The Illuminati (55 page)

Throughout America the Christians, the Jews, and those aiding them began to organize into help and prayer groups. Within three weeks, nearly one hundred thousand Christians were on their knees in prayer at all times of the day, every day. Elder could feel the power of God's people growing stronger every day. So could Razzak.

“It is happening!” Razzak screamed at Rutland. “He is organizing them against us even now!”

“Wells?”Rutland asked, confused. Since the fiasco in Atlanta, Rutland realized he must be careful about using Data-Net. It was as if Wells could read his mail.

When he first realized that Wells had access to the White House computers, he had almost panicked.
Hunt's letter!
He had searched his personal files to see if any trace of his treachery remained. As soon as he confirmed that he had wiped out all traces of the transfers, he felt relief, but then he went a step further. He wiped out all records and memos sent to any member of the Society. He was certain there was no traceable link back to him.

“No, not Wells, you fool!” Razzak said angrily. He had become increasingly abusive since the Atlanta fiasco; he even began to doubt Rutland's loyalty.

“Elder is organizing the Christians against us. If we don't stop them, they will undermine all our plans,” he railed. Razzak could feel his inner strength waning. Instead of drawing from the power inside, he was sensing pangs of fear—no, terror. The very emotions he had used to control those around him were now beginning to control him.

“But the Christians are still in hiding,”Rutland explained calmly. “The police have orders to arrest them on sight, and our searches ferret out several hundred a day. We have nearly two million in the camps now.”

“Fool!” Razzak screamed. “They are giving themselves up so they can organize the camps!”

Razzak was right. One of Elder's plans called for many of the lower-echelon leaders to allow themselves to be caught and sent to the camps, where they organized the people into help and prayer groups. Only the women and children were spared the rigors of internment. Tens of thousands of Christians volunteered to be arrested even though the brutality continued in camps run by men like Tooms. Christians were beaten and abused by guards; many gave up their lives; but still the volunteers came.

The networks were forbidden to publish any of the most recent Insta-pol surveys. Support for the administration had dropped to less than 20 percent. Support for Data-Net had dropped to nearly zero. Most Americans never knew from day to day if they could buy what they needed or not. Those who had their properties attached by the government for account delinquencies, or their wages garnished, were fit to be tied. The merchants who used Data-Net sometimes feared for their lives when the system rejected a customer, which it often did.

Wells continued the harassment by disrupting the system periodically. For periods of up to four hours during peak usage the system would shut down totally. At other times the system alarms would go off for no apparent reason. Frequently the computers would signal the printers to spool paper, leaving a tangled mess at every Data-Net station.

The administration could not blame the errors on their source— Wells—for fear of undermining confidence in the integrity of the system itself. Now Wells and Shepperd were toying with a new idea: use Data-Net to strip the government of its operating capital. The cash flow from Data-Net's fees and government drug sales were rapidly making it possible for the government to resume normal operations, including more handouts to the public.

“If the average American begins getting his daily fix of government money, he will be back in Razzak's camp,” Shepperd said.

Donald Shepperd had found a new purpose in life. When he had first discovered the plot against Christians, he had gotten involved out of a strong sense of justice. But now that he had lived and eaten with them for several months he had new feelings: He really loved them. It was the first time he could remember having any strong ties since his wife had died, nearly twelve years before.

Shepperd observed John Elder closely and found him to be a man of unquestionable integrity, but he had something that went beyond just integrity: He had peace in the midst of chaos. Shepperd had commented to Elder several times that he wished he had that kind of assurance, but he couldn't piece it together in his mind. Elder had told him it was God calling him, but he couldn't accept that either. He had done too many wrong things in his life to believe that God, if there really was a God, would want him on His team.
No, God is just a fuzzy warm feeling that happens when you're around good people like these
, he told himself. One of the things he particularly liked about John Elder was that he didn't push his religion on anyone. He would defend his convictions without compromise, and he and Shepperd had some heated debates over basic issues like abortion and crack babies. Once the debates were over, though, Elder always treated him as a trusted friend and ally. More and more Shepperd found himself agreeing, rather than disagreeing, with Elder.

“Jeff, I need you to schedule more food and supplies for the camps,” Shepperd said, the next afternoon. “Let's spend some of the government surplus on our people.”
It is unbelievable what Wells can do with a computer
, Shepperd marveled to himself. He could reroute trains, transfer supplies, even shift credits at will.
That must be driving the powers of Washington nuts
, he mused.
They can't keep him out, and they can't shut the system down
.

“Already done,” Jeff said cheerfully as he put the final touches on a new set of instructions. “I also cut orders to assign some of the pastor's people to guard duty at the camps.”

“How in the world did you do that?” Shepperd asked in amazement again.

“Oh, it was sim . . .” Jeff stopped, thinking of Karen's comment. Then he added, “I found the file where the guards are assigned and rotated. So I substituted the numbers of some of the pastor's people for other guards. Then I transferred the old guards to some remote cities. I couldn't do too many without arousing suspicion, but I could get twenty in this rotation. I'll do a few each time.”

“What if they get caught?” Shepperd asked. He knew what their fate would be: execution.

“It's almost impossible,” Jeff answered. “The assignments are made by random selection from the pool of camp guards. Then they are kept away from any population centers to ensure they don't divulge what they're doing. No one person knows who they are. Not since Lively died.

“I have also begun the transfer of assets from the government's accounts,” Wells said enthusiastically. “It won't be but a few weeks at most and the administration is going to start bouncing some checks.”

“What did you do with the credits?” Shepperd asked as he slapped Wells on the shoulder affectionately.

“Oh, I put a ‘little here' and a ‘little there',” Jeff quipped. Then he looked over at Karen, who raised an eyebrow slightly.

“He sent $100 billion to Israel,” she said. “They need it to rebuild.”

“And I transferred $400 billion to California to use in caring for the people displaced by the quake.”

“I plan to send $100 billion or so to the Coast Guard to use in shutting down the drug traffic, if we can get the new drug bill killed,” Jeff said.

“That will be a while yet,” Elder commented as he entered the room.

“John, you're back,” Shepperd said cheerfully to the man who had become a very good friend.

“Yes, I met with the CRC leaders in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. We've just released our first edition of the
Truth
. Jeff, your program worked perfectly. The transmission through Westar Six fed the data to our printing facilities in six areas simultaneously.”

“You used a satellite to transmit an underground newspaper?” Shepperd asked incredulously.

“Yea, it was a lot easier than carrying them across the country. Now we can call it the ‘overhead' newspaper, I guess,” Jeff quipped.

The whole group groaned at his bad pun.

“What if it's traced?” Shepperd, the eternal pessimist, asked.

“Jeff used one of the military channels on the Westar satellite and put it through a scrambler,” Elder said.

“A scrambler! Where did our groups get scramblers?”

“Procured them though the Government Accounting Office,” Wells said, grinning.

“I shouldn't have asked,” Shepperd said with a fake groan. “Are you sure you weren't a crook before we met?”

In Washington, Wells' access to Data-Net was causing chaos at every level. Rutland knew they needed some successes or more of the bureaucrats would change sides. He decided that in spite of the risks they would have to move on the military. With the might of the military under their control, the fence riders would fall in line quickly.

Several weeks earlier when General Gorman had met with his most trusted peers, they had scheduled another meeting, at which time the other general officers were to bring a list of the staff they knew to be loyal.

Armed with this information, Rutland had alerted Marla West to ready her agents. “This is our opportunity to purge the military. That list is invaluable. Have the room monitored, and prepare our senior military people to take command. We will make Gorman and his conspirators appear to be traitors attempting a coup of the government.”

The secretary listening to the device hidden in Rutland's office immediately notified her contact, who quickly passed the word to the next contact, and ultimately to Shepperd. When Shepperd heard the details, he knew it would be their best chance to make contact with the loyal element of the military. He had to risk it.

Wells tapped into the Pentagon's phone trunk. He placed a call to General Gorman's private hot line.

General Gorman was startled when the phone rang. His hot line was reserved for “situations” only. “Yes!” the general said sharply into the mouthpiece, assuming it would only be a junior officer. “What is the problem?”

“General Gorman, this is a friend. Go to scrambler two, please.”

“Who is this?” Gorman shouted. But Shepperd had already switched on the scrambler Jeff had appropriated earlier. He didn't want to take a chance that Gorman's phone was bugged. Even though he knew the room was “swept clean” every day, passive “bugs” could go undetected, as their own surveillance proved.

Gorman switched his scrambler to code two. No one but the other joint chiefs had that particular code, but he knew it wasn't one of them. “This is General Gorman. Who am I speaking with?” he asked coarsely in his best commander's voice.

“You don't know me, General, but I know of you. My name is Donald Shepperd. I am an FBI agent, or rather I was until the takeover of our government by Razzak and his Society.”

“Razzak? Amir Razzak, the president's emissary to the Middle East?” Gorman asked. Suddenly it clicked in his mind.
Of course, that explained the use of nuclear weapons against Israel without Admiral Benton's knowledge
.