On the other side she said, “I do feel kind of sick. Where are we? This is weird.”
Carson pulled out a cookie from his pocket. “Try this and see if it helps you.”
Caroline ate it and said, “I feel so much better. Thank you.” She looked around and pointed straight ahead. “What’s going on out there?”
Charles took her hand. “Let’s go look.” They walked around for a while and then Carson decided they should go back.
Once in the office she took the glasses off and laughed. “I can’t believe that!” Charles and Carson looked at each other. They knew she was ready to join them into the Hub as a Sojourner.
Charles said, “Caroline, come sit down for a minute at my desk.” She walked over and sat down. “I have some important things to discuss with you.”
“I’m listening.”
He took her hand, looked her in the eyes and said, “Caroline your great aunt and your grandpa are not only Sojourners but royalty. Your grandpa explained that he would not accept Catherine Caperson’s legacy because your grandma is not able to accompany him when he Sojourns. So tonight he gave up his inheritance so that you could inherit the family fortune and keep the Sojourner lineage going.
“Until just recently we didn’t even know that your grandpa could Sojourn. We discovered the truth about your great aunt by accident. The conversation we had with you about coloring in her journal presented us with a mystery. After we put the pieces together we have discovered some amazing things about your family through what we call the Caperson journals. Mr. Gladestrom will be back to explain things in more detail for you about Catherine’s estate. Very soon you are about to inherit some amazing gifts, and your life as you know it right now, is going to change secretly forever.”
Caroline asked, “Why me?”
“You’re the next in line. If you didn’t accept it then someone else could. That person could possibly have been someone outside your family.”
“My great aunt Catherine was an amazing woman and I am proud to follow in her footsteps. I’m glad I am able to Sojourn in order to keep her legacy in the family. I am elated that you and I will be able to share the experience of Sojourning together.”
Charles smiled. “Me too.” Charles looked at her hand and said, “Natalie is your mentor. We had to go before the Sojourners’ Council to arrange for her to be able to sponsor you. She is marvelous.”
Caroline said, “I really like her. I think we are going to get along really well.”
Charles agreed. “She is going to guide you and answer the questions you may have through the process until you are able to Sojourn on your own.”
She was suddenly concerned. “On my own? I don’t want to Sojourn on my own.”
Charles said, “You are always able to join us. We will teach you too.”
She looked at Carson. “Thank you Mr. Jones.”
He smiled and said, “You’re like family to us.”
Charles said, “Mr. Gladestrom is the Estate Guardian. He has a trust that he will set up in your name. Soon you will inherit Sojourner journals, tools, currency and a crown.”
“A crown?”
“Yes, your family’s crown.”
“Aren’t I a little young to have a crown?”
Charles said, “No. I don’t think so.”
She looked rather unsure about becoming royalty. Charles reassured her. “It’s going to be okay. We’re still learning ourselves about your lineage. We will be learning together.”
Carson said, “Charles, it is time to go. I’m sure Margaret and Al would like to be leaving soon.”
They put their things away and Carson secured the office. They walked into the kitchen just in time. Margaret and Al were getting ready to come find her. They all said their goodbyes and left.
When Bev closed the door, she said, “I’d love to hear what happened.” They went to the kitchen and talked about what happened with Caroline. Charles was tired, he said goodnight and went upstairs to bed.
CHAPTER 102
Anjoleah made her way through the Hub to her meeting with Anthony. She held her information pad very tightly as if she was afraid it might get away from her. She walked into the high clearance building and knew exactly where she was going. When she reached the door, Anjoleah put her shoulders back and turned the knob to enter the room. Once inside she looked around the table at the men in their tailored business suits. She walked around to her seat and sat down. Anthony greeted everyone and explained the situation. He then asked Anjoleah to come forward with her presentation.
She rose, and as she walked all eyes followed her. She stood in front of the group, and explained that based on the information she held in her information pad, they were about to make the largest extraction of criminals from the Hub that had ever been executed before. She turned their attention to the walls behind her, which had projection screens. She touched her information pad and each of the criminal’s pictures appeared. Anthony looked around the table at the expressions on each man’s face. Some of the men were noticeably uncomfortable. Anthony knew why. They had dealings with these men at one time or another. Anjoleah proceeded with her presentation despite the coughs and snorts she received from the men. That gave her a good idea what she was up against. Anthony would determine the rest of the outcome. When she finished Anjoleah turned her information pad off and walked out of the room. She had them right where she wanted them and it was up to Anthony to close with their substantial arguments in favor of apprehending the criminal element. She smiled as the door closed behind her.
Outside the building Xander came alongside her on his flying disk. “How did it go?”
She smiled. “Calculated as always.” She spun her disk and stepped on it. It rose next to Xander so she was able to have a conversation with him.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”
She contemplated that comment and decided to take it as a compliment. She headed in the direction of the Passageway Headquarters to commence the extraction and begin to rid the Hub of corruption. She pulled all but the newest of her agents from the Hub, and had them gather in the Instruction Hall in mission uniform.
When she and Xander arrived they went their separate ways to get into uniform. Anjoleah was the first one out and already into her command mode; ready to have an impact meeting and begin the extraction. Her army was waiting for her in full gear. She decided to begin with an explanation of their targets and their mission. The only problem with the execution was that she was waiting for the Prime Ministers’ signal to commence their assignment. Xander asked her if she was going to wait on Anthony, or go ahead and begin explaining their formal objectives and targets. Anjoleah paced back and forth. She thought to herself: I shouldn’t have left the room to let Anthony handle this. I hope he didn’t cave to the pressures of the Alliance. Not knowing what had happened after she left was making her next move an excruciating decision. To give herself a little more time she turned to Xander and gave orders for him to do a preliminary overview.
He stepped out onto the stage in front of a sea of agents in their gear. It was absolutely quiet. He could hear his footsteps as he walked. He gave the signal to turn on the interactive screens. He hoped they couldn’t tell he was winging it. Anjoleah hadn’t briefed him enough to go into depth. He just prayed Anthony would give her the go ahead before long.
Anjoleah turned to her assistant. “Have you updated the information system?”
He looked caught off guard. “No Commissioner.”
She turned to talk to her third in charge. Her assistant realized she didn’t have her information pad with her gear. He ran as fast as he could to her change station and with fumbling hands unlocked the door.
Anjoleah scowled when she discovered her assistant had disappeared. She closed her eyes and fumed. This is no time for him to be going off on a tangent. Where is he anyway?
Her assistant raced around the station searching. He found the pad sitting on a bench under some towe
ls. He grabbed it and ran for the door, making sure he locked it behind himself. He ran at full speed back to where he had left her. He prayed she hadn’t noticed he was gone. He looked down at the screen it was flashing red! He began to sweat as he ran up the steps. He was out of breath when he turned the corner.
She turned around, saw him running toward her and she ran to meet him.
He said, “The information system has been updated Commissioner and here’s your pad. We are currently in phase red!”
She grabbed for the information pad and responded to Anthony. Then she stood on the sideline and waited for Xander to give her the go ahead to make her entrance. When she appeared, he had never been so glad in his life to see her standing there. He wrapped up what he was saying and turned the mission over to her.
When she finished the air was electrified with officers who were ready to begin. Xander concentrated on her message as she was speaking. She was one of the best he’d ever seen at giving clear and precise instructions. Once she ended every squad knew what their mission was and was ready to execute the plan. She dismissed them and they went right to work. She messaged the Prime Minister and alerted him to the beginning of the operation.
Anthony sat back in his chair when he received the news. He prayed for their success. They had never tried to execute an extraction as secretive or as large as the one they were involved in. If they didn’t accomplish the mission in its entirety he would have to answer for their failure directly to the Sojourners’ Council and that would not be a good position for any Prime Minister to be in. He sat back, waited and tried to think of all the different scenarios. They would not fail.
**********
Dimitrios walked through the Hub. He noticed there wasn’t a presence of officers on the usual grid patterns. The ones who were stationed were sparse. He was supposed to be off work due to Natalie’s ordeal. This was the first time he had taken a break from work. He looked at the officer on duty as he walked by. He was one of their youngest. The man didn’t look at him, or even show any signs of recognition. Dimitrios turned and ran for his office. Something was occurring that he wasn’t a part of and he was going to find out what it was.
He rushed through his door past Cassia who smiled and said, “I thought you’d never be in today.”
He thought that was an odd statement. He looked back at her through the doorway. “I’m off work.”
She looked up at him. “I know, but…”
That was all he needed. He hurried to his desk, unlocked the drawer and pulled out his information pad. He turned it on. The pad flashed on red alert standby. He jumped up and ran full speed through the hallway to Anthony’s office. He stopped short of the closed door. He pulled on his jacket and calmly walked in.
Anthony’s secretary looked up from her work and said, “He’s in there. You may enter.” She pressed Anthony’s button to let him know someone was there to see him. Anthony had a feeling it would be Dimitrios. He stood up. Dimitrios walked in and showed him his information pad. Anthony looked at it flashing.
Dimitrios asked, “When were you going to tell me about this?”
“I didn’t know you weren’t aware of the operation.” He pointed to the pad in Dimitrios’ hand. “I didn’t keep it a secret from you. Sit down. I’m waiting on Anjoleah to call in.” He pointed to his pad. “Did you log in?”
Dimitrios without looking at him, logged in.
Anjoleah looked at her pad that showed Dimitrios was logged in. It momentarily made her stop and reevaluate if she should change going about executing her plans. Quickly she resolved that she would continue as planned. She gave her orders. She had some of her officers on flying disks, some were on foot depending on their assignments. When everyone was in position she gave the orders to lock their targets into place and strike.
Anjoleah’s assignment was very gratifying to her in the end. She had the best of intentions to seize her target and withdraw quickly. The whole thing went sour when she explained to him what was going on and his Rights as a Sojourner under the Law.
He laughed and commented, “It is not fitting for a woman such as yourself to come after a real man. No mere woman will take me…” He pulled a gun from the cushion of the chair he was sitting on and fired. Without hesitation she chose to see to the demise of the arrogant jerk. With one shot, her chosen weapon obliterated his body. She barked a few orders to her agents on where they were to go next since there wasn’t any clean up necessary. She stepped on her flying disk and raced to the next strike.
When she arrived at the next target’s location she determined by the chatter where her agents were located in the old abandoned Hub building. They were on the third floor. The stairway was in ruins and the floors were not much better. It had taken some time for her agents but they had somehow managed to find and corner the targets within the building.
Once Anjoleah caught up with them she asked them to evaluate the current situation. She asked, “Is the target armed?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of weapon?”
“An automatic hand held pistol.”
“Were shots fired?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“By our count, nine.”
This suspect’s name was Fury.
Her agent Craig said, “He’s got a man with him.”
“There are two?”
“Yes.”
“Who is with him and how did they get involved together?”
“It’s Sid from the market.”
“Sid at the kiosk?”
“That’s the one.”
“Huh? How’d he get involved?”
“Fury slipped away from us and made a run for Sid’s Passageway. He convinced Sid that we were after him too. He tried to overcome Sid’s reluctance to let him access his Passageway. Sid refused to allow him to enter because he was afraid for his family. Fury persuaded Sid to accompany him somehow.”
Anjoleah looked at the ground trying to figure out what to do next. She called back to headquarters on her headset and asked them to run Sid’s information. He was legitimate.
She called out, “Sid is that you hiding with Fury?” No response.
“Sid, why are you here? We weren’t after you. Wouldn’t you rather be home right now instead of facing the Sojourners’ Council?”
“Yes Ma’am. I want to go home. Fury came to my Passageway and told me, you were after me. Ma’am I promise, your assistant told me I was allowed to keep the change from all the transactions. I’ll pay it back, every penny. I don’t want any trouble. I’m just a small businessman trying to make a living. That’s all.”
Anjoleah rolled her eyes. “Sid, I’m not after you. You have nothing to do with this. Sid, you have to make a decision right now. If you come out now, you can go home. If you don’t you will face the Sojourners’ Council.”
Fury yelled, “It’s a trick, don’t believe them.”
“No, it’s not Sid. I will let you go home to your family. You have my word.”
Sid groaned. He came out from behind a large crate with his hands up in the air. “I want to go home.” He took several steps forward in her direction until Fury popped out of hiding and shot him in the back. Sid crumpled to the floor in agony.
Fury called out, “You’re next doll. Just you against me, the winner walks away. How about showing me what you’re made of?”
Anjoleah was furious. She moved closer to Sid to evaluate him.
Xander said, “Fury why don’t you come on out and I’ll fight you!”
“What, the little lady can’t take care of herself against little old me? She’s got a reputation. No, ladies go first. You’re next in line after I have my way with her.”
Anjoleah stood up and turned to Xander (who was motioning to her to keep down) and barked out orders for him to get Sid to the Northside facility.
Fury threw down his gun knowing he was out of ammo. Anjoleah counted Fury’s steps toward her: seven, six, five, four, three,
she smiled at Xander.
The last thing she heard in her ear was Dimitrios saying, “Anjoleah. Anjoleah are you there? Anjoleah. NO!”
She removed her headset tossing it out of the way. She popped a mouthpiece in and whispered, “Bring it on.” She turned and saw he had a knife in his hand. She kicked his hand causing the knife to skid across the floor. He came at her and tried to punch her several times. She moved aside too quickly for him and he missed. She gave him an upper cut to his jaw and elbowed him in his stomach.
Fury shook his head from the impact of her swing. “What kind of woman hits like that? You must be a she-man.” He swung and gave her a hard blow to her ribs. The force made her lose her balance. She staggered to the side and then engaged him again striking him in his kidney. He swung and she blocked him. His other fist came back up and struck her chin causing her to stumble backwards. Her agent came forward to intervene, but she signaled for him to get back. She didn’t want to worry about him being in the way. She stood up again and struck Fury three times in his abdomen. He pushed her away and when she came closer he tried to grab for her. She punched at his throat, but he grabbed her and put her in a sweaty headlock.
Xander couldn’t get a shot off because Fury was using Anjoleah as a shield. He momentarily closed his eyes afraid to look.
She was getting dizzy from Fury squeezing her head so tight. She tried to get out of his grip but she couldn’t. She gasped for air. Sheer adrenaline gave her the strength to finally trip him, and they fell to the floor. She maneuvered enough to knee him in his groin. After that he loosened his death grip long enough for her to free herself of him. She took a labored breath. He was still down on the ground trying to stand up. She turned and he grabbed her leg. With her other leg Anjoleah kicked him as hard as she could in his face. Causing him to scream in pain.
She turned to Craig. “Now you can take him into custody. Get Sid and him to the facility.” She stepped on her flying disk and rode to the next scenario.
The Xidoran Prophecy Page 76
