Synarchy Book 2: The Ascension (4 page)

It was easy to be cynical when one knew
as much as Antonio “Tony” DeMarco II did. But everything was about
to change.

Standing in the security booth at the
main gate, he pulled the walkie talkie out of his belt, pressing
the talk button. “You clean up the Necrophilia room yet,
Jimmy?”

There was static before the reply came.
“Aw, why the fuck can’t I delegate that assignment to one of the
new guys?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Because it don’t
look too good for rumors to start about how the Secretary of
Defense and a few other Forbes cover CEO’s like fucking women that
are already dead. Go clean it up. If you miss garbage incineration,
I’ll put you on Hillbilly camp duty.” At the Grove, the two
thousand members were divided into different camps, each with their
own name. Some were symbolic. Some were just for fun.

Nobody wanted to be assigned to the
Hillbilly camp, though. That was the right kind of employee
motivation. “Fuck that,” Jimmy said. “I’m on it.”

“
You know, it’s not exactly
smart of you to discuss the Secretary’s sexual preferences out loud
either, amico.”

Tony slipped the walkie talkie back
onto his belt, casting a nonchalant glance over his shoulder.
“You’re here early, Director DeMarco.”

“
I knew you missed me, so I
took an earlier flight.” A cigar was held comfortably between
Director of Homeland Security Alexandro DeMarco II’s fingers as he
lounged in the doorway of the small building. “Such a waste of
space, no?” The DeMarco brothers were nearly identical as far as
facial features went. They shared striking, wheat-hued eyes that
crinkled at the corners when they laughed, and strong jaws. The
similarities stopped there. Alexandro had a old-fashioned, very
politician-like demeanor, and his thick head of black hair had
begun to gray prematurely. Tony was taller, more muscular, and a
little rougher around the edges.

“
This place? Without
question.”

“
Mhm.” Alex brought the
cigar to his mouth, pulling in the heavily scented smoke, and
rolled the flavor of it around his tongue. “Let’s take a
drive.”

“
Sure.” Tony followed him
out, walking over to the golf cart that carted the suits around the
acres of the camp ground.

“
You have it on you?” Alex
asked.

“
Always.” Tony slipped his
sunglasses on, climbing into the driver’s seat. “Get
in.”

Alex nodded and climbed into the
passenger side of the vehicle. Tony reached into the front pocket
of his uniformed shirt, removing what appeared to be just a stick
of gum. When he bit down into it, a signal was thrown out that
blocked the sound of their conversation to those who might be
listening. Unless they were two feet away and in which case could
be seen, they would hear nothing but nature.

“
So what’s up, big
brother?”

Since the early 1920’s, the DeMarco
Crime Family controlled New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the
surrounding areas. They had aligned themselves with the Terenzios,
and Alexandro DeMarco Senior had been a close friend of both
Stefano Terenzio and his wife. Alexandro I had slickly made his way
into politics, despite the rumors that his brother, Antonio DeMarco
I, was the boss of the crime family. It was the first Alexandro’s
stellar political career that inserted the DeMarcos into the inside
position they had today. Alexandro I’s son, Matthew, had kept the
partnership with the Terenzios alive, and secret, ensuring that
both of his sons, who Matthew smartly named as the men from whom
they reincarnated, were ready to finish what they had
started.

“
Marcello has passed,” Alex
said.

“
Sucks. Tell me
more.”

Alex sighed, shaking his head. “You
could at least have a little respect for the dead.”

“
Look, I didn’t know him in
this life, or my last seven. Aside from the sympathy I’ve been
programmed to have for the natural occurrence which is death—which
nobody really minds by the way, they just think they do—my ‘sucks’
is a little bit more than is needed, all right?”

“
But you did know his
father.”

“
Everybody knew his
father.”

“
He’s back.”

Tony pulled his eyes from the dirt road
that cut between the towering redwoods to shoot a sideways glance
at his brother. “No shit?”

“
He’s not alone.”

“
Whole crew?”

“
All but Carissa. But I
think she’s already moved into different form, probably somewhere
in the Pleiades.” Alex smiled, sticking the cigar back between his
teeth.

“
The universe really isn’t
fucking around this time.”

“
Well, there is some
importance to the third dimension.” Alex paused to puff lightly on
his cigar, and then continued: “They reincarnated as the Triplets.
I want you to meet with them. Give them the next round of
information.”

Tony glanced over at his brother.
“Xavier can’t do it?”

“
I need him on a different
assignment right now. Plus, we need to keep his involvement in all
this as hidden as ours.”

“
All right. What do I need
to tell them about?”

Alex reached into his pocket and
removed a USB. He handed it to his brother. “It’s all on there.
They are on their way to Virginia, now.”

Tony took the drive and dropped it into
the front pocket on his shirt. “I’ve got to finish up here first,
and then I’ll take care of it.”

“
Grazie.”

“
No problem. Does Stefano’s
wife know he’s back in form?”

Alex paused. His brother was right
about death, but there was an old soul that had left form on Earth.
Her physical presence was missed. “She did.”

Tony gave that revelation a moment of
silence. “Now her, I’m going to miss.”

“
Me, too, amico. Me,
too.”

“
I’m telling
Mona.”

“
Do it…” Alex leaned back
almost lazily in the shuttle, sticking one foot up onto the
dashboard. “…and I’ll tell her you were her slave a thousand years
ago.”

Tony made a face, letting loose an
exaggerated shudder. “You’re a bastard for even bringing that
up.”

Alexandro laughed, grinning around the
cigar between his lips.

“
Speaking of the bitch—I
mean your wife…” The bitch remark earned him a solid punch to the
shoulder from his brother. “She coming up for the
festivities?”

“
As if she’d let me shoot
anyone without her.”

“
Good point.”

“
Where are you headed
next?”

“
To see the Brotherhood of
Light.”

“
What a stupid
name.”

Alex chuckled. “I agree. I doubt they
call themselves that.”

“
Why do you get to go see
them? Why can’t I do that, and you go prep the
triplets.”

“
Proof positive, mi amico,
that you will never be as cool as I am.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “You and your
wife deserve each other. You both live in the same world of
self-delusion.”

Chapter 2

“
The difficulty lies, not in
the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.”

-John Maynard Keynes

June 12, 2012 - 9:00 AM

Alexandria, VA

S.V.T. Think Tank

They’re on their way? Sure, of course.
We’ll be ready.” Dr. Derek Vaughn III hung up the phone just as Dr.
Shirley McDermott walked into his office. Derek, who had a crush on
Shirley, smiled instinctively.

“
What are we getting ready
for?” Shirley asked before she lifted her hand to cover her
yawn.

“
The new Presidents of Dion
Corp,” Derek said, standing up and stretching. His glasses sat atop
a thin nose and covered golden brown eyes. His short, brown hair
was graying at the sides and still a little damp from his recent
shower. “Sleep okay?”

Shirley nodded. “As soon as I hit the
pillow, I was out like a rock.” She pulled one of three pens from
the front of her white lab coat and pinned her fiery red hair atop
her head. She eyed him speculatively. “Did you sleep?”

Derek smiled. “Probably as good as you
did.”

“
I brought coffee since I’m
not ready to swallow the shitty stuff Derek makes.” Dr. Abe Donahue
came strolling into the office with a tray that housed three Dunkin
Donuts styrofoam cups.

“
You love my coffee and you
know it,” Derek teased, reaching out to take the offered
cup.

“
I’ve tasted better shit on
a Navy Sub, and that’s saying something.” Abe had done a brief
stint in the Navy before he’d given over to his braniac potential.
He looked like it, too; his build was lean and muscular, and he
kept his black hair cropped close to his scalp. He disliked
shaving, though, and a thick beard covered his cheeks.

“
Before we go jump into the
Orgone machine, has anyone ever heard of the term Theophany?”
Shirley asked, cradling the warm cup of coffee between her
palms.

Both Derek and Abe shook their heads.
“What is it?” Derek asked.

“
It refers to the appearance
of a God to a human, usually for the purpose of some sort of divine
disclosure. Before I went to bed last night, since I had aliens and
the Anunnaki on the brain, I did a search on alien
abductions.”

“
You know, it’s a little
early to send my world into another flat spin,” Abe muttered. Six
days ago, Abe and Shirley, five miles underneath the Antarctic
Ocean, found a man floating to the surface, carrying a golden rod
with a crystal on the top that was emanating some type of force
field. Menes, as the man had called himself, had given them a dire
message about finding the Cave of Creation before the winter
solstice and using their employer, the Terenzios, to protect them
from the Anunnaki a race that apparently had enslaved mankind.
Derek, the Director of SVT Think Tank, had sent a second team to
Piedras Negras to search for this mysterious Cave. They believed
they had found it underneath ancient Mayan ruins.

Shirley laughed. “It’s not that bad, I
promise, just interesting. The term is also used in reference to
some alien abductions, because abductees have claimed that they
have had profound mystical experiences, accompanied by a feeling of
oneness with God or the Universe during their visits with the
aliens.”

“
Huh.” Derek looked
thoughtful. “More proof to support the Ascension?” The Ascension
was a worldwide spiritual event that dealt with the power of
consciousness and a connection to some divine source. What little
evidence there was to support it indicated that it was already
occurring, but would reach some as of yet unidentified zenith on
December 21st, 2012; unless they didn’t find the Cave of Creation
in time. And they still didn’t know what the Cave of Creation
actually was.

“
Maybe. I just thought it
comforting to know that all aliens who have apparently contacted us
are not evil,” Shirley said.

Abe eyeballed his co-workers. “Would
you like me to make you two your own tin foil hats?”

Derek chuckled, and Shirley looked over
at Abe in amusement. “After everything we’ve been through—the
dreams that started this, Menes, and all the evidence based in
science that talks about the power of your mind—I remained shocked
you still sound so skeptical.”

“
I know, I know.” Abe
sighed. “But look, here’s what we know.” He started ticking off
points on his finger around his coffee cup. “We’ve got a dead guy
whose DNA is impossible, but only because I think he’s a different
species. The reason he was able to float up like he was, was that
crystal, and I haven’t figured out the way it works, yet. Doesn’t
make it mystical. And all your evidence about the power of
consciousness is a science still in its baby stages, okay? And I’m
not even going to touch aliens on Earth, for obvious reasons. Plus,
I think I might have a nervous breakdown after I find out all this
is true, so you just leave the skeptic alone, missy.” Abe gave her
a wry smile.

“
How about we go run some
mystical tests of our own,” Derek said, walking past them and down
the twisting staircase to the main lab rooms, as Shirley and Abe
followed.

“
If this Orgone Accumulator
blows you up, or turns you into a fly, don’t say I didn’t warn
you,” Abe said.

“
Orgone is perfectly safe,
and you know it, silly.” Shirley gave Abe’s shoulder a playful
shove. “Whether or not it will work is the real question.” Before
Marcello Terenzio died, he sent his scientists an Orgone
Accumulator, along with a letter that encouraged them to use it.
Orgone was a term coined by psychoanalyst Whilem Reich, who claimed
that Orgone, also called chi or life force energy, was everywhere
and could be harnessed to help patients heal energy blocks in the
biological system that led to illness. The Orgone Accumulator that
sat in the lab was a six-sided box made up of organic and metallic
materials.

“
I guess I’ll go first,”
Derek said, eyeing the machine. “You two monitor my neurological
activity.”