right back, senator, I need to activate the self-destruction program.” He told them as he closed his laptop and slid it in his briefcase.
“What!? What do you mean?”
“Relax, senator, he can’t get through the shield I have surrounding this office.” He lied as he slipped into the joining office that had a trap door that let out to the stairs that led to the roof.
Jo’s parents…or shall I say handlers ran after him, but when they got to the office, they were stunned to see Jeff had seemed to just disappear.
“Oh no!” Mrs. Warren cried as her frightened gaze went to her husband. Right then, the office door crashed in. The sounds of Bone Crusher Never Scared filled their ears before the Politician walked through the door.
Senator Warren held up his hands. “Now son, let’s not overreact and do anything that you’ll later regret.”
The Politician smiled at them. “That’s just it, pops, I don’t regret anything.” He slowly began to stalk them.
“It’s time for you to walk alone in the field of clovers.” Senator Warren said with a shaking voice.
The alter grinned, “Not before I snap that b****’s neck and throw you out the window.” Both their eyes widened.
Senator Warren, in a last-ditch effort to save his own life, pushed his wife into the alter’s arms. She didn’t even get a chance to scream before the sound of her neck breaking filled the room.
The senator turned and took two steps toward the door, but he was grabbed roughly from the back and flung towards the window with such strength he died on contact. However, the window shattered and he flew straight through it falling to join the bird poop on the cement.
The Politician walked to the now open window to watch the helicopter fly away. Jeff smiled down at him as he gave him the finger.
“Count to three, chump.” Rome’s voice came through the device in his ear.
Three seconds later, the helicopter seemed to just shut off before it began to spin wildly out of control. Jeff’s frightened gaze came back to him seconds before the chopper crashed to the ground, exploding into a fire ball that lit up the night’s sky.
Jo nodded as a grin came to his face. “Good work, kid.” He muttered as he stepped over his mother’s dea
d body.
The sound of the police sirens could now be heard. It was time to vacate the premises.
Chapter Twenty
The Dawn of a New Era
We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.
--Joseph Campbell
Journey
“Wake up, daughter of Sarah.” The deep voice penetrated the darkness around me, pulling me from its clutches.
“Journey, it’s time for you to wake up now.”
I frowned, I don’t want to wake up; the place where I am is comfortable. Only pain awaited me from where that deep voice was coming from.
My eyelids felt heavy, I had to struggle to open them. The first thing I felt was the dull pain in my shoulder, but then the bright light that bled through my cracked eyelids was causing my head to hurt.
I moaned in pain, but right then, a big dark hand passed over my lids before the warm palm touched my head. I couldn’t describe the feeling that came over me, it felt like cool water washing over my burning skin. Instantly the pain in my shoulder and head began to abate. Slowly I opened my eyes fully to take in the man standing over my bed.
I had to be dreaming.
“Are you a cowboy?” I asked.
He chuckled as he removed his hand.
“No, nothing so spectacular.”
“But you look like a cowboy.”
And he did. His long hair was braided in cornrows, their tips rested just below his massive shoulders. On his head he wore a black cowboy hat. I could smell the leather of his black coat. His skin was as dark as Joseph’s. But it was his eyes that made me pause.
He looked down at me through a set of eyes that seemed…I don’t know, they seemed ancient.
A horrifying thought came to me. “Am I dead?” I whispered.
This man must be an angel coming to take me to my place of rest. Again, he chuckled.
“No, child, far from it.”
Carefully I sat up in the bed. Amazingly, my shoulder no longer troubled me, so I was able to move easily. Looking around the hospital room I was surprised to see my mother sleeping in the bed next to mine in Albert’s arms. My little brother Rob asleep in the chair with Ayana fast asleep on his chest, neither of them woke from their slumber.
My gaze went back to the dark stranger. Now that I was sitting up in the bed, I could see that he wore a long black duster, underneath it the gleam of a sword handle winked at me.
Oh My God! Who was this guy…?
“I am the Qoheleth, nothing more, nothing less…but everybody calls me The Preacher.”
I nodded, surprised that I didn’t feel any fear of this man, who I doubted was a man at all.
“I’ve come to wake you and to commend you.”
“Commend me? For what?”
“The wise words you told your husband. It is true that he and his siblings have work to do. They have been chosen to help mankind, but not in the way they always thought.”
I frowned. “Siblings? Jo is an only child.”
The Preacher shook his head. “Jo is one of five children. Each born to be warriors in a very special army.”
I gasped. “Are you talking about his alter?” I whispered.
Again he shook his head. “In the coming years, Jo, like the rest of his siblings will come to learn that the alters are standing in the way of true power. They will find that some demons are harder to defeat than others.”
He reached down and took my hand. “You, daughter of Sarah are a precious gift, given to calm a raging storm. You see, every warrior needs to know that after the battle, calm awaits them.”
For some reason, his words caused tears to come to my eyes. He reached up and dried them.
“You will be alright, dear one. You, and the little warrior you carry deep in your womb. A time is coming where life as you know it will change drastically. There is a thin, almost nonexistent line between normal and paranormal. Some people live and die without ever knowing the difference. You, my child, are not one of those. Be brave, little one, continue to have unwavering faith in the Ancient of Days…He knows your works. He hears all your thoughts. He will send you the Helper.”
He smiled at me one more time before he began to walk out of the room.
“Wait!” I called after him.
He paused and turned back to face me. As he did, the long duster swept across his powerful legs, I wasn’t surprised to see that on his feet was a pair of black cowboy boots, spurs and all.
“Will I ever see you again?”
He nodded, but there was a sadness in his eyes. “You will, daughter. But the world will be on fire when you do.” And after that, he was gone.
Joseph
Rome and I had made it back to my father’s office on the Hill. We were here because he said that he needed a secure place to show me the things he’d found. And my father’s office was the most secure. I told him that we had about an hour before someone tried to contact me about my dead parents. Or shall I say the people pretending to be my parents.
Rome sat on the couch in the office opening his laptop on the table in front of him. I paced back and forward as I tried to search inside of me for one shred of guilt over what I’d just done.
There was none…
Not an ounce…
I rubbed the back of my neck. Every time my personality changed, I felt like it killed more and more of what made me human. How long before I didn’t change back to Joseph? How long before I became the monster that lived inside of me?
“Alright, buddy, you might want to have a seat to listen to what I’m about to tell you.”
I paused in my pacing looking down at Rome. This had to be bad if he was speaking to me in such a placating tone.
I shook my head. “Naw, I’d rather stand.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself. Okay, so you obviously know that those wasn’t your parents?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I figured that out along the way.”
He chuckled, but he still seemed uncomfortable about what he was getting ready to say. His russet gaze rose to my face.
“Jo, you’re a triplet.”
“What?!”
“When you were born, there were two other boys born with you.” He spoke as if he was talking to a mentally unstable individual.
What was it about this kid that constantly made me want to choke the life out him?
“I know what a damn triplet is, man!” I growled.
He shrugged. “Hell, I don’t know that you do, you looked confused.”
“Get on with it, will you?”
“You also have an older brother and a younger sister.”
I eased down in the chair across from him. “How is this possible?”
“James Bennet Law is your real father. He enrolled in the United States Army in 69’ during Nam.” Rome shook his head.
“In our government’s never ending quest to achieve the super soldier, they were allowing all kinds of sick sh*t to happen to some of the soldiers. James Bennet Law and Albert were best friends. Both of them had been taken and their minds experimented on.”
“Albert? So he knows my father?”
“I doubt he remembers much. The doctor really did a number with his head. Without his knowledge, he was hypnotized or some sh*t and then sent in to handle you for your handlers. He just thought he was taking a job as your driver. In reality, they needed someone that was skilled in combat to calm you down should you lose it. Which is why the first thing I need to do is break up whatever that is he thinks he has with my mother.”
I didn’t rise to the bait, Albert could handle himself.
“Who is this doctor?” He typed something on the computer.
“Thus lies the mystery whose answer keeps evading me. I can’t find anything on the man that experimented on them. Only that he had you guys call him Father.”
“Wait? How did he end up with us instead of James Law?”
>
“He’d discovered a gene in your dad that he would later call a super human gene. The gene was laying dormant. He found a way to spark it to life in your dad, but he was too old, already set in his ways, so although it would spark to life, it would shortly sizzle out. Evidently, it’s a mental thing. He figured he could have a fresh slate in your dad’s seed. His mission then became trying to orchestrate James into having as many children as he possibly could. Children whose brains were young and fresh and easily programmable.”
He shook his head again. “Man…this punk was so involved in your pops life without him knowing it was ridiculous. He knew everything about yo’ oldman. Where he liked to drink, where he liked to buy his dope.”
“Dope?”
“Oh yeah! It was the 70’s, everybody was doing dope. Especially them boys who came back from Nam, they were real messed up in the head, including your pops. Which was how the doctor controlled him because he was going back and forward to the VA to get pills to help him deal with his PTSD.”
Rome’s phone began to vibrate on the table next to his laptop. Without looking to see who was calling he turned it off.
“Now because your dad couldn’t get right in the head, my guess would be thanks to the help of the good doctor, he hopped around from woman to woman. But what he didn’t know is the doctor was setting it up, so that he ran into certain women. Women who carried an X chromosome that in all sense and purposes made the superman gene in your dad more potent.”
I sat back in my chair, floored. There is no way this happened.
“I know this sh*t sound wild.” Rome said as if he could read my thoughts. “I felt the same way when this information first came to me. But it happened. Your mother had gone to the local clinic thinking she was getting another prescription for birth control pills. The good doctor had set it up so that the handsome James at the time was in her ear. Only she had not left with a prescription for birth control, but fertility drugs. So, when her and James lay together, she ended up having three of you instead of one.”
I used my fingers to massage my head. It was too much; this kid was rocking my world. How in the hell?