It was a Thursday night in Dallas, and Brady had been socializing with friends at an upscale bar on Greenville Avenue, a well-known nightlife strip of bars and restaurants catering to an upper- and upper-middle-class crowd. He was with a group of non-Gloamings the entire night, until he left his friends at about 1:30 a.m.
At this point, details become scarce. There is no accounting for the following hours until about five thirty in the morning.
Around thirty minutes before the sun was about to rise, a loud series of knocks was heard by the barista at the Coffee Chick coffeehouse on Greenville. The coffeehouse was about half an hour from opening to the morning crowd.
The barista looked up and saw Guy Brady banging on the door, yelling to be let inside.
The barista stated later that she really couldn’t understand everything he was saying, but she obviously would not open the front door, as it was against policy and she did not feel safe. She called 911.
Shortly after, police officers arrived as Brady kicked open the door. The officers exited their vehicle with guns drawn. They ordered Brady to raise his hands and get on the ground. He apparently told them he couldn’t be out in the sun—at this point, the sun was about a minute from rising into dusk.
One officer approached, but Brady threw the cop aside like he weighed nothing.
He moved to run into the coffeehouse, but the other officer immediately discharged his sidearm five times.
Normally a human would hit the ground like a rock, but we are all aware that Gloamings are built differently, and they are able to sustain great trauma to their bodies in addition to harboring their incredible strength. Brady hit the ground but rose up and sprinted down the street as the sun came up over the horizon. The cop unloaded more bullets as Brady ran away, but it was the sunlight that killed him as he continued to run down the block.
The controversy of this event, even in the aftermath, was the top news story for months. It was amplified by the differing accounts from the police and the witnesses.
The police officers on the scene contended that they had no choice in their actions based on the erratic nature of Guy Brady and the threat they felt from his increasingly violent actions. The officers were adamant that they were never aware that Brady was a Gloaming.
But a witness from across the street states that Brady begged to be let inside because he was a Gloaming. Of course, given the nature of the Gloamings, the video bodycam was not usable, nor was the audio.
The police officers were never charged.
Immediately following the incident, Equal People organized a series of night demonstrations with Gloamings and friends of Gloamings which brought out thousands of people to the streets on one night in various cities including New York and Los Angeles. The Gloamings were a wealthy assortment for such a small subgroup. They used their prosperity to keep the protests going for quite a few weeks. In addition, the Gloamings were fighting a disinformation campaign of conspiracy theories bred on the Internet with such accusations as, they were behind the recent thefts from blood banks; they were behind a series of unsolved murders and disappearances where the heads of the bodies were cut off (the decapitation is significant because apparently it precludes a person from being re-created when a Gloaming sucks the blood from their artery, thereby passing the NOBI virus); they were looking to use the population as a living blood bank to feed themselves.8
The Gloamings and their supporters started a civil disobedience campaign aimed at keeping the spotlight on the inequalities they felt in everyday life.
You might wonder who these fellow non-Gloaming protesters were—and what their motivation was. Most were people aspiring to be re-created; others were simple adherents seduced by the allure of the mysterious Gloamings. It certainly was not that hard for the Gloamings of the Equal People organization to find people sympathetic to their cause and willing to help with their protests. And if that failed, the Gloamings were more than willing to pay people to join their protests.
The civil disobedience campaign began with a sit-in at various government offices in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.
The Gloamings, especially the wealthier ones, had been drawn to the Arizona and New Mexico areas, going so far as to move there or buy second homes in the region. Many speculated that it was to be closer to Nogales, where Liza Sole was re-created.
The other major incidents of civil disobedience were the picket lines and disruption of various businesses (including grocery stores, banks, fast-food restaurants, gas stations, pharmacies, and colleges and community colleges) that would not accommodate Gloamings with nighttime hours and technology. The protests culminated in police using force to break up the protests at the various locations. Many of the protesters were injured, and this only increased the publicity from the protests. One protest in Phoenix resulted in forty-five injuries and seventy-five arrests.
However, no state legislature was willing to afford the Gloamings any more protections than those of other citizens. This led them to begin more intense efforts to find recourse through the federal government and legislature. By the end of the second year of the NOBI virus, the Gloamings took it upon themselves to attempt passage of a civil rights bill in the U.S. Congress.
The Equal People foundation began an advertising and social media offensive showing Gloamings in natural social situations and with their families.910
The Gloamings began a publicity push, granting interviews to news organizations and blogs. The notoriously shy group appeared at rallies and meetings, before government organizations and congressional committees. Equal People also began the process of hiring Kurtz and Long, a high-powered team of lobbyists, to help craft their proposed legislative push.
At this point, a wealthy hedge fund manager named John Dory became involved in the movement. For a brief time, he became the face of the movement. A thin and energetic fifty-eight-year-old, he built his career on a sharp mathematical mind that took advantage of the commodities market in particular. A participant in the New York City social scene, he was never shy about attending gala events and fund-raisers for prominent causes, but he disappeared for about a year, which caused great speculation among certain members of the media and others in the philanthropic class.11
Then, one evening, John Dory showed up at the annual Red Ball for the Columbia Hospital Cancer Fund. As soon as he entered the Waldorf ballroom, most people in the audience could tell he had been re-created. The almost imperceptible slightly goldish hue on his beaming face. The sparkling eyes and catlike movements as he walked inside, as if he moved in concert with the wind. He was quite open about it when asked. In fact, the blogs and gossip columns couldn’t publish the information fast enough, and Dory began a media blitz to discuss his re-creation, going from the New York Times to the Today show (although that television appearance consisted of a blurred and fuzzed image with a dubbed voice).
Dory’s team of lawyers and lobbyists crafted early drafts of the proposed Gloaming Rights Act, while Dory confronted the bill’s most pressing issue: how many senators and congresspeople could he sway to support it? Dory had a lot of work to do, and he decided early on to concentrate on Montana’s senior senator, Tommy Ward.
1 For example, in Andrew Davis v. Grant-Johnson Advertising, the plaintiff, Andrew Davis, re-created and immediately requested from his employer a reasonable accommodation of his position as a creative advertising executive at Grant-Johnson Advertising. The employer asserted that the collaborative nature of the work and the normal daytime working hours of the other members on the staff precluded them from making a reasonable accommodation—such as telecommuting—for Davis. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s ruling against the plaintiff; the court went even further by holding that the “reasonable accommodation” requested by the Gloaming would result in an undue hardship to the employer.
2 The preferred nomenclature of humans who have been infected by the virus and are currently alive with a radiation level of 20 mSv (millisiever
ts).
3 A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual.
4 A record of such an impairment.
5 Being regarded as having such impairment.
6 Once a person is infected with NOBI, the virus invades different cells in the blood and in body tissues. NOBI causes molecular changes in the DNA and cells in a rapid period of time. NOBI is a quasi-retrovirus, which means it uses an enzyme to convert its own genetic material into a form indistinguishable from the genetic material of the target cell. The virus’s genetic material migrates to the cell’s nucleus and becomes integrated with the cell’s chromosomes. Once integrated, the virus can use the cell’s own genetic machinery to replicate itself. Additional copies of the virus are released into the body and infect other cells in turn. At this point, neurons in the brain release a chemical called GnRH. Normally, this chemical is used in puberty and causes the pituitary gland to release reproductive hormones, but in a person infected with the NOBI virus, the hormones create physical changes inside and outside the body, creating a new type of almost every organ and material inside the body. Billy Wilder, The Replication Cycle of NOBI (Frederich Salka and Terry Oats, eds., 2d ed. 2018).
7 The initial stage of NOBI infection is known as acute or primary NOBI infection. In a typical case, this stage lasts forty-eight to one hundred and twenty hours. The virus concentrates in the blood. From there, the immune system is overwhelmed and the virus enters the brain. The person suffers from a sudden and serious decline into shock. There is no latency period. All known evidence, although incomplete, concludes that convulsions occur and a coma-like period occurs when the body undergoes its transformation. The prions that have been injected within the virus begin to fold and mutate inside the bloodstream and fold into the DNA and RNA to increase the transformation. Usually these symptoms abate within twenty-four to forty-eight hours, although there is speculation that other latent symptoms last for thirty to seventy days based on the known “disappearance period” of newly re-created Gloamings. Romo and Ambrose, Primary NOBI Infection, in Medical Issues in Infection 22–45.
After the symptoms associated with the initial stage subside, the virus enters what is referred to sometimes as its post-creation phase. Although it varies with each individual, in most instances this stage lasts from two hundred to two hundred and fifty years according to scientific and computer models and statements from the Gloamings themselves. Watt and Collins, NOBI Principles 7.1–8, 8.1–20.
8 In Albuquerque, New Mexico, on November 1, four bodies were found under Highway 85 near Central Avenue: a husband and wife and their twin fifteen-year-old male children. Their bodies were found in a row with all their blood completely drained from them. The presence of radioactive elements from the two teeth marks at the carotid artery clearly pointed to the murderer being a Gloaming. News programs and the Internet stoked Gloaming fears once again, and we were forced to conduct our work on the defensive.
The case remained pending as with all Gloaming-suspected crimes, since their latent radiation renders most DNA tests invalid and their transient nature leaves few clues. But once the two senators were placated regarding the costs and assurances were given that private business would not be impacted, then at that point they began to waver again after the Albuquerque incident. We decided to add money for Gloaming research so as to better find new methods to trace DNA from them.
9 They were Photoshopped pictures, of course, given the inherent difficulty of taking an acceptable photograph or video of a Gloaming.
10 As an aside, during this time, Google and Microsoft were collaborating on a camera that could take an actual photograph of a Gloaming.
11 Dory had attended the opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival and then the invitation-only after-party for the sponsors held at Mission Chinese Food on East Broadway. There were several Gloamings in attendance but that wasn’t anything unusual for a high-profile event in NYC. Dory then left the party—although there were no witnesses—and was not seen for another year. During this time his business interests went into a court-ordered receivership but his only heir—Dory was single and had no children—his sister, refused to initiate proceedings to declare him deceased. Although no one filed a missing persons report, the FBI did initiate a preliminary investigation given Dory’s stature and the vast sums of wealth he controlled. Seven months after his disappearance, Dory released a statement through his attorneys that he was fine and that he would return to public life in an undetermined amount of time.
TMZ.com: Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Celebrity News
Justin Bieber and Kanye West together *GASP* at a concert for Quebec Rights in Canada?!
Well, those Gloamings seem to have an almost uncanny ability to find a subculture to exploit for their own aims. Now it’s recently re-created Canadian grocery store magnate billionaire George-Étienne Bouchard—you remember him. Looks like your slightly creepy, drunk uncle—if said uncle had enough Botox injected in his face to resemble a wax figure. Bouchard is spending untold millions (how dare he?) to conduct a referendum—yes, look it up!—on Quebec sovereignty.
Now, Billionaire Bouchard is hosting a benefit concert (maybe he’s not crazy-crazy, but FUN) with Justin Bieber and Kanye West headlining: “Québec Solidaire!” Were Drake and Alanis Morissette busy?
Bieber cut his performance short after audio issues surfaced—or more likely issues with his prerecorded voice tracks. Afterward, as if the weekend couldn’t get any stranger, Bieber was robbed at gunpoint outside his hotel with the thieves stealing his cell phone and jewelry estimated to be in the amount of $10 million. Of course his hysterical (drug-fueled?) crying fit afterward on Instagram didn’t make things any better.
Check out the comments—ouch!! “Should have happened a long time ago” or “Damn shame they didn’t pull the trigger.”
Chapter 8
October 12
Seventeen Months After the NOBI Discovery
Marcy Noll
Counsel for the House Committee on Homeland Security
I spoke extensively to various participants in the following meetings between John Dory and Senator Thomas Ward. My conversations were part of a House investigation into allegations that various congressional staffers and elected officials were part of a vote-peddling operation to pass Gloaming legislation. The charges were never proven and the investigation was terminated after seven months.
It took John Dory months to get a meeting with Senator Thomas Ward, who, born and raised in Gardiner, Montana, had once traveled the entire state, shaking hands and bending ears, in an off-year election with an unpopular president, winning his first run for office three decades ago with 51 percent of the vote. And so commenced his storied career in the U.S. Senate. Ward took to the Senate as he took to selling computer equipment, his photographic memory learning all the intricacies and movements of the institutions in order to influence people and policy.1
But Dory knew of the senator’s apparent indifference to the plight of the Gloamings. Their meeting would finally come on a full moon evening in Helena, Montana, at a twenty-four-hour upscale diner in the block-long hipster enclave. Senator Ward had spent Labor Day weekend catching up with constituent services and attending local parades and parties.
Senator Ward and one aide sat at the table. Ward drummed his fingers on the table.
The sun was deep on the other side of the earth as a custom limousine with no side windows took a slow roll to the front of the restaurant. Almost as soon as it stopped, John Dory opened the side door and stepped out of the car. A younger man in a dark suit followed Dory into the bright diner. The crowd had mostly thinned out; the late eaters would arrive about midnight.
Senator Ward waved Dory over with the fork he had been using to eat a mountainous piece of apple pie à la mode. Dory’s assistant walked over to the counter, and Ward’s aide followed to the counter. Ward rose to grip Dory’s hand in a lingering shake.
/> “Thank you for meeting me,” Dory said.
“Take a seat,” Senator Ward said as he pointed to the pie on the table. “Would you like some pie? Or something else? My treat.”
John Dory paused a bit, probably considering whether Senator Ward was attempting to make a point by offering him food, knowing full well that Gloamings do not eat proper food for nutrition. Only blood.
Dory ignored any kind of malicious intent and began his pitch. “I want to discuss our proposed Gloaming Rights Act with you, Senator. My understanding is that you have read the proposal in its current form. I want to know what you need from us to support it and any concerns that you may have about the contents of the proposed bill.”
Senator Ward took a bite of apple pie and chewed it in silence. “I understand the need of the Gloamings to establish their rights consistent with those of other Americans. My concerns are those regarding the cost of such arrangements and, frankly, the necessity, given the number of them in contrast to the general population and the preferred lifestyle a majority of the Gloamings enjoy.”
Dory nodded. This might have been more difficult than he had imagined. “Fair enough. But with all accommodations—for example, those regarding the ADA—there is always a cost involved. Wheelchair ramps, crosswalk changes for blind and deaf persons—those cost money, but our society felt that it was sufficiently important that afflicted persons have a measure of equality and safety in order to pursue a full life. Most of these people are not asking for something more than others have: simply equality.”
Senator Ward let out a long sigh. “I understand that, but I don’t think we can compare those groups with Gloamings. The Gloamings are new and occupy a distinct minority of the population. A quite insular type of community, you must admit. Not given to participating in any other culture but their own.”
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