Chapter 15

Sultry: Another country heard from: 15

Eva was de-bundled ... unwrapped, untied and debagged. After tea and a 'little something' she asked, "What happened to Hero Alfred?"

Well, that question gave them all pause...

"Oh ... Him ... the dead guy. Someone stuck an arrow in him." At least that's the information Eva gleaned from the several statements made in response to 'What happened to Al?'

"Who stuck him?" she asked.

"Got no idea," said Sultry, "He was shot in the back and we didn't look ... and then he was gone ... no reference to where the shooter was because we didn't have a body."

Sultry had a notion that there might be the possibility that Alfred might have been eliminated because he knew who was conspiring to kill the heroic template. Sounds like a Socialist agenda to me. Like 'No Child Left Behind.' Nobody is special ... the sheeple really are created equal. Get rid of those who excel ... they make the rest feel bad ... that kind of thing. Cursive is too difficult ... printing is fine. Who needs Farmers? We get our food from the supermarket ... like we always have. They teach that crap in college. "Whoever it was might have been trying for me," she told Eva. "I was up on his back milliseconds before the arrow struck."

"Cassie?"

"Sultry?"

"Go with Eva, I can't guarantee your safety."

"But..."

"Cassie ... go home. I have a trail to follow. I need to be alone." She set the watch.

The hunt became more complicated. The trail led from pillar to post, through a myriad of occupied planets and moons. Everywhere she went, there were obstacles and traitors and sheeple. And everywhere she went, there were presidents, rulers, kings and queens, all doing their absolute best to eliminate the Heroic Archetype.

Skamandrios was an inhabited airless, but formerly volcanic moon of the planet Hera in the Athena system orbiting around the star Hephaestus in the Andromeda cluster of the spiral galaxy Hecate.

As an airless moon the beings that settled there were tunnelers and created a vast system of passageways and chambers. Every clue had led straight to this place. Transferring from Cassandrian Portals to the planets ... and dimensions ... and back again, had been a lesson is the vastness of the plot. Hundreds of nations and billions of sheeple had been led to this place.

... the wonder of it all threw Sultry's mind out of gear and blew her clutch on reality.

When Sultry reached the very end, there were no visible guards. She opened the door and she was in the Oval Office. A pale gold rug with blue florets on the floor with radiating stripes ... a kind of a pointer to the Resolution desk.

The familiar face of the President of the United States of America was standing behind the desk. The ancient warrior face but there was that Andy grin that made people WANT to trust him. Behind him was the pumpkin drapes with gold curtains framing the windows. The view from the windows was very convincing. Secret Service agents could be seen crossing the lawn. Convincing until she noticed that the same agents crossed at the exact same intervals and made the same hand movements.

The President moved to his left.

Jack was in the room, tied to the presidential chair.

Jack didn't look good. Even in the light he had a green glow around the edges. Radiation poisoning, the thought came into her head. It was Jack. He was thinking to her.

I don't know what element, he thought at her. They've been using me as a lab rat. I'm dying ... there is no cure.

The President said, "Sultry. Give yourself up."

"Ain't happening, asshole," she said, "What made you think you were going to get away from this unscathed."

"Girl, I am the duly elected President and commander in chief and I'm ordering you to stand down."

That's when he made the last mistake of his life. He reached for the phone. She flickered...

Sultry set off the bomb. It wasn't a very big bomb ... didn't need to be. The room wasn't that big.

"In the News. Today, the President of these United States of America was killed in a bomb blast. The suicide terrorist was the wife of John Flintkote. Sergeant Flintkote, United States Army Retired, was in the White House for the presentation of the Congressional Medal of Honor. More in sixty seconds."