Dead Man Running (65 page)

Mookie nodded.  "He made me human again.  He didn't have a bomb of any type, he just used pure magic.  He also used magic to wipe his memory clean of doing it
in case he was somehow compromised
."

"Which he ultimately was," Mira added.

"Why did he do it?" Elias asked.

"He was frustrated.  He had
contacted
the police, the FBI, even the White House but no one was taking him seriously.  He thought that if he sent them me, a former zombie,
perhaps
I could convince them to help.  So, I came to DC, to FBI headquarters."

Another cockroach appeared on Obama's chair.  This time, the leader of the free world snatched the insect off the chair and deposited its body in the pocket of his suit jacket.  Mira and Elias watched him with eyes wide but said nothing.

Obama picked up the story.  "At first the boys from
Quantico
didn't believe him until they measured his body temperature and found it to be only
twenty-
five
degrees Fahrenheit.  They found he had extraordinary strength – he bench pressed twice as much as the Patriot's first round linebacker.  Pretty quickly they, and eventually I, started listening."

"You sent him back to Wiley?" Elias asked.

"Yes, he reported directly to me
,
information for my eyes and ears only
.
  To make it official I had him made an agent with the FBI and designated as undercover.  Not even the FBI Director knew he existed.
"

 
What he did not mention was that he ordered
via the magic telephone that
anyone with the FBI or CIA brought into the vetting of Sills
be '
disappeared
'
.
He did not know if they were merely killed or languishing in a CIA rendition cell in
Saudi Arabia
or
Budapest
.

"
As head of security he could tell me exactly what Wiley was planning to do."

"Mr. President, you realize that this man was complicit in the murder of thousands of citizens and the transformation of millions more?"

Obama nodded.  "I am fully aware, Mrs. Turnbull.  Great progress comes at a great price, always."

"Progress, what progress?" asked Elias.  He tried unsuccessfully to keep his voice calm.

Obama rose, the old law professor readying a lecture.

"This nation was in a tragic state. 
A
nation more divided than at any time other than just prior to the Civil War.  Red versus blue, liberal versus conservative, rural versus urban,
young versus old,
everyone believing to the core their positions with ears closed to anyone else.

"What this has done is give the nation a rallying point.  We have told them enough to make them realize that we almost lost everything.  You see it everywhere now
-
people who haven't talked in years are talking, and working together for the common good."

"Is
n't
that just temporary?  Remember 9/11, we all came together after that
,
then a couple years later some were hanging Bush in effigy,"
Mira
said.

"But I believe this change is fundamental." 
Obama
smiled.  "And, thanks to you, we have the ability to create pockets of reminders anytime we want."

"You would use the zombie bombs against your own people?" Elias asked.

"There is no
price
too high for a united country, Elias.  But, as I said, I think the change is permanent and further action won't be necessary."

"As the president monitored the situation, he also realized that Wiley's efficient government model was
very
beneficial
,
"
added Mookie.

Mira
laughed.  "Efficient government?  He murdered
to downsize his department and butchered
residents of public housing."

Obama sat.  "We've studied the deaths.  Over seventy percent were the truly poor or the truly rich.  I don't think anyone will cry any tears
for
having fewer of e
ither
around.
  Besides, he cleansed our inner city of hustlers, pimps, prostitutes and thieves.  It will take a generation to resupply the ghettos with those bad actors.  Enough time, I think, for those
suffering
slices of our nation to grow healthy and strong.  I challenge you to think about the number of lives I saved and bettered, not the ones I allowed to be lost.

"
A more efficient federal government has taken root and combined with the united talents of our people, the
United States
will soon take its rightful place as the greatest nation on the Earth."

Elias leaned forward in his seat.  "What I don't understand, Mr. President, is why you placed yourself in such danger.  Surely Mookie told you that Wiley had converted your Secret Service protection
?
  He had already converted Biden.  He could have converted you at any moment.  If he had done so, all would have been lost.  You t
ook
a tremendous risk with the future of the human race, sir."

Obama laughed.  "I assure you that I was in no danger."

Mira and Elias exchanged looks.  "Wiley was pushing up his timeline, you were days away from conversion," added Mira.

Another cockroach made an appearance, this one at Obama's feet.  Elias lifted his foot to stomp the creature. 

"Stop!" the president shouted.  Elias lowered his leg.

Gently Obama reached down, captured the bug and placed
it
in his mouth.  He did not chew the thing, he merely swallowed it.

"What's going on?" Mira asked.

Obama smiled, looked at Mookie.  "They've been swept for electronic devices?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay," Obama replied.  He stood and turned his back to his guests.  He reached his right arm to the back of his jacket's collar.  He struggled with something underneath.  He twisted his head to look at Mira.  "Hey good lookin', help a brother out."

Mira stood, reached under the collar and her hand found a plastic cover seemingly sewn into the fabric.

"Lift that and press the button," the president said. 
"
Hold it for thirty seconds.
"

Mira did as told.  After thirty seconds the president began to deflate.  President Barack Hussein Obama began to shrivel as the air that
supported
his 'skin' leaked out.  In less than a minute it was all over.  The familiar face lay on the Oval Of
fice floor, attached to a lifeless shriveled
body.

Mookie cast a disinterested eye toward the transformation, having witnessed the peculiar bug circus during one of his rare in person updates to the president. 

His mind drifted instead to his daughter Tamesha
back home in
Harlem
.  He glanced at his watch.  The limo should have delivered her home from her exclusive private school.  Their personal chef has served her an after school snack by now, while her tutor prepares to assist Tamesha with her homework. 

The Wiley money – stashed about the planet in secret accounts known only to Wiley and Mookie – was coming in handy.  It had provided
him
and Tamesha a blessed lifestyle.  Soon Mookie would use it to help others, many across the globe.  He had already
begun
that work, resurrecting Wiley's old church from the ashes of a zombie infested congregation.

Elias and Mira watched in horror as the 'Obama suit' began to move.  Thousands of cockroaches flooded out of the deflated conveyance and slowly took Obama's former seat on the fancy chair.  The form they took was almost human, as they were so used to holding that pose
in their
masquerade as the president, they could assume no other.  The cockroach collective had legs, arms,
and
a head. 
The whole thing moved with a coordination that was stunning. 

There was
even
a wide maw where its mouth should be.  Out of that space
came
words, eerily with the voice of the president.

"Damn that feels good!" it shouted.

"What are you?  Demon? Shape shifter?" asked Mira.

The thing spread its 'arms'.  Several hundred roaches fell to the floor only to quickly rejoin their brothers.

"I am what you see, a bunch of cockroaches."

"What have you done with Obama?" Elias asked.

The wide maw compressed itself into what could only be described as a smile.  "There is no Obama
, not really
.
  Not as you know him."

"What's that mean?" asked Elias.

The collection of roaches reclined back in their seat.  "We switched him out at birth.  Oh, we've been keeping track.  The real son of Barack Obama Senior and Ann Dunham is a tall, skinny light skinned brother selling pot to the stars out in
West Hollywood
.  His name is
Marvon Wingo
.  He likes tall dark skinned black girls with big booties.  He's into Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy.  He seems to be very happy, when he's not in prison.  He doesn't seem to care for the whole
forced
anal penetration thing."

Elias opened his mouth, slowly closed it.  "Are you telling me you bugs created what we know as Barack Obama, our president?"

"
He is our creation following extensive psychological and marketing studies.
   His whole existence – schools, girlfriends, associates – was carefully calculated after much research.
"

Elias looked at Mira.  "Why did you do this?" she asked for them both.

The roach collective leaned forward, pounded one 'hand' into the other. 
"Listen, things were going to hell here on Earth.  You humans
we
re going to destroy this planet.  Our planet
!
  We had to intercede.  It's not the first time
a
course
correction was required."

"When did you
intercede
before?" Mira asked.

"Have you heard of the Black Plague?"  The thing pointed a 'finger' consisting of several
dozen
roaches at its 'chest'.  "That was us.  We didn't like where things were going.  We cockroaches took it to the rest of the bug world,
had a
vote
and we decided to exterminate most of the Earth's human population."

"What do you mean, you voted?"  Elias laughed.  "Bugs don't vote!"

"Says a man talking to thousands of cockroaches."  The thing crossed its two 'legs'.  "We get a kick out of you Americans, how proud you are of your democracy
,
and your
so called unique form of government
.  We bugs have had a democratic form of governme
nt for half a billion years."

"So why do you care about the human race?" asked Mira.

"We don't, not really, although some of us have a soft spot for
America
because your democracy is so very darling."  The maw shaped itself into a smile.  "Our interest," it continued, "is that you do not destroy the planet we both inhabit."

"You bugs think that's where we're headed?"
asked Elias.

"Undoubtedly.  We thought we were goners in 1962."

"The Cuban Missile Crisis," said Mira.

The thing nodded its 'head'.  "
Following the creation of the atomic bomb and the bombing of
Hiroshima
and
Nagasaki
we
made a decision to temporarily take control of the
United States
government.
  We had to wait for the right moment.  We had just put our plans in motion when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened.  We thought we had acted too late."

"What exactly did you do?"

"
We manufactured this being named Obama, correctly anticipating the trajectory of race relations in your country, anticipating the psychological need for the Caucasian race to climax their racial epiphany by selecting a black man to lead the nation.
  He had to be black, but not too black.  Therefore we pounced when we learned of the pregnancy of a lily white mother to an African father."

"His wife and children?" Mira asked.

"Oh, they're just like me.  We left nothing to chance."

Elias leaned forward on the couch.  "What was the plan once you became president?  It seems like you didn't do much to change our trajectory until Wiley came along."