that marathon, your father had most of his stock options go south on him. He’d lost everything.”
“He made a mistake, Angel, but unlike most human beings, he owned up to it.”
“He came home from the office,” Angel continued as if Serena hadn’t spoken at all. “He had decided that it was time to sacrifice his body to the flames.”
“He was a brave man—“
“And how brave was your mother, Serena?”
“That…bitch…she never believed in Daddy’s visions, his callings. She ran like the weakling she was. But Daddy caught her, cornered her.”
“Yea, he did, Serena. She’d made it as far to the tool shed out back before doused her with gallon after gallon of gasoline. And then he struck a match and tossed it at her.”
“He did not want her to suffer over time for his mistakes.” Serena’s eyes had widened to full hilt, and Angel could imagine that the woman sitting across her was no longer the hard leader of Pandora, but the 17 year old girl who watched this entire scene unfold as she observed in horror from the kitchen door.
“He set her ablaze, Serena.” Angel sat back in her chair, exhausted as if she had ran one of Serena’s marathons for her.
“And then he glanced back at me,” Serena said in a reflective voice. “I’ve often wondered why he didn’t come for me as well. Perhaps, it was because the flames had danced their way over to his pants leg and licked at his thighs, his groin…he could have ran but he didn’t. The flames had come for him at last and he stood there and let them. I recall it being a slow burn. He screamed in ecstasy. He sacrificed himself so I would be a better person. I will always remember them as flames of disclosure.”
“You are truly insane, Serena.” Angel said.
“No, I’m being quite reasonable considering the opponents I’m up against.” The Serena Tennyson, the hard one who was the leader of Pandora had returned in earnest. “I’m trying to save People of Color from themselves.”
“Save it, Serena.” Angel spat. “Take another look around you. A House in Chains is not our father’s NAACP; they are not our grandfather’s Civil Rights Movement. For the past 20 some odd years they have lifted the Black Community to heights never seen in this country’s history. Isaac Prince’s vision has transcended an entire race. You know better than I do, that their strength comes from their unrelenting resolve…and their numbers. A House of Chains got away from the old school mentality of basing their movement around Christianity, Islam, or any other religion. They don’t care if you are a smoker or a casual drinker. They accept people into their bosom and value them whether they are rich or poor whether they are college educated or ride on the back of a garbage truck for a living.”
Angel got to her feet again, and rounded on the other woman, ending up behind her left ear. “Respect of Person, Serena,” Angel said. “For the first time in this country’s history, the numbers show that there are more Men of Color enrolled in college than there are in prisons. Respect of family, Serena. Black women having children out of wedlock is at 35 or 40 year low. The divorce rate has been cut in half. Respect of Community, Serena, cases of rape, domestic violence, gun violence, poverty, and drug convictions are all at or near historic lows in what we still consider predominantly black neighborhoods.”
“They can still be cruel, unreliable…and uncivilized,” Angel imagined that the other woman pictured her two attackers with her doe eyes as the words parted her lips.
“The Great Recession set them back. It set all of us back.”
“They are doomed to eventual failure, Angel. I’m trying to save them from themselves. This progress you speak of has come too hard to fast. Isaac Prince’s vision was an honorable one. His son and those in The Circle who do his bidding have perverted his father’s vision. Even their name, People of Color speaks to their arrogance.”
Angel stooped and wrapped her left arm around Serena. She seemed not to unwelcome the doctor’s touch, at least for now. “You’re wrong, Serena, it truly speaks to how people of Latino and Asian, and Middle Eastern…and hell, Caucasian people have joined their ranks, have taken the mark. Some government officials estimate that there are 10,000 Peacekeepers in America. This young men and women are drug tested, trained, and eventually set loose on the streets of urban America, taking back neighborhoods from prostitution, corrupt cops, thieves and drug pushers.”
“That would be all good and well, Doctor, but remember the threat that is not so subtlety implied at the conclusion of that passage.”
She did know it: And when our homes and our Houses are secured at last we will turn our attention to the Rooster, for he must make reparations for all that he has done to us; this is the ultimate Vision of our Future.
“And I guess you mean to stop them by any means necessary.” Angel asked her.
“No. I suppose not.” And just as Angel’s eyes flicked ever hopeful, if Serena Tennyson would turn from this destructive path, she knew Pandora would fall apart. “I’ll be dead soon.” She peeked over at the mirror on the wall. “They won’t let me live much longer.”
Twenty minutes after Serena abandoned Angel and the interrogation with for the return of her security detail…and her chains, the doctor watched as Christopher, Agent Sheridan and Agent Blue took her spot in the room that was warming as the afternoon sunshine moved in.
Christopher spoke up first, “I’m a little worried about your safety from reprisals from Pandora, Doc, I think we should have your hotel room monitored at all times moving forward.”
“I agree.” Blue said. “I think we got a lot of your interview with her, but she is trying to use you the same way she used that reporter down the hall.”
Agent Sheridan nodded, but looked a little shaken. “That whole bit about her parent’s murder suicide. It was just a footnote in our files…but to hear both of you recanting the story. I think her entire ideology is based on her relationship with him.”
“Yea,” Christopher agreed. “Her attachment with him and whoever this Caretaker character is partly why we are all in this mess right now.”
Angel nodded in her head in agreement. She reached for her coffee cup out of habit; the coolness of the handle reminded her that it was undrinkable for more than just one reason. Her childhood friend and Tabitha excused themselves, anxious for another round at Thomas Pepper, with Chris putting up a phone sign with his hand mutely saying that he would call her later.
Sheridan remained behind. The doctor consciously using the gathering of her paperwork as an excuse to remover herself from his shadow just in case the whiskey betrayed her by leaking through her pores with the perspiration that had built up with the tension of the interview.
Yet, in that same exact moment, Angel decided that she would go out and by bottle or two of gin or whatever else she chose after she left her. She would keep her a small irrelevant stash with her at all times in case the stress became overwhelming. Fuck Sheridan and his expectations. She could function with the booze. She had always functioned with it before, that wouldn’t change now. Damn. A part of her wished she had listened to her husband, Seth, and stayed home with him and her patients back in Macon.
“Doctor, did you hear me?” Sheridan asked. How long had she been tapped out of it? “I asked you for your professional opinion?”
“I’m sorry, Agent Sheridan, I was reading some of these notes in my file.” She said smoothly “What did you say?”
“I asked do you think Serena Tennyson is suicidal.”
Angel said, “Before the attempted sexual assault, I would consider the percentages very low to nil. But that kind of thing can break any woman, even a sociopath like the one escorted out here a few minutes ago.”
“Even after witnessing what her father did in front of her?”
“In her father’s eyes, he failed in his mission of raising and protecting his family when he lost all their money. She’s been caught sticking her hand in the cookie jar, but there are still other sweets in the kitchen that she may have an opportunit
y to grab undetected.”
Sheridan smiled at that one. Smiles looked good on the agent. “I can’t disagree with your diagnosis, Doctor.” He said and the smile still hadn’t dissipated yet. “Despite your little tantrum you threw at the Chief Negotiator, I believe you have been helpful so far on this case. Thank you, Doctor.”
She felt the first stab of guilt for cursing this man for trying to protect his people and his mission. “That’s why I am here, sir.” She said, maintaining her distance now more than ever.
“We have a lot going over the next half a day or so. I need that woman alive to answer for all the charges she’s facing and the lives she has taken. Tomorrow my concerns shift to someone trying to assonate her out when we transport her out of this facility to Federal Jurisdiction in Virginia. I’m already assigning every available hand I can spare to help with this transition.”
Angel halted all of her movement in one motion, as the delayed reaction of what coded message that Serena had said to her before she left. I’ll be dead soon.
What floored her even more is that the doctor believed Serena wanted her to decrypt her message. They won’t leave me to live much longer.
“However many people you are going to assign to this mission, Agent Sheridan it isn’t enough.”
“Thank you again, Doctor, but I already know that the leader of Pandora is a tempting