Contents
Book Three: Double Feature — 20.
Overview
Mr. Francis visits Donna alone with Scotch, revealing staff losses and an influx of Thermopylae mercenaries. He challenges the idea that Allison leaked names, implying an insider among their friends and detailing Arthur’s disappearance. Francis exploits Donna’s trauma over Cady and the Tokyo fire, subtly warning about surveillance, and predicts King Sorrow will soon annihilate the site.
Summary
Days after the blackout, Mr. Francis enters Donna’s room alone with a trolley bearing Scotch. He notes severe staffing losses but rising security, now reinforced by Thermopylae mercenaries drawn from global conflicts. Donna refuses to reveal Allison’s location, warning that King Sorrow will kill many of them soon.
Francis challenges the theory that Allison provided the team names, arguing she lacks the reach and citing monitored calls to her father. He suggests an insider among Donna’s friends informed King Sorrow, then describes Arthur Oakes’s suspicious disappearance in Wales, implying Arthur’s deeper involvement.
Pivoting, Francis presses Donna on her childhood trauma over Cady Lewis’s murder, needling her into anger while proposing she channels that pain by directing King Sorrow at predators. He cites a Tokyo arson against Aum Shinrikyo that killed many, including a baby, pushing Donna toward naming a collaborator; he quietly signals her to stop, hinting at surveillance.
Francis reframes the black site as a cult compound awaiting destruction, asserts that King Sorrow annually eradicates “bad people and places,” and predicts that in under two weeks the entity will wipe out the corporation running the site. He leaves Donna with the bottle, ending the manipulative interview.
Who Appears
- DonnaPrisoner on Cherokee Island; drinks Scotch with Francis; resists questions on Allison; nearly reveals an ally; rattled by Cady and Tokyo.
- Mr. FrancisHandler/interrogator; brings Scotch; reveals mercenary reinforcements; suggests insider leak; details Arthur’s disappearance; hints at surveillance.
- Allison (Allie) ShinerDonna’s ally in hiding; suspected by others of leaking names; Francis argues she lacks reach beyond calling her father.
- Arthur OakesFriend and medievalist; alleged insider; vanished into Welsh woods after claiming travel; implicated by Francis.
- Joe Valentine / Norman BarclayAbuser-torturer exposed during blackout; previously lost an ear to Donna; cited as publicly outed by Sorrow.
- King SorrowSupernatural avenger Donna helped summon; blamed for targeted killings; expected to destroy the black site soon.
- Cady LewisDonna’s murdered childhood friend; Francis weaponizes her memory to probe Donna’s motives.
- Haruto SagawaAum Shinrikyo figure Francis suggests was an intended Tokyo target; collateral deaths highlight moral cost.