That He Might Have Joy

Rex Williams has seen the anger and violence in society escalate in his forty years as a cop, and the weight of that increasing ugliness weighs on his soul. In this science fiction novella of the recent past and near future, Rex discovers a terrifying possibility--that the world's descent into anger may be assisted by a terrible virus that manifests as a blue tint to bodily fluids.

Though it seems impossible, Rex keeps meeting an old man whose wife was killed in a robbery in Chicago more than fifty years ago. Is Howard vector zero for a disease that is accelerating the natural fragmentation of society? Can Rex stop it, or is the decay inevitable, and driven by Nature itself? (about 51 pages)