4-1-1: Where Are Our Children (A Serial Novel) Episode 1 of 9 Read online

destroy what so many of our forefathers, on both sides of the color barrier, have worked to diligently to build together in this country.

  Louis had nodded at her response, but thought there had to be something a great deal more personal in this for her. Serena must have had read his thoughts because she added, the finest man I’ve ever known sacrificed everything to further the cause of People of Color. And I do mean everything. Now, too many of them abuse his sacrifice. Many of them breed like rabbits. They can be cruel to one another. And too many of them are uneducated, unreliable and act too uncivilized to contribute to society.

  Louis Keaton heard the police helicopter flying nearby, bringing him back to the present, and reminded him of the danger that he faced if he dared hang around any longer. And he knew that he had to go right now or all would be lost. So he stole one final glance at the family members, the onlookers, the everyday citizens, he looked at them all, still locked arm in arm.

  He knew there is a human sense of comfort and relative safety when you are sheltered under the umbrella and fellowship.

  Even the uncivilized knew this too be true.

  He found Serena Tennyson, Danielle Rohm, and three other Pandora agents dining at one of the upscale restaurants lining the cobblestone streets three miles from where his route began. The stench of burning concrete and ignited fertilizer was replaced by the smell of grilled chicken, the sound of crying supplanted by laughter and a dozen different delightful conversations.

  “Why didn’t you tell me that children would be inside of the youth center when the bomb was detonated?” Louis asked Serena with some gruff. He was gassed and struggled to catch his breath. “I specifically remember our simulations involved detonating an explosive at an abandoned building with a triggering device as merely a symbolic gesture during the early hours of 411.”

  “I gave you instructions to be carried out, a target.” Serena Tennyson said coldly. The suggestion rattling around in her hushed tone that he should wisely sit down in the seat she was offering him and to lower his voice to match her tone.

  Serena Tennyson:

  She was a long and athletic looking redhead in her early 40’s. In Louis’ experience, most men would say that she was more handsome than beautiful with her understated makeup and her hair tied in a bun; and she often looked more sophisticated than sexy in her tailored pants suits and short jackets. Although tonight she wore a gray sweat suit and had a ring of sweat drying in the area neckline and above her small breast. She had a long neck, accompanying freckles, and the next time someone stumbled upon a smile curving her thin lips, it would be a first. Hard is what her associates called her—in hushed voices well out of hearing, of course—and hard she was.

  When Louis wisely sat down across from her she said, “The simulations were programmed to present you with many different variables that you could face as you carried out your assignment tonight. I kept the specific details of this operation confidential to guarantee Pandora’s success even if you were injured or captured…as you nearly were.”

  Louis waved a trembling index finger up at her.

  “Don’t play word games with me, Serena.” When Oracle’s gaze hardened, as the operatives often referred to her in the field, Louis felt his finger feebly fall back on the table. “Please. I don’t wish to be responsible for hurting anyone else.” He said, refusing to compete in her gaze staring contest any longer. “I am many things, but I am not a heartless killer.”

  “That is a noble sentiment of you, Louis.” She said. She stopped long enough to take a long pull from a bottle of water. There were three empty containers in her vicinity. “And yet, you need to be aware and understand how pivotal your role is in this game we are playing; this game that Pandora must come through as victorious. I want you to relax your thoughts for one minute. I want you to imagine that you and I are sitting perched atop the highest snowcapped mountain in the entire world.” Serena raised her hand high above her red hair as if she were demonstrating to a dull child. “We’re high up here. We are at the top. Tonight, we unleashed an avalanche—so devastating, so lethal that we’re hopeful that it will crush our adversaries completely and absolutely while it is on a downwards path. As this game draws closer towards finality, we hope each choice we make will derail our enemy’s resolve, ensuring the least amount of casualties on both sides as possible.”

  “An avalanche, you say?” He had to admit her proclamation made sense. “Yes, I guess I see your point clearer.”

  “You’ve served our cause…your country’s cause, well tonight.” Serena suppressed a smile and got to her feet, her subordinates following her lead. “We all thank you for your efforts. I know this was not an easy assignment.”

  “I said that I see your point,” Louis replied, running both hands through his thinning hair. “I didn’t say that I felt any better about what I’ve done tonight. I feel so…evil.”

  Serena flashed her first air of inpatients of the evening and planted her hands on her slim hips. The younger of the two women, Danielle Rohm smoothly stepped into the vacant space between Louis and Serena, pried his hands open with her own and squeezed his wrinkled fingers.

  Danielle Rohm:

  She was on the right side of 30, pale, petite, and wore her jet black hair in a single braid that ran the length of her spine. Louis knew she kept at least one pistol strapped to her thigh just out of sight. She was dressed entirely in black. She was always dressed in black.

  “Louis, you do understand that you sent those children to a far better eternity than their lives could have been here, in this life.” Danielle Rohm said. “And you did this without them suffering any unnecessary pain or injury. Their deaths were instantaneous.”

  Serena had frowned in irritation at the younger woman’s unsolicited input. “I’m sure he does.”

  “Yes.” Louis said in a quiet voice. “I guess that I do.”

  “Good.” Serena nodded in Rohm’s direction while never taking her gaze off of Louis. Although the younger woman had aided in restoring order, Serena was likely to reprimand her for her interference, especially in front of the others. Louis did not envy Shooter over the coming hours. “What do I require of you now, Louis? Remember our sessions, all of those hours we’ve spent together over the past six months readying you for tonight’s events and those that lie beyond.”

  Louis stood a little taller and lifted his chin. “I am to proceed to our previously agreed upon location. I am to promptly finish setting up a temporary sanctuary for our coming visitors.”

  “And,”

  “And I am to continue mastering my meditation techniques. I should exercise balancing my breathing patterns with emphasis on calm and concentration.”

  “Good, Louis.” Serena folded her arms. “And finally,”

  He searched the starred skyline a second for guidance, buttoned his jacket against the night’s chill, and then nodded assuredly. “And finally, I should stay out of site and await your signal for me to reassume my work, Serena.”

  “Good.” Serena raised his chin with two of her long fingers. “I want you to understand that I have the upmost confidence in you. Tonight, only solidifies my belief that you are the right man for this job…Hugh.”

  Louis snatched himself away from her touch. An old anger—one that he long thought that he’d suppressed forever, rose up seemingly in his chest so abruptly that he wondered if he could maintain his discipline and contain it. One of the other agents’ noted Louis’ rapid change in demeanor and placed his palm on the butt of his sidearm, while Danielle Rohm did the same, as she already placed her tiny frame between Louis and Serena.

  “Louis,” He bit his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. “My name is Louis. I’m Louis Keaton of Memphis, Tennessee.”

  Serena placed a hand on Rohm’s shoulder and the younger woman slid to one side, Shooter eyeing Louis the entire time and never relinquishing control of her weapon.

  “I guess we’ve arrived to this point where you would expect a heartfelt apolog
y from me.” Serena twisted her long neck ever so slightly to her right, studying his ocean blue eyes that never seemed to blink. “Sorry, I don’t think I’ll be able to find the words. Hugh Keaton. He is who you are, your true self. And Hugh Keaton is a monster. He is a monster who, with the right amount of guidance or nurturing, can achieve greatness in the days to come. I was a fool for listening to Doctor Angel Hicks-Dupree when I allowed her to cage the real you, the complete you. This Louis caricature is but a seashell on a beach. Why you should only accept being a simple seashell lying even on the beach, or even be that place in paradise in fact, when you can assume the identity of an entire ocean as you’re very own.”

  “Please refrain from calling me by that name.” Louis said to all who would listen. “I am Louis Keaton. I am but a shell of that seashell your mentioning. I’m a seashell trying to keep from being washed away by that ocean.” Louis swallowed hard. “But I won’t fail you. You have my word, Serena, that I won’t fail you…”

  Serena said, “We’ll speak on this matter again at length after your progress at the sanctuary is completed. Go now…my friend. Your work here is at an end.”

  Louis felt all of their judgmental eyes upon him as he turned to leave. He decided that it was still in his immediate interest so serve Pandora overall and