Conspircaies

'After World War One, the British Empire fell apart, so Rhodes's heirs had to try a different tactic. They formed two front organizations: the Council on Foreign Relations, then the Trilateral Commission. You've heard of those, I take it?'

'Heard of them,' Jack said, sipping his beer. 'But damned if I know what they do.'

'Hardly anyone knows what they really do. But in a 1975 report the Trilateral Commission said that there could be, in certain situations—and I quote—'an excess of democracy.' Can you believe that?'

'Can you believe how little I'm surprised?' Jack said. 'Or care?'

'You damn well should care. Between NATO and the EC, they've got Europe pretty much in their pocket. And the UN—which they run—has the Third World sewn up. The only piece missing is the old US of A and they're making great headway here. Just consider: nearly every president and secretary of state is or was a member of the CFR and/or the Trilateral Commission. Bill Clinton's an even better example: he's with the Trilateral Commission, the CFR, and he's a Rhodes Scholar! He went to Oxford on Cecil Rhodes money! That's why he was tapped to replace George Bush.'

'This is a little scary,' Jack said, and meant it. Kenway's scenario wasn't quite as easy to dismiss as aliens and antichrists.

'A little scary? You don't know the half of it. Europe has pretty much surrendered, but the American people aren't playing ball. That means it's dirty tricks time, and the all-time masters of dirty tricks work for the CIA—which the NWO has controlled since its inception. It's public-knowledge now that the CIA has been running mind-control experiments since the fifties. MK-ULTRA is the best-known. That one was exposed in Congress and the government has had to pay off the victims of those early LSD experiments.'

'I read something about that a while ago,' Jack said.

'Big embarrassment. They slipped up on that one. But there are so many other projects that've remained secret—remote viewing, HAARP, mind-control implants, brainwashing. The agents you dealt with tonight are the results of their mind-control and programming experiments.'

'Yeah?' Jack said, rubbing his sore wrist. Something more going on with those two than mind control.

'Trust me: they were. The NWO has been dabbling in programmed suicide too—the Jonestown and Heaven's Gate mass suicides are their most successful tests—but they've generally failed in their quest to program the whole country. So lately they've been concentrating on the US military.'

'You're ex-military, I'm told.'

'With the emphasis on ex,' Ken way said. 'I got a look at some NATO papers that scared the shit out of me. That's why I retired. You see, the New World Order bosses have resigned themselves to the fact that force will be necessary to tame America. But first they have to soften us up. The plan is to weaken the American economy by shipping jobs out of the country with treaties like NAFTA, and hamstringing industry with whacked-out environmental restraints. Then they'll try to push us toward Kosovo-style anarchy with church bombings, and more Ruby Ridge and Waco-type incidents. When all hell finally breaks loose, United Nations 'peacekeepers' will be called in to 'quiet' things down. But the forces won't have to be shipped in because they're already here; As I mentioned before, foreign UN troops are secretly camped out in our national parks and in wildernesses like the pine barrens, and when they charge out, our own soldiers will put on blue UN helmets and join them. Why? Because they've all been brainwashed by the CIA mind-control projects I told you about.'

Kenway paused for breath and unlocked the briefcase on the desk. He pulled a map of the United States and handed it to Jack. Little hand-drawn stars were scattered across the country.

'These are confirmed UN troop locations and planned concentration camp sites. Black helicopters will darken the skies and people like me will be rounded up and placed in concentration camps where we'll be 're-educated.' But not without a fight, brother. I and others like me will fight to the death to keep America from becomifig enslaved.'

Jack handed back the map and said nothing. It would be so easy to get sucked into Kenway's world—the reasoning and pseudologic were so convincing on the surface—but he wasn't buying.

'Well?' Kenway said. 'Want to join me? I saw the way you handled yourself tonight. We can always use someone like you.'

'I'll think about it,' Jack said, hoping to avoid a sales pitch. 'But I can't help wondering why these New World Order types should bother with an armed takeover. I mean, considering how nowadays people are slugging away at two and three jobs to make ends meet, how Mr. and Mrs. Average American are working until mid-May every year just to pay their federal income tax, and then on top of that they pay state and city income taxes, and then after those they've got to fork over sales taxes, property taxes, excise taxes, and surcharges, not to mention all the hidden expenses passed on in day-to-day prices jacked up by license fees and endless streams of regulations from OSHA and all the other two-bit government regulatory agencies. By the time Mr. and Mrs. Citizen are through they've surrendered seventy-five percent of their earnings to the bureaucracy. Seems to me like the NWO boys have already got you right where they want you.'

'No, no, no!' Kenway said, his face reddening as he vigorously shook his head. 'An armed takeover! That's how it will happen! That's how they'll take away our freedoms and make us slaves, make us property!'

A little touchy, aren't we? Jack thought as he finished his beer. Let's try one extra nudge.

'As I see it, that's pretty much what you already are. If and when this takeover comes, the only difference will be you'll no longer be able to kid yourself that you're not property.'

Kenway stared at him, mouth slightly parted. Then his eyes narrowed. 'You keep saying 'you' as if you're not involved.'

Uh-oh. This was veering into areas Jack did not want to go. His own lifestyle was off limits.

'Just a way of putting it,' he said, rising. 'Time to go. Thanks for the help tonight, and the beer.'

'No, wait,' Kenway said. 'There's so much more to discuss.'

'Thanks, but I need my beauty sleep.' He turned toward the door, then turned back. 'By the way…you said you checked me out. Ever check out Roma?'

'Damn straight—six ways from Sunday, and Professor Salvatore Roma of Northern Kentucky University passed with flying colors. I don't particularly like the fellow, but he's the real deal.'

'Yeah?' He kept thinking about Roma being spotted in Monroe with Melanie before she disappeared, and then lying about having never met her.

'Ever see a picture of him?'

Kenway laughed. 'Why should I want to? I know what he looks like. I've been looking at his pretty puss for two days now.'

'You know what the guy calling himself Professor Salvatore Roma who started SESOUP looks like. But does he look the same as the professor you checked out at Northern Kentucky U?'

Kenway's smile vanished like a coin in a magician's hand. 'What are you saying?'

'Just wondering. Does SESOUP mail go to Roma's faculty office, his home, or a post office box?'

'A P.O. box.'

Jack smiled and shook his head. 'I think you'd better get that faculty photo.'

Miles's eyes widened. 'You mean they're different people?'

Jack held up his hands. 'Didn't say that. It's just you never know till you check. Usurping someone's identity is surprisingly easy.'

'Oh, really?' Kenway's eyes narrowed. 'How do you know so much about it?'

'Gotta go,' Jack said, heading for the door.

'All right, some other time then,' Kenway said. 'But just to be sure, I'm going to get a picture of the university Roma.'

'You can do that?'

'I'll have it within twenty-four hours, tops.'

'Love to see it when you get it.'

Kenway started following Jack to the door, but stopped at the desk to scribble on a hotel pad. He tore off the sheet and handed it to Jack.

'Think about what I said. Here's my pager number. Any time you want to talk about joining us, call me. I like the way you think.'