28

“Oh, please.”

“--Zelda McNeil. Robert McNiven. Trudy Nilsson. Luis Rodriguez--”

“Would you stop?”

“--Estadio Salvadores. Nancy Simms--

“Would you let me finish please?”

“Well, the list goes on, General.”

“Yes. And I don’t doubt the veracity of these victims’ families claims, but the fact is the US military is not responsible for saving the lives of American citizens, only defending them.

“But, that’s completely ridiculous, General--”

“Now, now, let me finish. What I mean to say is this: of course we’re very sorry that people have had to lose their lives, but all these people died--”

“Lester Smalls. Dennis Smith”

“--from some kind of accident that had nothing to do with the military. Now, how in the world would you attribute these deaths to the US military? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Because, General. You now have the cure. You can save these people’s lives.”

“Listen, we’re not cloning people’s blood.”

“But you can. You have the technology to take lost blood, quickly generate replacement red blood cells that are an exact match to the host and redirect them back into the blood stream. Now why would you keep this technology from hospitals across the country, when you know it would save countless lives, General?”

“The military does not possess the technology you have described.”

“Well, I’d love to hear what a man named Adam would have to say about that.”

Marsh paused the video and said, “we’re gonna lead into this interview from the footage we got of protests at hospitals around the country, then cut right here and get Adam’s take on all this when he comes back.”

“I’m still not convinced he’s coming back,” Peter said, calmly.

“Well,” Marsh said, “we can sure find him easily enough.”

Peter nodded.

***

“And it’s not just our government,” Marsh boomed, “we have documented evidence, irrefutable proof that the US, Canadian, British and Swiss governments have been funding research in this area to the tune of sixty million -taxpayer- dollars per annum. Just Google it, ladies and gentlemen, type in ‘US gov genetic research funding’ and it comes back with over a quarter of a million hits from such sites as MSN and Reuters. This is main stream news, I’m not making this stuff up as I go along.”

Marsh was on fire.

“In fact,” he continued, “all the G8 countries have been pooling their resources and conducting tests - not on lab mice, not on stem cells - but, on human test subjects!” He paused for a dramatic second. “All the while, the taxpayers, that’s me and you, the people who are paying for this research have not reaped the benefits of these tests, they’ve been dying due to lack of blood in hospitals. Blood banks are closing in every region of the country at an unprecedented rate. You can go to Newyorktimes.com and check that out for yourself and you’ve got to ask the good lord why. What are they setting us up for? I believe it‘s another step towards their backroom policy of depopulation. Folks, the good lord in heaven told me in a dream last night that it is my duty as an honorable American citizen to inform each and every one of you listening out there to save your blood. Hoard your blood, because the next time you need to go to a hospital or a blood bank … there may not be any there for you.” Another dramatic pause. “We’ll be back, live on the Mike Marsh Show in fifteen minutes to explore this worrying question.”

The Mike Marsh fanfare blared from Marsh’s headphones as he set them down on Adam’s dinner table.

Leah crossed her arms and walked slowly out of the room. It was her turn to leave the house.