The War Chamber by B. Roman

Author:B. Roman [Roman, B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-04-12T23:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

The Council members shift in their chairs, losing patience with David's unfocused presentation. He tries to improvise with some of the statistics he learned about 40,000 children a day dying in the world because money is spent on wars instead of food and medicine. About what his mother said about peace profiting everyone and war profiting no one. About how he wants to use the Singer for good, not just for power. He has a responsibility and he takes it seriously. He just has to figure out how to use it.

The huge brass gong is struck by the timekeeper, and its reverberation is felt ominously throughout the auditorium. David's three minutes are up. His knees wobble embarrassingly, and every vital organ in his body quivers from the vibration of the gong.

“Sechmet, do you wish a rebuttal?” the president of the Council asks.

“Yes, I do, indeed, Madam Chairman. The boy's arguments are superficial and inept, and have nothing to do with the matter at hand. He has no business possessing this treasure.”

“That is for us to decide, Sechmet,” the president chastises him.

“He can't even explain to us how he would begin to use such power contained in the Singer crystal,” Sechmet continues emphatically. “We don't even know why he has it, or even if he acquired it legally.”

“It was given to me,” David injects, now defending himself, “by my aunt who found it and gave it to me for my collection. I used it to find my sister when she disappeared from her wheel chair, and when I experimented with it on the beach -”

David stops abruptly, noting a stern and impassioned look on Bianca's face. He realizes that he almost spilled the beans about the Moon Singer.

“What gibberish is this?” Sechmet interrupts, his hands held wide in protest.

“I - I don't really know why,” David then says. “I just know it was given to me for a reason. I don't know where it really came from or why my aunt found it and gave it to me. I just -” David rubs his hand over his shirt pocket, but what he feels is flat and round, not the sculptured crystal that was to guide him through the debate.

“I'll tell you where she found it,” Sechmet yells. “It was stolen from us!”

Madam Chairman pounds her gavel to control the uproar now moving swiftly through the crowd. “Order. I will have order!” she commands.

By now, David is at Bianca's side, whispering frantically. “What happened? Where is the Singer?”

“I don't know. It was in the box. No one had access to it in my private dressing room. I didn't open it until just before the debate.”

“This is just great. It's a mess. I can't believe it.”

“I'm sorry, David. I don't know what to say.”

“I do. I blew it again,” David mourns. “I shouldn't need your help to tell them why I shouldn't turn over my crystal. Why can't I do this on my own, Bianca?”

“Some things are beyond our current level of understanding, David.

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