The Curse. Vasilios Bouzas
Luke who is your beautiful new friend?”
“His name is Chester, dad bought him for me.”
“I think your dad made a very good choice.”
Bill turns to John and takes his arm to walk away from Luke who is now distracted playing with Chester.
“Luke’s test results are all clear John. His cancer has gone, just like we thought it would be, just like everyone else that Martha helped.”
“Thank god Bill, thank god for his mother. I just hope in God’s name he is not cursed the way she was.
“What about the black markings on her face?”
“Did you find out what they are?”
“Nothing John, the lab ran every single test available on the specimen I gave them. We have never seen anything like it before. We have no idea what the marks are, they do not appear to be any symbols we recognise and it is hard to say what brought them about when she died, there were no blood clots there.
“As for Luke it is impossible to know what will happen to him, we have to wait and see. We have no idea why Martha had this thing, this gift, this curse, so we’ll just have to monitor Luke and somehow keep it quiet. This is something extraordinary John, we have to be careful.”
“How will we know if Luke has it?”
“We won’t, I guess we might have an idea in a life or death situation. If he has it, we will have to encourage him to do whatever it takes to survive, for as long as we can, as we did with Martha.”
“I hope in God’s name he has nothing Bill, but if he has the same powers, I hope he never discovers them.”
They both stare at Luke who is happily playing with Chester, oblivious to what he may have inside him.
Chapter Three
SENATOR GALLAS
Six Years Later, (Sunday, January 12th 2003)
In a busy city park there is a lot of activity, people playing with their dogs and jogging along the riverside but one group of joggers stands out from the rest.
An important looking man, Senator James Gallas, is dressed in a grey tracksuit and surrounded by men in black track suits and puffer jackets, constantly scanning their surroundings as they jog.
The Senator and his bodyguards soon approach a handful of men that appear to be City gardeners working on trees in the park. As the gap narrows the gardeners draw their attention to the Senator. The bodyguards notice the movement and draw their attention to the gardeners, the lead bodyguard quickly reaching for his earpiece and muttering some commands into his wrist microphone.
In a manner of seconds as the lead bodyguard raises his hand to stop the group jogging, the gardeners pull out automatic shotguns and start firing.
The bodyguards are too slow to react, startled, they reach for their guns and start firing back as bullets fly and the lead guard falls to the ground.
All hell breaks loose, there are people screaming, running in all directions, taking cover, people reach for their mobile phones in panic dialing 911.
Within seconds the gardeners kill all the body guards with a loss of only one of their own. The Senator is left standing, unharmed but surrounded.
Emerging from a nearby parked black Mercedes, a tall well-dressed man in a black suit and dark sunglasses with a distinct Roman nose walks calmly up to the Senator. He takes his glasses off and stares at him.
“I know you,” says Senator Gallas nervously looking at the scene of utter devastation around him.
“Yes you do, nothing personal, but no one holds back my business. I always say, if you want something done properly, you have to do it yourself.”
The man pulls out a small gun with silencer and without hesitating shoots him once in the head at point-blank range.
Lake Valley, 55 Miles From Washington
In the small and peaceful town of Lake Valley, 55 miles from Washington DC, Luke Whelan is now twenty two and a Police Officer living with his father on a nearby farm house.
He is a handsome strong young man with green eyes and short thick black hair. Today Luke is having a double celebration, his 22nd birthday and his promotion.
He is one of the youngest Police Officers to be made Officer-In-Charge six months after graduating from the academy. His guests have arrived and are mingling at the party.
His father John is there along with Dr Clifford, his wife Anna their teenage daughter Chloe and Luke’s girlfriend Judy Best.
Finally his best friend and police partner Jack Campbell arrives and gives him a big bear hug. Jack is a slightly overweight man with a delightful sense of humor.
Other guests include Kate Smith, the local hospital nurse, with her husband Tom and their red haired six-year-old son Noah and finally Chester, who has now grown to be a beautiful dog.
They all gather around the table and sing happy birthday as Luke blows out his candles with a little help from Noah who is sitting on his lap. They all start clapping and Chester barks happily along with them, the mood is good.
“I’m the proudest father in the world,” shouts John.
“Happy birthday my love and congratulations,” says Judy, as she leans over and gives him a huge kiss, while Luke is covering little Noah’s eyes. Luke looks into Judy’s piercing blue eyes, he begins to admire the way her long black silky hair is brushing up against her tanned sculpted arms. He looked forward to making love to her tonight as it had been many weekends that they had been apart.
“How do you manage to do that?”
“Do what?”
“The way you say happy birthday my love, just like my mother used to say it.”
“That’s because I love you just as much as your mother did.”
“So when are you two lovebirds going to get married and make me a grandpa,?” says John, pointing to little Noah.
“C’mon, when’s the big day?” shouts Anna.
Luke and Judy look at each other knowingly and with one loud voice they both yell out “soon”, laughter erupts around the room.
The laughter breaks and everybody starts clapping and cheering as Chester joins in with a huge big bark.
While they are all enjoying themselves, Jack and Tom’s eyes are glued to the television.
“Has the big game started?” asks Luke.
“Yep guys, the game is about to start, go Oakland Raiders” says Jack.
“Go New York Jets, go Jets,” shouts Tom.
“That’s my husband; give him a football game and a fishing rod and he is a happy man and then do I exist? No!” says Kate.
They all gather around the TV. Luke is relaxing with Judy on his lap as Anna and Kate sit side-by-side next to the TV. John, Jack, Tom and Dr Clifford all have a drink in their hands. They opt to watch the TV standing up.
Little Noah is sucking a lollipop as he and Chloe are playing with Chester.
As everyone is chit-chatting a strong ray of sunshine comes through the window. The whole room is suddenly lit up.
“Wow, how strong is that sun,” says Luke.
“Strong and beautiful, it is a welcome change from all the bad weather we have been having over the years,” says Kate.
“It certainly is Kate, but I think it’s a bit bright. Anyone mind if I draw the shades,” says Dr Clifford.
“Draw the shades Doc,” says Luke laughing. They are called blinds, that’s what we