Angels Mark (The Serena Wilcox Dystopian Trilogy Book 1)

Angels Mark Chapter 21

21

Serena admired the photos of herself with President Ann Kinji – standing in her very own kitchen! She copied the entire 120 pictures of her family with the President onto her laptop. Then she synced it with her iPad. She made desktop pictures for each. How she wished she could post them to Facebook, but she was officially still in hiding. She wondered if her connection to the President could help her get her family’s identity back without penalty – it would be so liberating to shed the Meadows persona. Then she could freely share her prized pictures of herself with the first female president!

The photos had taken only a few minutes to take, her rapid-fire digital camera beep, beep, beeping, taking dozens of pictures of nearly identical poses. Samuel raced for his own camera, and the session began anew. Ten minutes later, the cameras were off. Serena didn’t want President Kinji to regret accepting her invitation to come to her home. Enough already, it was time to serve the president coffee and a snack; and, she anticipated, talk like old girlfriends! Oh, how she’d love to pick the president’s brain. This would be the best coffee chat ever!

Unfortunately, that was when Ann received a call on her special line. She made her goodbyes quickly, after having spent less than fifteen minutes on the Meadow’s property, and was out the door before the coffee could even finish brewing. The Meadows, clinging to their fifteen minutes of fame, stood on their lawn; watching the convoy, and waving until the president’s entourage was completely out of view. Then they all trudged back into the house.

“At least I got pictures,” said Serena. When she got back inside that was the first thing she did: download the pictures, and she couldn’t resist sending a few to Karyn and Dan via e-mail. When she was finished gawking at and preserving her photos, she joined Tom at the kitchen table, where he was not letting the fresh coffee go to waste.

“I keep thinking about poor Clyde,” she said.

“Yeah, me too,” said Tom.

“I wonder how Paul is doing,” said Serena.

“The secret service is probably still watching him, he’s probably fine,” said Tom, without conviction.

“No, they left. President Kinji said that all of her team was heading back,” said Serena.

“If it would make you feel better, we can check on him,” said Tom.

“I think we should do that, yes,” said Serena. “I feel kind of responsible for him since we went along with his plan without double-checking to see if President Kinji really did authorize it.”

“It wasn’t our fault.”

“I had a nagging feeling that they were lying, but I ignored my gut feeling,” said Serena.

“You didn’t kill Clyde. But we’ll find Paul.”

Serena suggested that they leave the kids at home, not wanting a repeat of the disastrous occasions of the past few days. Then they were out the door to find a person who, as recently as just a couple days ago, they had been trying to avoid. They first tried the house Paul had shared with his brother Clyde, but finding no one at home, they went to the computer lab. Serena had a hunch that he might go there to feel close to Clyde.

At the lab, they found only a young boy, around fourteen years old. They knocked on the glass window of the entrance door. He stared at them for a few seconds, dismissed them as non-threatening, and opened the door for them. He didn’t say a word, but looked at them expectantly, a non-verbal invitation to speak.

“I’m Serena Wil—mmm, Meadows,” she said. “This is my husband Tom. I used to be a private detective, but I’ve lost my knack for finding people. I’m looking for Clyde’s brother, a man named Paul.”