C.: Since I have nothing else to do, my friend, d.c. scot, wants me to proofread some chapters in his The Magruder Mysteries series. This is from the manuscript for the fifth book, entitled FINAL DUTY: THE MAGRUDER MYSTERIES UNTOLD STORY.
This chapter is a little long, so it may be split in half when the final manuscript is printed. I have time to read it, though. You’re welcome to read along with me if you want to.
THE NEPHILIM
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown. Genesis 6:4
Tonya Steinmann thought about this verse as she listened to the eulogy at the funeral she was attending. This verse had an impact on the octiganian’s life like no other verse in the Bible, the Torah, or any other book. While she was grateful for the offer of a ride from the family member of one of her students at the prison where she taught inmates how to pass their GED exam, she wondered, if her life had been different, what might have been.
Tonya was a sixteen-year-old high school junior when she met Frank Steinmann, Jr. He was a college junior, but only two years her senior. Frank had graduated from high school one year early to get away from an abusive relationsip with both his parents. Tonya could empathize with this, because her parents were verbally and emotionally abusive, if not physically. Frank’s parents, though, had abused their only child so severly that he cut all ties with them as soon as he earned an academic scholarship that was his ticket out of the small East Texas town where he had been raised. When his father was shot to death by a jeaolous husband of one of his love conquests and his mother died of lung cancer from smoking since she was eleven, Frank didn’t even bother to go to either of his parent’s funerals. Appearances weren’t that important to young Frank Steinmann.
Frank’s father made a decent living as a manual laborer with the railroad. Although most thought him to be a big, strong lug with low intelligence, there were people who knew better. The women he wooed with his prose and poems were so impressed with his ability to word phrases that he could bed any woman he desired to.
Frank, Sr. followed his Jewish faith on the Sabbath only. He insisted, though, that his only offspring study the Torah. He also insisted that his small family be in attendance at temple services every Friday night. Additionally, he refused to work from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. That was fine with his employer, because they needed someone to work on Saturday nights and Sundays, which Frank, Sr. was always glad to do. Frank, Jr. had heard the tales of how his father seemed to have the strength of three men. When Frank, Jr. found one of the poems he had written for one of his conquests, it all but confirmed his belief.
The younger Steinmann male didn’t necessarily believe what he read in the Torah as the absolute truth, but his eidetic memory allowed him to recite passages from it easily. Frank, Jr. decided to study other religions. He became fascinated with the book of Genisis while studying the Christian faith.
While Junior didn’t take the Christian Bible literally, he was fascinated enough with it to convert to Christianity when he got away from his parents. He didn’t understand how someone who considered himself to be a devout Jew could spend all his money on wine, women, and song and then come home and take out his frustrations on his wife and only child. Even though Frank, Sr. made a living wage, most of his paycheck was spent on booze and cigarettes for him and his wife. When his only son was afflicted with Leukemia, the copayments for the radiation and chemotherapy treatments drained the Steinmann’s bank account. No longer able to afford to spoil the women he wooed with his flowery words, Frank, Sr. became even more abusive to his small family. He blamed his son for his misfortune. His mother was so mad that she couldn’t play the lottery with what little money that was left after paying for utilities and rent as well as buying booze and cigarettes that she began to put her cigarettes out on her son’s forehead. Frank Steinmann, Jr. had no love for his biological parents.
It was during his time being treated for his cancer at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston that Frank, Junior was exposed to the Christian faith by a group of men from a church in a nearby town. One was a talented singer/songwriter named John Riley Logan.
Junior studied the Christian Bible well enough to convince his new friends that he had been saved. He said he wanted to convert to Christianity, but would need to wait until he enrolled in college, because his strict Jewish parents would never allow him to do this.
Frank, Jr. studied the book of Genisis obsessively, since it was the first book of the Christian Bible as well as the Torah. When he read Genisis 6:4, he came up with a theory.
Many Biblical scholars believe that the Nephilim were descendants of human women and fallen angels. These people had, as their offspring, giants such as the Philistines. Frank, Jr. believed that some of the descendants of these hybrid humans still existed today. How else, he asked himself, would a man be able to run a four and one-half minute mile at the twenty-third mile of a marathon, or finish an Ironman distance triathlon in less than eight hours? How could a mere human dominate a sport so thoroughly that he was banned from the marquee event of its all-star weekend? How could a seven foot-tall man move with the quickness and agility of someone one-half a foot shorter than him, or invent a shot that was impossible to stop, and hit that shot with the same accuracy as the best free throw shooters in professional basketball? And how could a six-foot-seven-inch, three hundred pound man run forty yards as quickly as someone one-hundred pounds lighter than he was?
FRank also wondered how a man could build a computer with parts he bought with his tuition money that was the basis for the computer company that would rule the world of technology twenty years later. How could a mere man invent the concept for a helicopter when the materials for the machine wouldn’t be invented for five-hundred more years? Frank Steinmann, Jr., thought he knew.
Frank converted to the Christian religion as soon as he graduated from high school at the age of sixteen. His goal was to use his religious trainng to find the descendants of the Nephilim and use them to his advantage. Another calling, however, curtailed his plans to do this.
Frank was on an academic scholarship, but he had no spending money. He wanted to impress his new girlfriend, so he decided to use his eidetic memory at the local casino on the reservation in East Texas. As a brash teenager, he wasn’t savvy enough to lose some of the games of Blackjack he was playing on purpose, so he was unceremoniously asked to leave the casino and never return, but it didn’t matter.
The tribal police chief recognized the signs of an eidetic memory and a high IQ. He reported his findings to his friend at the local FBI office, who wanted the young man to work for The Bureau. However, the FBI requires one to be twenty-three to begin working there. The CIA only required their employees to be eighteen, the FBI agent informed Frank, Jr. However, he did warn that Frank would earn a better paycheck with a college degree. Frank then accelerated his studies, but he needed money to start his life after college.
During his college career, Frank, Jr. took a course in commodities. This class taught that the second most profitable option, to buy and sell commodities simultaneously, was the safest way to make a profit in commodities trading. Frank didn’t see it that way. He studied weather patterns and trends in both hemsipheres and picked the best commodities. He was the only student in his class to make money on his imaginary investments. When he completed the class, Frank used his knowledge to gain great wealth.
Frank was in a hurry to accept an assignment with the CIA as soon as he graduated from college in two and one-half years, but his fiance hadn’t graduated from high school yet. That fit in well with his plan, though. Frank convinced Tonya to marry him and move to Ecuador. He said that, in a third-world country, an education was of little use. Tonya was swayed by his charm and charisma.
Frank used that charm and charisma, as well as the government resources at his disposal, to take control of a large cartel in his new country. When he had drained the cartel of all its assets, he turned his findings over to his superiors, angering many powerful people, and some were his coworkers. For his own protection, Frank was enrolled in the witness protection program. Tonya had no desire to join him, but he was too powerful for her to stop him from taking their “miracle child.”
Frank had told Tonya that, because of his radiation treatments as a teenager, he would never be able to father a child. His oncologist had warned him that he would be sterile for the rest of his life after these life-saving treatments. He and Tonya never practiced birth control because of this diagnosis, but Tonay became pregnant with Jason Thomas on her nineteenth birthday. She was overjoyed, but Frank worried that the child would make him easier to find if he started to search for him when he was older, so Frank took his son with him to help him hide.
He told Jason that his biological father’s real name was Mike McCafferty, a multi-miillioniare who had left him a lot of money. However, he said that he would need to assume the now deceased millionaire's identity to be able to secure the funds he had left to his only offspring in offshore accounts, and Jason must assume the identity of Josh McCafferty, the name his biological father wanted him to have. Frank said that, according to the laws of the state of Texas, Jason was his son. Jason eventually forgot the name he was given at birth. He later assumed the identity of John Taylor, multi-billionniare. Most dealing with him knew him only as Taylor, the number one criminal on the FBI and CIA’s most wanted list.
Before he died prematurely of heart disease, Frank could see the potential in his son. A small teenager, he could still dunk a basketball on a ten foot goal and run a sub-five-minute mile, but he hated his mother for cheating on his father and his father for denying him food as punishment for his misdeeds when his body needed nourishment to grow. Frank, though, wanted his son to feel the hate and use it to his advantage.
With his only family member furious with him, Frank sought solace with a waitress at a restaurant he frequented. He was able to get her pregnant, but little Lydia was born with a hole in her heart. Cheri didn’t know her beaux’s true identity, and Frank wasn’t anxious to expose himself by asking for help from the U.S. government. As a result, Lydia died at the charity hospital that wasn’t equipped to treat a child that was born with Tetrology of Falot. This made Josh even more bitter toward his father. DhCheri didn’t know that Frank had purposely spiked her drinks with alcohol to try to make her miscarry. The alcohol being consumed by an expecting mother, though, is something that can cause this condition. He didn’t want another child searching for him when she was older. That may expose his true identity, which may mean a painful death for him.
For her part, Tonya Steinmann made good use of her time. She earned her GED while Frank was on assignment, and then earned an associate’s degree in allied health. She then earned her undergraduate and master’s degree from East Texas Tech. It was during the time she was earning her doctorate in this area of study while working as the senior practice manager at the Huntsille Cluster of Prisons that she hired a small, fiery D.O. named Helen Morgan to work under the direction of Dr. Daniel Davis. Dr. Davis was the Huntsville Cluster of Prison’s head M.D.
The story that Frank had told his son about his mother was fabricated. Tonya was too terrified of her husband to even look at another man. Frank was the only person she was ever intimate with in her entire life. She stayed celebate throughout her career, until she met the OIG inspector assigned to the Huntsville Cluster of Prisons. An aging Jay Magruder wasn’t as handsome or as charming as the young man that Alice Jones had fallen in love with, but he was still attractive enough to get the interest of the senior practice manager where he investigated wayward officers. It was for this reason that Tonya Steinmann was determined to attend the funeral as a favor to Jay. She had no idea that her trip to East Bernard and the way she had acquired her money to attend college and graduate school had put her in the crosshairs of some dangerous people.
C.: Well, that took a while, and I have ringside seats at Tucker’s catfight for d.c. and me tonight. Since he’s so busy working and going to school, d.c. doesn’t have time to referee or commentate on the fight, but he still wants to see it. I must get ready now and my fur is a mess!
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