* * *
Two weeks after the Republican convention in Houston, Texas, two of the older Supreme Court justices, both of whom voted against mandatory testing, announced their early retirement from the bench. Associate Justice Jackson planned a retirement in January, right after the presidential inauguration, while Justice Sandra Denver-Moose announced she would retire in mid-March. The importance of the next president of the United States could not have been made any clearer. Governor Clayton, seizing the opportunity, declared that if elected president, America would again resume its leadership role in the international campaign for mandatory HLA B66 testing.
* * *
“How are you, David?” Dickerson had called Abramhoff to finalize the arrangements for his upcoming San Diego trip. “I’ve booked you a suite with an adjoining double room at the Hyatt in downtown San Diego. I hope you like it.”
“You shouldn’t have, but thanks anyway,” Abramhoff said.
“It’s close to the marina, in case you want to take the kids on a boat ride or sightseeing,” Dickerson suggested.
“Oh, they would love it, and by the way, let me have Sabrina take care of all the finances,” Abramhoff said.
“Oh, don’t worry about it; that’s nothing considering what’s been happening these days,” Dickerson responded, letting out a big sigh.
“What … the Supreme Court ruling, or the presidential politics?” Abramhoff braced for Dickerson’s volleys.
Ever since the Supreme Court ruling, Dickerson had become a vocal critic of the U.S. Supreme Court, its political influence, and the president’s position in particular. She would sometimes call just to vent, and all Abramhoff could do was listen.
“This is the first time I’ve been really excited and enthused about our presidential elections,” an excited Dickerson responded.
“Who do you support?” Abramhoff asked, chuckling.
“Do you really have to ask? Of course I am a hundred percent behind Governor Clayton, and she knows it. I just found a new love for governors, and … and with two Supreme Court justices retiring—mind you, these were the opposition justices—I believe we’ll be back in business big time if the governor wins. What about you? You sound subdued.”
“She is not a candidate I adore—after all, she is a Democrat—but on this one particular issue, I will campaign hard for her and make sure she carries Illinois. Governor Roderick would kill me if he heard me say this.”
“I’d assume so. Isn’t he the campaign coordinator for the president in the state of Illinois?”
“You got it.”
“Listen,” Dickerson said, “you know we totally forgot about that physician from West Virginia, the one with the special water from Peak Hole.”
“Yes … Dr. Eugene Norfolk from West Virginia University. I remember him. And also don’t forget about Dr. Dominic St. John in Boston, with his blood transfusions,” Abramhoff said rather easily.
“How did you remember their names that easily?” Dickerson said, baffled.
“Because we have doctors here with the same exact names, only these guys are both from Massachusetts. But back to the fellow from West Virginia—what was your question?”
“Should we have a meeting with him, or possibly both of them, and investigate their claims of cures associated with the Peak Hole water and the blood transfusions?” Dickerson asked.
“Hmm … I would probably wait until after the presidential election to see which way the pendulum is swinging,” Abramhoff said philosophically.
5
IN CHICOPEE, MASSACHUSETTS, THREE decapitated bodies were discovered in the shallow southeast end of the Chicopee River, not far from the junction of Highway 291 and Fuller Road.
Two seventeen-year-olds playing with their Labrador retriever made the gruesome discovery. State police, federal agents, and the Pellagrini-Pinkett Project team were immediately notified. An intense investigation was launched. Initial identification was problematic because of severe decomposition, but eventually all three bodies were properly identified.
The three dead teens were all Latinas. Investigators questioned their mothers, their boyfriends, other friends, and relatives. It turned out that in a twelve-month period, their single mothers had all dated the same man. Lithuania Alvarez became the prime suspect in the investigation.
A search along Chicopee River west to the Connecticut River and east up to Palmer, Massachusetts, failed to yield the decapitated heads.
National news media swarmed Chicopee, Massachusetts, as Governor Clayton used the gruesome killings to make the case for national HLA B66 testing.
Governor Clayton, on a campaign rally in Los Angeles, California, aroused the crowd, vowing that, “If elected president, my first order of business is to start the reversal process of the federal ban on mandatory HLA B66 testing.”
Thunderous applause followed.
“And when vacancies do arise, as they certainly will, I will appoint judges to the Supreme Court who support our stand on mandatory testing.”
More applause followed.
“Crime in the United States is at an all-time high, and the nature of some of these crimes is increasingly gruesome. Unless mandatory testing becomes the law of the land, criminals and criminals-to-be will continue to wreak havoc on you, your children, and your loved ones. Now that we have the means, we should not wait to see our relatives’ mutilated or decomposed bodies all over the television—like the families in Chicopee, Massachusetts, have—before we do something. If we continue with the president’s current plan, we will always be behind the eight ball.”
Prolonged applause followed.
The president’s team immediately fired back, letting voters know that, if elected president, Governor Clayton would use this unfair litmus test as an excuse to appoint liberal judges to the Supreme Court.
6
AT THE PELLAGRINI-PINKETT PROJECT Center, Mr. Alvarez’s blood had undergone the usual HLA B66 testing.
“What was the result from that guy in that Massachusetts decapitation story? Sorry, I forgot the name of the town,” asked Pinkett.
“You mean Chicopee, Massachusetts?” Pellagrini replied.
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“He tested positive, of course.”
“You think he’s guilty?”
“I know he’s guilty, despite what he might say.”
“Do you think this is a cult thing?”
“I don’t know. The fact that their heads have not been found makes one think of a cult thing, but they’re all dead teenagers. I believe sexual perversion has to be part of the story,” Pellagrini analyzed.
A warrant was issued for the arrest of Lithuania Alvarez on suspicion of murder. Under intense police and Federal Bureau of Investigation questioning, Mr. Alvarez admitted to knowing the young women, but still denied knowledge of their deaths.
He alleged that the young women made sexual advances toward him, and he rebuffed them. With no solid evidence linking Mr. Alvarez to the crimes, he was released under monitoring by the Pellagrini-Pinkett monitoring system.
Finally, the mother of one of the teenage girls came forward with damaging information. She claimed that she had initially feared for her life, but after counseling, she was ready to testify.
At the police headquarters in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts, Mrs. Gonzalez, under oath, stated, “I dated Litu, that’s what we call him, you know, for about ten months.” She did not make much eye contact, and incessantly fidgeted with the edge of her buttoned sweater.
“He corrupted my daughter. He was constantly buying her gifts … teenage girls, you know, they get excited with stuff like that.”
“So what happened?” the detective asked.
“I knew he was sleeping with my daughter. You know, a mother knows these things. She was happy, so I didn’t do nothing.”
“Did your daughter confide in you about anything?”
“She finally told me, when she became scared of him.”
&n
bsp; “What do you mean, scared of him?”
“She said that Litu warned her never to sleep with any other man. He made her swear … it was strange what he did.”
“Why?”
“Litu pricked himself with a pin, squeezed two drops of blood in a cup of lemonade, and made her drink it. Then he told her that if she ever slept around or told anybody, her whole family here and in Mexico would be murdered.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“I was scared, you know.” Mrs. Gonzalez made infrequent eye contact with the detective. “They have this gang called Sin Aviso in Chicopee, and we are all scared of them.”
“Why are you scared of them?”
“They do things to people … I cannot say here, you know, as a warning to other people. I think Litu is a member of that gang.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, he keeps making this phone call … ask his brother, Pedro, he will tell you. I think they are both in it.”
Investigation of Pedro Alvarez, a pharmacist working at the Walmart Pharmacy at the corner of Northampton and West Franklin Street, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, helped provide many of the pieces to the puzzle.
Subsequent searches of Pedro’s house on Lorraine Drive near Holyoke Community College led to the discovery of the three teenage heads, freshly preserved in three formaldehyde-filled glass jars. Pedro told investigators that Litu fabricated the preservation stuff just for his own sick pleasure.
Pedro tested negative for HLA B66, but the other four members of the captured Sin Aviso gang members tested positive.
* * *
At the third and final presidential debate, Governor Clayton made it clear that it was indeed the HLA testing that made possible the capture of Mr. Alvarez and the Sin Aviso group.
“If Mr. Alvarez had not been subjugated to such an intense scrutiny after his positive HLA B66 determination, the whole investigation would not have been a complete success,” she argued.
The president countered that the current systems of checks and balances have always been effective and were still working well.
“It is the current system that flushed out the Alvarez Sin Aviso group and brought them to justice,” he explained. “Mandatory testing, if made into law, will in fact subjugate innocent Americans to unfair scrutiny.”
On Election Day, the entire nation was glued to their television sets all day long. During the late-night hours, there were multiple changes in the Electoral College vote, although Governor Clayton maintained a slim margin in the popular vote. It was not until midnight Mountain Time that Governor Clayton became president-elect of the United States.
EPILOGUE
Six Months Later
The United States of America, in collaboration with Argentina, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, India, North Korea, The Philippines, Saudi Arabia, all of Scandinavia, and South Africa, instituted mandatory national HLA B66 testing.
The Pellagrini-Pinkett Center in Washington, D.C., became the international nerve center for testing. Federal regional centers were set up in all major cities throughout the United States. Jim Pellagrini and Maria Pinkett were named federal coordinators, and Drs. Regina Dickerson and David Abramhoff were appointed federal medical directors.
“What a long ride,” Pinkett said, after all the routine setups were completed.
“It was worth it, wouldn’t you say?” Pellagrini replied.
“I guess.”
“Oh … how I feel like Mr. Johnson,” Pellagrini said, sitting on the sofa, hands behind his head, eyes closed.
“And who is Mr. Johnson?” Pinkett asked, a curious look on her tired face.
“You haven’t heard of Mr. Johnson?” Pellagrini asked, eyes and mouth wide open.
“No, I haven’t.”
“Oh, let me tell you,” Pellagrini said. “This church in Memphis, Tennessee, was packed with worshipers one Sunday morning, and the pastor was at the audience level preaching fervently. All of a sudden, the devil appeared on the pulpit. There was a mad dash for the exit. Everybody ran out of the church except for Mr. Johnson, calmly sitting two rows from the back. The devil looked around and noticed Mr. Johnson sitting calmly, staring at him, not flinching. The devil, making himself horrible and frightening, approached Mr. Johnson.
“‘Do you know who I am?’ the devil asked, in a demonic voice.
“‘Yep,’ answered Johnson calmly.
“‘You are not afraid of me?’
“‘Nope.’
“‘You know I can destroy you?’
“‘Yep.’
“‘You know I can make your life miserable in ways you can’t imagine?’
“‘Yep.’
“The devil became flabbergasted as to why this little seventy-year-old man was not afraid. Curious, the devil asked, ‘Why are you not afraid of me?’
“Mr. Johnson calmly looked the devil in the eye and replied, ‘I’ve been married to your sister for fifty-two years.’”
Pinkett could not contain her laughter.
Just as it is harmful to drink wine alone, whereas mixing wine with water makes a more pleasant drink that increases delight, so a skillfully composed story delights the ears of those who read the work. Let this then be the end.
—2 Maccabees 15:38–39
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ADOLPHUS A. ANEKWE, M.D., is a clinical assistant professor at Indiana University Northwest Medical Center. Anekwe is an active staff member at five area hospitals, a board-certified diplomate and fellow in two medical specialties, and an active community leader. He resides in Schererville, Indiana.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
MARK OF THE BEAST
Copyright © 2014 by Adolphus A. Anekwe
All rights reserved.
Cover photographs © by Getty Images
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Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
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The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-7653-3368-1 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-0425-8 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466804258
First Edition: January 2015
Mark of the Beast Page 25