KILLER CLONES

A CIA agent discovers an otherworldly conspiracy to overthrow humanity in WLVE's SF adventure debut.

Getty Pokem is a “mid-level technology manager” with the Central Intelligence Agency. One beautiful spring day, he’s walking in Washington, D.C., with his daughters: Irene, age 4; Christine, age 6; and Fatima, age 8. As they pass the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a National Weapons Association rally becomes unruly. Gunfire breaks out, and the NWA president is shot. A stray bullet kills Irene. Getty is Black: Was he targeted because of it? He tackles the gunman, and to his shock the man looks exactly like Abraham Lincoln. The shooter then disintegrates. Three months later, Getty is depressed and his ex-wife, Amanda, keeps the children from him. At work his boss, Mr. Brennan, asks him to attend a virtual meeting on his behalf so that his superior, Getty presumes, can tryst with his lover. With access to his boss’s computer, Getty can’t resist peeking at prohibited files relating to “Disposable Assassins,” one dealing with a Dr. Jennifer Jenkins, the lead scientist on a project involving regenerated tissue and artificial intelligence. No sooner does he download the file to a thumb drive than he receives a warning on the computer to meet a mysterious contact in one of Washington’s upscale neighborhoods “if you want to live.” Getty travels to and enters a well-maintained colonial house where he meets fellow CIA agent Selena. The enchanting woman explains that she’s been watching Getty since his daughter was killed as she’s been monitoring violent public attacks. As she tells him he’s “in grave danger,” a pair of gunmen lay siege to the house. The gunman capture enemies within it, dead ringers for Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin, who disintegrate after being tortured. Getty’s humdrum life as a bachelor is over as the creations of Dr. Jennifer Jenkins enter the political landscape—and his life.

WLVE turns a savage, satirical eye on modern America this story, which opens with the end of a pandemic quarantine. When Getty explains why he fled a crime scene: “I’m a black man at the scene of a crime where a white cop just got shot, I figured fleeing was my best option.” As events proceed, WLVE offers hot takes on everything from woke work environments to Covid-19’s supposed engineering by humans, as espoused by Getty’s conspiracy-minded friend, Grant. Most of the public figures are drawn bitingly, including a certain “orange haired” former president, whose “Make America Safe and Strong Again” spells out “MASSA.” However, the narrative takes some wince-inducing turns, as when “the only African American man” to become president is assassinated. In an ode to the James Bond novels and films, Selena proves to be Getty’s seductive and capable dream woman. And as in the Bond series, WLVE's work becomes unabashedly bizarre. A secretive figure named Nostradamus drops clues, aliens conspire against humanity, and sex droids enter the market. The whole is stitched together quite entertainingly, particularly in its depictions of some celebrities, though the writing throughout the book needed a firmer editorial hand. On the first page, readers learn the ages of Getty’s daughters twice. The sequence of tenses can be distracting, and some sentences contain gibberish, such as, “Getty’s face was taunt, fand he felt perplexed.” Still, Getty emerges with superheroic standing, ready to tackle further challenges.

A fun and politically smart but unpolished first novel.