Scar: Where are our Children (A Serial Novel) Episode 7 of 9
Page 16
saying, but there was something just underneath the surface of what he was saying that meant a great deal more.
“I hope so, Chris. I hope so.”
“And speaking of this specialized unit of yours, Denise spoke to me about all of your training and expertise; I remember her saying that you were more than a fine surgeon. She said that you had leadership qualities that were unmatched as well. She was definitely impressed with your work. She said that you were a medical genius.”
“Denise…” Seth said, and when he finally said her name he knew that the moment of truth—both literally and figuratively between them—had finally arrived after minutes, after years of buildup. He took a deep breath and lay a hand on the agent’s shoulder.
“Denise…yea...look…I’m sorry for your loss. I know that the two of you had been divorced for some time, but what happened to her is beyond belief. Her death was a shock to me and our entire team as well.”
“Her team,” Chris looked around the floor. “Now that I look back at it I find it funny that, just like your wife, Denise never mentioned you were in Atlanta either. I saw her more than a couple of times after you’re training sessions would had begun, but yet no mention of you.”
Seth grinned like a madman.
“That is funny, Chris. You know, since we’re already laughing, let me tell you something even funnier: Like I said a few minutes ago, I knew that the two of you were divorced for some time now. Perhaps…just perhaps, your ex-wife didn’t feel that she owed you any explanation for what had been going on in either her professional.”
“You’re right there, Doctor,” Chris smiled with him. “And that fact goes for her personal life as well.”
And now it was Seth’s turn at nodding.
“I didn’t think that was my place to point that out, but thank you for saying it for me.” And then the Gray Man surprised both men by squaring his shoulders and getting into Chris Prince face. He had stared down death all the previous night; he wasn’t going to let anyone intimidate him now.
Chris as expected didn’t back down either.
They did the testosterone thing for a time until Seth noticed a torn piece of paper lying in the seat next to Chris that he had failed to notice before.
“Perhaps you should pay less attention to me, Chris, and more to that piece of paper next to your leg. I’m pretty sure that has something or the other to do with your lady friend returning with our cups of coffee.”
“Don’t dodge the subject, Doctor—“
“Why don’t you take a look at what it says?”
Chris finally reached behind him and snatched the paper off of the seat and gave it a disinterested look over.
But when he read it a second time his reaction was far different—and more serious.
Special Agent Chris Prince ripped the note into pieces, cursed and stormed out of the club section without a word of goodbye for Seth. The doctor allowed the moment to breathe again. He was thankful that the conversation—and any connection to Denise Prince and eventually him being at her place when she threw herself out of the window were not completed.
He squatted down and took the time and effort to piece the four torn parts of paper together…and read the note in spite of himself.
It said:
“I never lied to you, Chris. I never lied to you when I said that I didn’t know when or where the suicide bombers would be initiated during Scar. What I am guilty of is failing to mention to you that brainchild of all of this is me. The members of the Circle realized long before 411 that we could not win any prolonged engagement with Pandora. Once the Zero Hour passed and your agency as well as ours failed to secure the release of Atlanta’s missing children from the clutches of Louis Keaton we knew that we had no out left. Once the cold war ended and the situation went hot, we knew that victory was unachievable—at least in any traditional sense of the word.
And yet, we knew that we had to make these last hours of a House in Chains—at least this present version of it—memorable for them and for us.
History must never forget the lessons that we teach it now.
I also want you to know that I loved your brother very much. He only learned of my feelings days before his end. And because of my love for Xavier Prince by extension, that means that you and I are family and I love you as well. And as a member of my family I feel the need to bid you farewell, even in this crude manner.
I heard you when you said that you were dying.
But it is I who won’t live long enough to see you again, Christopher Prince.
It is time for a House in Chains to institute the final stages of Scar. We are to gather the last surviving members of the Circle, the Board and the higher ranking members of the Peacekeepers and are to engage in a massive suicide ritual at the mansion on Riverside Road on the south end of town.
The world will never forget what they will see there.
What do we see when we visualize our people’s future?
We see days filled with misery and pain.
Seth drops the torn letter as he feels discombobulated.
Special Agent Christopher Prince, the man who Seth had set off to Atlanta hurt or destroy must have been hurting inside more than anyone he knows—perhaps anyone that he ever has known. The Gray Man remembers the words of Quincy Morgan and his grandmother before him about the lasting effect of scars on the human conscious. And in some impossible sense, Seth understands the calamity that Quincy Morgan perpetrated on the world in the short hours Seth spent with the Peacekeepers one night earlier.
In his mind’s eye, Seth can see Denise Prince as she hops through her window and dies again and again and again…
He can see the fury that a determined Roxanne Sanchez has for his wife Angel as she leaves him behind while her personal search for vengeance continues.
He sees Quincy Morgan scalping the head off of a dead James Carter and holding high and proud while the Peacekeepers celebrate in mass.
He sees Grace’s letter for Chris and memorizes it nearly word for precious word although he’d only read it once.
And then the lights in the west club section of the Georgia Dome flicker on and off and on and then off…
Dr. Seth Dupree wanted to call out for Teresa again, he wanted to call out to anyone…but suddenly his lips fail to form the words…
And then all of the lights in the Gray Man’s world go black.
End of Episode 7
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Sneak Peek at Tempest Rising
The Zero Hour is long past; Scar’s destructive trap has been sprung and now an unexpected event from Mother Nature, an Earthquake, has caused a bad situation to become far worse. As a result, all sides in this conflict have taken heavy losses.
The surviving combatants of 411: Special Agent Christopher Prince, Serena Tennyson, Doctors Angel Hicks Dupree and her estranged husband Seth Dupree, Thomas Pepper, Roxanne Sanchez and Louis Keaton lives have all been changed forever.
And now let the reckoning begin—yet again.
Two of the anointed will meet their prophesized fate, two others have the fires of hell burning inside them, while the other three will face new crisis that make them wish for death before it is over.
And then the lost ones will fall at last.
A tempest will rise in their place.
And Atlanta will burn.
Dedication
As I’ve said before, this one is for…well, for me. This tale has been in my pipeline for a long time.
Nest Egg Publishing Note:
This was a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are use factiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Nest Egg Presents: Where are our Children
Episode
1: 411 (Available Now!!!)
Episode 2: Deliverance (Available Now!!!)
Episode 3: Rapture (Available Now!!!)
Episode 4: Past Prologue (Available Now!!!)
Episode 5: Zero Hour (Available Now!!!)
Episode 6: Betrayal (Available Now!!!)
Episode 8: Tempest Rising (Coming Soon)
Episode 9: Whirlwind (Coming Soon)
Available in Trade Paperback
Episode 1: 411 (Available Now!!!)
Episode 2: Deliverance (Available Now!!!)
Episode 3: Rapture (Available Now!!!)
Episode 4: Past Prologue (Available Now!!!)
Episode 5: Zero Hour (Available Now!!!)
Where to find this author online:
Follow Gary Sapp’s blog at garysapp.blogspot.com
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