Balance (78 page)

Right around
the same time, politics
, specifically elections
became massive business, with f
ar larger amounts of money
i
n
jected
into election efforts.  The money was coming from business interests.  The massive financial infusi
ons
strengthened
business levera
ge
over
politicians. 
Then the recession hit.
I
n an effort to stimulate growth,
the government provided
tax relief
to business
es
and the wealthy.  The
tax relief decreased
tax revenue
,
increasing
government
debt and
forcing
spending cuts
,
including
cuts to the military and business oversight. 
With weakened
oversight, businesses and the wealthy were able to
further
circumvent
taxation. 
The recurrent
tax income
losses
continued to weaken
the government.

This cycle continued, t
he
wealthy pumped
more
money into
politics
, c
ontinual
oversight reductions promoted
ever-increasing
business corruption.  Economic stagnation
and
additional
tax relief
concessions
further reduced government finances,
continually
weakening the military and oversight.
  A never-ending cycle. 
All the while, the rich are getting richer
and the middle class outsourced into extinction.

The wealthy
,
concerned about threats from abroad, started
building their own militaries.
”
 
Rena
pauses for a moment, studying Michael, determining his level of assimilation,
“
Are you still with me?
” She
inquires

“Surprisingly, I am
.
”

“Great
.
”
S
h
e continues,
“
N
ow
,
you have to understand this same thing
, for the most part,
is happening all over the world.  Then the
Secession
hit. 
Several
of the richest
, most influential
and powerful
, the
SuperElite,
stopped acknowledging the government
s
, stop paying taxes, everything. 
Here in the
United States
,
the
government w
as
powerless to stop them.  These were not just individuals
,
but huge
international businesses, most
with their own militaries
,
here and abroad
.  These same people had bought
all the politicians
and most of the politicians were part of the
SuperElite
’s inner circle. 
The
United States
militaries were skeletal by this point. 
The government
,
powerless to stop the exodus of the wealthy
,
crumb
l
ed
.
  Once the United States fell, most other democratic governments f
e
ll right behind, a domino effect.
 
And here we are today
.
”

Michael
’s
reaction is awe. 
“Holy shit
! …
Okay,
let me
chew on
this for a second.
”

Rena smiles at him, impressed with his comprehension as much as his interest.

A
fter a moment
, he asks
,
“
…
a
nd y
ou’
ve
discovered
a way
of destabilizing this?
”

She
nods
slowly
.

“
Right now, I’m thinking I just made love to the most dangerous person in the world.  Talk about emasculating.”

She
laughs, blushing ever so slightly,
vividly
recalling
Michael making love to her
…
for
her first time …
earlier that day.  She takes a drink from her wine glass
, a feeling of euphoria washing over her body
.

Michael continues,
“Y
ou have something to show me?”

Rena, feeling empowered in a way she has never felt before,
looks
at
him
with her charming
half
smile,
and slowly nods.
 
Rising
from the island, she
wal
ks over and takes
his
hand
,
leading
him to a closed sliding door
off the living
room
.
 
She
turns to
face
him and
takes
his other hand
.  S
tanding on her toes
,
she
leans in and kisses him
on the lips, their soft and gentle touch lighting a fire in her
heart
.  She whispers
,
“Thank you.”
 
S
till holding his hand,
she turns to
stand
next to him. 
Smiling
to herself
,
she
tip
s
her head toward hi
m and whispers,
“Oh, by the way, you
’re
going to be feeling emasculated again tonight.”
Rena
slides the door aside, rev
ealing a lon
g narrow room that stretches at least thirty
feet
.

The walls lined with pictures of
people, mostly business types, s
tring
s
connect picture to picture.  In addition to the photos
of people
,
there are graphs,
charts, financial
reports;
blue prints are stacked on the tabletops,
pictures of military complexes and office building
s
.
R
ecogniz
ing
an aerial view of the
Bunker
,
Michael steps into the room.  He spins slowly around to take it all in.  On the wall next to the
door,
he finds picture
s
of himself and
a
map with pins stuck into it, mark
ing all the cages he had fought
.

S
tep
ping
into the room, reta
king his hand,
Rena
whispers
,
“I’m sorry.”

He
looks down into her face, smiling to reassure her,
wordlessly
saying,
‘
I und
erstand…it was the right thing.
’

After perusing the impressive room, he
collects
her. 
Michael
can tell she’s nervous.  “Wow, all this and you still found time to learn
how to fight like a bar maid.”

It was just what Rena needed to break the tension.

“Explain this to me
.
”
H
e
implores
.

W
orking her
way
around the room
, Rena
explains the
SuperElite
structure
…
 

“I have identified twelve critical
SuperElite
. 
O
thers refer to themselves in
this
manner
but they
lack
the presence, military or resources.  I’ll refer to those as ‘posers’.  The
remaining twelve have all of
these
defining elements. 
I must point out
,
no
SuperElite
has the military firepower once under the control of the US, England, Germany
, China
or Russia.  Even if they did
,
they wouldn’t be able to use it or even threaten with it. 
The
ir
military
strength
, for the most part,
evenly matched
among
the
Elite-
twelve
.

Unlike geographical
ly
define
d
countries,
territorial bo
rders do not confine
or define the
SuperElite
.  This is why mass
ive
destructive arsenal
s
are
pointless
.  There
are
no legitimate target
s
isolat
ed enough to warrant a
massive
assault
.  All other targets of
significance
too closely
related
to
other
Elite
holdings.  In other
words,
no
SuperElite
can
commit
mass
ive
damage
without
doing
damag
e
to them self
.
  Not to mention,
they
don’t want to destroy
,
what
they
one day, may want to acquire
.
 
For the most part
,
the amassed military
arsenals
of the
SuperElite
are
for defens
e
,
a deterrent
to
frontal assault.  It
’
s posturing, the s
tronger
your
military, the less likely a
n
attack
.

Alt
hough there are stronger and weaker
SuperElite,
the disparity is not significant enough to guarantee absolute supremacy.  There
also
exists
the threat of partnerships
and collusions
.
  The proliferation of
covert intelligence, agents like you and I for example, make surprise
offensives
extremely difficult and risky.

A direct assault on any
SuperElite
by another would result, as do all direct military confrontations, a weakening of both entities
. 
For this reason, even if
the strongest
SuperElite,
the
‘
Alpha
’,
mounted a direct assault
on
any other
SuperElite,
the effort
, regardless of success,
would
result in a weakened state.  In
this
weakened
state,
even
short-lived,
one
or
more
SuperElite
could attack the Alpha, bringing about its demise.
”
 
Pausing
to make sure Michael fully comprehends this statement.  This piece of information is critical.  Feeling confident
she has
no
t lost
him
,
Rena
continues
, now focusing on the
Nexus …