Sneak Peek at “The Angel Protocol”
Prologue
Washington D.C. 2225 A.D.
I watch the jury enter the courtroom. Some have smiles on their faces, some look at the floor. The verdict was never in doubt, and by watching their faces I know what’s written on the piece of paper in the foreman’s hand as surely as if I’d been sitting in the room as it was written. I glance at Dad, he knows, too.
The foreman holds the paper up for the bailiff to take to the judge and their eyes meet. Both have painful looking scars on their faces and anger in their eyes. Every member of the jury except for one is marked. The single washed member is staring at me. She wants to cry, but is holding it back.
The judge glances at the paper and hands it back to the bailiff, who returns it to the foreman.
“Have you reached a verdict?” the judge asks.
“We have, your honor. On the count of conspiracy to commit mass murder, we find the defendant, Jocelyn Kimberly Paulson, guilty.”
I’m now officially a war criminal.
There are eight uniformed officers and twelve wearing plain clothes in the courtroom, they all move their hands toward their stun guns as the verdict is read. The room is also full of former members of Four. They won’t try to rescue me though. They could easily disarm every officer in the courtroom, but there’s a veritable army waiting outside should they try it.
“Does the defendant wish to make a statement prior to sentencing?”
There are cameras in the courtroom, my statement will be to a worldwide audience.
“I speak to the faithful, both marked and washed. I know that you see no justice in what has happened here today, just a handy scapegoat for misplaced anger. I ask that you all stand firm in your faith and know that the Lord has a purpose in all things. Don’t meet anger with anger. Now is the time to love and pray for your enemy as if they were your brother. Good things will come from this, I promise.”
I look to the judge.
“Under any other circumstances I would be restricted in sentencing you, but recent changes in the law have opened up the options available to me. Therefore, I will say the words that no judge in this country has uttered for well over a century - Jocelyn Kimberly Paulson, for crimes committed against humanity, you are hereby sentenced to death.”
I have been sentenced to death, but not in the way that you think…
I look at Dad and smile.
Even he doesn’t know.