Mark of the Beast

by Adolphus A. Anekwe

  With the non-ending debate raging on the airwaves, President Steve McClellan, a Republican from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, called an emergency meeting of the National Security Advisors, the Central Intelligence Agency director, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the cabinet heads, to a weekend meeting at Camp David.

  Leaked reports stated that the consensus among the directors was for mandatory national testing, but given the legal challenges posed by such a move, and the fact the United States Supreme Court, by a five-to-four margin, clearly indicated their opposition to any national testing, the president, who personally opposed national testing, and his crisis cabinet were left wondering what to do.

  A proposal by a national security advisor was finally agreed upon. It called for the creation of a national investigative clearing-house agency to be headed by Detectives Pellagrini and Pinkett. Their task was to investigate all new bizarre violent crimes and other unnatural crimes, at their discretion. A legal cover for the detectives would involve labeling their mission as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. The HLA B66 results would be kept secret until all the evidence was collected and the suspects charged. For one thing, they envisioned that at least would accelerate the trial process and save the nation millions of dollars in lengthy court proceedings.

  The project, code-named the “3 P’s,” for Pellagrini-Pinkett Project, was coined in recognition of the detectives’ work so far. All the police departments in the nation were alerted and made aware of the new agency and the need for unfettered collaboration.

  The new agency would work in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while at the same time maintaining its independence.

  PART

  X

  1

  WITHIN DAYS OF THE creation of the 3 P’s, calls were pouring in from all across the nation.

  “We have a new case in Florida,” announced an excited Pellagrini, looking at the new office computer monitor.

  “What is it?” Pinkett asked, peeking at her own new nineteen-inch flat-screen monitor.

  “Sun City, Florida—police just alerted us to a strange case,” stated Pellagrini. “A husband and wife are being held in Sun City for allegedly torturing their five adopted children.”

  “What bizarre stuff did they do?” Pinkett asked, offloading a box full of personal stuff.

  “Apparently they used electric shock to punish the kids.”

  “That’s horrible.” Pinkett paused for a moment and turned to look at Pellagrini on the computer.

  “That’s not all,” Pellagrini continued. “Two kids had all their toenails pulled off with pliers.”

  Pinkett sat on the couch, clenching her fingers.

  “A sixteen-year-old was so starved that he only weighed seventy pounds,” Pellagrini added, “and listen to this—a twelve-year-old who tried to run away had all the digits on her feet smashed with a hammer.”

  Pinkett could only stare at Pellagrini in shocked revulsion.

  “What is the world coming to?” Pinkett finally said.

  * * *

  Two agents were dispatched to Sun City, Florida, to collect blood samples from the suspects. The tests would be performed at an undisclosed National Institutes of Health laboratory in Bethesda, Maryland. The lab’s analytical teams were under the supervision of Abramhoff and Dickerson.

  “One is just coming in now,” reported Detective Pinkett, gently manipulating the computer mouse.

  “From where?” asked Detective Pellagrini, peering over Pinkett’s screen.

  “Ann Arbor, Michigan,” both detectives read off the computer.

  “Look at that … two kids, both twelve years old, riding their bicycles, disappeared in a wooded area near their home. A two-day search found the two bodies in the woods,” continued Pinkett. “Apparently one of the girl’s fathers has been arrested, and he’s already confessed.”

  “Look!” Pellagrini pointed at the screen. “The man’s daughter was beaten and stabbed twenty-two times. That’s gross. She was also stabbed in both eyes and ears. The friend was also beaten and stabbed eleven times for—get this—interfering.”

  “Triple six,” came out of their mouths simultaneously.

  * * *

  Several days later, a report came from the overseas wire service that the Italian government had arrested two couples who were accused of killing eight people in a satanic ritual in the outskirts of Milan. The Italian government, wishing to become one of the HLA B66 testing countries, contacted the United States government immediately. Following intergovernmental negotiations, and upon the mutual agreement of both countries, two agents from the project team were dispatched to Milan on a phlebotomy mission.

  “Definitely triple sixes,” Pellagrini said.

  The involvement of the Italian government posed a new dilemma for the team.

  Already, Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil, Nigeria, and South Africa had requested to become part of the HLA B66 project. As a result of these requests, all of the State Department’s recommendations for entering into the project were presented to the president and were approved.

  A universal precautionary procedure would be instituted for all blood samples collected, no matter from what country they came; that would eliminate cross-contaminations or transmissions of any viral, bacterial, or parasitical diseases.

  * * *

  “Look … another triple six,” said Pinkett.

  “From where?” Pellagrini asked.

  “This one’s from Minnesota,” Pinkett said, shaking her head. “An eighteen-year-old Native American living on a reservation first shot both parents to death, then went on a shooting rampage, killing eleven people, wounding twenty, then turned the gun on himself and blew his brains to pieces.”

  “We have somebody to collect samples, yeah?” Pellagrini asked.

  “Already sent,” Pinkett replied.

  “Did you hear about the one from Missouri?” Pellagrini calmly asked.

  “What town in Missouri?”

  “A small religious town called Mountain View, Missouri,” Pellagrini said, like he had been there before.

  “They must have a lot of mountains over there,” Pinkett said.

  “I don’t think so. There’s nothing there but flat land.”

  “So why did they name a town on the plains Mountain View?” asked a curious Pinkett.

  “Beats the heck out of me,” answered Pellagrini, scratching his forehead.

  “Heck?” asked Pinkett, with a strange look on her face.

  “Oh, sometimes I use that a lot to replace the actual curse words, especially while I’m speaking in front of a lady.” Pellagrini smiled.

  “Gee, thanks.” Pinkett blushed.

  “Anyway, this killer bound, tortured, and murdered at least ten women over a period of about twenty years.”

  “Why did it take twenty years to apprehend him?” asked Pinkett, opening the medium-sized refrigerator at the east corner of the hastily arranged office to retrieve a bottle of water.

  “Because he was never a suspect,” explained Pellagrini, dusting off the love seat. “He was a regular church attendee, community leader, and a white-collar employee.”

  “One of those ‘no-way-not-him’ type persons,” volunteered Pinkett while she sipped at the bottled water.

  “That’s an intelligent analogy,” congratulated Pellagrini, who then picked up the morning paper on the end table.

  “Intelligent? You are just scratching the surface of my intellect.”

  “I see, I see, says the blind man, to the deaf wife, while the mute child agrees,” Pellagrini replied.

  “You’re full of jokes.”

  “That’s nothing … you haven’t seen the depths of my jokes.”

  “Okay, tell me one good joke,” requested Pinkett, as she sat on the stool facing Pellagrini.

  “Well, how do you like your jokes, clean or dirty?” asked Pellagrini, putting the newspaper down.

  “I don’t kn
ow you that well, so do a clean one.” Pinkett smiled.

  “Okay, this one is very clean by New York standards,” stated Pellagrini, balancing himself in the middle of the love seat.

  “Two Reverend Sisters were being chased by a rapist as they were returning home along a desolate road to the convent. Reaching the fork in the road, they decided to split; in that case, if the rapist chased after one of them, the other one at least would make it safely to the convent and call for help. Sister Jenny arrived first at the convent without incident and a few minutes later, Sister York arrived panting, dress all rumpled at the bottom.

  “‘What happened?’ asked Sister Jenny. “‘Oh, he came after me all right,’ answered Sister York, catching her breath.

  “‘And what happened?’ urged Sister Jenny hastily.

  “‘I ran faster; he ran faster. Finally I stopped, and he stopped. I pulled up my dress; he pulled down his pants.’

  “With both hands over her mouth, Sister Jenny uttered, ‘Oh no, what … what…’

  “With ease and calm, Sister York answered, ‘A nun with her dress pulled up runs a lot faster than a man with his pants down.’”

  Pointing at Pellagrini in a friendly gesture, Pinkett laughed for a while, then said, “That was good … that was good, that definitely came from New York.”

  2

  THE VATICAN HAD BEEN exceptionally silent since the news broke about HLA B66 and its association with criminality, predestination, and its possible connection to the number 666. Since Dr. Dickerson’s pronouncements, there were massive increases in church attendance, especially in those of the Catholic faith. An Associated Press poll showed a great majority of worshipers were praying that they, or their family members, not be afflicted with HLA B66. At St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Italy, there was an unusually large throng of people wanting to see or hear the Pope speak.

  Such was the case on Easter weekend as an unprecedented number of worshipers filled St. Peter’s Square. At the midnight mass commemorating Easter Vigil, the Vatican police and the Swiss Guards had to turn huge crowds back for fear of overcrowding.

  The homily given by the Pontiff was done in four languages, English, French, Italian, and Spanish. After wishing the worshipers a happy Easter and urging his followers to remember the reason for Christ coming on earth, the resurrection into a new life, the Pontiff, for the first time, addressed the issue of HLA B66.

  He cautioned against what he termed ‘the rush to irrational judgment.’ He noted that all scientific discoveries had to withstand the test of time. Therefore, according to the Pope, time was needed before conclusions would be subsequently accepted as part of human history.

  He posed a question to those whom he described as being in haste for judgment, the same question a United States senator posed one month before on national television. “The question one should always ask himself or herself is this: What if my relative, sister, brother, or father tests positive, with no evidence of a sinful past or present? Would you judge him or her any differently, or should we explore other alternatives?”

  He concluded the homily by urging caution.

  * * *

  “What other alternatives are there if one tests positive for HLA B66?” people asked on the radio and television call-in shows. “Is there a magic solution or pill that can cure them of this predisposition? Are chromosome transplants a remote possibility?”

  A new debate dominated the HLA B66 issue. Since the disease, if one could call it that, had been identified, what could be the cure? Others argued that this phenomenon was not a disease, but that of predestination in a person already chosen.

  Some proposed an immediate solution, stating that this was like a positive identification, a stamped image, a marker for the followers of the beast, and that there was only one cure: that of extermination, family relationship or not.

  One of the supporters of the last theory was Dickerson herself, who in a very rare telephone interview to the KSD station in San Diego expressed that, “The Good Book clearly states that the stamped image was given by the beast.”

  “By the stamped image, you’re implying the number 666,” asked the famous radio station talk-show host Stan the Man. “Yes, I mean 666,” Dickerson replied emphatically, “and as I have stated, B66 and 666 may be considered one and the same if we think wisely and follow proper calculations.”

  “What do you think about those who say that your theory holds no water?”

  “They say the same thing about mystical apparitions and miracles,” Dickerson said. “I will bet you that if one of the famous prophets came down to earth and performed miracles, there would be those who would accuse him of faking them.”

  “Maybe.” Stan feigned a laugh. “So help me to understand what it is that you’re suggesting we do with the HLA B66s, or triple sixes, as the 3 P’s call them.”

  “My question back to you is this,” Dickerson said. “What would you do if you were looking the devil in the face and you had the mechanism in place to do something?”

  “Being a quasi-Christian, and if I’m definitely convinced of what it is I am looking at,” stammered Stan, “obviously my inclination would be to destroy it.”

  “That is exactly the rational thinking I was hoping for,” said Dr. Dickerson.

  “But, by what means should we destroy it?” persisted Stan. “I guess what I am getting at is the new debate that’s raging on, and that is, what is the best mechanism for the destruction of the so-called followers? A total annihilation? Or redemptive cures … kind of like exorcism?”

  “I don’t think exorcism is the answer, because these people are not possessed, but rather are the engraved followers and disciples. There are no supernatural powers here.”

  “So then, you are in support of complete destruction or annihilation?” asked the seasoned reporter.

  “To tell you the truth, I really don’t know, because on the one hand, the Bible teaches that, ‘Thou shall not kill,’ but it does not spell out who we should or should not kill. It simply states, ‘Thou shall not kill.’ This is the dilemma that’s waiting for an announcement from God.”

  “That’s deep.”

  * * *

  Next day, on the early morning shows, the television networks were showing a live feed from Sweden. They interrupted their regular programming to broadcast a news conference by Dr. Stefan Andersen.

  Dr. Andersen, a Harvard-educated genetics doctor in the University of Gothenburg School of Medicine, had just finished his analysis of all the hard-core criminals in Gothenburg. The undisclosed study commissioned by the Swedish government had been ongoing ever since the news broke in the United States about HLA B66.

  “Good evening.” Dr. Andersen greeted his audience in English laden with a heavy Swedish accent. “The HLA B66 experiment was commissioned by the Swedish government working in collaboration with the University of Gothenburg. We were able to analyze all our 932 hard-core criminals in the Gothenburg province.

  “We defined hard-core criminals as those who had committed serial killings, multiple murders, crimes that defy imagination, unspeakable abhorrent acts, and cult killers. I cannot go into detailed description of all their crimes. A copy of their crimes can be obtained with permission of the government.

  “Anyway, we analyzed all blood samples using the same chromatographic analysis obtained with the permission of the United States government. After careful testing and retesting we were able to find an eighty-nine point five percent positive correlation between these criminals and HLA B66. It is still a very high correlation, but not as high as that found by Drs. Abramhoff and Dickerson.

  “Any questions?” concluded Dr. Andersen.

  “Monsieur,” began a French reporter, “do you have an explanation as to why you were able to correlate only eighty-nine point five percent, while the United States had almost ninety-three percent correlation?”

  “I would not classify eighty-nine point five percent as ‘only,’” Dr. Andersen replied. “Eighty-nine
and a half, by any statistical analysis, is still a very high number. As to why that number differs from that of the United States, I can only infer that it might be in the selection process.”

  “What do you mean by that, monsieur? I thought you were more selective than they were,” retorted the reporter with a follow-up question.

  “No, actually the researchers in the United States were more selective than we were,” Dr. Andersen stated. “We had to practically empty our long-term jail population, but in the United States, they only tested a very small fraction of their prison population.”

  “What do you make of the high correlation between these criminals and HLA B66?” asked a reporter from Stockholm.

  “It’s like any discovery in science,” answered Dr. Andersen. “There is a high incidence of HLA B66 among hard-core criminals. Presently, I am not at liberty to make any further interpretations.”

  “I guess what I am trying to ask is,” continued the reporter, “do you think that HLA B66 is a sign of predestination for criminal action, as Dr. Abramhoff stated, or are you of the opinion that HLA B66 is synonymous with 666?”

  “Looking at it purely scientifically, you would have to agree that HLA B66 does indeed tend toward criminal behaviors,” Dr. Andersen pointed out. “Looking at it religiously, one cannot help but wonder why these HLA B66 individuals have these devilish minds.”

  “Based on your studies, would you suggest a mass screening on behalf of the Swedish government?” a local reporter asked.

  “There are more qualified government officials than I to make that determination,” Dr. Andersen answered calmly.

  “Have you had any communications with either Dr. Abramhoff or Dr. Dickerson?” asked a British reporter.

  “As a matter of fact, I have,” Dr. Andersen said. “At the initial phase of the study, they were instrumental in the logistics of the setup.”