The City of Mirrors (2016), Justin Cronin: summary

The City of Mirrors is a thrilling finale to a trilogy that brings us to the highest fantasy of the apocalyptic theme. Human already run modern life, but it ruins into doom ages after the epidemic virus. The world heals itself and the survivors restore the civilization. At the end of story, writer draws the reader to element of surprise. Amy, the hero, has already transformed into a god in ages, but Dr. Miles, the historian, finally finds her alive.

The 758-page fiction was published by Ballantine Books in 2016. The book seems the allusion of the Bible to me - the chronicles at the prologue and the Twelves sounds so Jesus’s disciple. I don’t read the Passage and the Twelve, but this apocalyptic epic still interests me. I found some intellectual conversations and narrations. This book is not easy to understand though, I need to reread several pages in order to fathom the story. 

This fiction also reflects us how human does accept the actual events from the past both of the heroic acts and disaster. Some people adjust it only as a history lesson in many doubt reactions, meanwhile others bring it into a ritual or religion. As we know the history could be distorted, and seemingly we have to consider to what Winston Churchill has said that the history is written by the victors. I myself also fully consider in flow chart: data - hypothesis-axiom- theorem- status quo (undeniable logic). The author does fantastic work here; Dr. Logan Miles, the historian, has proved that the epidemic virus that caused great catastrophe by scientific evidence. Fanning's chapter (Lover, p.107) is really memorable pages, and it looks like a novelette to me. The author also is truly brilliant in delivering war's strategy and weaponry, and biological stuff or epidemiology. 

The City of Mirrors (2016), Justin Cronin: summary

From the writings of the First Recorder of the Book of Twelve. In chapter five says that Amy and her fellows returned to Kerrville, in place of Texas. And in that place, Amy went to live with among the Sisters, who were women of God. And a great sorrow was upon them all, for friends that they had lost. And these were Theo and Mussami, his wife, and Sara, who called Sara the Healer, wife of Hollis. A great army of virals had laid siege, killing every kind. An only two of their company survive. There were Hollis the Strong, husband of Sara, and Caleb, son of Theo and Mausami.

Meanwhile Alicia Donadio, a soldier, a,k.a Alicia of Blades, and Peter Jaxon, the laborer, a.k.a the Man of Days, took up arms with Expeditionary, who were soldiers of Texas, to search the Twelve. For they had learned that to kill one of the Twelve was to kill his Many also, sending their soul unto the LORD. At the end of time, Amy received a sign through a dream. Wolgast came to her and appearing as a man, and he said that his master is waiting, and the place of his waiting was a great ship in which he dwells. He showed the way, and a man named Carter, Twelfth of Twelve, who was to be called Carter the Sorrowful, a man righteous in his generation, and beloved of God.

There was also another city of mankind, in the place Iowa, and it was known as the Homeland. In this place abided a race of men who drunk the blood of virals, so that they might live, ruling for many generations. They were called Reyedes, and the greatest of these was Guilder the Director, a man of the Time Before. The viral that they took their sustenance was Grey. For in his blood was seed of Zero, father of Twelve. The Grey abided in chains, wherein he suffered greatly. They lived as captives to serve the Reyedes, doing all they wished. One of the captives was Sara the Healer, taken at the place of Roswell, whose friends did not know that she lived. Kate, Sara’s daughter was taken away, the Reyedes told her that Kate had not survived, causing a great woe in her heart. The child was given to a woman of Reyedes. The woman was Lila, wife of Wolgast.

Homeland

Peter Jaxon, retired officer of the Expeditionary turned carpenter and father, citizen of Kerrville, Texas. It was a life like anybody else’s with its satisfactions. Caleb had just turned ten. Unlike Peter, who at that age was already serving as a runner of the Watch, the boy was experiencing a childhood. He went to school, he played with his friends, he did chores. Every day he looked a little bit more like his father, Theo, though the subject of his parents never came up anymore. Everyone believed that Amy had died in the stadium, killed in the blast that had killed the Twelve. No trace of her had been found.

Kerrville was busting at seams; fifty thousand souls had made journey from Iowa, more than doubling the population in just a couple years. Kerrville had been built on the principle zero population growth; couples were not allowed to have more than two children without paying hefty fine. With the arrival of the Iowans, the whole concept had gone out the window. There had been food shortages, runs on fuel and medicine, sanitation problems. People had gone in violating curfew, filling Dunk’s whorehouses and gambling halls, drinking and stealing and fighting and generally running amok. People had begun to openly talk about moving outside the wall.

The age of virals was over, humankind was finally on the upswing. Peter just turned thirty years old now, raised a son. A soldier just knocked his door and offered Peter a sealed piece of paper, a message from Victoria Sanchez, President Texas Republic.

Lucius Greer, the man of Faith, took his position on the flatform in the hour before dawn. To pass his time, he offered a simple prayer. Three years had passed since the liberation of the Homeland. The events of the night were still with him, indelible memories flashed upon his consciousness. The bedlam of the stadium, and the virals making their entrance; the insurgency’s unleashing of their firepower upon the redeyes and Alicia and Peter advancing on the stage, gundowns, firing again and again. By the time Lucius had returned to Kerrville, the following spring, he knew he could no longer dwell among people. For weeks he wandered in the condition, a being of multiple worlds. The one day he awoke to discover himself lying in gully beneath an obliterating on midday sun. His body was grotesquely emaciated, covered with scratches and sores; his fingers were bloody, some of the nails torn away.

Lucius had received a vision. He had no sense of where he was, only that he needed to walk north. Six hours later he found himself on the Kerrville Road. By the time he arrived at his hut, night was falling. He unsaddled, tied up his horse, and entered the hut. Lucius had told nobody about Amy-only he knew the truth. On the matter of Alicia’s fate, Lucius had nothing to offer. Michael was there. But Michael was Michael. When Lucius awoke in the morning, Michel was gone.  

Gulf of Mexico

His parents’s suicide was not something he like to think about, but of course he did. Their gray, empty faces, and the tautness of the ropes around their necks. The slight creaking sound they made. It was Michael Fisher, first engineer of Light and Power and oil first class, and within a month he had quit the refinery and crashed in five years of unspent paychecks to buy the tools he needed and hire a crew to bring them down to San Luis. With every voyage he took, he went a little longer, a little farther, a little more crazily out there. North and east along the coast to oil-mucked New Orleans and its depressing plume of gooey, river-borne, chemical stinks. South to Padre Island, with its long, wild stretches of sand white as talc.

The morning of the storm, Michael had been at sea for forty-two days. His plan was to make Freeport by noon. Alicia had chosen him, but he still kept wondering why did she chose him. Alicia had come to him in hospital, on the morning before Sara and the others had left Homeland to return Kerrville. When he awoke Alicia was there. There it was: the moment he had failed him. The moment when she told him she was leaving for good. Michel loved her, but someone had already loved her. After Alicia asked him to care of himself, she then was gone.

He guided his craft closer. The ship was listing slightly to port, bow-down, the tops of its massive propellers just visible above the waterline. The vessel’s name was registered as Bergensfjord, Oslo Norway. Michael guessed the boat had been some kind of freight vessel. An eye-watering ammoniac funk filled the air- air that nobody had breathed for a century. He found a body. An officer, Michael thought, perhaps the captain himself. A hole in his skull, no bigger, marked the spot of the bullet’s entry. On the floor, beneath the man’s outstretched right hand, lay a revolver.

Michael found other bodies below decks. Nearly all were in their beds. He didn’t linger, merely added them to the count, forty-two corpses in all. Something caught his eyes. A large sheet of paper, taped to the bulkhead, in ornate lettering, were the words International Herald Tribune. Crisis grew as death toll soars worldwide virus extended its deadly reach to all continents. Ports and borders overrun as millions flee the spread of infection. Major cities in chaos as massive blackouts darkened Europe.

Although the disease’s rapid spread made estimates of the dead difficult, U.N health officials said the toll numbers in the hundreds of millions.

The virus, an airborne variant of the one that decimated North America two years ago, emerged in the Caucasus region of central Asia just fifty nine days ago. Health officials have been at pains to identify either of a source of the virus or an effective treatment. WHO officials have speculated that the disease may have traveled from North America via ship or aircraft, despite the international quarantine imposed by UN two years ago. Other theories of the pathogen’s origins included an avian source, connected to the massive die-off of several species of migrating songbirds in the southern Ural Mountains just prior to the disease’s appearance. A third theory was that the epidemic was the work of the terrorists.

With most of the globe now under some form of martial law, riots have engulfed hundreds of cities. Power outaged throughout Europe continued to hamper relief efforts and added the chaos. Landline and cellular communications networks have also been adversely affected, cutting many cities and towns off from the outside world. Also on the rise were reports of mass suicides so-called death cult. As the death toll raised, health officials worried that unburied remained of the deceased may be accelerating the spread of infection.  

Sara
At the checkpoint, Sara showed her pass and made her way home through darkened streets. Except for the hospital and other essential buildings, the electricity was shut off at 2200. Saloons, brothels, gaming halls-Hollis had told her plenty of stories, and after two years in the refugee camp, there was not much that Sara had not seen herself. She let herself into the apartment.  With Sara working so many late hours at the hospital, Hollis had become quite a reader, checking out armfuls of books from the library. She checked on Kate, who was sound asleep, and washed up at the sink. When Sara had arrived in Kerrville, three years ago, she had reported to the hospital to see if her nurse’s training could be of any use. 

A patient in a bed was making a ruckus. She was older than patients Sara used to seeing, maybe forty, with a drawn, hard face and crowded teeth. The woman’s husband and his children were waiting for a new member. Carlos Jimenez now fathered to three kids. Baby Grace now was holding at her mother’s lap. Sara examined Carlos’s document. The paper was government-issued, the seal had been embossed on the wrong side. It were clearly forgeries, purchased by trade. Dr. Sara Wilson had no attention of sending baby Grace to the orphanage.

Amy

She recalled a time, long ago, in the innocent period she thought as before Project NOAH, before the Oregon mountaintop where they had made their home and then her long, solo wanderings in a peopleless world with only the virals for company – when animals had spoken to her. Larger animals, like dogs, but also smaller ones that nobody paid attention to – birds and even the insects. She had thought nothing of this at the time; it was simply the way things were. It was part of the of the world’s arrangement that animals spoke only to her, always addressing her by name, as if  they were old friends, telling her stories about their lives, and it made her happy to be recipient of the special gift of their attention when so much else in her life seemed to make no sense at all: her mother lurching emotions and long absences, their drifting from place to place.

Amy did not yet fully comprehend that her mother had deserted her – that she would never see the woman again - and she welcomed the invitation; she had heard zoos but had never been to one. She talked to the bear and felt suddenly sorry that such a stately creature should be forced to live like a prisoner. Her mind swirled with the voices, a chorus of black dread. She felt as if the universe were bending around her, swathing her in darkness. They would die, all these animals. Death would take them all, and not just the animals. The people, too. The world would die around her, and she would be left standing at the center, alone.

Michael and his sister Sara

Michael the one with the sailboat, appeared in hospital to meet Sara. After three years mostly alone, the hum of so much packed humanity felt something scarping his skin.  He now lived with her sister Sara, niece Kate, and brother-in-law Hollis.  

Capitol Building

The Capitol Building, housed in what had once been a bank. President Vicky Sanchez ‘s office was located on the second floor. Peter Jaxon was there to see President Sanchez, he had an appointment. She asked Peter to joined her staff as a special adviser. Peter was too valuable resource to sit on the sidelines as the gate opener.

Michael
He had found a letter in the breast pocket of the captain’s uniform. The man had never intended to send it. The letter, less then a page, was written in English. The letter had touched him. A good by letter and the last prayer for his son. Michael was accustomed to scenes of abandonment and devastation; he had crossed ruined cities that contained skeletons by thousands. But never before he had the dead spoken directly to him. He had found the man’s passport. His full name was Nabil Haddad. He had been born in Netherlands. The vessel had been going somewhere, it had had a destination. 

Now he needed for the man named they called the Maestro. He had once been an electrical engineer for Civilian Authority; long retired, and he had been Kerrville’s go to man for electrics antiquities. Michael showed him a Gensys 872HJS. Fourth generation, three terabytes. The data told that the Bergensfjord was departing from Hong Kong, and had sailed to Hawaii, then passed through the Panama Canal and into the Atlantic. According to the newspaper, that much would have occurred before the outbreak of the Easter Virus. 

They had made port in the Canary Island, perhaps to refuel, then continued north. At this point, the data changed. The ship had traveled in circles up and down the cost of northern Europe. Several weeks elapsed, and they set sail again. The epidemic would have been widespread by this time. They headed north toward the equator. In the midocean, the ship appeared to stop. After two weeks motionless weeks, the data ended. Michael was curious where they were headed, he just left Sara a note. He wanted to find out the ship’s destination. 

Sara was a doctor, and she did not like to do it, she could throw her weight around if she had to. She had not done anything illegal. Failing to file the proper paperwork was not a crime- more like an error. She was safe, but this would not help Carlos. Once the fraud was discovered, baby Grace would be taken.

  

Peter and Caleb

Michael now was in Greer Lucius’s cabin. Michael saved the data from the Bergensfjord,s navigation computer for last. The ship’s destination had been a region of the South Pacific roughly halfway between northern New Zealand and the Cook Islands. He used the atlas to show Greer. They discussed to fix the ship.

Alicia Donadio

She had approached the city. Bats flittered in the sky. At the heart of abandoned city, a woodland had taken root, flowering to massive dimensions. New York had vanished. The building turned to be an ancient forest.

The Lover 

Timothy J. Fanning was a scientist. He died in a jungle in Bolivia. He was called by the name Zero the Destroyer, Great Devour of the World. He died and then was brought to life, the oldest tale there was. Tim arose from the dead. He was in the room of the bluest light. He was a captive in that place. A voice called him by the name. Colonel Sykes asked him many question but his gate of memory opened and releasing a flood. The rainforest, the soldiers, the statues, manlike figures of monstrous form, and the bats. He remembered the shots, and the screams. He was in a place of blue light and a voice that knew his name but in his mind he was running for the river. He felt the hot stab of bats’ teeth in the flesh of arms and neck. He saw a woman and locked her neck in his elbow and dove down. He rocketed across the room and hit the window with a tud. The walls of his prison could not help but eventually yield to his power. He saw his friend Jones and Colonel Sykes. Their eyes were wide with fear.

Fanning was turn to be a Dracula, Nosferatu, or Vampyre. The virus remained; his death had merely excited it into some new interaction with host. He had fangs, and his eyes possessed aliens rosiness of albino. His first victim was a nurse. He did not kill her immediately. There was data need to collect, Nurse Duff needed to be alive. The taste and the deed was done. She began to moan, then grunt, then she fell silent. She was part of him now, but not too long he killed her.

The boy’s father, the town lone’s optometrist, was known and appreciated. Timothy was only child and he was so special to his mother. Like all young people, he had no ideas who his parents were. They love him, but did his parents love each other? He was now eighteen and was going to Harvard. Compounding the difficulty was the fact that the boy has never been in love himself. Though the social patterns of Mercy, Ohio, were such that even a modestly attractive person could find opportunities in the sexual marketplace, and the boy, although a virgin, had been from time to time to its beneficiary, what he had experienced was merely love’s painless presage, the expression without soul. His father gave the boy his last word before took his bus. His father said Tim were destined for great things, and he asked his son not to come home even for Christmas. The place was not for him anymore.

He arrived at Harvard University in September 1989—the Soviet Union on the brink of collapse, the economy in a state of general decline. His goal was to be a biochemist, and he wasted no time. He had friends, his studies to occupy him. He met a girl, and he was happy. His father was right, he had found his life. He dutiful telephoned every two weeks, reversing the charges, his whole small town Ohio childhood—began to fade from his mind. He had been no discussion of his returning home for the Thanksgiving break, and Ohio was too far in any case—so he accepted an invitation to spend the holiday with Lucessi, his roommate in Bronx. 

His grades were good--better than good. He had a girlfriend, the daughter of the South American dictator. But his father was actually the Argentine minister of finance. Carmen possessed a good deal more sexual experience than I did. She was blessed with a single room, rare for a freshman. Many times he entered to find him sitting on his bed, barely dressed, muttering to himself and making odd, twitchy hand gestures, as if involved in earnest conversation with some unseen party. He talked to himself. Lucessi got him out of some orphanage. His parents did not think they would could have kid. Months later, along came Arianna. Lucessi was in love with her.

The year came to an end. He and Carmen went separated ways. One of his professor had offered him a job working in his lab. His job, which involved collating reams of data on the structural biology of plasma cells in mice. His father informed him that his mother died. His mother had diagnosed with uterine cancer. Postoperative biopsies had revealed that cancer was an aggressive and rare adenosarcoma that left her with no hope of recovery. His father said, her dying desire that the son she loved so much should suffer no interruption in his progress toward the fulfillment of all her proud hopes. She had died two weeks previously, her ashes buried without funeral pageant, in accordance with her wishes.

He crossed again with the man he had met at the restaurant for the first time he landed at Harvard. Handsome, smart, charming, destined for great things. He was a professor’s son. Jonas Lear needed a floater for a roommate. Lear was working in a refugee camp for the U.N. He was in Uganda. Tim was introduced to his girlfriend. Liz Macomb was wearing small, wire-framed eyeglasses, perfectly round. She was from Connecticut and in English major.

Jonas Lear invited Tim to an exclusive party. A college party is usually a loud affair, belching out a wide perimeter of a sound, but not this one. Alcott Spence was their president of the club, on the other side he met Stephanie. The fall was marathon of parties, each more extravagant than the last. Night at restaurants he could never afford, strip clubs, a harbor cruise on a sixty-foot boat owned by an alumnus who never came out of his cabin. Tim was happy and became a quartet: parties, movies, weekend ski trips, lusty and drunken outings. His grade was excellent and his professors took notice, he was encourage thinking about his doctoral work.

Then Lucessi killed himself. His parents made arrangements to have him admitted to a psychiatric hospital before he disappeared. He had select a tree and there was a note in his pocket that said to call Fanning. It was his sister, Arianna, who telephoned him. He was among the close family and friends. He was ordained by Lucessi’s note.

Jonas was spending the summer on an archeological dig in Tanzania; Stephanie had won a coveted internship in Washington, working on Capitol Hill. He tried to call her but Stephanie was on vacation with her parents. He finally called Liz, she was now working at a bookshop in Connecticut. He suddenly felt the weight of Lucessi’s death. He had ever been to New York City, Liz was already there for him. Liz had explained that her parents only used the apartment when they came into the New York to shop or take a show.

Liz
When Liz was eleven, she had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. The cancer had originated in the lymph nodes surrounding her trachea. Surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, she had it all. She was Jonas's pet project. She was the problem to solve. 

Tim was to graduate summa cum laude; offers of generous graduate fellowships had come his way. Jonas would be going back to Tanzania for the summer, then heading to the University of Chicago to start his doctoral work; Liz would be going to Berkeley for her master in Renaisance literature; Stephanie was returning to Washington work for a political consulting firm. By that time, he begun to tire of Stephanie. His heart was simply elsewhere, it made him feel like hypocrite. Since the funeral in New York, Liz and Tim had not spoken of his mother’s death or Liz’s cancer. He did nothing about his feeling with her, he owned Jonas that much and more. Jonas was pursuing a PhD in microbiology when he married Liz.

Tim finished his degree t a quickstep; by this was followed by a postdoc at Standford, then a faculty appointment at Columbia, where he was tenured in due course. Within professional circles, he became well known. His reputation increased; the world came calling. He traveled widely, speaking for lucrative fees. Grants flowed his way without difficulty. He became the holder of multiple patents. He refereed important journals. He sat on elite boards, and testified before Congress, and was the NASA advisory board, the U.N. Task Force on Biological Diversity.  

Along the way he married three times. Liz was teaching at Boston College. Year by year, the cards kept coming. The image showed them in a different exotic setting. There was no kid, the photos showed only the two of them. At the same time, rumors began to swirls about Jonas. Jonas Lear, it was said, had gone off the deep end. His research had drifted into fantasy. Until one day, he received a phone call from a man that he met him twice or so. He was a cell biologist at Harvard, a junior colleague of Jonas’s, with excellent reputation. Nature, Jonas’s project, was. The theory being that one man’s fall was another man’s rise. A lot of it has to do with his wife, Liz.

Liz was dying; he never stopped loving her. Tim was completely at a loss. He dialed up Liz, and met in New York. Jonas was still in South America for his ambitious project. Liz thought her husband had left her. Then Tim sat beside her, they became lovers. After they had been having days together, Liz had to back to her mother’s place in Greenwich. Joy and sadness had fused together. He left the station and entered a restaurant. A woman sat a few stools away. She was young, little heavy but quite striking, Indian or Middle Eastern, with raven-black hair. Nicole was his student, now worked at publishing. Both of them were drunk. They were in a taxi. Nicole Forood did not allowed Tim entered her apartment. She asked him to wait at the lobby, and had to take care of something. A Hispanic woman emerged from the building while Tim was waiting on the lobby. 

He descended the stair and found Nicole. She had taken off her makeup. The apartment was dingy look, a small living area. The drunk Tim tried to kiss her, but she aimed a long knife at him and asked him to get out. It was a nightmare, he rose from her body. A pool of blood was spreading. Tim did not think of himself as killer, rather, he was a man who had been involved in a serious accident that would be misunderstood.  A sound came from the laundry. A little girl was awake and looking about. He took a cab to his apartment. The girl’s apartment was clean, he had washed every surfaced he had touched. 

Fanning and Liz were going to run away, spend her last days together. The clock was where they were going to meet, but Liz never showed. She had died on the way, but Fanning did not know that, he thought she had changed her mind. His phone chirped, the unknown voice. A nurse from a hospital had called him to inform Liz’s death. She was taken from the train from Boston, brought to hospital by ambulance. They had tried to reach her husband, but it failed. 

The story of girl’s death was plastered on the front pages of the tabloids for several days. She was twenty-nine, from Maryland, the daughter of Iranian immigrant. Her father was an engineer, her mother a school librarian, she had three siblings. For six year she worked at the publishing; she and the baby’s father, an actor, were recently divorce.

After the funeral, Jonas insisted to ask him to stay. His project was close. There was an ancient site in Bolivia, a temple that at least a thousand years old. The legends said there was a grave there; the body of a man infected with the virus that he had been searching for. Five years ago, a group of four American tourist showed up at a hospital in Bolivia. They had been on some kind of ecotour in the jungle, they all had terminal cancer. All of them recovered, and not just from the hantavirus. They had been better than cured.

Jonas had failed to save Liz and that would haunt him the rest of his days. He wanted to save hundred thousand people just like Liz, but he was not good at gathering money. He asked Tim’s support, his credibility. Bit by bit, the girl’s death ceased to hang over his thought. He heard nothing from Jonas. He returned to teaching. He taught his classes, he heard Jonas had found funding for expedition in Bolivia. Then one day, two detectives arrived at his office. Tim made the customary denials. He had never been to the bar, he was in bed. He was going to with a friend, a married friend. The detective gave her card. He only could think of only one question, he called Jonas’s office. They left and were going to change the world. He had given some thought to Jonas's proposal.

He was infected. A century since the last person walked there, and still one could not travel its street, as Tim did, without seeing one’s face reflected. The mirrored flanks of skyscrapers, great vertical tombs of glass. He only saw a forest in New York. There were rats everywhere. City of memoirs, city of mirrors. He was a man of many descendants. They lay hidden away. His brothers, Twelve in sum. Tim and his co-conspirator, Jonas, had identified the avenue of escape. They discussed about the kid, Amy NLN. She had no last name, they even got her form orphanage, and she did not even had a proper name. She was just some girl from nowhere. A little girl, bathed in the innocence of youth. This Amy, could be an alpha or an omega. 

122 years after the Virus, Twenty Years after the Discovery of the Bergensford

Peter Jaxon, age fifty-one, president of Texas republic, took responsibility on 204,876 population. Caleb, Peter’s son had spent two years preparing the place-framing the house, digging the well, laying out fences-before returning for his wife, Pim, and the baby. Good soil, the clear water of the river, woods heavy with game: there were worse places, Peter thought, to start a life. Sara and Hollis just arrived, Kate was working at the hospital, but had promised that her husband, Bill, would bring the girls.

It had been one of the great disappointments of Caleb’s life that there was nobody left to fight anymore. He had spent his years in the service as a glorified ditch digger, assigned to the construction of the telegraph line between Kerrville and Boerne. The city walls went unmanned, the perimeter lights had gone out one by one and never been repaired; the gate had been shut in a decade. A whole generation had grown to adulthood thinking the virals were little more boogeymen in scary stories told by their elders. Caleb and his family were headed to one of the outer settlements, a two day ride on the buckboard. The wagon was crossing the old fence line to the Orange Zone. Beyond it, only a fraction of fields had been plowed planting; the simply was not enough manpower.

Peter had become president not because he desired the job particularly but as a favor to Vicky. Right after her election to a third term, she had developed a tremor in her right hand. This was followed by a series of accidents; the tremors spread to her other hand, and she began to make involuntary rocking motions with her neck.

Kerrville itself was on its way to becoming. The farther out people settled, the less the idea of centralized authority held sway. Financial capital had followed human capital to the townships; people were opening business, trading commodity. A group of private investors had pooled money to open a bank, the first of its kind.

The wagon arrived in Mystic Township on the second afternoon. The town was a threadbare outpost: a small main street with just a few houses. Since Theo’s birth, Caleb had made it his habit to speak and sign simultaneously wherever the boy was present. Pim had never spent a night beyond the city walls. At the beginning, when Sara had brought her home from the orphanage, she had hardly seemed like a person to Caleb. Pim was deaf and mute. Her blunt gesture and guttural groans unnerved him. The situation had started to change when Sara taught him sign language.

Michael

Like many of Michael’s men, Byron Szumanski (Patch), had been raised in orphanage. Patch had done a stint in military, learning a thing about engines along the way, then they worked for the civilian as a mechanic. Michael paid him accordingly, though nobody could complain about the wages. Dunk, owner of the whore house knew nothing of Michael’s true purpose; he regarded the Bergensfjord as an eccentric distraction. Mystic had open for settlement. That meant demand, Dunk hired Michael for the new boiler up and running.

For two decades, Michael had thought of sliding the twenty thousand tons Bergensfjord gracefully into the sea. It took two years to repair the dock, another two to pump and refloat the hull, a fifth to back her in. Michael always worried- Amy still tried to kill the Geer every time. Except for Rand Horgan, Michael’s first mechanic, none of Michael’s men knew about the part of Amy, Charter, the Chevron Mariner, the jugs of blood that Geer dutiful delivered dutifully delivered every sixty days.

Caleb

Caleb had failed to consider that they would need other people in their lives after the conversation with a neighbor named Phil Tatum. Caleb took the wagon into town for supplies and to reshoe on of the horses. He surveyed the empty street. He was about to drive out of town when he remembered the doctor Tatum had told him about. There were not many houses, and the doctor’s was easy to find. The doctor had once worked at the hospital in Kerrville and retired to the townships. The towns seemed empty, he read about the bounty for hunting mountain lion. The lion had attacked livestock. The very next morning Caleb searched and came to an area of broken branches; the blood was spread over the ground. He thought it might have been a raccoon.

Alicia in New York

The shapes of great buildings crenellated the sky in silhouettes of perfect blackness. The magnificent Chrysler Building, Fanning’s favorite, soaring above everything around it with its graceful art deco crown. The hours after midnight were the ones Alicia liked the best. She crossed the roof to the construction crane and began to climb. Her power expanded. It was as if, in the presence of her creator, some powerful mechanism within her had been fully unleashed. Gravity was a toy to her; she ranged above Manhattan like a bird.

Fanning had already prepared for daybreak by drawing the shades. He was sitting at usual table on the balcony above the main hall, reading a book while Alicia approached. Fanning was a scientist, methodical in all things, my eyes were everywhere, seeing all. His descendants, his Many, were everywhere. The heaves toys with him, he would have satisfaction, he had waited long enough for the savior, the girl from Nowhere.

Iowa Freestate (Formerly the Homeland) Pop. 12,139

As he had watched the population drain away, Sheriff Gordon Eustace had begun to worry. A lot of people had accepted the offered to evacuate to Texas. The people who stayed behind were not the builders, the dreamers. Many were simply too weak to travel; some were too afraid. They had no engineers, no plumbers, no electricians, no doctors. They could operate the machines the redeyes left behind, but nobody knew how to fix them when they broke. Schooling the children proved impossible. Few of the adults could read. The epidemic had cut the city like sythe. Eustace’s wife and his beloved son had perished within few hours of each other. The illness came on quickly: fever, chills, a cough from deep in the lungs.

The Possum Man was missing, but also lots of dogs. Kids, men, and women were also missing. No dogs anywhere. Eustace and his partner had canvassed most of the outermost farms. They now approached an old factory. The smell grew more intense when they ran to the main work space of the building. They were dogs. Eustace tried to kill himself, but his holster was empty of course. Something awful was occurring inside him. The swirling was a whirpool in his head and he was being sucked down into it.

The Bergensfjord was nearly ready. The Bergensfjord only had room for seven hundred. Simultaneously, at the outskirts of Mystic Township, Texas, the virals were emerging from earth. They rose, shaking off the inhuman faces to the stars. They attacked Caleb’s neighbor, the Tatums, but Dory Tatum, the wife did not die. She got unconsciousness for few days. With a sickening crunch she became change and Caleb had to shoot her.

Caleb and his family now had reached Kerrville, the virals were everywhere. Michael himself that was visiting Peter for discussing on the Bergenfjord was attacked by the virals. Amy was also there when the virals suddenly attacked. Michael, Peter, Geer, and Amy, fought back the virals. They also headed to Kerrville. Alicia’s soldier had seized the Kerrville. Alicia tried to explain her mission to Peter. It was Amy she wanted. Fanning, the man who had the virus, had sent her to catch Amy.

The viral woman had tried to negotiate with Peter, once they knew each other. Michael was still doubt on her, she was on league with the enemy. Alicia seemed small, frail, broken. Amy’s shadow lay long on the ground as she approached Alicia’s cowded figure. Using her body to shield Alicia’s face from the light. Though Amy had asked all of them to trust Alicia, but Peter could not trust her. Alicia now was sitting on the floor of the cell. She insisted that she was on Peter’s side. Fanning was different, he had been controlling everything from the start. The only reason Alicia and her team were able to kill the Twelve was because Fanning let them.

After Fanning got infected, Lear brought him back to Colorado. Lear still hoping to use the virus as a kind of cure-all, but the military got involved. They wanted to use it as a weapon, made some kind of super-soldier out of it. That was when they brought in the twelve inmates. Later Lear used a different virus, not descended from the one Fanning carried. That’s why she was not the same as others. To Fanning, Amy was the fish that got away.

For Alicia, Amy was her lost sister. Amy unlocked Alicia’s shackles. They headed outside the city, into the wood. Soldier and a second horse were tidied up. They rode away.

They were called the dopeys. They came from very quarter of the continents, every states and city. They came from farms and small towns, faceless suburbs and sprawling metropolises; they were every color and creed. They had lived in trailer, houses, apartments, mansions with views of the sea. They had driven automobiles. They had walked dogs, pushed children on swing sets and waited in line of grocery stores. They had worshiped variety of gods or no god at all.

Heirs to the virals lineage of Anthony Carter, Twelfth of Twelve, they were intrinsically less bloodthirsty than their counterparts. Human observers remarked the dopeys satisfied their appetites with an attitude of joyless obligation, singular among virals, that made them easier to kill. Alicia had asked Carter’s support.

Alicia and Amy went back to the city. Amy had tired of runaway and wanted to deal with Fanning. But the war of the virals and human were not trust each other. The war was inevitable. The war had ended with fires. The virals were trapped in a building, and got burned. The survivors had emerged when the day break. The children and women were nothing to see the war. They stayed in shelter that contained 654 souls. The gate was gone.

Carter’s army lay dead, their bones; now in sunlight; had begun their dissolution. Amy covered by in ash, she looked like a ghost, a specter from children’s story. A few feet beyond her, beside soldier’s body, lay Alicia. To human, Amy was the traitor. Amy had many times tried to explain that she and Alicia wanted to help the human and trapped Fanning. But now the city had fallen, the city was gone. They needed Michael. They were 764 souls. They were dirty, exhausted, and confused. They rode in six buses. They had only few weapons, and barely ammunition. Among their numbers, they counted 532 children under the age of thirteen. There were 68 men and 42 various ages and backgrounds. Thirty-two were, or had been, a soldiers.  They included mechanics, electricians, nurses, weavers, shoppers, bootleggers, farmers, farriers, a gunsmith, and a cobbler. One of them, a drunken doctor, Elacqua.

The dock had been filling for seven hours. Michael and his men (Lore and Rand) were preparing to open the vents to the sea. Bergensfjord was ready. Michael was in the pilothouse with Lore.

Amy, the tall girl with dark hair was in the ship, and the virus had brought. The viral part of her could accomplish many things, but it could not reassemble a jigsaw puzzle. It might have been said that the only thing keep Alicia alive habit-her predisposition to see things through. Her body was broken, she lay loose as a doll.

The Nautilus (small boat) rose from her cradle. Michael, Amy, Alicia, and Peter had begun to drift away from the Bergensfjord. Night over the spread over the sea. Peter and Amy lay curled together on the cabin. Amy was in live with Peter. The day 18, Nautilus reached New York. They disembarked. The roadway was choked with skeletons of cars; glassless windows stared at them like a mouth of caves. Peter and Amy walked north. So far, they were no trace of Fanning’s virals. Except the pigeons, the city seemed dead. Each of them had a semiautomatic rifle and pistol; Amy also carried the sword.

Amy was surrounded by the virals. The room writhed and throbbed, a population of hundreds. The voice seemed to emanate from everywhere around her. Peter and Amy got caught by the virals. Fanning was clamped his jaws around Peter’s neck. Michael and Alicia were blasted by a jet of water. The longed into the station, going like a shot. The rising water had collapsed the station, a great of water was jetting from the grate, high into the air. Fanning stopped cursing Amy, the water arrived, a pounding wall blasting them off their feet. Amy was being swept away, the building as coming down. Peter’s chest was moving rapidly. The change had yet to begin. Fanning hurled Amy to the air. Peter had begun to disappear. Michael’s leg was hurt by glasses, Alicia was gone. He froze.

Peter’s transformation has completed. Like the virals in the hall, Peter had bowed his head in abject surrender. Peter positioned the sword so that the tip was pointed at the base of Amy’s throat. Amy whispered to him that he was Peter, her Peter. Amy and Peter joined forces to kill Fanning. There were blood anywhere. Peter got hurt, his neck was bent away. The light, Amy realized, was a reflection. The flash shot Fanning directly into face. He now was blind, and Amy killed him easily. The virals were dead. The virals lay everywhere. Their bodies crumbled to dust.  Peter had begun to die. Michael Fisher moved among the bodies, and fell into his knees. Amy and Michael pitched their camp. Amy knew that Alicia was gone. Peter had died. 

It had taken them nearly a week to find each other; the center of the island was blocked by impenetrable mountains of debris. Amy had heard Michael’s calling on the sixth day. They remained three for few weeks to rest and gather supplies. Michael slowly regained his strength. Michael loaded the supplies into Nautilus, he would first headed for Florida, where he would restock, then make a long journey to the coast of Brazil. They parted. Amy made her way across and on the opposite side stopped to drink and rest. Utah was four months away.

From the observation deck of the Empire Building, Alicia watched Nautilus sailed down the Hudson. Her body was broken, her body was done. She realized she was alone, and recalled her infant, Rose. No Amy, no Fanning, no Peter, and no Michael. She could feel the virus had was gone. Fanning began to walk. He had no destination in mind, merely a sense that walking was something the situation called for. He met Liz in the other life.

The storage locker contained a crate of explosive, as well as spools of cable and a radio detonator. The fuel tanks, now nearly empty, were full of highly combustible diesel fumes. The Bergensfjord was in flames, a huge of black smoke soaring skyward. She was sinking from the stern. The mantle of leadership fallen to Lore. She was captain of the Bergensfjord, and she preferred liked they called her ‘mayor’. Caleb and his team investigate an island, a tropical island. They had also found no traces of prior of inhabitation. Pim’s book was complete. Her journal had recorded all the story about the virals and the Bergensfjord. Carter held his breath as long as he could. He zoomed to the surface and exploded into the summer sunshine. He was happy at last, there were Rachel and the girls. What a happy family. What happiness, thought Carter.

She reached California in the fall. Amy selected a spot, took up her chisel, and hammer and began. The land was empty, without history, devoid a life. She heard the sea. She experienced no fear, only a wild, startled joy. Her body felt clean and strong. She missed Peter. He was gone, but would always be part of her. She had no destination, beach was a way station. 

Indo-Australian Republic, Po 186 Million 1003 Years after the Virus

Dr. Logan Miles, age fifty-six, a professor and chair of millennial studies, and director of the Chancellor’s Task Force on North American Research and Reclamation, made the conference to a start roaring. A millennium ago, human history very nearly came to end. The virus killed over seven billion people. The Scripture told the human that the survivors made their passage to the South Pacific from North America. The Book of Twelve’s new light had been shed the past. The Book recounted an epic contest on the North America continent between a small band of survivors and a race of being called virals. And the central of the struggle is the young girl Amy-the Girl from Nowhere. Possessing unique powers of body and spirit, she led her fellows-Peter, Alicia, Michael, Sara, and Lucius. Logan had found the mummified that remained were recovered in an arid basin at the foot of South California’s San Jacinto’s Mountains. The genetic testing indicated that they were human beings.

The usual protestors lingered by the steps, holding their sign. Among them were perhaps a dozen Ammalite clergy, as well as scattering of Disciples, women dressed in plain gray robes tied with a simple cord at the twist, their heads shorn in the manner of the Savior. Nessa Tripp, a young reporter, had written all of about his finding. Logan’s father was a simple man and his mother just like anybody else. But, later she started having spells, she was Amy dreamer. Visions, episodes, waking dreams.

Few days later, Dr. Melville Wilcox, the on-site supervisor at First Colony, had sent him an image. An unmanned reconnaissance airship surveying the coast of the Pacific Northwest took a photo. It was an image of a house, seen from above. It was surrounded by a fence and the neatly planted rows of a vegetable garden. In the field adjacent to the house, rocks had been arranged on the ground to make letters, large enough to be read from the air. A big stone contained the name of the Twelve--Brad, Lacey, Anthony, Alicia, Lucius, Michael, Sara, Hollis, Hightop, Theo, Mausami, and Peter Jaxon, beloved husband. It took ninety minutes to get the site. Logan, Nessa, and Wilcox’s team visited the house by the airship. The woman was profoundly old. She was Amy, she was the one who wrote the names on the stone.  

*****

June 4, 2018

Sekapur Sirih

Thriller terakhir dari sebuah trilogi karya Justin Cronin. Disampaikan dengan gaya bahasa berkelas dan percakapan berintelijensi tinggi. Walau tidak membaca dua judul sebelumnya: the Passage dan the Twelve tidaklah menjadi batu sandungan, penulis berhasil membawa pembaca ke awal cerita. Pada bab awal, pembaca dibawa ke kronologi awal cerita dengan gaya yang cukup unik; menyerap gaya kitab Kronika dalam Bible.

Ambisi seorang ilmuwan menyelamatkan nyawa istri yang dikasihinya bernama Liz, seorang pengidap kanker, berujung fatal dan menciptakan vampir (dalam novel ini disebut viral). Dr. Jonas Lear dan sobatnya Dr. Fanning, seorang ilmuwan juga, sebagai objek percobaan. Fanning menjadi inang (host) dari vampir, dan dikenal sebagai the Zero hidup hingga ratusan tahun. Eksperimen Lear tidak berhenti di situ, ia menggila dan menciptakan 12 manusia super dan kemudian dimanfaatkan oleh pihak militer. Ciptaan Lear menjadi liar dan nyaris memusnahkan manusia. Lear juga mengambil bayi perempuan dari panti asuhan, dan membuatnya menjadi makhluk super bernama Amy, dan dianggap sebagai penyelamat manusia, dan memiliki kemampuan fisik dan supranatural. 

Penyintas yang berjumlah 700-an, dan sekitar 300-an di antaranya anak-anak hingga remaja berhasil bertahan di sebuah pulau di selatan Pasifik, dan kemudian berkembang dan menyebar ke penjuru bumi, dan populasinya menjadi 186 juta jiwa seribu tahun kemudian. Beruntung, dalam kelompok penyintas terdapat sejumlah orang berjasa besar seperti tokoh Michael yang pemberani dan ahli dalam permesinan dan elektronika. Kegigihannya memperbaiki sebuah kapal terdampar yang sudah rusak, the Bergensjford, kelak menjadi wadah keselamatan manusia dari pengejaran viral (ada sedikit kemiripan dengan kisah Bahtera Nuh.

Terasa dalam karya ini, penulis sangat sadar akan pentingnya peranan para insinyur dalam membangun peradaban, dan cukup kerap ditegaskan dalam beberapa halaman. Amy, Peter, Michael, dan Alicia akhirnya berhasil melenyapkan the Zero, Dr. Fanning. Kemusnahan Fanning secara simultan membuat semua viral (vampir) musnah seketika. 

Walau vampir Fanning adalah tokoh jahat, namun pada sisi lain ia cukup sentimentil, seperti pada Bagian Lover (halaman 107). Kisah masa lalu Fanning, cerita yang menarik dan cukup panjang hingga boleh dikata mirip sebuah novelet. Keluguan Fanning saat meninggalkan kampung halaman untuk kuliah, menikmati masa muda yang sarat pesta, tapi ia juga serius dalam belajar. Gambaran realistis hubungan seorang anak satu-satunya dengan ayahnya, hingga ia jatuh cinta dan terlibat asmara dengan istri sahabatnya, Liz. Tiga kali menikah dan tiga kali bercerai, hatinya tetap pada Liz. 

Fanning adalah sosok cerdas dan pekerja keras. Ia pun sukses dalam karir hingga menjadi profesor ternama. Kegelisahan hubungannya dengan Liz, membuatnya mengunjungi sebuah bar malam itu. Ia bertemu dengan gadis asing di sana, dan ternyata  mantan mahasiswinya. Dalam keadaan mabuk dan dalam perkelahian secara tidak sengaja ia membunuh gadis itu. Kematian Liz akibat kanker dan kasus pembunuhan memaksanya menerima tawaran sobatnya Dr. Jonas Lear terlibat dalam proyek berbahaya, dan mengubahnya menjadi vampir. 

Kisah apokaliptik ini menyadarkan pembaca akan terbentuknya sebuah agama. Amy, gadis yang datang dari antah berantah, tokoh dianggap memiliki kekuatan khusus pada masa apokaliptik dan dijadikan sebagai penyelamat manusia. Seiring waktu berjalan (setelah seribu tahun), Amy telah bertransformasi menjadi tuhan. Dari satu generasi ke generasi berikut mengultuskannya sebagai tuhan dan melakukan berbagai ritual. Namun banyak juga generasi baru yang meragukan ketuhananan Amy, dianggap mitos leluhur belaka. Sejarawan Logan dengan berbagai kajian dan bukti saintifik (tampak jelas penulis Cronin sangat detail dari pengumpulan data - hypothesis-axioma- theorema- hingga logika tak terbantahkan) membuktikan keberadaan Amy dan serangan virus yang pernah merontokkan peradaban manusia, leluhur mereka. Dengan sedikit diperlambat hingga membuat kita semakin penasaran, penulis Cronin memberi elemen kejutan: Amy yang sudah dianggap Tuhan ternyata masih hidup sebatang kara di sebuah daerah terpencil dan dalam bentuk fisik tua. 

Thriller ini mengandung berbagai unsur: apokaliptik, fantasi, kehidupan, perang, kekeluargaan, filosofi, persahabatan, percintaan, biologi, arkeologi, dan ritual. Tersaji bagus dari berbagai aspek. Bagi para pencinta thriller apokaliptik berkualitas, novel ini sangat layak untuk dipertimbangkan.

The Fix (2017) a Detective Novel by David Baldacci

“His memory had served him particularly well.” (p. 558)

Walter Dabney has shot a woman in the late morning. There is no record about the victim. But in fact, the victim, a substitute schoolteacher lives in a multimillion-dollar condo and owns an expensive car. Amos Decker and his team are led to an espionage. Mr. Baldacci is really master of the plot, he brings Melvin Mars into the tale. Mars, the wrongfully convicted in murder from the Last Mile runs a low-income housing and now he is in love with a new character Agent Harper Brown, a woman from DIA- Defense Intelligence Agency. The 588-page detective novel was published by Pan Books in 2017, and this book is really unpredictable one.

The Fix (2017) a Detective Novel by David Baldacci

The tall man was in his sixties, with thinning salt-and pepper hair parted on the side. Walter Dabney was in a coffee shop ordered some food, and now walking the rest of the way. His suit was expensive and fit his colorful pocket with the touch of a tailored hand. He wore a lanyard around his neck loaded with clearances sufficient to allow him access into the inner sanctums of the Hoover Building with an escort along for the ride.

A woman was coming from the opposite direction. She was in her late fifties, with gray hair cut in her parentheses around her long oval face. As she approached the Hoover Building she seemed to hesitate. There was no lanyard around her neck. The only ID she possessed was the driver’s license in her purse.

It was late morning and the streets were not as crowded as they would been earlier. About twenty yards behind Dabney, Amos Decker trudged along alone. He was six-five and built like the football player he had once been. Decker worked at FBI on a joint task force. He was in his way to a meeting at the Hoover Building.

Dabney reached for his weapon, and he was aiming a compact Beretta at the back of the woman’s head. Anne fell forward onto the pavement. His pistol out, Decker ran forward as others on the street creamed and ran away. Decker aimed his gun on him, but Dabney press the gun to the bottom of his chin and pulled the trigger.

Anne Berkshire lay on a metal table, there was no doubt whatsoever as to what had caused the women’s death. She was fifty-nine, unmarried, substitute schoolteacher at a Catholic school in Faifax County. She had no relatives came forward. There was no record about the victim, but she lived in a  multimillion-dollar apartment.

Alex Jamison and Ross Bogart, two of Decker’s colleagues on a joint task force composed of civilians and FB agents, were with Dabney at the hospital right now. Decker glanced over as Todd Milligan, the fourth member of the joint task force, entered the room. A fifth member Lisa Davenport, a psychologist by training.

The shooter, Dabney, was sixty-one, married, with four grown daughters. He had a successful government contracting business. Before that he worked at NSA for ten years. He lived in McLean in a big house. His children were spread all over the place. One lived in France.

Alex Jamison was in her late twenties, tall, slim, and pretty with long brunette hair. She sat on the right side of the hospital bed. Ross Bogart, an FBI special agent in his late forties, with a bit of gray the only thing marrying his perfectly combed dark hair, his fingers clutched the bed’s safety rail.

Dabney right eye was an empty crater, his facial stained purple by burst capillaries. He was dying. Mrs. Eleanor Dabney, better known as Ellie, had arrived thirty minutes after the FBI had told her what had happened. She was tall and broad-shouldered, with long legs and a slender waist and narrow hips. Her features was quite attractive. Her hair was long and she had let it go naturally silver. Now in her early sixties, the mother of four grown children with three grandchildren and one mortally wounded husband. She never heard Anne Berkshire in her life.

Joey Scott was only ten years old, but his short life was nearing its end. He was in process of being adopted out of foster care. When he got sick his adoptive parents pulled out. They wanted a healthy model. The boy had talked to Anne before she died.

Decker and Milligan were visiting Anne’s condo on the top floor of a luxury building directly across the street from the Reston Town Center. The apartment and the Mercedes SL600 were too luxurious for a substitute teacher. She lived in Atlanta for three years and had no an occupation. There was no address. She thought math for four years.

Walter Dabney and Associates was located off the Fairfax County in Reston Virginia. The area  was home to lots of government contractors. After showing their IDs, Decker and Jamison were escorted to a small room conference by a young woman. A minute later Faye Thompson appeared and she was a partner. She had been there fifteen years, made partner eight years ago. Most of projects they worked on were classified. He appeared the day before normally.

The Decker wanted a room, he was exhausted to commute every day. Milligan and Decker just found that Melvin Mars bought the building with some money from his settlement with the government. It was for low-income housing. Alex Jamison offered Decker to live together. They were roomates in Mars’s building. The building had been an old brick warehouse with huge windows, Jamison had informed him that it had been divided up into apartments. The rent on the place was well under the going rate. Everyone lived there had a job. Fifteen units were rented , two residents were single, and the rest were families.

Decker had lost his family, his job and his home. He had come a far distance from his former life in Burlington, Ohio.

To Jules Berkshire her father was great in his business and her mother was the perfect partner.  The blood drained from Samantha’ face when he found that her father was terminal brain tumor. Decker found Mrs. Berkshire consume the Zoloft for her depression.

Samantha was in her early thirties, with brown hair cut short, glasses, and the same tall, lean build as Jules. Jules was sent key to his father box at the bank. They stared at an empty deposit box. Five days ago Mr. Dabney came in and accessed his box. There was a woman with Dabney. It was not his wife. She was shorter and stout, with dark with. The woman was wearing the wig. The woman was carrying a small bag that clearly had something in it. They left the bank with a copy of the video.

Anne Berkshire

Decker and Jamison were the principal of the Catholic school where Berkshire had been a substitute teacher. Cole was in her fifties, and all about Anne was standard. She had a teacher’s certificate. The school had lucky to have her. She had graduated from college and had the requisite teaching experience. But the principal was shock to know Anne lived in a penthouse.

Cole only knew that Anne drove dark Honda Accord and the surveillances camera never caught a luxury car at the parking lot. Anne never talked about her family. Cole gave a name of the teacher who could tell Decker more. Anne bought a multi-million dollar condo and expensive car and worked at school, and volunteer at a hospice.

Decker at his new apartment and Tomas Amaya

Decker was sitting on the front steps of his apartment building his coffee when the door behind him opened. Tomas Amaya had on his work clothes, and his son Danny had on jeans with his school bag over his shoulder. The little boy jumped into the passenger seat while his father pulled out the keys. Two men climbed out, one large and one small. Pistols were in their waistband. Decker aimed his pistol to the two men. The two men ran for their car.

Harper Brown

She was about five-seven, lean, and fit, with blond hair down to her shoulders. Brown was in her late thirties, and worked at Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). She was raised in Alabama by God-fearing parents. Dabney had been involved in a lot of high-level government contracting work. She had a theory, Dabney was stealing secrets and he did it for gambling debts. The secrets that he stole compromise strategic assets of the country.

Tomas Amaya did not look happy to see Decker and Jamison in his doorway. Jamison introduced herself as the manager of the building. Amaya refused to say anything to the police. The two dead men had no Id, but one of the cops thought he recognized the AK shooter. The shooters were after Tomas, but Jamison and Decker were involved right now. When they reached apartment building, the crime scene was still being processed, but the bodies had been taken away. A trembling Danny was escorted to his apartment.

Decker had put aside the issue of the Amayas and come back to Dabney/Berkshire investigation. Anne’s car was purchased a year after she bought the condo. She lived in Atlanta previously. Harper Brown had told them that Dabney was selling secrets to cover the gambling debts. Natalie had landed from Paris, since they found her father was not a gambler. Brown believed it was Natalie’s husband. Natalie used a couple of words that triggered an NSA algorithm so it got recorded and dumped in a data box. The gambling and the Russian mob connection. It was ten million dollars.   

Decker and team studied the surveillance video for days. A clown was there. No circus or other show in town. There was no sign advertising an upcoming events. The clown obviously knew where the camera and the gaps were. According to Agent Brown, the gambling debts were paid off.

Four men appeared on the stairs. Tomas Amaya’s face was bruised and bloody. Two of the men had guns out. They were young and tough-looking. Decker was about to fire when the other man was hit so hard. Melvin Mars had saved Decker and Amaya. The guy Decker had shot was dead, and the other three, handled by Mars.

Brown’s BMW brought Decker to a street full of old high-dollar row houses that looked newly renovated. Her great-grandfather was one of the earliest investors in Hewlett-Packard. He set up a trust fund. She inherited the house and the money from him. Her father was military and a full colonel in Vietnam War. He was the reason she joined up. Technically Harper was in army, had two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. She was Explosive Ordinance specialist. She defused unexploded bombs. She rubbed her bare foot.

Brown found lately that Anne Berkshire had no past further back than ten years. But she had resume showing she graduated from Virginia Tech.

Nancy Billings was calling for Amos Decker or Alex Jamison. She was a teacher at school where Anne Berkshire worked as a substitute. She was in her late thirties, a carefree manner and a nose ring. Decker was just wondering a Catholic school teacher wore a nose ring. She said she just wore it in off hours. She was sick home, had attended some teacher training. She has to help her mother, her father had dementia. Anne was very good, stuck to the lesson plan. She had no idea about Anne’s luxurious life. She thought she was as poor as Nancy. Both of them taught math. Anne never spoke foreign language to her, but sometimes she could detect a little bit of an accent.

Decker and Brown had just entered Berkshire’s luxurious condo. They found old floppy disk, the 1980s KGB communication. Bogart found someone apparently created a database profile for Berkshire, complete with prints showing no criminal background. Her references looked legit but they were also fake. Based on what Brown found in that Russian communication, it seems that Berkshire was a Russian spy going way back.

Dabney’s House

The housekeeper was in her sixties, with gray hair. Cecilia Randal allowed them to kitchen. Decker just knew from her that Dabney was buying the house he was still working at NSA, and Mrs. Dabney came from money. Ellie Dabney was shocked to knowing her son in law’s gambling debt. The other Dabney’s daughter were shocked too. Jules, Amanda, and Samantha did not know their father stole government secret for paying for Natalie’s husband.

Melvin Mars was there when Decker and the team got back to the apartment. Brown preferred to identify him as the former football player than dude on Texas’s death row. Mars and Brown drove off in their cars, and Decker and Jamison going up to their apartment. The man had on a black hoodie tightly closed so Jamison could not see his face. He had a gun that was pointed at Decker’s chest. He led them to a sedan. He put Decker in passenger seat and handed Jamison the car keys. They drove off. Luis Alvarez, the construction supervisor at the building where Tomas Amaya had worked. Agent Bogart had been listening to everything they’ve been saying. The chip in his phone has led the fed right there. A shot rang out. Bogart sat down next to Jamison and Decker’s apartment.

Brown and Melvin fell into relationship. Melvin was Decker’s friend and he did not want to see him get hurt either. Jamison disagreed with that situation. Technically she worked for Melvin and she had a right to know everything about Melvin now. Brown and Melvin spent time together at Melvin’s hotel. 

Berkshire’ condo was empty. Her closet was pretty bare. No jewelry, no expensive bag. The clothes she had on when she died were from a discount store. Cecilia Randall called him about Natalie. The funeral was over, she was heading back to France. Bogart brought her back and investigated her on her husband. Decker pulled an electronic book that showed her on the floor a casino in Paris. A spoiled girl lied about everything and put her own daughter in danger because she could not stop rolling the dice.

Natalie described the guy who approached her. He sounded Russian to him. Ten million for the secrets that Dabney stole was probably sham transaction.

Visiting hours were over, the director, Sally Palmer, had gone home for night. She never met Anne Berkshire, though she heard the name. She only knew a few patients and Jenkins, the prisoner, might knew something.

Joey Scott had leukemia, and Anne read the book to him. Alvin Jenkins was nowhere to be found. He was probably got a half dozen passports. Alvin Jenkins was working for Anne Berkshire. Anne was reading a book to a dying boy just as a way to send stolen secrets. They were using the cover of a dying little boy to pass along stolen secrets. 

The house keeper, Cecilia Randall, was killed by a professional hit. Natalie had formally charged and was with FBI now. She was shock to heard the death of Cecilia.

Sally Palmer explained the disappearance of Alvin Jenkins, The man started working there only about two months ago. The three of them (Alvin, Joey, and Anne) were in hospice around the same time. Sally gave them the address of the man who sent Joey.

Alfred and Julia Gorski hosted a charity balls on hospital wings, throw great parties, one of which the head of his agency has attended. They were immigrants from Poland, and built a huge import-export company. The Gorskis have been rich for decades and have been spying the whole time. They had also moved into high circles and they came into contact with people  who do the secrets.

Special Agent Nathan Deel, a Secret Service, was led Decker and team to meet the President. They told everything about the Gorski to the President. The Gorski had financed a young boy at a hospice in Reston. A book being read to this young boy by Anne Berkshire, who was certainly a spy, continued coded classified information stolen from various agencies. The money had been traced and the payoff for the gambling debt that caused Walter Dabney to steal classified secrets related to the Russians.  

Dabney was working at NSA, Maryland, right out the college, Ellie worked as a waitress at a café near there. Ellie did not come from money. Dabney had used a doll to pass the secrets. A little girl with a doll of transporting the secret was just like the way Joey and the book. They brought all the doll from Dabney’s house and found Zoloft there. Ellie Dabney took those pills for the last three years of her life. Cecilia Randal as murdered. It was her daughter when Decker got Cecilia’s house. She was black, thin, and around forty. Rhonda Kaine, the only child of Cecilia, just came by to pick up something. Decker found a doll at the house, Rhonda’s doll. Cecilia’s daughter’s dolls were identical to those of the four Dabney’s doll.

Walter Dabney brought secrets home from work. Oral Turinabol was the steroid of choice for East Germans. It was a real turbocharger for athletic performance. Ellie was being groomed for the Olympics. Over the years she was given Oral Turinabol. They wanted to build something akin to Hitler’s perfect Aryan’s race. They taught her English until she could speak it fluently with no accent. She learned as if it was her own. She was from Oregon, her parents died in mudslide, and raised in orphanage. She became a waitress and targeted the young Dabney. He left NSA and started his own firm. She had ship the information out using the doll.

Oral Turinabol caused both liver and kidney disease, bone density loss, high cholesterol and asthma, all conditions which she have and for which she was currently taking medications. It also caused miscarriages, and birth defects, like the ones her daughters had. She also took Zoloft for depression. She knew Anne Berkshire when her name was Anna Seryyzamok. She was Ellie’s handler.

Anne was still working with the spies. She uses Dominion Hospice and her work with the Gorski and Alvin Jenkins. She made a comment to a teacher at the school where she volunteered. Everything was fine for long time and along came Natalie and her gambling problems. Natalie was her opportunity. Ten million dollars or her daughter and her family got slaughtered by the Russians. Berkshire was probably monitoring her family for any weakness to use against Ellie. She realized that Berkshire had deceived her. It was Ellen’s idea to kill Berkshire. Walters was terminal ill, he would never stand for trial. On that morning Ellie dressed as the clown gave the signal to her husband.  Before he killed Berkshire, the CCTV showed a woman was removing items from Walter’s safe deposit.

After her athletic hopes ended back in East German, Ellie was recruited by MfS - the East German Ministry for State Security. They worked closely with KGB. They had formed a joint intelligent program that would delivers agents into the States, not as foreigners but with the background to make them appeared to be citizens. It was also during that time she met Anna, but on the KGB side. Ellie was a spy and Anna was her handler. She told Walter that the money for the house and the car were from a trust fund set up for her by logging company that was at fault for the mudslide that killed her parents.

A van was waiting there. A man crouching there aiming a gun at him. He had on no mask. His captors marched him up to the front porch. He recognized the woman as the one in the bank video with Walter Dabney. Decker was saved by Bogart, but Alex was kidnapped. Some of the captors chattered in Arabic. Walter Dabney knew something and he was trying to send the terrorists a powerful message but wrong about the recipient. A message with no words. He committed an act of violence at the FBI headquarter. The woman kidnapped Alex told that the target was not just President and the two other leaders, but symbolic, the Hoover Building.

They worked their way down the tunnel, finally found a cylindrical metal device with wiring coming out of the top. The bomb was attached to the pipe. Brown was a bomb specialist in the Army. On the raised dais was a podium with a microphone. The President walked to the lectern and gave award to Major Harper Brown. She lost the wheelchair for good. They said she had some temporary weakness because of what happened with the gas. Ellie Dabney was going to do some serious prison time. Natalie might get off with some sort of probation. They could not prove she knew anything about the actual espionage. Decker did not even know if Jamison wanted to continue working with FBI. For all he knew Mars and Brown might get married. Bogart and Milligan might get transferred. Amos Decker was alone again. 

  

*****

May 3, 2018

Sekapur Sirih

Fiksi ini sangat tepat mengisi waktu dalam perjalanan, satu lagi karya Baldacci dengan plot kuat, kompleks dan sulit ditebak. Amos Decker masih bersama Alex Jamison dan Ross Bogart memecahkan sebuah kasus pembunuhan terhadap Anne Berkshire, seorang guru pengganti, pembunuhnya sangat jelas, lelaki tua bernama Walter Dabney, suami pengusaha sukses, pekerja keras dan setia, sosok ayah teladan bagi keempat putrinya yang kini sudah dewasa, dan kakek penyayang.

Dabney menembak mati Anne sesaat setelah meninggalkan sebuah kedai kopi, hanya beberapa meter dari kantor FBI, dan pak tua Dabney menarik pemicu pistol ke bawah dagunya, menghantarkan nyawanya ke koma hingga tewas. Peristiwa penembakan di tempat umum dan hanya sesaat menjelang siang hari.

Berkat ketekunan Amos Decker, tentu saja, bantuan tim termasuk rekannya Ross Bogart mampu menemukan motif dan sama sekali tidak terduga. Perjudian dan terlibat utang menjadi lokomotif dalam permainan mata-mata dan espionase. Kehadiran tokoh baru Harper Brown mencairkan suasana sebagai pasangan eks bintang NFL Melvin Mars (korban salah tangkap dari the Last Mile). Sebaiknya Anda membaca the Last Mile terlebih dahulu sebelum membaca fiksi ini. Namun jika memang tidak sempat membacanya, tidak perlu terlalu kuatir, penulis sering mengingatkan kisah masa lalu dan jati diri tokoh-tokohnya, dan kasus pembunuhan dalam fiksi ini independen.

Amos dengan gaji pas-pasan digambarkan realistis saat tinggal di gedung milik Melvin Mars. Bayangan kepedihan atas terbunuhnya istri dan putrinya masih menyeret pikirannya, namun ia selalu gigih dalam bekerja bahkan nyaris di ambang kematian.

Cerita detektif dan suspense yang menarik, penulis Baldacci benar-benar brillian dalam menciptakan tokoh-tokoh dan plot memilin. Ditorehkan dalam 588 halaman, terbitan Pan Books tahun 2017, sangat mudah dicerna tanpa menihilkan kekuatan bahasa, the Fix menarik untuk dimiliki.

Terjemahan dalam Bahasa Indonesia, the Fix (2017), David Baldacci: ringkasan

Pria berpakaian bagus berumur enam puluhan menabak mati seoarang wanita di tempat umum. Kamera pemantau jelas memperlihatkan lelaki itu langsung mengarahkan pistolnya ke dagunya. Korban Anne Berkshire berumur lima puluhan adalah seorang guru pengganti di sebuah sekolah Katholik dan penembaknya adalah pengusaha sukses. Amos Decker berada tidak jauh dari kejadian, dia bahkan sempat mengarahkan senjatanya pada Walter Dabney. Baik Amos, Anne, maupun Walter terlihat hendak memasuki gedung FBI.

Terkuak kemudian, pelaku adalah pemilik perusahaan kontraktor untuk pemerintah, bahkan lelaki itu sempat bekerja pada NSA berdekade lalu. Yang menjadi pertanyaan besar bagi Amos Decker, Alex Jamison, dan Ross Bogart, dan Todd Milligan, apa pentingnya seorang pengusaha kaya seperti Dabney membunuh senekat itu di tempat umum.

Hasil otopsi mengejutkan keempat putri dan istrinya, Dabney mengidap tumor ganas di otaknya, dan peluang hidupnya sempit. Setelah melakukan penyelidikan terhadap korban fakta mengejutkan ditemukan: Anne memiliki apartemen mewah bernilai jutaan dolar dan mobil mewah, dia juga aktif sebagai sukarelawan di sebuah rumah hospis, rumah sakit khusus bagi mereka yang mengidap penyakit stadium parah. Kepala sekolah tidak tahu menahu asal-usul Anne sama sekali, namun dari arsip menunjukkan tidka ada yang ganjil bahkan kehormatan bagai sekolah tersebut memiliki Anne. Kepsek tentu saja terkaget dengan harta Anne, keseharian ia dikenal dengan sederhana Honda Accord-nya.

Keempat putri Dabney telah dewasa dan bahkan ia telah memiliki 3 cucu dan setia pada istriya yang tangguh. Hasil otopsi sangat mengagetkan kelima wanita itu. Tidak ada harapan lagi bagi Dabney, tumor otak yang dideritanya sudah sangat parah.

Agen Harper Brown, mantan militer yang sudah dua kali tur ke Afganistan dan Irak, sekarang bergabung dengan DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) di bawah FBI. Wanita yang berayahkan seorang kolonel dari perang Vietnam, dan kakek seorang ilmuwan pemilik hak paten mewariskan uang besar dan royalty. Ia hidup dalam kemewahan dan memutuskan diri menjadi ahli bom. Ketika pertama kali berjumpa dengan Mars, ia memiliki sudut pandang berbeda dengan pria itu. Sekarang Mars sering bersama Decker dan tidak terpungkiri ia diperkenalkan pada wanita tangguh itu.

Hasil penyidikan tim Brown dari FBI mendapati aliran dana mengarah ke seorang keluarga imigran dari Polandia mafia yang terhubung dengan orang Rusia. Hutang dari putri Dabney telah dibayarkan dengan perjanjian membocorkan rahasia pada pihak Rusia. Dabney menyadari umurnya yang tidak panjang lagi dan yakin tidak akan menghadapi tuntutan.

Decker dan tim bergeser ke rumah sakit, mendapati sebuah pola penyeludupan rahasia lewat buku bacaan anak. Anne Berkshire seorang donatur dan sukarelawan pada sebuah rumah sakit. Ia rutin membacakan buku untuk seorang anak sekarat, dan bergantian dengan seorang pria yang belakangan diketahui mantan napi, Alvin Jenkins. Kehadiran anak itu, Anne dan Alvin dalam waktu yang bisa dibilang bersamaan. Anak sakit itu telah dimanfaatkan sebagai sarana pertukaran rahasia.

Kembali ke masa muda Dabney, Decker menemukan pola yang sama yakni boneka. Dabney menggunakan boneka untuk menjual informasi. Boneka yang ditemukan di rumah pengasuh anaknya dan boneka putrinya dijadikan media pertukaran. Ketika keempat putrinya sudah besar, tentu saja kisah boneka juga berlalu. Penyidikan akhir yang sangat mengejutkan bahwa sebenarnya yang menjadi agen mata-mata dan agen rahasia adalah istri Dabney, Ellen. Pernyataan pembantunya yang mengatakan ia datang dari uang tidak sinkron dengan pernyataan putrinya dan fakta.

Ellen adalah anak yang dipilih dari panti asuhan, dididik dan dilatih menjadi mata-mata. Sama sekali tidak memiliki pohon keluarga. Pemeritah Jerman tengah mengadakan sebuah proyek percobaan untuk mendapatkan manusia unggul dan handal dengan menyuntikkan sebuah zat padanya sejak dini. Memang, Ellen tumbuh menjadi wanita cerdas, gesit, dan terlatih, dengan badan yang kokoh. Badan rahasia Jerman telah bekerja sama dengan Rusia untuk memata-matai Amerika. Secara praktek Ellen bekerjasama dengan agen- agen Rusia dan disusupkan di Amerika.

Ia telah dicuci-otak dan ditanam di sebuah keluarga, dan diciptakan cerita. Orang tuanya tewas dalam kecelakaan, dan pihak perusahaan yang menabrak memberikan uang santunan banyak untuk pendidikan dan hidupnya. Dabney bekerja pada NSA dan ia seorang pelayan pada kantin tidak jauh dari kantor Dabney memikat hatinya. Setelah keduanya menikah, Dabney pun akhirnya keluar dari pekerjaannya. Tidak berselang lama Ellen membeli rumah dan kendaraan mewah yang katanya berasal dari dana santunan kematian orang tuanya. 

Dabney pun memulai bisnis, namun diam-diam Ellen tetap menjadi mata-mata. Dabney adalah targetnya. Uang yang diklaim dana santunan adalah dari hasil mata-mata. Karena anaknya sudah besar dan ia tidak mungkin melakukannya sendiri, Anne Berkshire pun hadir, wanita yang bernama asli Anna Seryyzamok. Wanita itu menjadi penyambungnya.

Anne ingin menghancurkan Ellen, karena tidak mau menjadi pesuruh abadi, sebelumnya itu terjadi Ellen ingin membunuhnya terlebih dahulu. Rupanya Anne tidak sendiri, ia bekerjasama dengan kelompok Rusia, dan mereka pun sudah mempelajari perilaku anak-anak Ellen. Kebiasaan buruk dari putrinya Natalie yang gemar berjudi dijadikan perasan. Ellen dan Dabney lebih memilih nyawa cucu dan putrinya. Adalah ide Dabney sendiri yang akan membunuh Berkshire dan menyerahkan tebusan berupa dokumen rahasia kepada kelompok Rusia.

Ellen pun akhirnya masuk penjara, Natalie dibebaskan.  Hubungan Mars dan Harper semakin dalam dan akan segera menikah. Amos Decker sendiri kembali dalam kesendirian, pikirannya masih terjebak mengingat putri dan istrinya yang tewas dibunuh. 

*****

3 Mei 2018