"You seriously got chased by gangsters around Baltimore?" Mia asked, her eyes large and concerned.

Mia and the other Student Council officers sat with Cadence around a lab table Monday afternoon during Advisory class. They had gotten a hurried and cryptic text early in the morning asking them to meet.

"And with C-Daddy driving?" Shanice added.

"Yes, and I know it sounds crazy," Cadence replied. "The whole day was weird. It started when I arrived at the homeless shelter."

Cadence then launched into her story about the encounter with the lady at the shelter and her subsequent misadventure with C-Daddy and the gun toting miscreants. When she was finished, they all sat quietly, deep in troubled thoughts. Finally, Shanice broke the silence.

"Now who are these Serpent guys C-Daddy mentioned?"

"I don't have a clue," Cadence answered. "He didn't say much about about them, and I didn't have a lot of time to question. All I know is that they are some sort of gang, and that they want something from C-Daddy."

"I've never heard the name, 'Serpents'," Leonardo said as all eyes turned his way. "But there is a legend passed around about an ancient order that is powerful and very secretive. It's one of those organizations that you can't join without an invitation, and if you get one, you don't dare turn it down. They supposedly use a coiled snake beneath a tree as their logo. That I know of, I've never met one of them in person, but, if you ask me, we don't need to get involved in anything they are a part of."

"I agree with Leo," Mia said, "and if he says they are bad news, then they are bad news. I know half a million's a lot of money, but I don't think it's worth it, Miss."

"Me, either." Cadence nodded. "What happened Saturday was a close call - way too close. I just can't take the chance of anyone getting hurt."

"I'm with you guys," Shanice said. "My vote is to tell Mr. Collins we're through."

"Duly noted," Cadence said. "Well, that's everyone's vote but Sarah's. Where did you say she was Shanice?" Cadence asked.

"She was in first period English," Shanice answered, "but got called out early. I think she had a doctor's appointment or something."

"I saw her heading out the door," Leo added. "She had her backpack with her."

"Well, I'm going to go ahead and call the vote as decided," Shanice stated. "We have more than the majority here, and we all feel the same about quitting the adventure."

"I say that's fair," Leo agreed.

Cadence was about to impart a wise and timely message about how important it was to choose safety over money when she was interrupted by a student tapping her on the arm.

"Miss," the young lady began.

"Yes?"

"Um, your phone is ringing."

"Thank you," Candace said. "Would you mind answering it for me?"

"Andre," the girl shrieked to a student across the room. "Miss Uriel says answer the phone."

Cadence shook her head and grinned.

"Thanks," she said. "I guess screaming across the room works, too."

"I got it," Andre called back.

He picked the phone up gently and pressed it to his ear.

Cadence could hear the young man courteously informing the caller whose room they had dialed, and asking what they needed.

"Who said a young person couldn't have proper upbringing in the inner city?" She thought to herself.

Cadence could see Andre pause as he listened, nod a few times as though the caller could see him, and then finally tell them to hold on. His face betrayed concern as he looked her way.

"Miss Uriel," he said. "A man says he needs to talk to you, and that it's important."

Cadence took a deep breath that really didn't help her rapidly beating heart, and walked towards her desk phone. She wasn't sure how she knew that the news she was facing was going to be bad, but she did. It may have been the concerned look on Andre's face, or just some inner sense that things were amiss.

Once to the desk, she nodded to Andre and took the phone.

"Thank you," Cadence managed to say.

She gestured for Andre to return to his geometry homework and turned her back towards the class as though to sheild them from her conversation.

"This is Miss Uriel," Cadence said. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, of course," cooed a deep, almost hypnotic, voice, leading Cadence to wonder if she had worried for nothing.

The voice was calm and alluring, obviously coming from a man she could trust. For just for a moment, she felt at peace, and like she would do anything to please the man who was talking to her.

The man paused a moment, letting the sound of his voice penetrate her mind and settle into its darkest recesses like water seeping into sand on a summer beach. Then slowly, and purposefully, he began talking again.

The student Council officers, by this point, had made their way up to the desk. Leo glanced at her and mouthed, "Who is it?"

Cadence shook off the spell from the man's voice and shrugged her shoulders.

When the man began to speak again, his tone was strangely harsher, his message grim. The officers watched as their teacher's face went from dreamy to deathly pale. She mumbled, "okay" a few times, told whoever it was that she had no idea what he was talking about, added a few more "okays", gasped for air, and then hung up the phone. Leonardo caught her as she fell towards her chair.

"What... just... happened?" Leo demanded as he deposited Candace gently in her chair.

Candace sat for a moment not responding, her eyes staring straight ahead. Finally, she took a deep raspy breath and looked at the officers.

"They've got her," she said.

Her shocked eyes stared straight ahead, focusing into the far distance. Finally, and slowly, unbidden tears trickled down her cheeks.

"Who's got who?" Shanice asked,.

She grasped Cadence's shaking hands to steady them.

"The bad guys, the Serpent people," Cadence said.

She looked at Shanice, trying hard to focus her eyes.

"They...they have Sarah."

"Our Sarah?" Mia asked.

She dropped heavily on the top of the desk and sighed nervously.

"What do you mean they have her?"

"There were two men who came to the office this morning," Cadence explained. "They said they were from Social Services, and even had the proper ID's to prove it. They said they had good news about her mother, and that Sarah was to come with them to Child Protective Services for a meeting. So she just went, poor thing, straight to her captors."

"How do you know all this?" Mia asked.

"Because she just told me herself," Cadence said.

Tears began to pour out of her eyes, unbidden.

"and so did one of her captors," she added.

"Let me guess," Leo said, "they said they would kill her if you go to the cops?"

"In so many words, yeah," Cadence said.

"Why do they have her?" Leo asked.

He leaned over her desk, his hands resting on the desk. He looked with smoldering eyes in her face.

"I'm not real sure," Cadence replied. "He said something about wanting the 'complete package', and that he was holding Sarah until he got it. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. He said that I would, and that I needed to be more careful of the company I keep. This has turned into one big ugly mess."

"What are you going to do?" Shanice asked.

"What I should have done from the very beginning," Cadence replied. "I'm going to the police. This has gotten way out of hand."

"You can't," Mia said. "They'll kill her. If these people are as bad as you say, they won't mess around."
"Which is exactly why I am going to the authorities. They have people trained to handle situations like this. I am doing good to deal with sophomores."

"She's right," Leonardo agreed. "If they hurt her or not will have nothing to do with the police. Let her go to the cops for help. I've got some friends I'm going to talk to, too."

"No, Leo," Cadence said. "We have to do things the right way, or all that I have tried to teach you kids will be for nothing. If we give in to violence and terrorism by responding in like kind than 'they' will have won."

"Maybe they already have." Leo responded, neither agreeing or disagreeing with her request.