Aquarian Age Virus

By Sharon L Reddy

Top of the food chain, or are we?
Aids, hepatitis, SARS, ebola, we'll beat them all, or will we?
What is the most successful species?
What if...

People are dying, suddenly, without warning, by the tens, by the hundreds. Medical science is confronted with something beyond current knowledge, beyond the known. They cannot save lives. What can?
Where would you seek answers?
How strong would be your need to find the familiar reason?

Sharon L Reddy has given us another magnificent set of characters in a what-if that leaps beyond others. Ms. Reddy's ground-breaking award-winning style, designed for high-speed, well-practiced modern readers, is combined with her masterful social construction and dialog in another epic tale, but this what-if isn't set in the far future.

Aquarian Age Virus.

Do you mourn enough?
Can you desire enough?
What does it mean to survive?
This is science fiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sharon L Reddy
• Release date: Jul 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781583389904

Sharon L Reddy

I write science fiction romance, but it's the literary definition of romance. Swashbuckle, Baby, in "white tie and tails." High romantic fantasies, million word mysteries, family sagas, statesmen, gurus and wise immortals. Loving dads, sons and brothers, and of course, the women who understand and appreciate them. High fashion and landscape design. Materials and art, the books are built to be read very fast, specifically for the way women visualize. Research on the soap operas of the fifties, trends in international populist (fan) fiction, technological development, and above all, long-term entertainment value. It has to be good in reruns. The intent is create a body of work that's just fun to read, in spurts or bursts over decades. Ethics, responsibility, nobless oblige, the power of money, the use of prestige. I write good guys win. Period. They're fantasies for women. Men with lots of muscle say, "I love you," a lot.Most of what is currently published was written in the first decade, 1991-1999, before Mother Nature changed my personal definition of "mature audience." I hope you'll remain with me as I and my work mature and enjoy the second decade of my work now being published, as well.I've lived many places and visited far more. My current residence is on a high mesa in New Mexico, in the United States, where I am engaged in a habitat restoration project.Explanation of the Pilots Group:Some of these works have been sitting on my hard drive close to twenty years and they're no fun for anyone just sitting there. They're exactly what they've been titled, pilots, like for a TV series. It is my intent and hope that other writers will choose to continue the adventures of the characters. There are only three restrictions. Don't kill off my heroes, don't make good guys bad guys and give my story credit if you publish. Yes, you may publish and make money on your stories. I loved reading and writing fan fiction, but the limitations on it could be frustrating, so... Have fun with these works that specifically don't have them.

Book preview

Chapter One

A woman screamed. Alarms sounded. Security guards ran for elevators and stairs. The senior guard led three into the board room and yelled for ambulances. A few seconds later, he called and said, Five need help with emotional shock. Twelve dead. They found nine more dead in the building. The police spokesperson stepped out of the door of City Hall and reporters quieted.

Twenty-one people died of anaphylactic shock, extreme allergic reaction. The allergen has not been found, yet. One of the five survivors in the board room is, quote, 'allergic to half the bugs and food on the planet.' One who died wasn't allergic to anything on the usual allergen list. There is no evidence of mild reaction in any of one thousand one hundred forty-two others in the building. One moment, please. We've got fourteen dead in the Correstus Building! This is no longer considered probable accidental. We'll update when we have more info.

Eight of fourteen died on an executive charter flight. Eleven of fifteen died in another board room and seven more died in offices. Then people, notably well-paid, began to die in homes, yards, cars. A researcher said she thought they'd been sensitized to something common. A survivor CEO called a research center and asked who was working on a psychological link. She was passed to the University Medical School Chief of Psychiatry, fast.

Ms. Tarkington, your question surprised us. What do you see?

Greed, for power. I began reading the list and… Everyone I knew on it was ethicless. Some even bragged about putting people out of work. Others were completely detached from repercussions and considered what anything did to people irrelevant, unless attorneys said it would cost more in lawsuits and bad publicity than made in profit.

That's…

What all I knew on the list had in common, Doctor, and I doubt you'll find anything else.

Carol, add Dr. Wolleski!

Yes, Gene?

Socio-pathology, Ms. Tarkington said every victim she knew was a psychopath.

What?!

No conscience, no emotional connection to people, some reveling in the power to destroy lives, with a 'good business move' takeover and liquidation; not how many would change jobs, how many would be broke, desperate and job hunting. What the seven of us and all other survivors on the top four rungs have in common is none of us liked anyone who died. The only ones, who seemed to, are also dead.

One hundred twenty-two died in a prison. Six senators and nine representatives died. Then it began other places on the world. Religious leaders and televangelists died. Pimps, pushers, thugs, thieves and gang bosses died, then just people began to die and among them were children. Descriptions, by others, from the youngest up, was selfish.

The leaders of eighty-two countries, many of them replacements, gathered for an emergency conference. Sixteen died before the first meeting. The 'survivors' waited for them to be replaced. Two days after the conference actually began, the press liaison walked onto a stage and the audience of news people quieted. A few of them were also replacements. She prefaced with medical reports.

The conclusion of those reports is there was an epidemic, six to four years ago. Quote, Dr. Arlief Hepswirt, World Health Organization Medical Numerologist, 'a mild headache and/or slight nausea that made you think you were getting sick, but gone, not worse, the next day.' The location tracking graph is an eighty-eight-point seven percent match and the percentage is rising. They're rather sure that was the sensitizing agent. No questions.

Gayton Anders listened to the reading of his great-grandaunt's will. She'd changed it twice, in the last four months of her life, because people designated to receive specific items and amounts had died.

Gayton Warner Anders, great-grand nephew, all remaining assets.

What?! I never even met her!

That part of the will was unchanged, Professor Anders, for twenty-eight years. She did it the day you, quote, 'beat the shit out of four boys two years older and ended the bullying the counselors and teachers couldn't because the parents are bullies, too.' When she changed her will forty-seven days ago, she said, 'He's my brother's boy, born with an innate sense of right and wrong and the only effect the greed culture had on him was put him in academia, where he could awaken the most young people and give them defenses.' Both those statements were recorded, at her request. Probate won't take long, if there are no protests. She tied up all the loose strings. You're the only ones who can protest.

Granna knew us all. I mean 'knew,' not kept track of. Every one of us got what we needed and a nice wish list, without being blinded by bright lights. Gina, you love that necklace, not for its monetary value. Darrell, you love the villa. We know who's not here, the ones who would have attorneys standing by to file protests. Of course, with forty-plus calling to offer services, before she was dead, saying, 'All right, you're hired,' just so you could say you had an attorney did make sense.

It's hard to stomp down more-more, Dan, but you're right about me. More would get me more attention than I want on my kids.

I don't want it on my past. I didn't do anything wrong, but I didn't spend the last forty years celebate. Dad, you could protest.

Those are her wishes, Margie. I knew them, and I agreed the money dump wouldn't knock Gayton down, or even off-balance long. Gayton, her cat, Casanova Tommy, also goes to you.

My condo complex doesn't… I have to move. Excuse me, please. Riley, it's too much. Get everything out of my condo fast. Tell everyone I will do my best to keep them from being bothered, but… Thanks. I'll send a text from a different number. You're beautiful! Oh! I got her cat, too. Whatever Maria feeds Mewsette. Yes, that's the cat. What don't I know? Thank you. My graduate assistant said the cat is valuable.

He was a movie star, Gayton. She bought a very smart, terrifically-trained pet. It wasn't the first time, but it's been a long time, and considering when she did it, she chose him for you, too. My turn. Excuse me, please. Jeff, take Tommy to the Regency. Get the Grandee suite a week and put him in it. Take the key card to Porter's on Eighty-fifth and give it to the bartender to hold for a patron. After you get a promise and smile, put a hundred wrapped in a ten in his tip jar. He's feeding twin weeds and shoes and sports shoes are a September wallop. He'd catch me. I thought you'd like it. Gayton, with a key card, you can go in the back, get to the suite and in, behind real good VIP security. Pick one reporter to talk to quick, and it should keep the neighbor and university bother down. Good neighbor, good teacher, goodbye.

Thank you. It's confusing. It's an incredible compliment, and I wish she'd given it to someone else.

I thought Granddad should protest. I thought it wasn't fair she gave most to a 'distant relative.' I don't want what I just heard, either.

Ray would have. He'd have explained protesting the will was expected and correct procedure. Do I have to sign anything? I want to leave.

Tony hugged his great-grandaunt's only child and got Run for it. Out the back! The family will stall them in front, in a loud stage whisper, quite close to his ear. The attorney smiled and called building security. He told them to tell people coming down the fire stairs when he got to the lobby. Dave asked who else considered a few minutes better than a few flights, even going down.

Five went down the stairs. Two of the three women could move much faster with one hand on the rail and another on a nice solid arm. Tony thought the youngest there, a big young man, and his mother were going to the same parking lot, when they didn't get in the hotel shuttle and kept going the same way he was.

Brother Plates Two, we are with you. My dad is Brother Told It.

We didn't have too much money to get a friendly divorce.

Our chapters are working on getting the three of us and Tommy to your ivory tower. The object is get you two there, without either of you demonstrating crowding you is dangerous.

I teach Flamenco at two community centers. I'm wearing my dancing shoes.

I'm walking on curled toes. Tommy is dangerous if crowded?

That depends on the hand size of the crowd crowding. Don't even consider neutering him. You'd be running from howling veterinarians at the head of his fans.

Very smart very healthy cat.

With a very-very on each. How long until it's over, Professor Anders?

Tony. We won't know until it's run its course.

I think they're looking at it backwards, or maybe just not saying it.

Saying what, Mom?

If they can't, not don't, love, they're going to die, Devon. Millions of victims and the planet threatened, the species antibodies attacked the nonviable mutation and destroyed cells.

Call Dr. Briant. Bev, Mandala Roget, she has an interesting viewpoint.

Hi. It takes four years for the species antibodies to weaken the mutated and destroyed 'cells.' If there is no capacity for love, no ability to feel joy and sorrow, or… empathize, they would have been driven out of the tribe or killed, preventing reproduction of the nonviable mutation. No, Doctor, nonviable. They can act civilized, but they can't be civilized. We've got dead relatives, who weren't ninety-six. My cousin said he married a financial manager, who'd relieve him of two-thirds of social obligations. He sent her lots of places and she liked it, but he knew, quote, 'her emotions were truncated.' He'd like a test to confirm it was environmental amputation and his boys aren't carrying a recessive for a birth defect. No, he saw it as he could take care of her, without pitying her, and give her as much quality of life as she could experience. Her brother was and is his best friend. I know several more versions of why some married golddiggers and social climbers.

Tony liked Mandy and Devon and enjoyed getting to know them over unrushed lunch at Porter's. Plans were changed, when they drove past the front of the hotel. Mandy dropped them, with his computer and change of clothes, at the back door. She was driving his car home. When they got on the elevator, he grinned at Devon.

I hope I get another chance to ask for a date.

I'm sure she plans to arrange an opportunity, probably, to ask you. She's not worried you'd feel weird.

No, I live in this century. I don't know who wasn't there, Devon, except not my side of the family.

Six, eleven to sixteen, ex-wives, ex-husbands and dead. Your great-grandmother did it.

When the letter came, Grandma said she told your great-grandmother our great-great-grandfather had every matchmaker in the social sector looking for a husband for her and there was no one in it she would ever consider as a dad for her brother's child.

Since Granna wouldn't, either, she helped.

I thought she donated something to the university and I was there on behalf.

You just agreed with her why you, Tony.

I just realized she gave me tools to fight bigger bullies.

That's my granna.

You were close to her, but not worried they'd be watching you.

Mom told the first who asked, she hadn't won the argument and was getting the great-grandkid tax bracket bump and I was doing my own.

Tony was laughing when he opened the suite door. He recognized the cat sitting in front of it, about five feet back.

Hi, Tommy. I'm a fan.

Miowr. Meow meow.

He said, 'Thanks. It's nice to meet you.' There were three cats playing the part.

That cat opened the portal, and they didn't stop action while he was doing it.

He got all the long sequences.

Why was he sold?

He wanted to go with Granna.

She went to get him herself?

Across the city, not country, last stop on the personal appearance tour. His owner-trainer agreed he'd earned enough to retire early. She was training three of his kittens, with a specific script in mind.

He wasn't getting enough of her attention.

I'm going with this lap. He likes learning things, but he'd rather teach.

She had him about a year?

Ten months. He was good company, but she chose him to be your buddy. He's five.

One, two, three, four, five.

Mow.

That's 'yes.' He does say, 'no,' but 'yes' is also a conversation continuer, I agree or see what you mean. I have no idea how many words he knows, but I know Granna taught some, too. Beer? Don't frown. I'm in training. I'm drinking OJ.

No! Not that one. It was on the not-recommended list for meal clubs and housing associations for this term.

Gourmet name sparkling water in glass bottle?

I'll have some of that, too. Tommy, would you like some sparkling water?

Mrrow.

No, it tickles his nose.

Mow.

What do you think?

Giving the money to him would have gotten the will protested.

Devon was laughing, when his dad called for Tony, not asking for alumni donations, yet.

I moved to the receiving side of the sincere smile and handshake.

I'm with Dean Hagers. You're on speaker.

You are here. Devon and Tommy knew what was coming.

Mow.

That's yes.

You're going to enjoy having a cat, especially that one.

I was selected as front for billionaire kitty, Carolyn. Grandma Foster's decided she owned me, too, before I learned to walk. I've got enough to get us nice pets-allowed for a while.

Have you got enough to give Dietrich one-ten and two-oh-six?

I do and, please, do.

Grosbeck found a house he's sure you'll like. Deposit is fresh paint, porch repair and yard renovation. The chapter is helping her move. Her condo in Texas is nicely furnished and the senior center needs what they have donated, when they get what she's sending.

That's what they did, when they got what they'll be donating. Frankie Lloyd says two years takes the too-nice off living and dining room sets. Whose house?

Loretta McGuire's.

Uh, I might have enough to get through.

Your cat needs the security fence and system, too. You'll have to get her to tell you the rent. Good luck getting an amount out of her. Grosbeck and I couldn't.

Tony did get a rent amount out of Mrs. McGuire. He didn't convince her the same as his condo was too low. He stopped trying, when she held up a DVD with paw-print autograph, under the plastic cover.

My Texas neighbor and I lined up when we saw who was giving autographs at the mall. I'm going to live long enough to get another cat, now that I won't be migrating by commercial flight.

You do want to stop.

If the market wasn't so bad, I'd have sold it several years ago. Most of my good friends are there now and the ones from here, who don't have places there, will visit. Paint and porch were on the end of summer fix-it list. Your grad student will tag things you don't have for rooms you didn't have. I'm taking my pans.

I'll be bringing mine. Someone will be bringing mine. Thank you.

Professor, my first thought when that young man asked if I'd consider winter rental, to you, was you'd use it all, like we did in winter, and I'm not using it much in summer, either.

Do you want me to show it?

No, people will know you're renting and ask if they're interested. We didn't take a second mortgage and the condo's paid off, too. I can afford to give a good deal, and carry the note, if needed, by the right people.

How many bedrooms does it actually have?

Four, with two grandkid rooms, with bunk beds, in the basement, with the rec room, and a big grandkid room in the attic. We had one more Christmas here, for Bob, but the doors of those rooms had just been opened for an occasional vacuuming quite a while. I don't feel like I rattle around in it, but I'm actually living in fewer rooms than in the condo. There, the guest bedrooms get used.

I'm going to get Founders' Day overflow.

You'll use it.

I'm sure I'll get a schedule for it.

Your grad assistant will make sure you get a copy.

Exactly. Thank you.

You and Casanova Tommy are welcome. Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Interview.

I'd prefer local, Devon, and I don't know local.

Carin Frost, Channel Nine. She's probably who they had at the office. It'll be on their website, whoever was there.

Wince. What's the addy?

My nine news, no spaces or caps. That's her.

Wince. Play video.

We've just been told all primary heirs to the estate of Catherine Angela Roselle have signed statements they agree with the terms of the will. This is Channel Nine's legal expert, Will Basehart. Will, that's very unusual?

There's seldom a reason for it. For an estate the size of this one, it's astounding.

Protest is expected?

It wouldn't be a surprise, though this family is rather close.

Computer off. She was about to bring up the deaths in the family.

This is Devon Roget. Connect me with who wants the professor's help reducing the mob down there.

Good afternoon, Mr. Roget. I'm the manager, Richard Bostelak.

Professor, your call.

That's what my grad assistant says when I've been dodging making one. Mr. Bostelak, I'm a college professor. I yelped and shut off the computer, before the internet news report got from preface to announcement. Devon was showing me who Carin Frost is, when I yelped, 'off.' I wouldn't run out of things to say after five minutes, but I wouldn't ask for a date in front of the camera and Statistics Four-twenty-six only worked as small talk at a Statistics seminar.

Tony knew the manager had told the reporter what he said, when Devon opened the door for her and two equipment-laden team members. He was sitting on one end of a lovely couch, beneath a lovely print. Tommy was sitting beside him, with his paws on his leg.

You got Casanova Tommy.

And enough from the family to know she decided he'd enjoy owning me.

Mow.

He posed us.

He's a pro.

Mrrow.

He said, 'No.' Are you retired, Tommy?

Mow.

Tommy stretched, yawned and plopped, with his chin on Tony's leg. Tony laughed and said he expected learning the words Tommy knew to be fun. He was pleased she opened the segment with talk about Tommy, but it got to the will quickly.

Please, don't tell me how much it is. I'm just beginning to get used to the idea of a lot, and I'm sure it would be a setback.

We were told you've been primary heir twenty-eight years, Dr. Anders.

I thought I was there to get a nice present for the university. They talked it over a while, which gave me time to notice my chin was still hanging from my face. Now I know she always watched over her brother's family. She knew me. The proof is on my lap. I wish I'd known her. She helped my great-grandmother get us out of the bright lights and society news.

What does your family think?

I'll ask when they stop laughing that she lined me up under the money dump. That statement was for me, their assurance they knew she knew what she was doing.

Twenty-eight years ago, when you took on the playground bullies.

I didn't think about there being four of them, when they made a first-grader cry. After that, I did count, first.

You were eight. That's the age you began martial arts.

The two lessons I had helped a lot. I knew how to stand when I said, 'Hawaah.'

You're now fifth dan black belt.

That's what I've been since I was an undergraduate. I didn't plan to teach or compete. By the time I was a junior, the only thing I had time to practice regularly was stretch and breathe.

You're in good condition. What do you do to stay in shape?

Attempt to keep up with my students. I swim irregularly frequently.

You set several records in swimming in high school.

I want an ear button like yours. I've got a great grad assistant. She'd remember where I was, when the class and I went off the subject.

You plan to continue teaching.

Leave the ivy-draped halls of academia now?! I love my work and where I work. It's liberal enough we get along well.

You're politically liberal?

No, I'm personally a raving idealist. I'm also an economist and statistician. I attend scholarship and organization fundraisers. I'm working at those and can often dodge both speeches and chicken. It's very nicely prepared, but it's associated with bony butt on an aluminum chair for hours.

Merrrow.

They'd give you a cushion, if you decided to listen to speeches.

Mow.

Smug.

Mow.

I donate to support the political process. None of those donations will be changed. If I ever use money as a political loudspeaker, there will be a whole lot of students, professors, and professionals yelling, 'Don't go that way.' I'm not worried I'll have stock in corporations I dislike. She knew who I am.

Mow.

Tommy, you're going to convince me you know what I'm saying.

Mow.

He's amazing.

He'll be spoiled appropriately for all his hard work to delight us, before he got to be a pet.

Mow.

Are you going to spoil you?

Absolutely. I already rented a garage big enough to hold a car that runs, with a couple completely disassembled and a tool-wielding crowd.

You like to work on cars?

No, I like to kibitz and speak specifications. It's one of the Math family of languages. I don't speak Physics fluently, but I've gotten a lot of conversational Engineering practice. The money won't knock me down, because I know exactly what it is. That's what I teach.

Will you manage your own portfolio?

No, but I'll look at what's in it, what businesses are doing and how they're doing it. Money is a useful tool, if used properly. That's ethically. If you're using the tool to shatter lives, you're probably going to die.

That was a shocking statement.

Yes, I said it publicly. Point-to-point statistical match, an anti-species-survival mutation is being eliminated and so are people beyond recovery. Quote the person, who sent me to the stats, 'They can act civilized, but they can't be civilized.' Birth defect or amputation, emotionally truncated are being eliminated from the gene pool of the social species. The 'tribal instinct,' the emotional bond to others, doesn't exist in them. We can't argue it and we can't stop it. If they can't empathize, not don't, can't, they'll die. Empathy is love. The caring for others must already exist to spur us to try to understand the feelings of others. Mother Nature has made it very clear love is fundamental to species survival. Our science doesn't have time to learn enough to save those people. That it's a horror to us and that truth deeply painful, is the survival characteristic being defended. There is no judgment if they are good or bad people. A child of four hasn't reached the point of choices that define that. I'm an economist. My job is figure out what it means in labor cost of food on the table and unemployment lines. Business conduct will change. 'Ruthless' isn't successful. It has a high probability of causing fatal damage. When the business paradigm changes, everything changes, except love.

Mow. Meowr meow mow. Hsss. Mrow. Mow.

Thank you, Tommy. I thought that's where you got your cues.

Mow.

Tell us, please.

Tone of voice, the speed of speech, emphasis, expression, he's better at it than most conversationalist kitties and he does know a lot of words. The great triumph of his trainer is teaching sequences. Tommy is highly trained at this-this-then-this. He watches and listens when people are talking, because that's what he's doing, agreement, comments and hiss in correct order.

Mow.

I've now done that which is required by professional ethics, both as economist and teacher. I've given warning. At this time, there can be no economic forecast. What will be the response of businesses that have been proven to be a fatally hazardous environment? It won't be business as usual, or they won't be insured. This is a financial disaster and the cost is climbing daily. Twenty multimillion-dollar life insurance policies in one building, then another and another. Yes, the industry is in trouble. Fiduciary statistics on executive-level employees are completely worthless. I expect an announcement of a cap on new life insurance policies, and/or other stringent measures, perhaps this afternoon, definitely before the end of the week. They have to revise their quarterly earnings forecast, and it will be unpredictable for years. We have no statistics on probable fatalities. No predictions or projections can be made. We are forced to count each loss as the death of a person. I consider that just. There will be many yelling edit this interview. Whether or not that is done is irrelevant, this time. Nothing can hide it. Nothing can stop it. Perception of it is irrelevant. I don't believe in Hell. If the soul of a child is murdered, that soul is with God, whether or not the body survives. Ask families when they actually mourned the loss of a loved one. None need to be forgiven. They cannot have wronged us. They can't feel right and wrong. They're victims, whether born without the capacity or that capacity is lost.

Dr. Whalen Brown, Harvard University, 'Statistical correlation correct;' Dr. Roberta Collins, Kansas University Medical Research, 'Psychological profile correct.' We're looking for an opposing viewpoint and not finding any.

I wish it was a viewpoint, or opinion. Its data and we can't manipulate it. We can't make estimates or predictions. I won't quit working because I'm needed to do the work. We need every student in classes now to construct a viable economic model, as we learn the required social consciousness parameters for survival in those big offices. It's not going to be 'over' in two years. Every one of us has species antibodies against malignant growth of an attitude. If you think, 'They deserve it,' or, 'Serves them right,' you're infected. You have defined them as non-persons, relieving you of the responsibility of feeling the pain. Whether you believe that loss was at conception, in childhood or in a corporate office, it must hurt. It must be mourned. Prejudice cannot exist with empathy. If you're prejudiced, you have a progressive disease, with high probability you'll pass it to your children. Snobbery is fatal.

Mow. Hssss.

I thought I was doing well masking my anger.

Mrrow.

Tattletale.

Mow.

Thank you, Dr. Gayton Anders. You've given us a great deal to think about. You know I don't know how much of that will be broadcast.

I can only warn of effects. The causes have been made. Whether it's said now or when it's so blatantly obvious the people who didn't say it look ridiculously inept, it will be said. The people who would keep things we need to know from us, to protect their power, will die. Do you see it's to protect power, because profit cannot be desired?

I can, Professor. Profit is the name of a column in a ledger.

Mandy pulled into the drive of a scholarship house and people ran out of several. They didn't come toward the car. Her ex-husband and the diminutive grad assistant, Debra Riley, did.

Did I set that off?

Coincidental, but great timing. You've felt severely out of touch.

Mine was the only phone only a few knew. Help!

Four minutes after Tony stated the fiduciary statistics for executives were void, it was an insurance disaster and they had to revise quarterly earnings, they did. It is.

Uh-oh.

If the professor says it's a fact, it is. Wham! Verified. Verified. Verified. This is who's going to die. If it doesn't hurt, you're damaged. 'Empathy and prejudice cannot coexist.'

Greg, you understated the warning.

I underestimated your family, too. Your cousin just said he hoped any attorney, who suggested they take the money out of the hands of the one your great-grandmother chose, as best to use it to aid all, is just stupid. His instructions to his attorney are do everything possible to get the estate in his hands to use, quickly. Your uncle's brother-in-law confirmed your aunt was damaged and proof it's not a judgment. Quote, 'She was without intent to harm and harmed none, but she couldn't feel joy.' Their children will confirm they had talks with them, when they were trying to understand her. Full interview updates and dinner this way.

Running people?

Tomatoes here, sugar there. Loretta, house owner, packed bags and headed for a jet. Food is being prepared for an around-the-world all-nighter, with other university students.

Meatball sandwiches, raw veggies and dips and apple pie, the cook said they'll eat lots more veggies that way than in a salad. Vending machines are being stocked with usual healthy study food, so there's other.

Devon, Tony and Tommy are coming to the house?

They left with the morning shift. There was a custom van waiting when they got off the shuttle at employee parking. It's got internet. It also has a bed, toilet, shower and kitchen, with food to cook. They've stopped twice to work, already.

Devon's fantastic. If the info exists, he can find it. If it doesn't, he can describe what data needs to be assembled to get it.

That's my surfing son. Show me the bomb the professor dropped.

Thousands worked to assemble data for governments and industries, before the Western exchanges opened. If stocks dropped too low on revised quarterly reports, insurers could be bankrupted, not just suffer recoverable losses. They were falling on the Nikkei.

Tony laughed when told he'd bought the van, it was overpriced and pay the alumni scholarship fund. Devon looked over at him.

You have complete confidence we're going to come out of this stronger.

That's a fact, Devon. We don't want to be, but removal of the irreparably damaged will do that.

More will die here than elsewhere.

Read the list of human rights violations. Look at mothers and fathers carrying bodies of children and weeping. Nothing desensitizes like war.

It's just begun.

Acquired allergies to something common in the environment develop slowly. Like a reader who read hundreds of books and developed an allergy to soy, due to touching soy ink.

Acquired could be anything.

It will be the simplest common thing. Developing an allergy to a chemical or spice is much more probable than to potatoes.

Chemical disinfectants and deodorizers in board rooms.

Or caffeine in tea or coffee, a mineral in the water or the polish used on the table. I agree, airborne chemical.

We really have no idea.

Currently, the predictions with the highest probability of success are by psychics.

They're not saying much.

They're looking for signs and feelings they missed. Eventually, they'll realize they didn't.

They're not the expected signs and feelings.

Because they're not, we know the people were already mourned. What they feel is less pain, anger, death and grief ahead. Wars and pogroms are just going to fall apart. You are capable of empathizing with the person on the other side, or you're dead. You're capable of paying for your own weapons and supplies or you won't get any.

What?

Support a regime, rebels or bandits maiming and killing for profit?

I'm posting that one from 'wars and pogroms.' The psychics just need a hint, not a roadmap.

Tony knew he'd been moved. He didn't know he'd been moved in. His furniture was in the living room and his beers were in the fridge. His students and several colleagues were in the big recreation room in the basement. There were desk chairs enough for a good-size class, cushions on the floor and people working at banquet tables. There were four large screens on walls. Bunkbeds were already in use. Riley sent four to the attic, so they'd be rested in the wee hours, when we need some non-groggy, then followed Tony and Devon to the big table at the back of the room. The dean smiled and offered Tommy a treat.

Healthy kitty tasty.

Mow!

You sure put us on the map. You mean there's a private university besides Harvard and Yale?

Or between the East and West coasts? 'Private' and 'college' go together and 'university' sounds odd. It's terrible and the outcome can't be bad. How long we suffer the terrible to get to the outcome is up to us.

In several languages. Do you want Riley on organizing or on your right, when you start figuring out what the Europeans need to know, in the wee hours?

Riley, say good night. I need you on pre-assembly with Devon.

Dr. Ikura's students said she'll nap till one, our time, Dean Hagers.

Tony walked into his room and smiled. Just as in the living room, everything was in the 'same place,' with more space between. He made one more call, as he was getting in bed.

Hi, Mom. Sorry.

We beat them to the doors and got them closed. Your uncle, Reese, came through in a patrol car, backed them off, then talked to them. Carol recorded it and… If this disconnects us, call back.

Thank you. Of course, we're surprised. We knew we had a rich relative. We didn't know her. We didn't know she knew us. The primary wish of all of us is that we had known the wise and loving woman, who always considered us family. Of course, the amount made us gaga, when we saw it. We live in this culture, too. Tony really doesn't. He's selectively participated since he was a kid. The money is a tool placed in the hands of the person in our family we deeply admire for his absolute sense of right and wrong and his love, which has guided him to seek to understand and to teach. Now, asking us which chunk of the wrench we expect to get is thick-skulled ridiculous. The success of the cultural promotion, not just acceptance, of selfish gimme-gimme is the lengthening list of fatalities. Love thy neighbor as thyself, or be culled from the gene pool. The Age of Aquarius has begun.

Perfect! Wonderful! And I'm proud of him, too. The astrologers will find it now.

That was more exciting than I expected.

Astrology is statistical correlation, Mom, interpreted by human understanding of people and events, and psychic talent. They didn't see the tragedy, because the outcome isn't one. They didn't feel the grief and mourning coming, because they were suffered years ago, as each who was loved was lost to greed and uncaring. We need them to see the passage and outcome. They influence many more people than realize they're influenced. We need all the spiritualists guiding us to universal love and harmony.

You, including all those people working on it, can't save the insurance industry, can you?

No, but they can, if they choose responsibility to the policyholders over responsibility to the stockholders.

You can't save the industry, but some good insurers will survive.

Is investment on behalf of the insured or the corporation?

It really is all in the attitude.

It is. Mom, if a person accepts the promoted cultural attitude, happiness is impossible. They live in constant fear people won't like them and they'll be socially ostracized. That's where it begins, with everything telling you the smiles are false and people don't really like you, unless you've got the new thing that makes you liked. You aren't good enough to be liked for yourself.

It pains your colleagues to have to say, 'We told you so.'

Yes, it does.

She knew others would have enough data to support you by now. I'm irritated as hell the damn money kept her from telling us she loved us.

Primary wish. You plan?

A family reunion, of course. They need our cousin batches as anchor and buffer. We include us as family and they're suddenly not just a few possible paths to you, and neither are we.

We don't look atypically close extended on social networks.

We're closer than that. If we want to tell someone something, we don't leave it sitting until they get online. How soon do they need us to do it?

Whoopee family.

That's what we're hoping. Give me numbers. The park by your house is centrally located and you can get there.

Chapter Two

The press didn't catch on the families were all going somewhere, and the same place, for Labor Day, for a while. Both sides were using the same method. Go somewhere and be picked up in a very pleasant vehicle for a group trip, parking-lot-party vans and RVs. Many on Tony's side of the family owned theirs, but not the part of it being watched. Others were loaned by Devon's fraternity brothers' families. There was one reasonably close to each home.

They were all there by twelve-forty and unpacked into rooms in various student housing units, for a weekend of family fun in the park. Tony got down the hill to the park, when dinner was cooking on every grill in it. He headed for his dad and kibitzers.

You look like you need a nap for energy to cut a steak.

I began dreading the climb, before I started down the hill, Dad, but I really enjoyed looking down and seeing you playing.

We're having a real good time. Here come your buddies.

Thanks. I hadn't realized they both are.

You've got another one, who thinks she's got a grad student job. Be ready if both decide you need them more than they need degrees.

Ow. If they do, I trust their judgment of priority and ability to aid. Hi, Tommy. Having fun?

Mow! Meow mrrow mow meow meow merrow mow.

Denise brought oysters. Dale has herring in sour cream. Betty brought smoked salmon.

Yes, they really know how to spoil a kitty and they all know how to play.

Mow.

Hugged flat, yet, Devon?

Finished that and am working on who's kissing cousins and who's married and the next batch down. Some of those gorgeous young women are, yipe, sixteen. Others are thirty-five. I was about to come back and throw you on a bed.

Riley took my chair to Nelson. He put his feet on it. I'm tired, but I wouldn't go to sleep yet, if I laid down. Wishing I'd gone the night before and slept those hours in the morning, is frequent.

Next move, theirs.

Are they selling a product or service?

That's exactly the question, Rick. It's the responsibility of the employees to operate the business responsibly. That's the viewpoint difference in where the responsibility lays. Basically, we expect the biggest financial players to screw the people and pay the corporations and their stockholders. Some selling a service are hoping people get enough back they can give them the same face value policies for it. It's not probable, on older, high-value policies, especially those that are retirement income now.

What are we going to do to help those people?

Slam the corporations with taxes, to cover the people's losses. They'll have the money to pay. Their advertising budgets will have lots of leftover.

Change the attitude now.

Medical emergency moratorium on product advertising. You can say you're great, but not your products are, like PBS sponsors, with a PSA.

Brilliant advertising people will assure PSA's are good enough to connect to products.

No one can change the attitude faster, Uncle Reese. A moratorium gives time for regulation. This time, if the corporations threaten to shut down the country, mobs will hang the executives from lamp posts, if they're not arrested for treason and gotten behind guards fast.

They're going to die, anyway. Move them out before they cost everybody a whole lot of money.

Gary, that's…

The attitude we don't want as a replacement, Tony, but people will be shocked people with our income played silly reunion games in the park, not just we did it with people with your family's average income. They're upper income. They can't be staying several to a room in student housing. That's what 'real' people do. They're looking for where we're staying.

Angie! Hit some big astrology-plus site and show what's happening on the big screen!

Wow! It won't be moving too fast to read! That server is busy! This one! Discussion: 'Timeline of the Dawn! Labor pains and birth of the Aquarian Age!'

There's a whole lot of 'inevitable' on that screen, Tony.

You have no idea how hard it is to break statistics students of that, Grampa. It always looks that way, in retrospect. The real astrologers will say, 'were propitious for this type of event.' It's a statistic. The sky looked like that when a lot of stuff like this happened. Hey, look, another one to add to the data. The relationship is totally unknown. No pro says, 'That caused this.' There's one! 'Don't confuse human foolishness with astrological information. The idea is use the data to avoid it. We didn't see the tragedy of the total, because it happened one at a time over time. We wouldn't predict who's going to die, if it was possible, and neither would the psychics. Stop asking!'

'If you don't know, you're not close enough to decide if foreknowledge will hurt people.' I like that one.

Mow. Meow mow.

Did he just say it's private, Devon?

I think so. How late is tonight going to be?

It'll be sociable, relaxed news watch soon.

White House press conference in seven minutes! Five! Slow server!

The president walked onto the stage with the Surgeon General and Secretary of Education. People were surprised when she spoke first.

Educators have worked to get advertising regulated, not just talked about it, since it was deregulated in the nineteen seventies. Nothing we said or did could get Congress to heed the warning. From Congressional record, nineteen eighty-two. 'Clique behavior and ostracism are presented as the social norm. They're dividing have and have-not down to daycare, telling children their parents don't love them if they don't buy them every toy on a Saturday morning show.' General Masterson.

The statistical evidence that a large percentage of advertising exacerbates, if not engenders, feelings of isolation, low self-esteem, resentment and antisocial behavior has been overwhelming since that time, presented time after time, and always in discussion. It's too damn late to save a whole lot more than you think. Your teenager may be one of them! Quiet! They've already been told they're different from and better than kids whose parents can't buy what you can for over a decade. They've already been taught what they own is their only social asset that long. Madam President.

We all knew it. I don't want a count of the times people have said they don't pay any attention to it, just to me. You've got no idea how many people, who obviously don't know enough to be talking, are yelling an attitude can't be fatal. What the hell do you think suicide is? To us, it's an attitude. To what's killing people, it's absence of an essential species survival characteristic. With decades of statistical evidence advertising weakens and truncates socializing bonds, there is no ethical option to ceasing what may be fatal influence. Beginning at midnight, Eastern Daylight Time, there will be a moratorium on all product advertising. No, you don't get a couple days to prepare. You would have, but the industry saw fit to tell small children Bobby Bear was sad because mommies and daddies don't think he loves them. My four-year-old granddaughter had a screaming tantrum. She needs a Bobby Bear because parents don't understand kids. What businesses can do to promote business, not product, is being distributed. This moratorium will last until Congress reviews advertising and gets regulations in place. Go ahead and tie up the process a couple years. We'll enjoy the break. Lobby to end the moratorium without that regulation and the name of lobbyist, lobby group and bill payer will be published, not just by watchdog bloggers. If the multinationals threaten this nation, assets will be seized and executives arrested, for treason. Extradition is already arranged. This is a human disaster. The people of the United States will not be kept from dealing with it, to protect profit and support the system that kills people. All those people I threatened to arrest will sleep better now. We took the responsibility, of the law that says they can only conduct business for profit on stockholder investment, off them, until we tell them what they don't do to make it. If they don't believe regulation is a life preserver… No questions. Just thinking what I didn't say made me feel sick.

Tony?

She slammed them with Bobby Bear, Devon. He 'needs' lots of toys, sold separately, to be happy, three out of ten times. He's sad in the package and gets happy when the inventory code is cleared. He sings the happy song kids all know.

I know a whole lot of parent groups and organizations really dislike that one, Tony.

As you heard, they have good reason, Dad. We've got until Tuesday morning in Japan. They're taking Labor Day off with us, not just closing the exchange a day. Others may do that to keep banks and other financial businesses closed. Doctor Ikura said they don't have illusions they'll lose fewer people. The culture stresses family responsibility, not family caring. They really hope they're surprised.

I think a whole lot more will be the other way. There are whole lot of depersonalizing pockets of Hell places that don't have streetlights to knock out.

I wish I didn't agree, Rick.

Rob Berenson closed the conference call and walked out of his office. It was nine-twelve p.m. and most of the employees were there. He sat on the corner of the desk.

They expect us to figure it out. Quote, 'If you can't do businesses are good with a self-esteem builder, to help connect business to products, they won't get connected.' We won't get any sympathy and won't convince them we need help. Flat statement they'd hire us to do it for them. Not 'just like PBS.' They pulled several of those, primarily financial, ads for financial products. Arbitrary by consensus. If they feel like they're being sold something, zip.

What can we do?

Lots of things, Beryl, but the question never asked is what we want to do. We know they're right. We know how much research went into the goal of the screaming tantrum and four-year-olds sure their parents don't love or understand them, if they don't buy the product. We use the research every day, to bash self-esteem and attach it to a product, 'brand' kids at early ages, so they have to have those shoes, drinks, snacks and everything else as part of their identity. What you buy and own is who you are. It's killing them. Face it! Ethics weren't part of the job. What kids should see was the parents' job. We just give the client what's ordered. Scare them and make them feel inadequate? Those are standard requests. What age group? Toddler to elder, we've got the research and creativity to do it.

So what's new? It's been killing people three-quarters of a century. Bad food and drink and high debt-stress made them perfect chronic illness patients, who had to add to pharmaceutical profits a couple decades, before they died early. You did it, or you waited tables. That's over. I've got an idea for a PSA. Who else wants to see how much wham-we're-with-you-prez we can pack in fifteen seconds?

I can sell that, Rudy.

Pick the best idea for us, first. We want it as early tomorrow as we can get it on. Jeff, vid of work they're doing on it goes in it.

Give me a let's-do-it and a cheer. Light's okay. Ready.

We're with you, Prez! Let's do it!

After the cheer, the group split up. Gayla shook her head, as she closed the door. Rob walked into his office, sat down and cried. Then he called his sister-in-law.

Georgia…

He's going to die.

His big office and quarter-million average are safe. Once that was settled, it's just get ads done and switched, type irrelevant.

We watched it happening, just like they said. Garth said he remembers when he talked to him, not at him, two years ago. I truly believe Corinne could have kept it from happening, if she was alive.

He's not the only one who might be too damaged. We may lose one of the kids.

Oh, no.

Talent fantastic, shallow irrelevant.

Research isn't enough to create an ad that works for people.

He's in the build, not create, stage. The same anger and guilt when Corinne died. How many carcinogens in that product? I'm thanking God accounts like Bobby Bear were too big for us.

You just got profit slammed down the priority list.

It hit stay afloat to keep them paid, or it would've hit bottom.

You need a hug.

You have good ideas.

The next bit Jeff got for the ad was the staff hugging. Some with tears in their eyes, including the boss. He put the cam down and walked out. Rob found him in the hall, leaning on the wall across from the elevators.

Two hard swallows.

Since you came through the door. Goodbye.

Pain there was no one in the hug. There are more than we want to know and we can't avoid learning.

Kill business-as-usual before a dead man makes the president prove it, Boss.

What do you want in the camera?

Pisk dancing on his light table. Gayla bouncing and deleting files. Maizie doing an arm sweep of her desk. Rudy with his campaign donkey ears on.

I like that better than our stock promo stuff. Fast… No! The song!

What song?

The one the astrologers are timing from.

The Sixties?

Maybe early seventies. I heard a bit. We can do fast inside the choral intro. Frenetic prep, hugs… Harmony and understanding… Sympathy and trust abound. A little faster than that, I think, and I'll be amazed if I got the lyric right. Gayla! We've got the music and our part designed!

They listened to the music and built the show not ad. People would know it was one and they were really enjoying it. Rudy's donkey ears, with the president's name in large yellow letters, were a blatant political statement and the only actual advertisement for the agency. They were open for business under the moratorium rules, not complaining about lost contracts and work done they wouldn't be paid for. And they got the song. They put a link to it in the ad and paid for six months' unlimited download from the museum that owned the copyright, but specifically did not ask for exclusive commercial use. Rob explained for their website.

It's a gold mine for the museum and it needs one. Get it for your family restaurant PSA. Moms and grandmas holding up Valentines kids made, in a family picture, is a PSA you can afford to make, including the price of small-market use of the song. It's arranged so no corporate executive needs to decide if the corporation needs to own it. The answer to the question is, 'That would be stupid.'

The PSA led in two morning shows. Someone yelled for Tony. They'd found it on the agency website, by the time he got pants on and downstairs. Mandy handed him a cup of coffee.

I knew you'd have it with caffeine. They got a bargain on the top of every hour on one show. They picked two middles on the other and they're blowing the budget on more.

It's real obvious who to hire if you want to be part of the solution not the problem, but that's business. Can you get him for me, Juleen?

Business, but it might lead-- Good morning. Professor Anders would like to speak to Mr. Berenson. He was expecting it.

Wonderful, fantastic, terrific morning, Mr. Berenson. Tony. I'm leading a couple of my bright kids to listen on speaker by the coffee pot. Damn. Twenty-three, they're trying to hope they won't lose him. On speaker. Devon, Riley, Josh and Mandy, Devon's mom. Tommy just walked in. He's sure he contributes to conversations and so are we.

His trainer wasn't. The director said she was odd that way.

Mow.

You expect many in the field.

Not in the creative part, but that's as suicide prevention as we could get done fast, too, especially on the web. Doing that shit was your job, not your agenda. Get some damn regulation in place, so this never happens to hard-working, caring people again. And strangle that damn bear. We would have balked at that. I think several agencies that could handle an account that size would have.

I'm going to use them, or Tommy will.

Would you like to tell the person who I'd like to hear you tell?

Will it mean anything to the person?

If it doesn't, there are people who need to know it.

Do it.

Rob Berenson, Dan Wolfstein, please.

Mr. Wolfstein will speak with you.

Traitor! Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

Thank you. You've got a big problem.

Social problem demo, the market's too young for it to hurt Bobby Bear, as a product line, but they've got short memories. We had to take down two-thirds of the website and there are holes in most of the rest.

Advertising to children will be extremely regulated, if allowed.

It should never have been deregulated, but it was and our most successful product and we ended up primary target for disgust, at what it caused.

Want to jump sides and see if you can save the bear I'd like to strangle?

Bobby doesn't tell kids their parents don't understand.

No, but you've got to change the program to sell it to parents, anyway, maybe even to sell it. If you want to save the line, you need to be real obviously happy to fix.

Joel! Could Bobby Bear be reprogrammed locally? No, like at the store where purchased. Because the only way to save the whole damn line is be real obvious getting the buy-me out and replacing it with esteem-booster parent support. Less expensive than shipping them all back from factory reset. Yes, I'm talking about recall. We can figure out a way to do it.

Do you want to do it?

What has that got…? Thank you. Yes, I'd like to make that toy just the cuddly company kids feel he is.

Your help is listening. Tony Anders, Dan Wolfstein.

Hi, Dan.

Hello, Tony. I am that work focused at work, but it's focus. Excuse me a moment. I'm going to give my secretary a hug. She's not worried, but it's sixteen years overdue.

One hug will drop tension level in that building, a lot.

It was how he dealt with it. He's aware of it. Work and private separate?

Single, doesn't bring a date to affairs.

They're work. His secretary isn't worried.

There was a Bobby Bear costume in the university area, of course. He did a lot of parking lot promotion. By the time they got it down to Riley's size, they had about enough material for another one, but Tony wanted close to kid size with Tommy and the costume would hide her womanly figure. Tony didn't see her smile when he said it, but Devon did.

Surprise.

Firmly student and a lot of my clothes come from the children's department.

He doesn't put 'grad' in front of 'assistant,' Riley. You, me and Tommy are his team. Right, Tommy?

Mow.

He needs you to drop the term, too, but it hurts to ask.

It would.

It doesn't you.

I spent four times as much time working to assure I got that grad job, again, than studying for my summer course final.

Mom does plan on distracting him, some.

Most women on campus would like to and he's freshman crush number one. However, there is a single-female age gap between student and sixty. I'm sure he hopes she does.

Riley did Bobby Bear's lines, then a kid, who looked about fourteen, used a computer to change her voice to Bobby Bear's. Dan Wolfstein called as soon as he received the PSA.

Fantastic! We expected to need to do voice.

We borrowed the sound tech genius Theater Department stole from Computer Science. No, he still has two years to go.

Dan laughed and said the line was obviously practiced. When Tony got off the phone, he sat down beside Dean Hagers and sighed.

You have a full-time assistant you need to get on your food budget. Tuition refund goes back to scholarship funds. Are you going to have time to teach three classes?

I don't know but nine hours of Econ and Stats don't require three full-time assistants and Devon, Riley and Tommy are all sure I need them.

Go down and be with your family a while. Take Riley with you. She's in yours.

Devon, Riley, Tommy! I can smell Grampa Foster's barbecue sauce! Let's go! Get help to get her moved. Bunk beds down and give her the attic, with kitchenette, bath and private back door. The plumbing is built to be extended. The floor is kid play rugs on tile. The door has an outside bolt, too. The stairs are steep.

Tony handed the dean two bank cards and said, Blue at Olson's. When he left with the three, she called for attention.

Professor Anders doesn't realize he's moving fast. He usually remembers to give blink time. He's not the only one who feels he needs this piece, home and base, set up fast.

Zip, Dean Hagers. The president now knows he's the best, too.

Move Riley, kitchenette, bath and fix steep stairs to the attic. The plumbing is set up for it, Joel.

Rodina's sister is a plumber, Joel. Their farm is about an hour from here.

She'll think it's fun, not doubletime, take your time.

This one is 'incidental,' like plumber. I was told to take this one to Olson's.

Back left corner, full setups for this type of conversion. My girlfriend works there. Dana. I think she knows Riley.

The back stairs are good, but scary. I wouldn't use them.

My guess is the door meets fire standards for the bedroom and she was more scared of them than fire. We'll call with what a Triangle brother says it needs. I think the president's going to call him, too, and she's got to have an apartment, not a bedroom, now.

The drive to the front of the house wasn't visible from the park, but they noticed when a number of people removed the stairs and began building a balcony, on the side.

Those are girders not posts, Tony.

I noticed that, Devon. Parking under it?

It won't knock it down if she forgets to put it in park.

You're fixing the steps for me?

"I can put Devon in a bedroom. If he has company, I'll roommate-vanish. If you have company, you don't want two instant