Pillsbury (or The White Spot Death)

On August 29, 2027, Dr. Nehemiah Pillsbury was sitting on a bench in Piedmont Park. He’d been invited two days before by an organization whose name he didn’t know, via a colleague, a german descendant named Dieter Stern. Dr. Stern was pleased by Pillsbury’s work, so he contacted the aforementioned group in issue, which was eager to hear from him. Stern then informed Pillsbury about this, telling him that the group would be willing to pay him a large sum in exchange for sharing his knowledge. Pillsbury was not thinking about money, even when his salary at the Loeffler Institute of Virology was insufficient to fund the trip to Europe he had long planned with his second wife and children. He had another motivation, so he decided to attend the meeting.

At 2:30 p.m., two males stepped out of a Volkswagen Atlas. They were both tall and blonde, the same biotype as Stern; when they neared Nehemiah, they looked like they were about to collapse on him.

— Dr. Pillsbury?

Nehemiah Pillsbury stood up, but he still had to look up to respond to those two guys.

— I am.

— Would you come with us, please?

The doctor compared the scene to one of those movies in which a character gets into a car by strangers to be never seen again, but he didn’t care. He grabbed his briefcase and sat on the Atlas’s back seat. After half an hour of travel, in which no one said a single word, they arrived at a good-looking house, guarded by a man with similar characteristics to those of the driver’s.

—Has everyone already gathered? — inquired the driver.

—Yes, sergeant — replied the guard.

Pillsbury was stunned by the use of military ranks. The guys were not wearing uniforms, but they possessed the required bearing to be elite members. There was no reason to believe they were members of the United States Armed Forces. This group had to be something else, something different and perhaps scary.

His concerns were confirmed as he entered the house. The ground-floor main area, which was adorned with excellent European furniture, included a sideboard with easily identifiable items because of the swastika some of them showed off in its design. Aside from the coins, medals, buckles, sleeve patches, and other trinkets, there was a magnifying glass that, according to the label next to it, belonged to the Führer himself. The original object was discovered in Argentina in 2017, however it was replaced by a duplicate due to dishonest maneuvers by officials in that country. However, a photograph of Hitler wearing it remained in the South American country, leading everyone to believe that the imitation was the genuine article.

— Come this way, please — the man they called “sergeant” invited.

Pillsbury entered a second room that appeared to be a conference hall. Everything was clearer then: there was a Nazi flag on one of the walls and a photo of the Führer above the table’s head. On one side of the room hung a grandfather clock built of solid wood that resembled the one seen in the Berghof mansion prior to the Allied pillage. Four more people were there, some of them wearing a uniform whose colors had nothing to do with the Americans.

The session began when one of the uniformed officers, a man around 40 years old, instructed everyone to have seats. Pillsbury was fully aware of the situation, but he had little alternative except to wait and see what it was going to happen.

—Blood brothers, the person we have invited has something that we have waited for a long time. As we all know, Jews are no longer the primary threat as they were last century. In modern times, negroes, supported by the media in the hands of homosexuals and politicians who see them as easily controllable elements, have unleashed a wave of terror that we are about to...

Pillsbury paid almost no attention to the neo-Nazi’s speech. Images of severed muscles, of gleaming razor edges, suddenly appeared in front of him. A brown-eyed girl’s blood dripped from a table to the floor. A naked woman’s torso and lifeless arms witnessed it from a sofa. His sight, however, was expressive enough to fool anyone into thinking he was truly listening.

—...which is why we have decided to have this talk with someone who will give us the necessary weapon to attain our goals. Dr. Pillsbury, could you give us any details about your work?

Pillsbury, after a slight shock upon hearing his name, with the greatest possible equanimity extracted some documents from his briefcase and addressed those men.

— For quite some time, my organization has been working with a technique known as viral vector technology. Its biggest strength is the ability to guide a virus to a specific group of cells while leaving others alone. It was originally developed for medicinal purposes, but in the course of this work, I was able to use it to cause pathologies in the infected individual. However, this is not so straightforward; for this, I have had to make some improvements that my superiors are unaware of.

—What are these enhancements?

— As we all know, melanin, mainly the variant known as eumelanin, is present in greater quantities in black people’s skin. Let’s assume I program a virus that only attacks persons with the greatest levels of eumelanin in their skin. Because this element is present not just in the skin and hair, but also in sections of the brain and spinal cord, doing it incorrectly would be disastrous. A pathogen might be created that causes disease when it comes into contact with black skin, but if white individuals touch the pathogen, the effects could be the same as in black people. Therefore, before trying anything it was necessary to first identify the gene specifically responsible for skin color, so the virus can measure its activity in each individual. Now, in 2015 the SLC24A5 gene was identified. That changed everything.

— In what sense?

— When the said gene was identified, it was established that it determines skin color, although it can also determine hair and eye color. That still left me half the problem, since there are white people with dark hair.

Some of those gathered in the hall, who responded to this characteristic, got nervous and uncomfortable. Someone out there glanced surreptitiously at the Führer’s portrait with his black hair and unmistakeable haircut. In 2021, a collector from the city of Chesapeake sold 4 strands of Hitler’s dark hair in an online auction for a total of US $1,800. Everyone knew the commander was one among those who bid on the somber treasure. Dr. Pillsbury, immediately, calmed down the attendants.

—However, I was able to locate a specific sequence in said gene that is just concerned with skin tone. Based on this, it was already possible to create a virus that only affects persons with skin dark enough to be categorized as black. The virus may enter via the respiratory pathway, particularly target skin cells, and then replicate after confirming the activity of this gene.

—What would be the initial symptoms?

— Obviously, the first consequences would be seen on the skin, such as partial discoloration, sores, and others, but the virus is designed to penetrate lymphatic veins and travel to vital organs. To determine the pathogen’s effectiveness in vivo, however, the first test must be performed in a closed, isolated environment, with two measurable samples: blacks to measure the fatality rate and other races as a control.

—And what would that environment be?

—I think the answer to that question is easy, commander: a prison.

All the attendees looked at each other. Some began to argue among themselves. One of them, the most senior, asked Pillsbury:

— Any place in mind, doctor?

— Of course. Fulton is the best choice. That prison currently houses about 3,500 inmates, half of them are black. It won’t be necessary to enter the cells, if that’s your concern. It’s possible to contaminate any vehicle entering the jail facilities. That’ll be, in any case, a commando operation.

The man at the head of the table spoke to Pillsbury:

—That all sounds good, but we must be sure that the mortality rate will be sufficient to employ all our resources in this enterprise. Have you calculated what the respective percentage is?

—Sir, if you allow me to say so, we must talk about the fatality rate, since the mortality rate refers to the entire population. The fatality rate, on the other hand, refers only to those infected, in this case black people. Now, according to the instructions that I have programmed into this virus, I estimate the rate to top the Marburg virus’ by far, actually I expect it to be near the human rabies rate. In addition, it has the advantage that this one is transmitted not only by contact like Marburg’s but also by air, it will be enough for the transmitter to be placed near the person to be infected. Also, the transmitter can be any asymptomatic white person who can carry the virus with him without developing the disease. If the carrier is black, during the incubation period he wouldn’t need to cough to infect, only exhale. Finally, as you gentlemen will assume, there’s no treatment, no vaccine, nothing to alleviate the symptoms.

—And tell me, doctor... do you have some samples of this virus prepared?

The silence that fell was eerie. It was no wonder, given that it was a moment that could define the future composition of humanity.

— Yes, sir. I have a sample at Loeffler Laboratories’ facilities. The difficult part will be sneak it out of the complex. Although I have engineered this virus to be resistant to temperatures as high as 104 Fahrenheit, it’s not something that can be carried in the pockets like M&M candy.

—How much do you want for these sample?

Pillsbury mentioned a random number. The group leader spoke clearly:

—Let’s do this, doctor. If you can get this sample here and it proves to be effective in Fulton, you’ll be greatly rewarded.

— It seems fair to me. I suppose you can develop a plan that allows the contamination of said prison. I assure you that the people who will transport the pathogen can trust that a highly lethal virus like the one I offer will not affect them.

The members of the group began to grumble and briefly discussed the topic. Pillsbury averted his sight for a second before. New images appeared in front of him: a girl playing in a swing under the sun, a young mother giving the girl a red ball to play in the beach. The doctor lift his sight again when one of the members of the group made a statement.

— Commander, we are willing to take all necessary risks for the cause.

— I couldn’t expect less from you — said the boss. —Blood brothers, this session is adjourned.

Following the party’s customary greeting, the neo-Nazis adjourned to the main room for a toast with the finest champagne. The commander exclaimed the first:

— For the cause! For the Neue Lösung!

The others responded with excitement. After a round of hors d’oeuvres and fine beverages, the commander headed to Pillsbury.

—Dr. Stern told me about your reasons for doing this. I understand it, this is the only way to deal with these animals. But those of us here have other priorities that are, in turn, the priorities of a free nation. You may not share them, so if you like to retreat to your family life, I will understand. From now, you have 72 hours to seal the deal. Hans, Joseph, drive the doctor back to the meeting point in Piedmont Park.

Half-hour later, Nehemiah Pillsbury was sitting on the park bench again. This time he saw images of people wrapped in body bags, white aprons flooding the streets, cries of lamentation, reporters unable to keep up with the latest updates on events in the city. Finally, he got up from there and headed to his house, a very quiet place, a very peaceful home where none of those things would ever take place.