Zero Hour: Where are our Children (A Serial Novel) Episode 5 of 9

Zero Hour: Where are our Children

(A Serial Novel) Episode 5 0f 9

By Gary Sapp

Copyright 2014 Gary Sapp

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Our Story so Far

Louis

Thomas

Chris

Roxanne

Xavier

Serena

Angel

Seth

Thomas

Chris

Sneak Peak at Betrayals

Dedication

Nest Egg Publishing Note

Nest Egg Presents: Where are our Children

Where to find this author online

Our Story so Far:

While incarcerated as an inmate at Calhoun State Prison in southwest Georgia, Xavier Prince, the leader of A House in Chains, confronts Michael Davenport; a man that he believes has knowledge of what turns out to be the 411 attacks upstate in Atlanta. Serena Tennyson and her Pandora associates carry out the highly coordinated, highly lethal attacks weeks later against the Andrew Young Youth Center, The Fox Theatre and the mayor of the city itself, Ernestine Johnson. On her deathbed, rotting away from a yet to be identified poison, Mayor Johnson enlist the aid of Thomas Pepper, a freelance reporter, to find out the answers to the three questions that every Person of Color in America wants to know. The FBI recruits a renowned Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Angel Hicks-Dupree to consult on the crisis in Atlanta—and after a confrontation with her husband, Dr. Seth Dupree, she reluctantly agrees to help. Her childhood friend, Special Agent Christopher Prince, turns out to be one of the hostages being held at the Fox Theatre. Meanwhile, his half-brother, Xavier, is confronted with his own problems as a siege breaks out at Calhoun Prison on the eve of his scheduled release. In the meantime, Christopher Prince escapes the theatre alive, but immediately faces a new predicament when he receives a series of text messages that his 20 year old stepdaughter has come up missing.

Roxanne Sanchez, formerly of the FBI’s training program, is now a private detective and has been hired by Chris’ ex-wife Denise to find her daughter Erica. Roxanne can tell from her conversations with both parents that they are hiding a deep dark secret from their time together as a family. Serena Tennyson show up at Thomas Pepper’s townhouse looking to confess on his blog for her role in the deadly 411 attacks as well as present a new warning to a House in Chains and all People of Color: Xavier Prince and his organization is to stand down or face a new round of attacks centered at Atlanta’s children. The FBI, led by Agent Prince, capture her, but not before paying a high price in casualties. Xavier learns of a plot to kill him upon his exit from Calhoun Prison as a volatile siege and riot takes place. Serena sees a series of frightening visions including the much prophesized Whirlwind coming to fruition. Yet, it is in real life where she is traumatized after being nearly raped by an APD police officer. After she and Thomas Pepper give separate but hotly contested interviews with the bureau, she escapes in a series of daring synchronized stages that leaves Christopher Prince and the FBI befuddled. After celebrating her freedom with her closest Pandora agents Serena instructs an increasingly fragile Louis Keaton to begin rapturing Atlanta’s children.

Chris and his ex-wife, Denise Prince, meet for lunch to discuss Roxanne’s search for Erica. The FBI Agent is promptly refreshed to the fact of how volatile his complicated relationship still is with her. Both parties are also reminded of the hostility that existed in their household that aided in their dissolution…and the catastrophic secret that has yet to be revealed to the general public about an event that occurred many years ago while they were still together. In the meantime, Roxanne Sanchez is far closer to finding their missing daughter than they both realize. The private detective’s tenacious search leads her to the Carver Housing Projects…just in time to witness the Peacekeepers launch a major offensive to liberate its citizens from underneath the rule of the Choir Boys. Xavier Prince and his Circle had decided that this community would no longer wilt under the oppression of thugs, drug dealers and gang bangers. Roxanne makes two starling discoveries while barely surviving the incursion at all: She meets a self-proclaimed Pandora mole named Joseph Champion and finds Erica Lovings dead body in a dumpster. At the same time, Chris and Angel began investigating staged crime scenes that they question whether they unlock secrets of the past, or disclose clues to future abductions. Chris learns of his step daughter's death and travels to Denise’s apartment to tell her the horrible news in person not knowing that Seth is secretly on the premises as well. Louis names Moses Jackson, the first of his new child captives, his general, and instructs the boy to watch over the other children he plans to rapture from Atlanta’s streets. And then, under increased pressure from Serena, Louis reveals a startling revelation of his past that so enrages Pandora’s leader, that she takes the time to journey to his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, to avenge a terrible wrong.

Thomas continues to fend off threats from retribution from both elements of a House in Chains and Pandora as he continues his final preparations for announcing his findings in front of a national TV audience. One of the most frightening aspects of his investigations is the discovery that America’s first Black president was not assassinated by a sniper’s bullet, but killed by the same unidentified poison as Atlanta’s Mayor, Ernestine Johnson. Even more unsettling to the blogger is that Serena herself is feeding him such vital information. Their relationship grows ever odder, ever more intimate. Upon Serena’s request, he meets with her and she discloses the physical remains to Thomas of Templeton Healy, the uncle of Louis Keaton who she took a brutal vengeance against for his past indiscretions against Keaton as a boy and other Memphis residents over a number of years. After a testy interview with Muhammad Clark, the other perpetrator during Atlanta’s first round of child abductions, an emotional Chris tells Angel the entire truth about the time he spent with Keaton while kidnapped. He was never sexually abused unlike the other captives who were taken. He was given the responsibility of watching over the other youngsters by Keaton. Yet, the emotional trauma that Chris suffered knowing the other boys were killed specifically because of his escape has continued to trouble him even to this point of his life. Seth and Denise show up at the agent’s hotel room with Chris’ ex-wife believing beyond a reasonable doubt that the two old friends have resumed a sexual relationship. Desperate and heartbroken, Denise commits suicide by throwing herself out of her apartment’s window while Seth is helpless to do anything but watch. After her funeral the two Prince Brothers have an impromptu reunion with both men concerned about the other’s decision making and general welfare moving forward. Roxanne had been following Seth and confronts him with her findings and rationale behind her decision that his estranged wife must die for her role in this crisis—and that she is the one that must kill her.

Louis

He was a bad boy having a party.

And when he was right, really right, no one had ever partied harder.

He was Aristotle, he was Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and he was Michael Jordan on the basketball floor.

And he was starting to feel really right again. And he wasn’t done yet.

An hour ago, Louis Keaton snatched Keven Mathis off the corner of Mitchell St. and Baker Court as the boy had walked out of one of the mom and pop convenient stores up there. He’d driven the F150 nearly up the front door and yanked the 13 year old right under those poor saps noses without being seen. He plucked the boy off the dirty asphalt underneath the thick haze the way a killer whale throws all of its tons on a sheet of ice to nab a seal in Antarctica. The way an old man pluck’s a gray strand of nose hair out of his nostril when he thinks the old lady ain’t looking.

He’d gotten him, but it had turned out that this kid wasn’t his cleanest catch…that’s for damned sure.

Young Keven liked his treats and that wasn’t a lie. His pockets were loaded with peanut butter cups, taffy, sticks of Bubble Yum, and a min can of Mountain Dew if Louis needed proof. This kid should weigh 400 pounds. He may have if we waited another week to grab him for sure. Louis finally got the F150 in gear and going again, controlling his speed as he drove the old girl down the raggedy street. He looked the part of a normal citizen, no different than any other man whose wife or girlfriend had sent him on a quick run to pick up something from the store.

He got his prize back to the sanctuary at last. Once inside, Louis rubbed the boy’s chin and jaw. Young Keven had the rough brown skin that reminded the older man of the bark of the sycamore trees back home in Memphis. When Louis threw Kevin into one of the closets, the handling that all knew recruits got until they settled down, all of the boy’s treats came spilling out of his pockets and on to the floor.

Again, this one was far from a perfect catch. He wasn’t Moses Jackson. He damned sure wasn’t Christopher Prince reincarnated. Yet, he will have to do. He