Suffer The Children

It is September, 2004. The place is New York City. The world as we knew it no longer exists. A nuclear device went off in Tel Aviv killing and maiming a million. But that was not the worst of it. The coastal plain of Israel collapsed and the Mediterranean Sea rushed in all the way to the Sea of Galilee. An act of terror or one of their own bombs triggered off it could not be determined. There was more to come. After a series of powerful earthquakes in Southern California, the cores of three nuclear power plants ringing Los Angeles almost simultaneously cracked. Huge quantities of radioactive gases were released into the atmosphere making much of Southern California uninhabitable. Acts of sabotage or the result of the severe shaking and shifting of the ground it could not be determined. It is aganst this backdrop that we meet Doug McKenzie, investigative reporter for the Gotham Times and his precocious twelve year daughter, Rachel. Rachel described her dad as "One of the most beautiful men she had ever seen and this included the bg screen. He was almost given preferential treatment because of his looks and some of this attention cascaded down on her." Physically, her body is changing. "Literally, she crossed her fingers and hoped for the best." The story commences when Doug McKenzie investigates the suicide of a prelate of the church. This prelate had been responsible for the finances of the New York City diocese and had recently wired $100,000,000 of the church's funds out of the city to a safe haven. Eventually, Doug McKenzie connects this event to a nuclear plot against New York City by a Coalition of Middle East nation who are in an undeclared state of war with the United States. But it is Rachel and her theory "Rachel's Theory" that provides the logical path to the location of the devices. Then it is a race against time. But this act of war, now the second on U.S. territory, is only one of a number that will follow. Doug McKenzie, divorced single parent, dearly loves his daughter but she is making the transition from pre-teen to a young woman and he is not making it with her. And so there is a conflict between the two of them. He meets the beautiful Child Psychiatrist Laurie Reynolds but they can onlyt manage a modern sexual relationship; that is, both can only schedule their trysts with each other according to their own schedules: "Everything had its place including her love life, when she chose to have it." They plan to be married but her desire to be closer to him falsely leads her to believe that he might participate in a threesome with another woman. Then there is Hillary Clinton who has survived the current scandal with her husband to become President of the United States. I really didn't have a choice here. She is the only one I could think of who would have the guts to make the kinds of decisions that are required in "Suffer The Children". In the end, an Hispanic pressman at the Gotham Times says, "What cajones that Hillary has, what cajones." "Suffer The Children" is a metaphor for the twin problems of crime and terror. Parents cannot afford to let their kids have the freedoms, like free play, unsupervised time, etc. they enjoyed when they were growing up becuase now they have to know where their kids are at all times because of what's out there. Perhaps this book will help light up the problem.