Scar: Where are our Children (A Serial Novel) Episode 7 of 9

by Gary Sapp

all of his concentration into his work. He managed to relax his mind while working his fingers. He allowed his experience and his years of training to lead him where he needed to go. This patient—he glanced at her chart again—Tabitha Blue needed his best efforts this afternoon. The bullet had only grazed an area of her skull lined with major tissue, but missed the subsection that housed her brain. A gunshot to the head was never good, but this was a workable situation. It would be a slow physical recovery for Ms. Blue. She might suffer some headaches and there would be bouts of memory loss but she would survive.

  The Gray Man just needed the damned lights to stay on—and for him not to make any mistakes.

  “Doctor Dupree,” One of the two doctors who had found the humor in his words earlier said. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine,” He said a little too quickly and instantly regretted it. He bridged the awkward silence by instructing her to hand him the scalpel to the far left. He made an incision that his medical tutors of long ago would have pleased with.

  “No, you’re not,” Dr. Parker, his number one assistant said. He was a former lunch partner of Denise Prince and whether through personal or professional jealously, hadn’t treated Seth with much affection during their training together. “You’ve been at this since you arrived—from nowhere—12 hours ago. You look like hell.”

  “I’m fine,” Seth replied again, stopping long enough to raise the bloody instrument towards the heavy set doctor. “You do, however, have the authority to relieve me of my duties by the rules we all agreed upon when we signed on to serve this state in matters such as this. But you wouldn’t start any shit like that—not now would you, Doctor?”

  Parker chose not to pursue any of those avenues just now.

  They completed the work on Tabitha Blue 30 minutes later. Teresa had returned from her errand just in time to inform Seth and Dr. Parker that this patient had two people, who she didn’t think were her relatives, waiting from a report from them on the next floor.

  Teresa’s words got Seth’s attention. Almost half of the patients at the triage center being treated for major trauma were solo acts who had been separated from loved ones by countless circumstances. This was a striking change from what he’d grown used to in his time here. He actually looked forward to speaking to who had accompanied Ms. Blue here.

  It feels good to be a surgeon again…it feels good to be me again. He had survived a terrifying night that he would have never given himself a chance of surviving before it began. He had proven himself worthy of life. He had proven himself worthy of living.

  But he was good at this. And what he was superior at was still in high demand after all of the madness perpetrated by equally as mad men over the past hours and days.

  And yet, when Seth saw the party who had escorted Tabitha Blue to this place, he knew that the madness had followed him here.

  “Let me see the chart again, Teresa,” Seth said, without looking back at the woman who trailed close behind him. He only had eyes for Special Agent Christopher Prince and a slim black woman who was seated next to him on a comforter. “The patients name full title was Special Agent Tabitha Blue of the FBI.” He said for his own ears more than the others standing near him.

  The Gray man left Teresa and Dr. Parker where they were standing and angled his way towards where Chris and this stranger to him were seated. I’m not prepared to deal with you right now, Agent Prince. He saw Denise Prince throw herself out of her apartment’s window to her death as he approached Chris. He knew that he wasn’t prepared to deal with a potentially grieving ex-husband…especially one who didn’t know what he knew about his ex-wife’s final thoughts and words before she died.

  And yet, Chris had knowledge of what came in the hour or so before that. What or perhaps who did Denise see inside of Agent Prince’s motel room that started her down that path to self-destruction?

  Seth took a deep breath as the two of them rose as he stopped next to where they had been previously been sitting.

  As Chris rose to his full height he said: “Hello, Doctor, thank you for seeing us…how is Tabitha?” He had achieved full recognition of the other man. “Seth? Dr. Seth Dupree is that you? What are you doing here?”

  “It’s good to see you again as well, Chris.” Seth stuck his hand out and let Chris give it a squeeze. “Sit down.”

  Chris flashed a look of dread.

  “Tabitha isn’t—“

  “No,” Seth shook his head and visibly saw the FBI Special Agent exhale visibly. Something else brightened on his dark face, something that Seth couldn’t immediately place. He saw Seth searching for an answer as well and he quickly introduced the younger woman wearing the tight braids in her hair as Grace—no last name. And since either one of the men were offering explanations Seth moved on to why he originally came up here. “Tabitha is stabilizing. Even as we speak she is recovering.”

  After Seth gave Agent Prince his immediate and long term prognosis of his patient he said: “She’s out of whatever fight you two are involved in, Chris. Your partner has a long recovery ahead of her, but I am very optimistic. In the short time we spent together I can tell that she is very strong and very stubborn.”

  Chris turned on a sheepish smile.

  “You don’t know the half of it, Doc.”

  The three of them sat in an awkward silence while the Georgia Dome’s lights flickered off and on again. Seth knew that he needed to get back to the business of his other patients. Agent Chris Prince had already turned on his professional demeanor. He had transformed into full investigator mode now: The Gray Man could see the other man examining every blink of his eye, every movement of his lip searching for clues to something hidden.

  The woman—Grace—kept checking her watch and suddenly couldn’t sit still. Seth couldn’t work out if she worked for the bureau or one of its many subsidiaries. She carried herself in a professional manner even as the fatigue showing beneath her eyes wore her down. For and instant—a small instant—Seth thought them to be lovers…but their chemistry wasn’t giving off that type of vibe.

  And in speaking of lovers—

  “Where is Angel, Chris?” Seth asked, wondering where his beloved was and if Roxanne Sanchez had made good on her threats towards his wife. “Have you heard from her in the past few hours?”

  Chris shoulders dropped a little.

  “It’s been a great deal of hours ago…before the Zero Hour and certainly before the quake hit.” Chris admitted to him. “I don’t know where Angel is, Seth, no one does.”

  “What in the hell do you mean by no one does?”

  Grace took the opportunity to excuse herself and offered to bring the two of them some coffee after she found and had one of her own. Chris nodded in agreement at her suggestion without lifting his eyes off of the doctor to watch her leave.

  Both men stopped speaking for a second as medical personnel rushed past where they were seated with another patient who looked to have numerous injuries to his lower extremities. Seth found a clock on the nearby wall and let his gaze hand there for a second so that the FBI Agent understood that he didn’t have an infinite amount of time to chat.

  “I’ve only heard this information second hand, Seth. Things didn’t end well between your wife and the bureau. Sheridan—my boss left a single agent responsible for keeping her put during the duration of this investigation into Atlanta’s missing children. She escaped him. No one knows where she went off to or why she made her escape. No one has seen a trace of her since.”

  “That means that she could be anywhere in the city.”

  “Well, the FBI has few resources to commit to finding her—especially in light of everything that has happened since. They are struggling with communications along with everything else. And now reports are surfacing about some super storm moving into the area over the next few hours to add misery to everything else.”

  Seth had noted that the wind had picked up substantially in the past few hours before the shelter of the Georgia Dom
e had at least taken that danger away. A super storm, you say, what else in the hell can wrong here? Seth got up and walked to one of the giant windows to see it for himself. Three men were fighting against that very wind while they were setting up a tent outside in the parking lot. Another man was chasing down some packaged medical supplies that had blown away as he gave chase.

  “I haven’t spoken to her either,” Seth said, almost defensively. “She hasn’t answered her cell in ages.”

  “It’s funny how she never mentioned to me once that you were in town. In fact she seemed hell bent on avoiding you all together.”

  “She never knew that I was here.” Seth hoped to quell the investigator’s instincts with quick and precise answers. “We had a knock down drag out fight just after your man Sheridan recruited her. Look, Chris, I’ve trained with this trauma unit for situations like this one over the past few years. I needed to do something when I suddenly found a lot of time on my hand. I also wanted to be closer to my wife if this situation between Pandora and a House in Chains deteriorated further. It looks as if I made the right choice.”

  Agent Prince was nodding.

  “I’m sure that this unit benefited greatly from having you aboard, Seth. I need to look no further than you saving my partner’s life as evidence of that.”

  Seth believed that the FBI Agent was being honest with what he was