Chapter 17: Program Problems

End of September

A week later, Nadine found a message from the school on her phone. Naturally, the return of the unsigned forms resulted in a call from the school; it was a request to come to the school to discuss their refusal. Wilson and Nadine went early on Tuesday morning and Tamara accompanied them. They were directed to see Mr Kovacs. When they entered his office, Nadine saw Tamara staggering slightly and noticed that her face had turned pale.

“One moment,” Nadine said as she took Tamara back out to the hall.

“What’s wrong?” Nadine asked. “It’s him, right? I got the creeps when I walked in there, myself.”

“Manman, he’s part of what Erzulie Mansur warned me about. He’s evil, like the one who came to our house, but evil in a different way. Oh, he doesn’t belong here either, just like the other evil one. He must be here illegally. One of his tastes feels like fear of being caught.”

Then Wilson came back out to see what was wrong.

Nadine asked her, “Can you ‘push’ him?”

“I’ll try. I need some kind of rapport to connect and he’s ... ugh. Rancid. I could destroy him like I did the other, but...”

“No, we don’t want that. See what you can do,” Nadine told her.

Tamara nodded. “Good. I still feel bad about Mr Evil, even though he deserved it.”

She set her shoulders and followed her parents back into the office.

“Sorry for that. I wanted to tell my daughter something,” Nadine told Kovacs.

“I hope it was not to interrupt her elders,” Kovacs snarled.

Jeez, this is a nasty one, Wilson thought. Aloud, he said, “Okay, we can start. I’ll introduce us all. Again, we’re the Alexandres. I already told you my name, it’s Wilson. My wife is Nadine and the daughter is Tamara. We returned some forms unsigned.”

Tamara focused on Kovacs and shuddered when she locked her eyes with his.

Kovacs winced for a second, but then replied, “Yes. You must sign, it is absolute a requirement. Parents must acknowledge the participation of their children.”

“Correction. No, we don’t have to sign and you have no authority or enforcement powers over parents. My wife and I don’t consent to her participation. Also, according to her doctor’s orders, Tamara must not be given any birth-control hormones; they are dangerous to her health.”

“Not acceptable. We do not recognize state authority or medical authority other than those who are Program officials. If you do not sign, then we will choose your daughter among the first participants and of her we will make an example of what ... urk.”

Wilson was on his feet in an instant and quickly had the man in a judo choke hold before he could utter another syllable.

“You will not threaten my daughter like that now, or ever again. Raise your hand to say that you agree that you will not ever threaten her.”

During the previous conversation, Tamara had been ‘pushing’ Kovacs, trying to find the color-tastes which would make him more amenable to her suggestion. What she had accomplished, instead, was to strip away his outward veneer and any politeness, so that when he spoke to Wilson, he said just exactly what was on his mind; thus he revealed his intention to make an example of her.

Meanwhile, Kovacs had been trying to struggle but when he moved, Wilson increased his choking pressure.

“Mr Kovacs, if you keep it up, you’ll regret it,” Wilson warned him. “Just agree to my demand. You will not threaten her.”

“Dad, wait. Let me tell you this...” She moved to him and whispered, “He’s definitely evil. I told Manman that somehow, it’s even worse than Mr Evil. Let me work on him some more...”

A few seconds later, Tamara found the key taste to “push.” A yellow-brown taste with black-tinted edges, and when she “pushed” it, Kovacs’ muscles went slack and he slumped. Wilson was caught by the fringe and he let go of the man, who fell to the floor, as Wilson stumbled away.

“Holy shit, Tamara! That hurt! My muscles felt weak suddenly, too.”

“Sorry, Daddy ... It’s hard to aim this stuff. Quick, ask him what he’s doing here. I already told Manman he doesn’t belong.”

“Like um ... Leger?”

“Yeah. But worse than him. Ask him who sent him.”

Nadine and Wilson hauled Kovacs up onto a chair. He was pale and his breathing was shallow. Then Nadine said, “One second,” and quickly grabbed her phone and turned on the voice recorder.

“Who sent you?” Wilson asked, after Nadine nodded to him.

“A kartellem. Itt kellene átvennem az irányítást,” Kovacs, still dazed, responded weakly.

Wilson glanced at Nadine who covertly displayed her phone and mouthed “Okay” to him.

He nodded at her, “Good. But what language is that?” he wondered aloud. “What now?”

Tamara answered, “Papa Legba says he’s Hungarian and said, ‘My cartel. I’m supposed to take over here.’”

Wilson nodded. He’d need to find out later how she did that. “What cartel is that?” he asked Kovacs.

Kovacs’ face began to turn bright red and he began gasping for breath.

“Daddy! I think he has something wrong inside him! He’s panicking! Maybe ask him who hired him!”

“Kovacs! Who hired you? Are there others?”

“Társadalomismereti Iroda. Az egész csoportom itt van a kartellért.”

Wilson looked at Tamara, who frowned, answering, “He said, ‘Office of Social Awareness. My whole group is here for the cartel.’”

“What were you sent here to do?”

Apparently, that caused another panic attack because, as Kovacs began saying in a rasping voice, “A szívem ... nem kap levegőt ... Megijesztjük a gyerekeket és... ” he grabbed his chest, gurgled, and keeled over.

Wilson checked him for a pulse in his neck and found none. He picked up the office phone and dialed 911.

“This is 911. What is your emergency?”

“I’m at Edison High talking to an official here and I think he had a heart attack.”

Wilson answered a few questions and was asked to stand by.

Nadia asked Tamara, “What was that last thing?”

She answered haltingly, “He said, ‘My heart ... can’t breathe ... We frighten the kids and... ‘ Then he died. I could feel his spirit go, Manman,” she sobbed, holding onto Nadine. “I was still a little connected to him. I feel so dirty...”

Wilson shook his head angrily. “ ... frighten the kids,” he mused. “He’s the Program official here, and a Hungarian. He was sent here by some kind of cartel; a group of them was hired by the feds. He said he’d make Tamara’s life difficult. Something’s really wrong with our government to let this crap happen!”

Within several minutes, the school security officer ran in and ten minutes later, two EMTs arrived. Then the Miami police. The Alexandres were questioned for an hour before they were allowed to return home.

“Wilson, I’m impressed at how quickly you moved in there,” Nadine told him as they left the school.

He chuckled ruefully. “My patron. Now I know the feeling when Ogorin is with me—like a hand resting on my back. I actually felt a push! But, Tamara—hell, sweetie, what you did was scary!”

She nodded. “To me too, Daddy. But like Ogorin was with you, I could feel Erzulie Mansur helping me—other lwa were with her there too and Papa Legba translated. Now I have the feeling that the great danger is still there but that it’s more distant.”

Wilson was troubled, but in awe of Tamara—what power she had! And that she could hear Papa Legba, whom he recalled knew all human languages, and that Legba could help her translate Hungarian, of all languages. And the powers of other lwa were hers too. But if the mundane world—not the spiritual world—was involved in “frightening the kids,” and foreigners were involved too, he knew just who to call.

“Secretary Masters’ office,” the voice said. “This is Shirley Harper, his deputy assistant.”

“This is Wilson Alexandre; I’m a ... well, I guess a ‘protectee’ of the State Department. I learned something disturbing about possible aliens being hired by the government.”

“I’ll see if he’s availab ... yes, he’s off his line now. Let me connect you.”

“Hello, Wilson?” Masters said a few seconds later. “Shirley said this was a hot call.”

“It is,” Wilson told him.

He went on to explain what had happened, leaving out Tamara’s part and making it seem like Nadine had gotten Kovacs to speak.

“So I have a recording of what the guy said and it looks like there’s something really wrong with that Naked in School office in D.C.”

“Huh,” Masters replied. “This isn’t the first report like that circulating around here. A few days ago, the president ordered a major investigation within the executive branch of the government. It’s gotten into the news reports today, so it’s not a secret. The Department of Education and the Justice Department are both involved; agents from the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service are all over the State Department now demanding passport data and visa apps and other records. Your report just now fits into some of the questions they’re asking.”

“Good,” Wilson commented. “The guy’s name was Laslo Kovacs and he died—the medics said it was sudden cardiac death. He had a medical alert bracelet that said, um...” Wilson looked at his notes. “ ... tak-o-tsubo cardio-myopathy.” He said slowly and then spelled it out. “The medic explained that’s a weakening of the heart’s pumping ability that can be caused by a surge of adrenaline from severe emotional or physical stress. The Miami police have the details of what happened, so since you said that the FBI’s involved already, they’d probably want this Miami info to help connect the dots. The recording of what he said is in Hungarian. I didn’t give it to the police because ... well, it might have warned any possible accomplices of his here. I guess my Haitian reluctance to trust cops is showing. I’ll email it to you and you can do whatever with it.”

“Thanks, Wilson. Once again, another service to our country.”

Wilson copied the recording, cutting out Tamara’s voice when she spoke, and sent the edited copy off to Masters.

“What do we do now?” Wilson asked, turning toward Nadine and Tamara.

They decided to wait several days before calling the school office again. Nadine wanted to make sure that Tamara wouldn’t be forced to take the hormone shot, but then, she thought ruefully, that no one could force Tamara to do anything that she didn’t want to do—providing she were conscious, that is.

Early October

About a week later, there was a buzz among the students in Edison High about the anti-Program website—that the feds were about to get it shut down. Tamara heard more about that news in the week-ending school assembly.

After a few announcements about the evening’s and weekend’s sports teams’ games, Principal Barello brought up the current situation about the forthcoming Program.

“You’ve heard of our unfortunate loss of the Program coordinator,” she paused for a few hisses, “so I’d like to tell you where the planning now stands. We are supposed to be assigned another person as coordinator but we haven’t heard anything yet. Many parents have refused to sign the Program forms that we sent home, so the district officials are looking into how to proceed. Apparently many parents at other schools have refused too—so we’re not alone.

“I’ve heard from a lot of parents who have asked about exemptions for their children, giving reasons ranging from religious to medical. This matter will need to wait until our new Program coordinator arrives.

“Copies of the Naked in School Program rules will be available just before our winter break. That will give you the chance to read them and become familiar with them before you return to school in January.

“Finally, we have received a request from the Office of Social Awareness, the federal agency which runs the Naked in School Program, to read a statement, so here goes. ‘We at the OSA have become aware of an illegal pirate website which is providing inaccurate, false, misleading, and sensational information about the Program’s operation in schools around the country. We want to warn all high school students that if you post any information on that site, or even access it, you are committing a federal crime. Our office will have that site shut down before this coming Monday; we will identify, arrest, and prosecute all students who have contributed to it or visited it.’ That is the text that they wanted to have us read to all students.

“That’s all we have for you today. Come out to support our teams! Go, Red Raiders!”

When Tamara’s parents got home that afternoon, she learned that they had also heard about the federal plan to shut down the anti-Program site.

“How can they do that?” Tamara wondered. “Also, how can they punish anyone from going to a website? Or posting on it? In my Civics class, we learned that the First Amendment protects speech; writing and reading what others write are protected too.”

“I think it’s just posturing, honey,” Wilson said. “Maybe they’re trying to scare the site operators into doing something that the feds can detect so they can find where that server is located. Did you hear anything else about the Program?”

“Nothing important. There’s no one to replace Kovacs yet. I wonder what he was up to?” Tamara mused.

It wouldn’t be long before everyone learned the answer to that question.

One week later

The answer came early the following week. Tamara was in class when the room’s P.A. system activated.

“Your attention, please. We have been given a message from the school district that an important announcement is to be made in ten minutes in a news conference from the office of the U.S. attorney general. The news conference concerns the Naked in School Program. Because of the importance of the announcement, we’ve decided to interrupt your classes; this way students will be able to discuss it without the disruption extending for the rest of the day. Thank you.”

There was a flurry of comments from kids wondering what this was all about.

“Okay, students,” Ms Lowell, the teacher, interrupted, “let’s get back to work. We have just ten minutes before we lose the rest of the period.”

And as promised, the P.A. system crackled to life about ten minutes later. The announcer was already doing an introduction.

“ ... Department in Washington for a statement from the attorney general about this major news development. Here’s Attorney General Minners.”

“Good afternoon, fellow American citizens. I’m here to report to you on an incredible event, a major success in fighting crime and identifying and ending a major breach of our country’s security committed by criminals operating within the halls of our government itself.

“Every listener is certainly aware of the national Naked in School Program that is in operation in most high schools in the country. The Department of Justice recently became aware of the operation of an international criminal organization, members of which had managed to infiltrate the offices of the Program administration and changed the Program’s operation, not significantly, but enough to achieve their nefarious goals.

“Federal law enforcement officials recently managed to penetrate the computer system that the organization was using to coordinate its activities and learned the details of its operations and were able to identify the people responsible, from its leaders to the people who carried out the criminal ring’s plans.