Read The Frankenstein Candidate for Free Online Page B

or tell me yourself.”
    “That’s why I take astrophysics and meteorology. Now, lemme see. Too many variables in play. Almost anything can be attributed to anything.”
    “Then why are certain things regarded as gospel? Everything should be suspect.”
    “Good point. But aren’t you lucky?”
    “How so?”
    “Because there is gospel, and you can master it. Lawrence would say, play by the rules and you will do fine. Advocate the gospel—”
    Frank hung up. Maybe Mardi was having a bad day. Maybe Mardi was pulling his leg. Then it started to happen frequently. Mardi had got older, and all the psychologists his parents got him to see had made him seek social approval at all costs. Frank began to understand that. It was sad, he thought. Mardi had been a rock of integrity impervious to social influence.
    Frank stopped calling. He had no friends left. The long-distance calls to Mardi were costing him a lot anyway. Each of the Oxford Academy foursome went his own way after that.
    It wasn’t until thirty years later that the paths of the formidable four would cross again, this time with one formidable woman named Olivia. And this time, it would determine the fate of the most powerful nation on earth.

 

4
Olivia Allen, Monday, November 25, 2019
    Georgia was saying, “But mommy, did you and daddy only want boys?”
    Olivia Allen woke up. Thanks heavens it was a dream. Hell no, it wasn’t. She turned to look at her alarm clock. It was three a.m. She had only fallen asleep after eleven p.m. She turned to her side. Gary, god bless him, was fast asleep.
    She tried to get back to sleep, but it started happening again: that inexplicable feeling, the tightening muscles, the sweaty palms, the fear of being found out, of being exposed. I am a fraud , she thought. Oh my God, I am an imposter. She tried going over all the reasons she wasn’t one. She had always been the bright one at school. She was always expected to achieve, and achieve she did: scholastic achievements, sports, girl scouts, music. She was beautiful, too. She had been destined for public life. After graduating in law from the University of Pennsylvania, she did a master’s degree in political science at Columbia University. That’s when she fell in love with New York. That’s when she met Gary.
    Everything was nearly perfect. She had finally escaped her mother. Then she was elected to represent New York State in the U.S. Senate. She had married and had two children. Gary had become a successful architect. He used to work very hard, but these days he hardly had any work. With a deepening recession, no one was building anything, certainly not office buildings or high-class residential homes, both of which were Gary’s specialties. Gary was a wonderful husband, though, and their two girls, Georgia and Natasha, were now nine and seven respectively. Gary loved them and often drove them to and from school. At forty-four, Olivia could still fit easily into a size four dress. Her life was as near perfect as it could be. Everyone else agreed too. Why was this happening to her?
    For all of her adult life, Olivia always had an inner fear that she simply was not good enough—that one day, her world would come crashing down. Suddenly, everyone would realize that she simply was not smart or at least not smart enough to be holding the positions she was accustomed to holding.
    She caught herself sobbing. It happened every few months or so, but there was no real pattern. Sometimes this is the way it would end. She would recount all her achievements to herself, but the feeling would not go away. Then, finally, she would cry herself to sleep. Only today, sleep was not coming back.
    What was it that Doctor Joshy had called it? Yes, the Imposter Syndrome. She controlled the urge to sob loudly. She didn’t want to wake Gary up. Gary didn’t know. He must never know. He had enough burdens of his own. She turned over again to look at the clock. Three thirty a.m.
    Olivia got up and