The Illuminati (51 page)
“The least significant bit? Could you explain?” Shepperd asked.
“We use a sixty-four bit computer system for Data-Net. But in reality, a number extends forever. We arbitrarily round it off at sixty-four units because it fits our particular need for accuracy. If we were plotting coordinates for the Mars mission, we would use a 128 bit computer system. So my routine looks at the total cash flow through the system and then stores the hypothetical sixty-fifth bit in a file.
“For instance, if I were storing the sixteenth bit, my system would accumulate one-tenth of a dollar, or a dime for every transaction. But we can't do that because someone would miss the dime. However, since we have arbitrarily elected to stoop at sixty-four bits, no one will miss the sixty-fifth. You see, it's really simple.”
“But how much would you accumulate storing such an insignificant number?” Shepperd asked skeptically.
“Well . . . let's look in my accumulation register and see,” Jeff said as he typed in the appropriate commands. “To date, the system has been accumulating for nearly three weeks, and we have a balance of thirteen billion dollars.”
“Thirteen billion!” Shepperd said as he nearly fell out of his chair. “Why, that makes you the biggest bank robber of all time.”
“I hadn't thought of it that way,” Jeff said as he shut the input down. “But I guess it probably does. Remember though, the money doesn't really exist. I made it up.”
“Just like the government, huh?” Shepperd quipped. He turned toward Elder. “Pastor, you have a blank checkbook for your people,” Shepperd said. “Now all we have to do is get you to them without encountering any of the several thousand government agents looking for you.” He glanced back at Jeff. “Thirteen billion, huh?” he said. “Let's go shopping.”
“I want the arrests stepped up!” Razzak commanded Rutland as they sat eating breakfast. Razzak had taken over one of the guest suites for the dignitaries in the White House. From there he could be readily involved with the daily activities of running the government.
“I'll do whatever you say, sir,” Rutland replied in a monotone voice, as he laid his fork on the table.
“But, you disagree,” Razzak said, seeing the expression on Rutland's face.
“If we push too much faster we will alienate many people, sir. Already we have spies within our own system. Wells and Elder were helped by people within the government. And several of our security people have defected.”
“I know all the excuses,” Razzak hissed through clenched teeth. “But we must eliminate the Christians as quickly as possible. Once the Christians are gone, the others will conform to the new system. They are too attached to their pleasures to risk losing the handouts from the government. Soon we will control all the drugs. This will give us the money and the means to control all the cities.
“Fear is the key to total control,” Razzak said as madness showed in his eyes.“Make the citizens more afraid of you than they are of anything else. Those who harbor the Christians and Jews will give them over to us if they themselves are in danger.”
Rutland was clearly disturbed, although he displayed no change of emotion outwardly. He had never seen the Leader out of control, but since Elder's escape, Razzak had been almost frantic, as if he actually feared the man.
“I will tell Lively to step up the arrests,”Rutland said without emotion.
“No!” Razzak replied sharply. “He is incompetent. I want him eliminated. Put Marla in charge. She has the zeal we need. Lively is not to be trusted anymore; he is greedy and out for himself. He hates the Christians, but only because they opposed his decadent group. We must have someone who hates them as much as I do . . . just because they exist.
“I want all the military leaders who are not in the Society purged immediately, too. If we are to rule, we must have absolute control. I will not make the same mistakes that others have made throughout history. We will prepare the way for the coming of the Great Leader.”
“But I thought you were the Leader!” Rutland said.
“You have earned the right to know, my comrade. I am the forerunner for our Great Leader. He cannot take his rightful place as long as the Christians remain. Even they know that. They believe it is their destiny to be removed by what they call âthe rapture.' I intend to remove them by annihilation.
“The Leader has revealed to me that Elder is the key to our plans in America. He has the ability to unite all the Christians. Without him they have no leader. Flush him out. Start killing the Christians until he surrenders!” Razzak ordered Rutland.
In another building several blocks away from the White House, a separate meeting was in progress, one that clearly had General Louis Gorman, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, shaken.
“Are you sure of this, Colonel?” General Gorman asked as he shook his head. “This seems too incredible to believeâthe U.S. military with traitors in its ranks.”
General Louis Gorman had been a career army officer for more than thirty years. When the depression of the '90s began, he knew the country was in for some hard times. His grandparents had lived through the Great Depression and, as a boy growing up in New York, he had often heard them talk about it. They had warned him that the country was on a crash course with another depression.
What worried Louis Gorman was that the nation no longer had the character to accept economic depression. People were more dependent on the government, and he knew firsthand that the United States government was rotten to its core.
Several times he had heard rumors of a secret society operating within the government. Now he had proof that it was also operating within the military. Someone had sent his aide, Colonel Anderson, copies of secret memos directing a coup to take place in the top levels of the military. It even named the senior officers who would take charge. The name of General Louis Gorman was not on the list. Nor were those of most of his associates. The names were those of career “yes men” who followed the path of the current administration like lap dogs.
Normally, General Gorman might have written off such notions as the wild speculations of frustrated soldiers who had had their budgets cut too much, except that what he saw pointed to such an organization. And the climate of the country was ripe for takeover.
Good God
, he thought.
Just look at what they're doing to the Christians in the name of justice
. Even several thousand service people had been arrested. Thus far, all of his objections had been to no avail. Hundreds of thousands of people had simply vanished. Now he knew why. “These camps, Colonel, where are they?” he asked.
The other senior military officers gathered in the room were equally shocked at what they had heard so far. They were career soldiers who had fought for their country's freedoms. They had assumed the government's campaign was against terrorists too. Now they realized they had been sucked in by the media, just like the rest of the country.
“The information pinpoints three of the camps, sir. They are marked on the map. At present there is one in Arizona and two in California. Other data indicates at least twenty additional camps are being readied, but no details have been given.”
“You're sure about this?”
“Yes, sir,” the intelligence officer replied. “I went over the Israeli satellite photographs myself. There is no doubt about it. There are recently constructed camps; each camp has about one hundred thousand people interned.”
The murmur went throughout the room. “A hundred thousand!” Another brigadier general said, “How can that be?”
“We believe that nearly two million people have been arrested so far, sir. Therefore, there will have to be many more camps. We think each camp could handle nearly a half million people eventually.”
“Five hundred thousand people per camp!” General Gorman said in disbelief. He knew his aide was a very thorough man who would not make wild statements without having the facts to back them up. “What could the ultimate purpose be?” the general asked. But inside he had a sickening feeling that he already knew the answer.
“I think there is another discovery that will help answer that question, sir,” Colonel Anderson said, struggling to keep his professional objectivity. He had seen the photos and read the reports someone had sent him, and he still had a hard time believing it was true. It was so bizarre he questioned if the whole thing had been fabricated. But the facts were conclusive.
“Sir, the Israelis sent us data from their Bios satellite.”
“Bios?” the general said quizzically. “Isn't that their weather satellite?”
“That's what our intelligence had been led to believe, sir. But now the Israelis have revealed the true nature of Bios. It is a radiation detection satellite that has been systematically mapping the location of every nuclear weapon in our country.”
“What?” General Abbott, commander of the air force, growled. “You mean they have the capability to detect all of our nuclear devices?”
“I'm afraid so, sir,” the red-faced major with Colonel Anderson said. “Even our nuclear subs. They are at least ten years ahead of us in this technology.”
“Why those sneaky . . .” General Gorman said admiringly.
“Sir, their satellite shows a nuclear device stored at the Arizona camp. About ten kilos,” the colonel said grimly.
“A ten-kilo device at an internment camp . . . for what purpose?” the general asked of his aide. But even as he spoke the words he guessed the truth.
“Sir, the only logical conclusion we can draw is that the device is there to eliminate the camp,” the colonel replied.
The tremor that went through the room of top military officers was genuine shock. The colonel flashed the satellite detector pattern on the screen, which displayed the most current distributions of nuclear devices under their commands. Flashing arrows indicated new locations; the most recent was centered in the Arizona desert. Every man present knew there were no nuclear storage facilities in that area.
The general stood and watched the screen for several minutes before he spoke. “There can be no doubt about the intentions of our government's leaders. A ten-kiloton device would turn this camp into nuclear dust. There would be no trace of anyone retained there.”
“But, Lou, how would anyone in the government think they could get away with that, even if they had control of the weapon?” General Abbott asked in disbelief. “I would send the Eighth Air Force to bomb Washington if that happened.”
“I believe you, Stub, and I suspect our government leaders do too. They must also believe that I would send the Eighth Army, if I had to. So there's only one logical conclusion, isn't there?”
General Robert “Stub”Abbott just sat looking at his long-time friend. There was just one logical conclusion: They would all have to be removed before the device was used!
“Gentlemen, I would say that we are in extreme jeopardy at this time,” General Gorman said coolly. “The people who are capable of doing this to their own countrymen must not be allowed to get control of the United States military.
“I would like to have a list of secure officers who can be trusted, as soon as possible,”General Gorman said. “I don't have to tell you that both time and secrecy are critical. We will schedule another meeting as soon as the information is available. I suggest we keep a low profile in the meantime.”
“How will we convince those under us that we're not paranoid or trying to take over the government ourselves?” General Abbott asked.
“I guess we'll find out what kind of leaders we really are, Stub,” Gorman said grimly. Then he added, “I don't know if I would believe it myself.”
