The Illuminati (5 page)

“But I will be finished in the scientific community when it gets out that I ignored this data,” Lowe contended as he slumped back in his old leather chair.

“We'll make sure that when the facts are known, Doctor, they will show that you recommended immediate action by the president but he chose to ignore your advice. You will be exonerated totally. Just say nothing— other than sending a confidential memo to President Kilborne.”

“You can do that?” the startled scientist asked.

“We have been preparing for this election for a very long time, Doctor. Longer than anyone outside can imagine. We will be able to do many things.”

Lowe shuddered involuntarily as he listened to Rutland's plan. “But Cal, the destruction that a tsunami of that magnitude would cause is almost incalculable; many will die.”

“Are you absolutely certain about the earthquake?” Rutland asked.

“No one can be entirely sure of something like an earthquake,” Lowe replied. His hedging was conditioned by years of political maneuvering. “But I have reviewed the data from Wells' program very carefully and I believe it is accurate—even brilliant.”

“You had better be right, Doctor. We cannot afford to make Governor Crow into a viable candidate at this time. We're too close to our goal now,” Rutland said sharply.

“I understand,”Lowe assured him.“I want this just as much as you do.”

“Just remember, the Society makes no allowances for failure,”

Rutland said.

Rutland represented a group that had actually been formed nearly three hundred years earlier in Europe, and the group from which they sprang had been formed centuries before that—when the Roman Empire was little more than a few loosely knit tribes.

The original group had been known as Druids. They were the titled gentry of Middle East traders who had developed from tribes of roving bandits. The Druids became a vicious, secret society dedicated to the preservation of their members at all costs. Nothing was beyond their order of “ethics,” including murder, kidnapping, and slavery.

Later the Druids took on a nearly supernatural aura in the minds of the simple people they dominated. Their wealth and power made it possible for them to operate outside the confines of the law. Those who opposed them would simply disappear, never to be seen or heard from again. Thus, rumors circulated that the Druids had the power to make people vanish. As the stories were told from generation to generation, they were elaborated and exaggerated. Eventually the Druids were equated with demons and various gods.

So similar were the men who inherited leadership in each successive generation, they seemed to be the reincarnated images of their predecessors. Thus also began the legend of eternal life within the Druids: reincarnation. In truth, it was the intense dedication to a single organization and centuries of exacting training that kept the group so uniform and strong. But it was the legends that served the purposes of the men who served the organization and were therefore preserved and promoted.

As Europe developed into the dominant economic center of the civilized world, the Druids saw their influence waning because few Europeans were interested in or impressed by the superstitions of the Middle East. To extend their influence in Europe, the Druids changed their name to the Freemasons and adopted many of the same rituals and religious traditions practiced within the Christian churches. These rituals, mixed with Eastern mysticism, resulted in almost instant acceptance.

Immediately many of the leaders of society were wooed into the order of the Freemasons, and they in turn brought in many of the second social level who were anxious to associate with the elite. From the Freemasons, a small group of world leaders emerged, dedicated to the establishment of a worldwide order, known as the “Illuminati,” or “the enlightened”; later they would be known only as the “Society.” Each member of this group was carefully chosen from the larger group of Freemasons. Each represented the highest level of authority within his particular discipline. Thus the group contained not only political figures, but also religious, economic, academic, and military leaders.

The group flourished from just after the time of Christ until the fifteenth century in Europe. When the New World was discovered and the pathways to America opened up, leading members of the Freemasons were sent with the earliest pilgrims to ensure their foothold on the new continent.

By the time of the Revolutionary War in America, most prominent American leaders were counted among the Freemasons. As centuries passed, countries came and went, along with their rulers, but the Masons continued to flourish. Eventually the movement in America spread to the common man and millions of working class people were recruited to the order of the Freemasons, thus ensuring their acceptance in a democratic society.

But always at the top, unknown to all but the very few, was the ruling body known as the Society. This group made decisions determining which wars were to be fought and how they were to be funded. By the time of the First World War, their economic power was so great that governments could be toppled simply by the movement of money and support as directed by this group. Generations passed and the old line died off, but still the Society persisted.

Now, nearly two hundred and fifty years after America had become a nation, the Society was stronger than ever, and its original purpose was becoming a reality: a one-world economic system, controlled and directed by this shadowy group of the most influential men—and now women—in the world.

For hundreds of years the Society had been taught that a chosen one, or “Leader,” would rise to bind the world into a single economic unit. Several times in history men had risen to positions of power from the inner circle of the Society to grasp the reins of power. Notable among them in the twentieth century were Lenin, Hitler, and Mao Tsetung. But the time was not right for the one-world system, and each in his own time had been subverted and ultimately defeated.

Little known to the rest of the world at the time was that the purges executed by Stalin in Russia were to eliminate the order of Freemasons that threatened his power base. His attempt to demolish the Society doomed communism to oblivion as the Society directed an economic attack against the party. When another Russian leader was appointed to the inner circle, the economies of both Russia and China were virtually destroyed. The Russian economy was steered back to prosperity under the control of the Society.

The Society in America progressed on a parallel track to that of Europe. Because of the enormous economic wealth of the United States, it was necessary for the Society to organize yet another group of influential leaders who would serve as advisers to the inner circle. This group became known as the Council on Foreign Relations. Comprised of some of the best-trained minds in America, the Council eventually took on a semi-official government position as advisers, not only to the Society but to presidents as well.

Thus, a system of governments within governments developed worldwide, the ultimate goal being a base of power from which the “Leader” could control the entire world.

In the computer room at Andrews Air Force Base, Jeff Wells was developing a program to calculate the effects of the tsunami on the California coast. What he read in the printouts made him wish he hadn't looked. He checked and rechecked his equations because it seemed no one was taking his prediction seriously, even after the San Francisco quake.

“The coasts of Southern California and Mexico should be evacuated,” he had told Dr. Eison. He was sure that Eison agreed with his conclusions, yet even he had failed to do anything about it. And soon afterward, he had been shipped off to Andrews almost as if he was a government employee. He had gone along with it, happy for the unprecedented access to some of the best scientific equipment imaginable, but what good had it done him?

Jeff thought,
Here I am—hidden away in a government facility, isolated from the press and their questions. It is almost as if someone wants this disaster to happen—
“Mr.Wells?”

“Yes,” Jeff answered, startled back to reality. It was Cal Rutland, some apparent big-wig.

“Come with me,” Rutland said.

“Where are we going? I have a lot of work to do,” Jeff replied defensively, even while he was getting to his feet.

Rutland held the door, clearly indicating he expected to exit immediately.

“I'd like some answers,” Jeff said with as much gusto as he could muster. “Why am I being detained?”

“You'll get your answers,” Rutland said with a semblance of courtesy. But his eyes revealed what his lips didn't; he had no intention of discussing the matter now.

Jeff followed Rutland to another part of the building, to an office where Senator Mark Hunt was waiting, seated in a leather chair behind a large desk. As they entered, the senator spoke. “Ah, young Mr. Wells, I presume.”

“Yes,” Jeff replied. He had read much about Senator Hunt in the newspapers over the last several months, as had everyone in the country. Most of the media proclaimed him to be the answer to the nation's troubles.

With the economy in its thirtieth month of recession and more than twenty million Americans unemployed, a change of administration was certain, and the front-runners were Senator Hunt and Governor Crow. According to the papers President Kilborne still had a chance, but only if the economy took an unexpected turn. Personally, Jeff liked Kilborne. He had a lot of good ideas, but he was saddled with an economy so burdened by debt that many predicted another five years of recession before it would begin to recover.

Jeff was greeted with a warm smile as Senator Hunt motioned for him to sit down in the chair nearest his desk. Cal Rutland took a chair across the room, as if to become a spectator.

“I assume you know who I am, Jeff?”

“Yes, sir,” Jeff said honestly, relaxing a bit as he felt the personal warmth of Hunt's smile and courtesy.

“I won't try to snow you, Jeff . . . uh, may I call you Jeff?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Good! I understand you're some kind of computer whiz. Is that right, Jeff?”

“Well, I don't know about that, Senator Hunt,” Jeff said hesitantly.

“Please. Call me Mark. And don't be so humble. I like men who are the best at what they do. If I'm going to lead this country out of the mess it's in, I'm going to need men who are confident of their own abilities.” He glanced across the room at his aide as he added, “Cal here thinks you're the best at what you do. Or you're going to be.”

Cal twisted a bit in his chair but remained silent.

“I need your help, Jeff,”Hunt continued. “When I'm elected president, we're going to need to bring this nation's economic system out of the dark ages, and it will take all of us working together to do it. We can no longer hide our heads in the sand.”

“But Senator—uh, Mark, I don't know anything about economics. Surely you have advisers who . . .”

Hunt didn't let him finish. “I have plenty of people who understand how economics used to work, Jeff. We don't need those old-fashioned ideas anymore. We must either become innovators or become a third-rate power. My administration will have the best minds working on the economic models. What I will need most is that computer brain of yours. Cal tells me you stumped the boys at Livermore.”

“Well, I don't know, sir. They didn't want to believe what my program predicted.”

“Idiots, Jeff. You remember that. They are idiots! It's the same mentality that is trying to hold this country back. I want you to learn all there is to know about how the world banking system operates. Then I want you to design a computer system that will track every electronic financial transaction in the world.”

Jeff wasn't sure he had heard correctly.“Track every transaction? Why that would take a computer larger than . . .”

Hunt interrupted to say, “I don't care what it takes, Jeff. We have the same kind of idiots working at the World Bank that you saw at Livermore. Dr. Eison and a few enlightened souls will cooperate. Your job will be to galvanize them into a working team, and Cal will handle the others,” he said, glancing across the room at Rutland.