“The Catalyst” Series
Chapter 46: The Big Day
The day dawned bright on the sun dappled street on which
Frank and Linda Jennings lived with their two youngest children. Their house
was noticeable on the street mainly because of the large number of cars parked
both on and off the driveway. It was a good thing the family was thought of so
fondly, otherwise they’d have had problems with the neighbors as a result.
It seems their son had more than a few women who trailed
after him. The neighbors were never sure of their relationships with the Jennings family, although they had their own theories about it. However, the women were all
quite friendly and outgoing, and the neighbors had welcomed them as extended
members of the Jennings’ residence.
The Jennings’ son, Alex, had sent his two girlfriends home
relatively early the night before, relatively being the operative word since it
was their Prom night. They left before 2 a.m. at least. When they asked
him about his plans for the following day he’d had to beg off, complaining about
his throat hurting and his needing to rest. They offered to come over and help
him relax. But as an alternative, he suggested they visit Kimberly, their
artist friend, to check up on her painting, and maybe buy some additional
jewelry from her, since Alex had liked the pieces they’d already gotten from
her. However they were still insistent on spending time with him. Finally he’d
had to be firm with them, saying that he had something happening that he
couldn’t tell them about, but that they couldn’t be present for. He was
sorry to have to keep them in the dark, but there was no other alternative. But
he promised they’d find out about it as soon as it was all over. Needless to
say, that didn’t ease their apprehension much, but they respected him enough to
follow his advice. They didn’t question him about it and they made plans to
visit Kimberly like he suggested, as well as spending the day helping the girls
still working on the loft, which is where most of the other girls of the
household were heading that day.
The master and mistress of the house, Frank and Linda Jennings, took off late the previous night, not wanting to be anywhere near when whatever
was going to happen occurred. They knew they’d have to bear witness to the
results, but the anticipation of it was more than either one could stand.
Starting at 7:00 AM various people came out one by one and
drove off. Two people situated in a dark SUV parked nearby kept close watch
over the people leaving. They were concerned that if everyone were to leave at
once, it would make their job impossible to carry out, but it had never come to
that. They could also clearly see each individual as they climbed into their
cars, so they were sure the person they were interested in wasn’t one of the
ones leaving the house.
They were amazed at the number of people living in such a
small house. They figured they must be packed into the house like sardines,
which was saying something, since they lived in small apartments typical of the
section of Chicago they lived in. Still, while it was odd, there was nothing to
make them skittish about the situation. They’d been told there were a lot of
people living at the house.
After the early morning rush of people leaving for unknown
destinations, quiet descended on the house again. The observers wondered why
the house was so busy this early on a Saturday, but they didn’t question their
luck in having eliminated so many potential witnesses. Around 9:00 a neighbor
come out of her house on the other side of the street, dressed in running
clothes. She looked fit, and the occupants of the car watched her as she
started to run, her muscles rippling and her tight buns flexing. However, she
stopped and started fussing with her shoelaces behind the car, which panicked
the two men in the car. They were straining their necks trying to make out what
she was up to when she stood again and set off, once again running away from
them, which afforded them a nice view of her posterior. Man, these rich white
housewives that had nothing better to do than run around in expensive running
outfits, iPod earphones in her ears, and one of those obnoxious fanny packs
around her waist that accentuated the movements of her buns.
Once she disappeared, things settled down once again and
there weren’t any more movements on the streets aside from the occasional call
of random birds in the trees welcoming the morning sunlight and a slight breeze
shaking the leaves in the trees. It didn’t take long for the woman they’d
watched before to come trotting back. She looked almost as good coming as she
had leaving, and they both watched her until the driver noticed the front door
of the subject’s house opening. That focused both of their attention on their
job again. They watched as a young man they could clearly identify as their
subject, a skinny white kid by the name of Alex, start off on his own jog
around the neighborhood. However, instead of coming out to run on the street
like the woman had, this kid started off across his yard, running across the
neighbors’ yards. Being young and energetic, he was easily able to vault the
neighbor’s low fence as he set off. Figuring this would likely be their best
opportunity, the driver put the car in gear and slowly pulled away from the
curb, never noticing that the woman runner from next door was trailing the car
on the far side, staying safely in the car’s blind spot.
They also didn’t notice the various people and objects
carefully hidden along the street and set back in the woods behind the houses.
The previous day some of the women who lived in the house had wandered the
street, looking for good places to unobtrusively place mobile recording
devices. These were all activated now and were currently filming the occupants
of the truck as it trailed the young man they were following. They also didn’t
observe the women wearing camouflage suits lying in the grass. There weren’t
many of them, and they’d been lying there for most of the night, but they were
dedicated to their tasks, so they had been waiting patiently and hadn’t moved
enough to alert those they were quietly observing.
The source of the car’s occupants’ interest was very nervous
about this enterprise. He and his friends had gone over it numerous times, and
it had seemed incredibly risky each time, but there was really no way of making
it any safer. He hoped his nervousness didn’t show in his face, but he focused
on what was important, his having kept those he cared for safely out of the
potential lines of fire. If the car he knew was following him was coming after
him, he knew it would be well away from everyone else.
There really wasn’t anyone remaining in the house at the
moment aside from Natalie and Anh. Natalie was in charge of the medical
supplies, and Anh was quietly keeping her apprised of what was happening, since
neither one was willing to risk being seen glancing out the windows at what was
unfolding outside. The current focus of their lives was even then putting
himself in the line of danger for this crazy little scheme of his. It was true
they had taken precautions, but all it would take would be a single lucky gunshot
and all those precautions would be for naught. And it wasn’t just himself that
he was putting in danger, it was each of their lives, the lives of each of his
followers, whatever level of abilities they may or may not have. He was also
risking all those he might otherwise reach and impact, as well as all of their
children after them. This single solitary folly was potentially threatening the
future of a whole new ethnic group, and that thought terrified them almost as
much as the risk of losing someone they loved.
Shani was providing them with a running commentary, since
she could see everything. She had the benefit of both her camouflage clothing
and her dark skin, lying hidden amongst the shrubbery down the street. She was
recording the events, either for the police or for them to use at his memorial,
only time would determine which use was more fitting. Gail, who was currently
running soundlessly beside the car, now crouched down just enough so she could
just peer into the front. So far she couldn’t see anything incriminating, but
she was watching carefully. She knew enough to know they would have something
ready to use at a moment’s notice.
Although she’d already tendered her resignation to the St.
Louis police force, she’d asked them to hold it for a short time in order to
assure everyone it didn’t look like a political move to cover their own asses.
At least that was how she’d explained it to her superiors. Besides, she’d said,
she had matters out of town that would keep her from making any scenes in St.
Louis until the paperwork had gone through, and that had satisfied them.
However, if they knew she was about to be involved in a police action, by an
officer officially ‘on leave pending termination processing’ in another state,
they’d be likely to have a cow. To know she was using their own equipment to do
so could potentially embarrass them tremendously. Luckily she hadn’t bothered
to mention that to them.
The ‘official’ police presence was on standby. They’d been
notified the house was being watched but they were warned away from visiting
the site. Since the police couldn’t assign someone to indefinitely babysit
someone on suspicion of a possible attack, they weren’t the primaries in this
action. When Gail had set out on her run she’d called them, then when she’d run
to the end of the block she’d called Michelle and sent her the photo she’d
taken with her phone of the license plate of the car. Gail had told her to send
a couple of police cars, but the cars were warned to remain quiet and to stay
away from the scene, remaining nearby and ready to respond when they received
word they were needed, or when they happened to hear gunfire. Luckily they’d be
able to respond quickly, but unfortunately ‘quickly’ wouldn’t be soon enough to
save Alex’s life if something went wrong with their carefully wrought plans.
However, those plans were unfolding now. Alex was jogging across his neighbor’s yards, something anyone who knew him would be amazed at,
since he’d never been much of a runner before. However he was young and seemingly
in good health, so he could cover some distance if he needed to. But all he
needed was to draw the single SUV watching him a little further. He crossed
three yards, nearing the halfway point on the block, when he turned off,
heading into a clearing cutting through the woods behind the houses. The two
men watching him, not being familiar with the neighborhood, had no idea where
it might lead, and were therefore afraid they might lose their only
opportunity, especially since he presented such a promising target at the
moment.
Gail observed the window on the far side of the dark colored
SUV lowering and knew she had to take action. She ran around to the other side
of the vehicle and arrived just in time to see a large caliber pistol appearing
out of the window.
‘Down! Now!’ she yelled mentally as she brought her
own gun to bear, shouting out loudly, “Police. Drop your weapon!”
She could see the driver glance back at her, but the passenger
was already committed and before the words were half out of her mouth she could
see the explosion of the gunpowder inside the chamber flare out before the
sound ever reached her, as he fired off a shot. Panicking, fearing she may be
too late, she fired blindly into the passenger side of the car. She heard a cry
and the gun fell from the shooter’s hand, but the driver, recognizing they were
in trouble, stomped on the gas and the car jerked and lurched forward. They
were accelerating away while Gail stood rooted behind them, locked in a
shooter’s stance. As they started to gain a little distance, her gun sounded
and they suddenly found their car not responding properly as it started to
tremble and veer to the side. It was immediately clear their left side tire had
been shot out. Another couple of pistol cracks sounded, but the occupants of
the vehicle were too busy to focus on where the shots went.
Alex had been jogging easily but nervously, almost near the
edge of the woods when he heard the warning from Gail. He tried to drop
immediately, but he was just starting to move when he heard two far off pops.
He concentrated on falling, hoping he could will himself to fall faster, but it
did little to hurry up what seemed like a lengthy process. Before he was even
halfway to the ground he felt something slam into his back, twisting him
around. A second slug tore into his side as he tried calling out, his weakened
throat barely giving voice to his alarmed cry.
The two shooters were still trying to get away, driving erratically
on three working tires, as the driver had the gas pedal floored. The car was
responding poorly, but they were still making some headway. However the driver
saw a vehicle enter the intersection ahead of him, blue lights flashing. Since
this was only a narrow suburban street, the police car essentially blocked the
whole intersection so they didn’t have much choice. There wasn’t much chance of
being able to drive across the nearby lawns crowded with trees and bushes with
a blown tire. As he braked hard, hurtling his wounded partner hard against the
dashboard, he heard sirens from both before and behind him. Glancing back he
saw the runner they’d seen before brandishing a gun, and another police car
racing up from the street behind them. Knowing they had no alternative, he
extracted his own gun.
Taking a deep breath he shouted out “I’m coming out,”
tossing his gun out the window. “I’ve got my hands up.” Holding one hand out
the window, he opened the car door with the other, then stuck both hands out
the window and he nudged the door open with his knee. He cautiously exited the
vehicle as officers climbed out of the police car ahead of them and advanced on
him, guns drawn and ready. He could tell these were green officers, not used to
gunfire on public streets, which made them even more dangerous, as they’d be
likely to fire at the slightest provocation.
“There’s one more in the car,” he yelled out. “He’s wounded
and I think he’s unarmed, but I’m not sure. Don’t shoot,” he added, hoping he
could convince them he wasn’t a threat at the moment.
His words were prophetic, as his partner still in the car had
extracted a secondary pistol. However, as he observed the police converging on
him from different directions he saw he had no chance of getting away, and even
if he could, being a single black man on the run in a homogeneous white
neighborhood, he knew he wouldn’t be likely to get very far. He too tossed his
gun out the car window. However he couldn’t put his hands outside the car,
since one was trying to hold the blood inside his chest. He kicked the door
open and stumbled out, one hand held high as he tried to get away from the car
so the cops could see he wasn’t armed.
“Freeze! Get on your knees,” the nearest one, a younger
officer, shouted as the two from the corner ran up to surround them. The
shooter dropped to his knees, still clutching his side. As the other police ran
forward to aid their partners, Gail lowered her gun and glanced into the woods,
dreading the worst. They’d taken every precaution they could, but they’d both
known the risks.
Looking into the overgrown underbrush she could see
movements. She could see a figure she knew was Rebecca, an experienced trauma
nurse who they’d carefully positioned there just for this likelihood, leaning
over and clutching a crumpled figure on the ground. Gail imagined the worst,
and since she was in open communication with the others her fear spread, as she
broadcast the depressing scene she saw to her friends.
“ALEX!” yelled out a slight figure that had been hidden a
yard further away, who sprang out of her hiding spot. A young thin girl ran
frantically, yelling all the way. Everyone nearby could hear her crying as she
ran. All her supplies she’d been using to record the events that had taken
place lying abandoned behind her.
It was only then the two people who were now being
handcuffed realized how badly they’d been set up. The police had been waiting
for them, clearly having been alerted ahead of time. It looked like a task
force of some kind had been assembled. There were people all over, some wearing
police uniforms, others wearing camouflaged old military uniforms. The driver
swore, assuming, just as Alex and Gail had originally planned, that he had been
set up by Rakeem, who had arranged this hit in the first place. He assumed
Rakeem must have worked out a deal with the police ahead of time and had traded
that knowledge for a lesser sentence, but in order to make a bigger case they
hadn’t had him call to warn them off, instead they’d waited until they’d
committed felonious assault, if not outright capital murder. He realized both
of them faced serious charges, but he was already planning how he’d reach out
to that scumbag gambler wherever they managed to hide him. And from what he’d
heard, the little sucker wouldn’t be likely to protect himself very well, since
he had trouble moving around and spent most of his time drooling over himself.
He decided he’d risk a second murder charge to ensure Rakeem met a justified
bloody end himself.
The lead police officer, detective Michelle McCallister, who
had hastily arranged everything in conjunction with her new friend Gail Sanders,
was upset with what she saw. Despite how well everything was organized, things
hadn’t gone according to plan, as often happens when dealing with members of
the criminal element who weren’t known for their organizational skills and
ability to follow rules. This was a major bust for this small remote community,
and the dramatic nature of it would certainly make her career. After all, it
isn’t very often they had semi-professional assassinations taking place. It was
sure to garner attention, especially when you added in a couple of Chicago based black hoodlums attacking an attractive young white kid in an all white
community like this. The local press would be all over it. However her biggest
concern was with the potential victim. They’d all hoped they could have
avoided any gunfire and any associated injuries, but that wasn’t looking good
now. She’d really liked the kid. She thought Alex was a one in a million kid
who seemed to really be on the ball. It was strange how he had so many utterly
loyal fans willing to do just about anything for him, and she was just glad he
hadn’t dedicated himself to a life of crime like these other pieces of scum
had. He’d seemed to have been a rare case, a truly caring individual who cared
for all those around him much more than he did for himself, despite the fact
that those around him would have done all the dirty work for him if he’d so
desired. She just hoped he’d be all right, but she felt cautious about her
hopes. He didn’t have the best of luck in situations like this. Seems he was
always getting assaulted, but somehow he’d managed to come through OK in the
end. She just hoped he’d managed to survive this time as well.
Gail, on the other hand, didn’t stop to think things through.
She took off at a run, not even bothering to holster her pistol, instead
swinging it wildly as she ran. She reached her supposed godson just after his
sister did. She saw Rebecca wave Cate away, but that was expecting more of a
miracle than what Alex typically performed. Instead Cate fell upon the prone
figure of her fallen brother. Rebecca had him half turned over, and Cate
covered most of one side as she cried over him. Gail came to a stop just behind
the three of them.
“Is he... OK?” she gasped.
“I haven’t been able to check yet,” Rebecca told them.
“However there isn’t any blood, but he isn’t responding yet. As you can tell,
he’s just lying there gasping.”
“Believe me,” Gail replied, falling to her knees beside them
herself, “I prefer gasping to the alternative.”
Hearing the good news, Cate pulled back so Rebecca could continue examining her brother, her idol, her lover and her soul mate. She had to
force herself from smothering him just as he was struggling for breath.
Rebecca, getting desperate herself, tore his damn baggy sweatshirt
apart with her hands. She understood the need for the heavy clothing despite
the heat, because that was the only thing that had hidden the police vest that
Gail had ‘lifted’ from her St. Louis precinct. However, she also knew such
vests typically concealed bloody wounds as well. She quickly checked around it,
looking for any signs of blood, but she didn’t see any. Rolling him over since
he had been shot from behind, she checked to see whether there was any sign of
distress there as well. Her eyes immediately focused on the single large round
hole in the vest to the left side of his shoulder blade. She quickly scanned
for the other, knowing there had been more than one bullet fired.
She found the other one lower down, also in the vest, just
below the ribcage on his right hand side. It looked like the vest had stopped
both bullets. She wasn’t sure if that was all of them, after all, who stops to
count when the center of everyone’s life is being shot at, but she didn’t see
any others so she rolled him back over to see how he was doing. He was still
gasping for breath, but he wasn’t showing any signs of obvious distress. He
seemed to be having difficulty breathing so she started pumping his chest. She
figured he’d likely suffered a shock to his chest that was making breathing
difficult, but trying to perform CPR would likely make it even more difficult
for him, since he was already having trouble drawing enough air into his lungs
from his still tender wounded throat.
They all anxious watched, ignoring the screams of “Alex, Alex” echoing down the street from the other women running from the house behind them. He
slowly seemed to get his breathing under control, so Rebecca eased up and
reevaluated him.
“Are you still with us, Alex?” she asked.
“Yeah... I’m OK. Did we... did we get them?” he answered
with still gasping breaths.
“Fuck, Alex, forget them,” Cate said as she once more
covered his struggling form with her whole body. Both Rebecca and Gail tried to lift her off, even as Alex wrapped his arms around her protectively, trying to
shield her from her own terror at potentially losing him. Even as they were all
working, two more figures joined them as both Natalie and Anh ran up, out of
breath themselves due to how fast they’d run to get here in time.
“Is he... OK?” they both asked.
“It looks like it,” Gail answered for them all. “He just had
the breath knocked out of him. He was hit in the back over his lung, but his
vest protected him. I think he may have bruised his lung, but I think he’ll be
OK.”
The two women managed to pry his sister off him, and she
satisfied herself simply clutching his side. He was still having trouble
breathing, but he looked more quick than dead this time.
“What happened?” Gail asked him. “And don’t bother trying to
answer verbally, save your breath,” she advised him.
‘I had thought I was going to get away, I was almost to
the woods before they had time to respond, despite their having had plenty of
time to shoot at me beforehand. Then I heard you yelling, so I immediately
dropped,’ he replied in detail, speaking clearly telepathically despite the
fact he was still gasping for breath. Rebecca pulled a blood pressure cuff from
a medical bag she had stationed beside her. ‘I heard this pop-pop sound and
I went into that damn slow-motion thing of mine, when I felt myself get slugged
in the back hard, once in the shoulder and another in my side. It hurt like
hell, but I knew the vest had protected me though it scared the crap out of me.
For a second there, I thought I was dead, and I was preparing to send you all a
last goodbye message as I was still falling.’
“What did he say?” Cate asked. Rebecca was anxious to hear
the answer as well, but she was still more concerned with reading the results
of his blood pressure, which was understandably high at the moment.
“Just relax, Alex, take it easy. Cate, give the poor boy
room to breathe.”
Just then a voice called out from behind them. “Gail, is Alex OK?” Michelle asked.
“He’s OK. The vest protected him, otherwise he might not
have been so lucky,” she replied.
“In that case holster that firearm and get back out here.
You’ve got to undergo questioning about a shooting. It’s too bad you had to do
that while out of uniform, off duty, and in a different jurisdiction, but I
think the local politicos won’t make a big deal out of it.”
Just then another ruckus made itself known, as heavily laden
running feet made their presence known.
“Is he OK?” called out Lisa as the reporter led a cameraman
toward the group gathered by the woods. When Gail nodded her head as she
pocketed her weapon Lisa breathed a sigh of relief, while the cameraman spanned
across the assembled faces, recording them all for posterity.
“Damn, I’m glad you called me about this. Don’t worry, we’ll
document everything for you. Now, can you talk, Alex?” she asked. At this point
Cate finally pulled back, not wanting to appear on the news tonight looking too
distraught over her brother, but she still couldn’t keep from touching him,
trying to reassure herself that he was still here.
The interview and the rest of the chaos went on for some
time. It took the ambulance quite a while to get there, much longer than it
took for the neighbors to congregate along the street watching all the
excitement. The police managed to get the two suspects into the back of the
patrol car and they removed them quickly, but not before Lisa managed to film
them looking plaintively out the window at the camera as they drove away. She
also filmed a lot of heartwarming scenes of friends and family celebrating the
survival of a young man. That would put a lot of political pressure on the
local police and politicians to ensure they didn’t fold under pressure from the
bigwigs in Chicago to turn Rakeem’s case over to them. No, it looked like there
wasn’t much chance of that anymore.
What’s more, Lisa knew this was a big enough story it would
play well in both St. Louis and Chicago. It might even go nationally as a feel
good human interest story. Small town boy swept up in big city crime spree
inspired by a corrupt baseball figure motivated by a father’s fears of his daughter’s
biracial suitor. She couldn’t imagine better copy, especially since everyone
involved was either handsome or beautiful, and would look great on follow-up
television coverage. Hopefully, by doing a good job on this she’d earn Alex’s trust. Though she didn’t know much of what he was involved in, she knew he didn’t
normally like publicity, but this would help put those after him away for a
good long time, which would protect both him and those he loved and cared for,
which was bound to please him.
It wasn’t long until cars started pulling up with even more
screaming crying women pouring out of them. The police tried to hold them back,
but there were just too many of them and too few police to serve as crowd
control. However Michelle managed to take photographs and recover the shell
casings, so they preserved all the needed evidence of the crime. Plus they had
a lot of video evidence, recorded by both Shani and Cate from different
angles, as well as from the remote cameras they’d hidden to get various angles
so they wouldn’t lose any evidence from awkward angles. They’d really thought
about this long and hard to make sure they had all their ducks in a row.
The two captured attempted killers, Audell Wharton and
Bastian Oates, quickly realized their chances as two black out of towners in
front of an all white jury, and quickly confessed, both to their actions and
also to who had paid for and made all the arrangements and why. They revealed
what Rakeem’s motivation had been in trying to murder Alex for a relatively
minor baseball game. He’d been hoping to ensnare James Jones in a compromising
situation, so the gambler would be able to arrange for a whole series of
gambling opportunities. When information was leaked that an associate had
approached Alex, Rakeem immediately suspected every one of his cronies of being
involved. While hiding out in an abandoned warehouse on the south side of the
city, he ended up shooting one of his most trusted friends, however his shaky
hand didn’t do a very good job, so his target, one Cain Negrete, who had joined
his organization from a Spanish associate, decided to defend himself a little
more efficiently with a bullet in the brain. All the noise in Alex’s brain instantly shut off, finally allowing Alex to relax from the week long harangue of
incessant mental fragments he’d been inundated with.
Although Alex was taken off to a hospital for a checkup, he
was quickly pronounced fine, suffering only localized bruising, however, by the
time he managed to exit the hospital it was to a mini press corps of reporters
all excited to capture some bit of excitement from this normally quiet little
city. And the press certainly did play it up. It was front page material for
the next week. Luckily the press decided not to harass the poor victim, partly
because it was afraid of legal repercussions due to Alex’s having just turned
18, but more so since he only granted a single interview, to one Lisa Woodall
from St. Louis.
Needless to say, Kitty and Chalise were both livid and
immensely concerned when they heard of what had happened, although Cate phoned
them as soon as Alex was safely in the ambulance. Alex had insisted she make
the call right away. They met him as he exited the hospital and, along with his
other girls, they quickly got him away from the assembled reporters.
The television interview with Lisa was interesting and
captivating. Since he had trouble speaking from an earlier attempt on his life,
young Alex had to whisper all of his responses, which only forced the viewers
to listen that much closer to what he was saying. He struggled to explain how
the whole fiasco had started, and how it had gotten so carried away. He
explained that it originated in a fight that was the result of a sports focused
culture that forced young men to take dangerous drugs, just so college sports
teams could make a profit for their schools. As a result, when faced with his son
losing his future in the high profile world of national sports, a father had
pressured his other sons to exact revenge on him. When a blackmail attempt and
a lawsuit both proved ineffective, this father had orchestrated a plot with a
well known professional bookie to fix a nationally televised professional
baseball game to pay off two professional assassination attempts on the young
man’s life.
The Chicago Cubs and Northern University were quick to try
to make amends to the young man one of their athletes had attempted to injure.
While arguing they had no knowledge of the events, they dismissed both
individuals from their organizations and sent Alex a variety of gifts, trying
to win favor with the press. However when the selfsame press learned that Alex turned all the materials over to young cancer victims in a local hospital, it made the
calls of outrage even stronger. Both organizations continued to claim ignorance
of the occurrences, but several prominent sports trainers and coaches were
fired and were under police investigations for illegal doping. It seems newer
tests revealed several figures were using a new exotic steroid which,
unsurprisingly, caused intense mood swings and overly aggressive actions.
Finally, facing increased unpopularity and a whole host of
potential lawsuits and reduced admissions and attendance, both organizations
learned of a new charity organization dedicated to helping young women learn to
trust their intuition when making important choices that the victim of these
attacks was heavily involved in. They made very public contributions to the
organization, which caused intense attention to be applied to it as well, which
caused both interest in its services and contributions to it to blossom. As a
result it was able to advance several of its major objectives, which included
funding new sorority organizations at a number of colleges and universities
across the country, as well as several training and outreach services.
Luckily Alex managed to keep a relatively low profile during
much of the press attention, and his friends, family and schoolmates all worked
together to afford him his privacy.
Now all he had left to do was graduate; and just maybe he
could start on something serious in his life.