by Gary Sapp
other man’s gaze all the same.
“Are you telling me that I am not performing my duties, Quincy?” Xavier didn’t give his Second a chance to respond. “I was an intended target of the 411 attacks as well.”
Quincy balled his hand into a fist…but turned away. “And someone is going to pay with their life for that transgression against you.” He said. And after a moment of weighted silence he pointed his long index finger at the portrait of Isaac Prince. “When your father founded this House he was the sole ruler, with the Circle and the Board serving under him. You, on the other hand, gave the Circle more discretionary powers on matter of state.”
It had been his greatest mistake in the ten years he had been the One. But it was the only way that I could convince The New Black Panther Party to put their outdated mandates and methods aside and join our cause. Xavier had needed their numbers and their money to keep his father’s fading dreams alive then. Now was the moment that he would find out if it was all worth the price he paid.
“Alright, Quincy, you’ve made a fair point.” Xavier said.
“I’m not interested in making any points,” He made the last word a curse. “I am only interested in the short and long term goals of what is best for People of Color and this House that your father built. That being said, I believe that you are playing this liberation thing with Carver far too politically. This campaign will cost us resources and lives of scores of Peacekeepers for sure.”
Xavier took one long and final look at his dad, who sat high, and looked low over them.
“Quincy, what did my father’s final mandate say?”
“Number One, please—“
“I want you to tell me what it says.”
Quincy Morgan inhaled deeply and then stood as straight as his athletic build allowed. “Your father said that only after the first three mandates are completed may we turn our attention to the Rooster.”
Xavier nodded slowly, Quincy’s words were like a beautiful musical score playing in his ears, but the One knew he was still far away from celebrating his triumphant victory just yet. “But you have respectfully reminded me of the way that I have chosen to run our House. So I will count your vote as a no to carrying out this campaign against the Choir Boys.”
“I know we’ve spoken of these plans for an incursion in that place time and again before you were locked up and even in the past few weeks with members of the Board—“
“So I will count your vote as no, Old Friend.”
“I respectfully submit it as just that, Number One.”
Xavier spoke over his shoulder to Percy Harrison without looking at him.
“I am with you, Xavier.”
Xavier breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ve already counted my vote as a yea, which is two votes for the campaign and one against. What say you, Warren?”
“I’ll stand with Quincy on this one, Xavier. Your heart is in the right place, but I believe my Second’s argument is a more logicality sound one.”
“That’s two for and two against. Grace, you will cast the deciding vote.” Xavier took the time to seek out his Intelligence Officer’s face to try to gage where she had stood on the issue. She had always supported him in this manner in the past.
Grace did not hesitate. “We will honor your father’s mandate and liberate the tax paying citizens of Carver Housing Projects by bringing those motherfuckers to their knees.”
The other four men all gasped at Grace’s…colorful choice of an adjective that she chose to express herself, but the tension in the room lessened because of it. And that was probably your intent, Grace.
If Quincy Morgan had been defeated he did not wear it on his sleeve. “If I may be excused, Number One, I need to contact Ronald Broward, he had always been my choice to lead any assault that we had planned on Carver.
Good choice, Xavier thought. The man looked like the type who would take your lunch money and dared you to stop him while he did it. He also had a long scar on each arm that stretched from elbow to his wrist. Xavier wasn’t aware of the tale behind his disfigurement, but the man was lucky to be alive if lost that much blood when this accident or this brutality was forced on him.
Yet, despite the man’s horrid exterior, he’d proven to Xavier that his business of killing was a trickling of his true personality. He was an engaging gentleman who had two daughters about the same age as Xavier’s boys. He wore a locket around his neck at all times with their baby pictures inside. The leader had watched him open the locket up and gently press his big lips on the picture more than once.
Xavier asked Quincy to hold his water for a minute longer. “Grace, are your people still at their post inside Carver?”
“They are.”
“Express to them that I appreciate all of their sacrifices, hard work, and most of all—their patience. None of it has been in vain. Tell them to hold on to the audacity of hope. We are on the way. Tell them that A House in Chains is coming to take back what is rightfully ours.”
Grace stood up from her chair as if she’d been launched by cannon and blushed for the second time today. “I will, sir.” Grace’s smile lit up the room. But then she began to gnaw on her glasses again. “If I may have a word with you in private once we are done here? I hope you remember the small matter I needed to cover with you before we left this campus.”
A small item she says. He would hate to know what qualified as a cosmic item in Grace Edwards’ world. “Gentlemen, if there is nothing more I will leave with this until we are together again. We will accomplish three goals while we carry out this campaign against Bishop and his Choir Boys: We will be keeping to my father’s mandates—and just as importantly in my eyes, we will be keeping our word to our followers which is a powerful recruiting tool as we move forward. Secondly, as I’ve stated countless times before, we will be ridding the citizens of Carver from a cancer. And finally…”
Xavier walked to where Quincy Morgan was standing.
“We will show Serena Tennyson and her Pandora cronies what they are up against if they do not stand down, if they do not disband their ranks, if they do not turn themselves over to local authorities.”
He wrapped his arm around Quincy Morgan so that he could face the rest of the Circle.
“Let’s show them all who runs this town tonight, tomorrow, and for years to come.”
The four of them who were his Circle cheered and whistled and called his name;
And Xavier Prince, the One, the most dangerous man in the world began to stomp and the Circle stomped with him.
“One last thing, Number One,” Quincy said before he turned to depart. “A penance must be put in place at Carver when our job there is done.”
Xavier peered sharply at the other man as if he’d spit on him.
“Without a penance, Xavier, we are pissing in the wind. We will revisit this road again a year or six months from now. It may be tenement in Chicago or a neighborhood in LA…it may be a return to Carver.”
“But the penance guarantees us that there will be no further Carvers.” Grace Edwards said in dark voice. “The deterrent will be very real and the mere memory of our response a stark reminder that some things come at too high a price to pay.”
Twenty minutes and two cigarettes later he met Grace Edwards on a balcony that overlooked the courtyard that led to the school’s auditorium, then out to half of Morehouse’s campus. Xavier felt as if this was a piece of the world existed outside of the real planet that they all lived in right now. The garden was full of color, life and fragrance if his nose could be trusted. He had slid his third cigarette out of the pack, but opted not to spoil the scenery or Grace’s fresh air with his smoke.
Grace introduced him to a young man and a younger woman who approached from over by the dorms.
Mario Stalls: He was a light skinned Black man who had dimples. He looked as if he could have been of mixed heritage. He wore both his hair and his shorts too long for Xavier Prince’s taste.
Tiffany Spores: She was a brown skinn
ed 18 or 19 year old teenager whose body was on the fast track into blossoming into womanhood. She wore a tight shirt, tighter jeans, and had a stud earring in her nose.
Xavier shook the young man’s hand. Tiffany wouldn’t settle for anything less than a hug from him. He did the political thing and asked how they both were doing and what were their short and long term goals as they reached adult hood.
After the small talk concluded the two youngest of the group trailed off on their own separate paths. Though, Tiffany stole another hug from Xavier before prancing off.
Grace watched them for a long time after they walked away. “I appreciate that, Xavier. Mario just recently got his mark and joined our prospects program. He will be casing the neighborhoods near his house on the eastside. There are two elementary schools and a middle school nearby. Quincy and Warren already have him on their radar to fast track up the Peacekeeper ranks. His dad served two tours each in Iraq and Afghanistan. He understands the…sacrifices the military is often asked to make.”
“I understand. What about the girl?”
Grace eyes misted a little. “She has a good heart and a gentle spirit. She doesn’t have a ton of family and only a few close friends. She’s still a virgin. She told me that herself. No one will ever suspect her. They probably won’t suspect the two dozen or more of the others either. But none of the others are as an ideal recruit for what our House needs than she is.”
Xavier Prince and Grace