there. Whoever this Louis person was he was a…he was an angel. And you’ve been slipping back and forth into this alternate persona for years as a means of escape from the realities of the horrible things that you have done.”
If only all of us were blessed to be able to do what you are able to do.
If only I could do the same.
Louis was shaking his head in denial. Moses could see the conflict—the tempest rising within him. Moses backed up to the other boys—the children of the storm—and wrapped his arms around them as if he were a mobile barrier as if he could truly keep them safe.
Angel wasn’t afraid of Louis. She was afraid for him. She scanned their perimeter the way Christopher had taught her. The haze from the smoke made the task all the more difficult. Although the conditions make it just as problematic for those who would wish this man harm in a vail attempt to free the children. If someone chose to take their shot at him, the children standing too far away from here would draw their fire more freely. Of course she didn’t want these boys hurt. They’d been through far too much as it was, they’d have memories that would already haunt them the rest of their lives. Just as it haunts you, Christopher, she thought, just as it haunts you my beloved best friend.
She reminded herself again of her motivations: She did not want those boys hurt, but Louis had risked much on a personal level and his professional relationship with some very dangerous colleagues in Pandora to get them this far. He wasn’t a hero, but he had done something very heroic. He deserved to complete his treatment although imprisonment with other animals like Muhammad Clark downstate was far more likely.
“I need Hugh’s strength with us now if we are going to make it out of here alive.” Angel said to him.
“No,” Louis shook his head. “No. I won’t accept your explanation. You’re trying to manipulate me, Doctor, confuse me. You don’t want to awaken him.”
Angel got close.
“Serena Tennyson tried to manipulate you, confuse you. She wanted to get into your head, but you rose above it all. Just look at you now.”
“Stop it…stop it please…” Louis Keaton said in a weak voice.
“Serena wanted you to believe that Hugh was evil. He was a monster to her. He was a creature of the night that she wanted unleashed only when it served her needs. No wonder you thought that he was corrupted and evil when you slipped back into his persona.”
Louis Keaton fell to his knees and wrapped his head with his arms.
“Serena was right about me, Doctor. You are right about me, Doctor.” He finally said after a time. “Hugh is the personification of evil. Hugh was the personification of evil. Look at the terrible things that I’ve done with my life. Look at all the deaths and suffering that I am responsible for.”
“I don’t know your story. I can guess that you have been tormented. You’ve been used, abused and tortured.”
And so he told her…he told her it all with brevity and clarity and a daunting sense of purpose that nearly brought Angel to tears.
“What happen to this persona of Louis Keaton who is standing before you right now? What about him?”
Angel flashed him a smile that was littered in her own deep empathy she held for him as she crouched in her stance.
“Your friend Louis and his family were brutally murdered by your uncle in a house fire. Louis was your friend. He was likely the only true friend that you’ve ever known. He was tough, loyal and honorable…and all that is good in this world and the next. He was also a kid who was killed that day years ago. You lived. You lived on.”
“And you, Doctor, you…” He said through a fresh round of tears. “You’ve been kind to me before, Doctor.”
“I understand you, Hugh. We all have our means of escape to nurture us when we are hurting. You use Louis. I use…I use sex and alcohol…I use a lot of alcohol to escape, Hugh.”
And I wish that I had a bottle right now? I wish that I do with every fiber of my being.
Instead, she watched Hugh Keaton stand up taller than ever before.
“Somehow I knew that you would come for me, Doctor.” He said with a voice that was confident and strong. “I told Moses and the other boys that you would find us. We just had to stay together and believe in one another. And here you are. You are here just I knew that you would.”
“I believe that you’ve been calling out to me since all of this began, since 411. You’ve been leaving me subtle messages all along the way. You simplified it for me.”
“Messages,” The confident voice was gone again. “What messages are you talking about, Doctor?”
Now it was Angel’s turn to stand at her full height and place a hand on her hip. She felt an ache in her side where a knife had punctured there in her mini scrap with Roxanne Sanchez on the Marta far away from where she was right now. A heavy gust of wind tossed her brown hair here and everywhere. Another storm is coming on the city. It looked as if this city’s torment would never end. She could smell something burning in the distance. Otherwise this isolated area of the city just south of I20 was still.
It was too damned still.
“You staged those murder scenes with the dolls as a clue that you had these children in your possession.” She answered his last question at last. “You were giving my hints that they could be hurt by Serena if Special Agent Christopher Prince and the other FBI Agents didn’t find the compound in time after the Zero Hour passed.”
He shook his head and held himself tightly as if he would melt in the spot where he stood.
“You’re wrong, Doctor. I’m sorry, but you are wrong. I don’t remember designing any scenes or handling any dolls. Serena must have had someone else create these scenes that you are speaking of. I do remember hearing the Regent and Serena mentioning the need to keep your people off balance whenever they could, but I never heard them finalize any plans involving this particular method that you are speaking of right now.”
Angel cocked a brow, considering any and all possibilities that she’d failed to explore before. Are you capable of lying to me about this, Hugh? Who else would Oracle have trusted with those scenes?
And then some alarm bells and whistles went off in her head…damn…this wasn’t all on her head this time. She wanted to follow through this with him, but she knew time wasn’t on her time now. She had missed a step—a very important clue somewhere. But for now, at the least, she needed Hugh Keaton to surface.
And she needed him right now.
“You’ve always underestimated your intellectual abilities, Hugh. Your ability to adapt to any situation or environment is unmatched. Your true enemies concentrate on your weaknesses until it is time to exploit you for their purpose. I want to look long and hard at your strengths.”
“I have let them exploit me,” Hugh found some stability in his stance. “I do have strengths.”
“Yes, you have, Hugh. You knew that it was probable that I would be involved in this investigation since long before Pandora launched the 411 attacks on the city of Atlanta. You knew that I would know that you would have Atlanta’s children in your possession. Your history had told me that you wouldn’t hurt them—at least in any long term way. “
And then Angel cocked a brow.
“You wouldn’t hurt them then,” she said. “And you won’t do anything now that would hinder their chances of reaching their loved ones.”
Moses Jackson walked up to where the two adults were standing.
“Haven’t we stayed here long enough, Miss?” He asked. “Are we going home now? Are you going to help him take us the rest of the way home?”
“Soon, Moses,” Angel said with a tight smile. She quickly turned her concentration, her focus again on Hugh. “It is time to embrace your true self, Hugh Keaton. Come with me now. Let’s all go home.”
“And then?”
“And then we all began to pay the steep price for all of the mistakes we’ve made in our lives so far, Hugh. You will pay. I will pay. Moses and these children will also pay as Christoph
er Prince has all of these years.”
“Chris…” he said. “My general…is my general coming to see us? Is he coming to save us?”
“He will,” Angel methodically removed Roxanne Sanchez’s cell phone from her pocket. “All that I need you to do is give me the permission to call him. He could help us dodge whoever it is that is in pursuit of us. Your old general could help these boys make it to safety the way that you wanted him to keep those boys safe all of those years ago.”
“Safety,” The word sounded heavenly as it came off of his lips. “I want these boys to feel safe again. I want it for myself so very badly.”
Angel nodded and said: “Moses Jackson and these other boys will suffer nightmare of this ordeal for the rest of their lives, just like your general, Christopher Prince has. But they will live on, just as Christopher Prince has. Life is the key to all of this, Hugh. And perhaps they’ll use this setback as a means to thrive the way that your first general has thrived. Let me call him, Hugh. He can help us.”
Hugh Keaton nods an ok.
Angel reached her childhood friend after a handful of rings. She was thrilled to hear his voice. He had survived the Zero Hour, Scar, the earthquake, and all of the terrors that the Atlanta nights had thrown at them all.
And yet, what was he going through at that particular moment that he hadn’t even realized that he was talking to her and not Roxanne Sanchez on the other woman’s personal line. She gave him a terse update of