Epilogue

Alex’s admonition about focusing on others proved an important premonition of what was to come, and Cate’s decision to grieve later carried through for everyone, though it wasn’t quite so simple. Each of Alex’s followers grieved by themselves when caught off guard or when sitting alone at night, but they each redoubled their efforts to the cause. Not only did they seek to distract themselves from their grief, but trying to reach new followers was much harder without Alex there to draw them. Instead they had to do it the hard way, by talking to people one-on-one and going down a checklist of signature behaviors, just as Akilah and Ahmed were doing and as Patricia had done in New Orleans.

Everyone dedicated themselves to that effort in the following months and years. They knew if they hoped to continue, they needed to lead the movement themselves. Winona’s tour was still a draw, as was Patricia’s album, but beyond those each of Alex’s followers made it a point to speak to as many women as they could, casually asking them specific questions to gauge their likelihood of possessing the required tendencies.

But grieve they did, and not all found the same solace. The first to surrender to her grief surprised everyone as the normally positive Natalie committed suicide shortly after the memorial service they held for Alex in Portland. (His family had him cremated to prevent anyone attempting to dig his body up and extracting his DNA.) That reinforced the need for Cate to step in as the defacto leader of the movement, since she was the one everyone looked to for leadership in Alex’s absence.

But the most tragic case was Winona’s. Whatever she’d been thinking, she knew it was her actions which led directly to Alex’s death and she was never able to forgive herself as Alex warned her she needed to. She grew remorseful and depressed, so much so that Cate convinced Gini to head her security detail. She undertook the job, not to protect Winona from outside threats, but from herself. And Gini wasn’t alone in that role. Everyone volunteered and wouldn’t allow Winona to spend any time alone. Anytime she reached for a drink, tried to smoke, snort, inhale or take something, there was someone there to give her a ‘what about the baby’ look. Because she knew how vital Alex’s heir was, she heeded their warnings and struggled on—long after she gave up all hope.

It was rough on her, and Gini was convinced if she turned her back at the wrong moment, she’d find a dead body awaiting her, but Winona never took that route. She knew everyone relied upon the baby she carried, and she couldn’t endanger it after what she’d done to Alex. But like the rest, she discovered the distractions of work were her best relief. After a short stint trying to find anything to distract her from her pain, she dedicated herself to her music. She hired multiple music and voice coaches, learning to write both musical scores and lyrics so she too could craft Alex’s praises in carefully couched language which hid their true meaning.

While it appeared to work—in that she never attempted to hurt herself—no one ever reported her looking happy after Alex’s death. But she bore with it until the baby hit the viability threshold. On the first day of her seventh month, after the births of Shani’s and Patricia’s babies, she walked into a hospital’s emergency room and demanded an emergency cesarean. When the check in clerk told her she’d need to be seen by someone first so they could determine what the problem was, she very calmly laid down a stack of papers—including her insurance card, contact list, personal physician and a list of all her medications in addition to another document hidden underneath—and removed something from her purse.

“This is why I need one,” she told the receptionist in an even measured tone as she put a pistol in her mouth and blew the back of her head off.

Needless to say, that got a response! Despite their reluctance to do anything without triple checking first, they delivered the preemie. The hospital worked hard to help it along, and there was no limit to the number of volunteers or donations for help. But Winona chose a Catholic hospital, Saint Joseph Mercy, which had no interest in allowing ‘a bunch of cult quacks’ into their hospital.

When an aging white man turned up, claiming to be her all white father, the hospital cut off all contact with Alex’s people. However, the hidden document under all the others was Winona’s un-notarized Last Will & Testament. Her supposed father fought it, with the full support of the hospital, but the judge assigned to the case eventually decided he had no reason to overturn her clearly established wishes, and she’d left no allowances for anyone else to receive any money from her estate, leaving every dime she possessed to the Angel Vision Foundation. So her supposed father never received a penny and disappeared from sight. Everyone speculated on what eventually happened to him, eyeing Gini and Gail suspiciously but not unsympathetically.

However, the efforts were for naught. The baby, who’d never been very healthy, ended up dying before long after holding on—much like Winona herself—for months. That was a hard blow for everyone. Alex himself believed she’d bear his heir, and he’d been so confident he’d stopped obsessing about producing more babies. However, he left behind a lot of expectant mothers, though none of them showed any signs of bearing a child bearing Alex’s unique abilities.

But the movement, like the newfound religion of Alexandrianism with its brand new temple in San Francisco, continued to grow. The general public never had a clear idea what its central tenets were, most people unable to accept a religion which didn’t specify what its adherents actually believed. Its followers and priestesses would always suggest a certain way of approaching life, and their preferred way of reaching heaven—a term they always spoke with an odd inflection, as if they meant something else by it. They never insisted anyone follow their dictates and they continued to assert people could either follow their lead or not. They stated whatever God people believed in simply didn’t care what they did in that regard. So the public always treated it as a fringe group.

However, it quickly developed a reputation as a major force in the medical and research communities. Dr. Ryan Moore’s small regional hospital quickly became a world renowned institution with the respect of the entire medical community. Many corporations and organizations tried to offer them funding, support or underwriting opportunities, but Dr. Moore turned down any outside funding for fear he wouldn’t be able to run his hospital according to his own dictates. But his success quickly led other hospital to accept thoroughly ‘untrained’ diagnosticians and nurses into their services, and they quickly became the go-to people in the hospitals they resided in. Actual physicians or nurses, like Dr. Liv Bisla or Rebecca Boles, could write their own tickets as every hospital in the world clamored for them.

Lists (Dr. Lister Pendelton, formerly of the US Army), didn’t remain in the service for long. He finished out most of his current projects, but found the research the military assigned him unworthy of his time. He started a new research hospital where he proceeded to train some of the best surgeons and managed to revolutionize the practice of medicine. He concentrated on treatments to boost ‘patients energy supplies’, making it sound like it was based on the ancient Chinese concept of Chi, and he managed to produce those results without the presence of Alex’s few Seekers, going at the central problem from another angle. Despite his tremendous results, he was accused of returning medicine to the dark ages where it was the exclusive province of a small cadre of ‘mystical specialists’. But it was hard to counter his results, and eventually the insurance companies had no choice but to fully authorize his treatment—especially since they not only produced the best results, but also did it for the least cost.

And the financial benefits didn’t stop there, a whole series of previously unknown fertility clinics blossomed and succeeded despite their reluctance to accept anyone walking in from off the street. It created more than a few controversies when they refused to treat several influential figures, as well as claims they were operating their practices under ‘racial stereotypes’, though any check on who they treated demonstrated they did anything but.

Another unexpected beneficiary was Leanna Dickson, who went from a struggling proprietor of a single bar to the owner of a nationwide string of ‘family centric’ lesbian bars. Although they catered to lesbians, they never turned away anyone (who they didn’t consider ‘threatening), and no matter what time, they’d always have a little corner discussion going about either Alexandrism or some little known early figure in the little understood cult. She even went so far as to open a string of her bars in the Middle East, which shocked the entire world. But when the King of Saudi Arabia welcomed her into his home on bended knee, it certainly changed the discussion. Obviously she had to change her bars a bit in order to gain acceptance, such as not offering alcohol, but as long as she had separate areas for men, women, the ‘lezzie’s and the small cadre of Alexandrianists, most groups left them to their own devices. After all, if your people were hurt in a military action, no one wanted to run the risk of not being treated by the best medical professionals.

Ahmed and Akilah managed to do quite well too, essentially transforming much of their culture in a relatively short time and allowing Leanna to accomplish what she did in their country. Akilah searched out, taught and trained potential Seer and Seekers, giving them good educations, teaching them to be decisive and aggressive in what they wanted. Because they possessed unique talents unavailable elsewhere, no one questioned when those women rose to positions of prominence, helped along by Ahmed’s use of those very women to help him in political negotiations with friends and foe alike. It was a delicate card game for them, but they were playing for big stakes—the future of their country once its oil reserves were exhausted and their newfound wealth was spent. But they achieved a lot, making Saudi Arabia the major source of these talents outside of the States.

Others ventured overseas as well. After doing a whirlwind business ferrying people back and forth to memorials, funerals, services and get-togethers across the country, Shanna (Sanaa) Shenouda left her business in the hands of her trusted employees—who were operating more out of a desire to help Alex’s people than a simple profit motive—and she toured the world trying to meet new Followers and spread Alex’s message in quiet one-on-one interactions in quiet cafes.

There were also a lot of women who managed to get wonderful educations thanks to the Angel Vision Foundation, who’d then hire them or farm them out to other enterprises where they had access to the best research available, and they went on to become powerful and influential in their own right. The Sorority (still technically a female fraternity) also went international relatively quickly, spreading to first Europe and then more slowly to the rest of the developed world.

While Daniel Vertiz—the man who’s negative reaction to Alex taught them so much—was helped by the absence of anyone with enough BCM to trigger his reactions, the Seers continued to encounter people who took an instant dislike to them, but at least they knew how to respond and what to look for, so there were fewer violent altercations.

Caity Stern, the Seer from the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, ended up quitting the military much like Lists did, for the same reasons. The military was downsizing and she couldn’t perform the kinds of research she was most interested in. She ended up working briefly with Dr. Lists new research hospital, but eventually joined Cate in searching for the source and nature of BCM, and the physics principles that made its discovery possible. She ended up sharing one of Cate’s Nobel Prizes and was mentioned in another. She also went on to become a respected researcher and medical expert herself, consulting at the largest hospitals, although she spent most of her time working with those like herself, helping them excel and learn.

Gini went to work for Gail, who built a huge exclusive security operation. They paid the bills protecting celebrities, politicians and important targets; their ability to detect emotions helping them guard them, but their bread and butter was made by protecting the people in the community. As those people and organization grew in stature, so did their security services until they were turning away Kings and CEOs of major corporations. Neither woman really liked protecting those types anyway, too often comparing them unfavorably to the even-handed and low-key Alex they’d so beloved.

On an unusual front, Stu (Stubborn Bear), the Paiute Indian with the ‘interesting’ liver condition ended up curing his own cancer. It seems when Alex boosted his liver, he promoted the growth and development of cells which attacked cancer cells. When his tribe discovered this they asked Dr. Simon Reinhard to return and coordinate the search for the genetic link which allowed his immune system to defeat cancers without any assistance. They ended up curing cancer in many patients—with the help of Becky’s new DNA research lab—and the money they earned allowed the tribe to relocate and develop a rich and well developed presence in the state. Stu was featured in several movies about his life—none of which featured the assistance of Alex, by the way. Which is the way Alex would have wanted it.