“OK,” Mac said, resigned to an evening online. Was this what his social life had come down to? Shorty and Facebook? That made a man rethink his life priorities a bit, he thought sourly. And yeah, he needed to make up his mind and be honest with Kate. As Shorty was fond of saying: either shit or get off the pot.
Damn it. He went upstairs to log on to Facebook. First task was to sign-up for Sensei’s newsletter.
Turned out to be more of a task than he expected. Sensei was a secretive son of a bitch, Mac thought, half in exasperation, half in admiration. He signed up. Got an email in his inbox to respond to if he truly wanted the newsletter and to receive a free strategy booklet for preparing for SHTF. That all seemed automated, he’d have to ask Shorty. He responded. Then he got another email, asking for background to confirm he was already vetted by the Facebook site. He answered the questions. Got a third email with a link to download his free strategy guide. He downloaded it. And then a fourth email, saying welcome.
It was personalized. Not just the personalization of a good marketer, Mac thought, his eyes narrowed. It truly felt like he was getting an email from a person in real time.
“Glad you’re joining us, Mac,” it read. “You’re the kind of person we need when shit hits the fan. I’m a fan of your work, and I look forward to discussions with you in the future about the troubles ahead. As you can see, I’m sure, we’re in for turbulent times; men who can make the tough decisions, who can lead other men, need to be prepared. Right now? White men have gotten complacent. Well our enemies haven’t. The enemies of the republic haven’t. They’re girding themselves up for battle. And we need to motivate the men who have been the builders of this country from the very beginning. We must help them see another battle is coming. Another revolution.
“So welcome. I usually send out emails to the larger group every week. But I’m putting you on a select list of men I see as potential leaders in the coming days, and you’ll probably receive an email a day. I welcome responses from this leaders’ group, and often share what others are saying in my next email. So please feel free to respond. I’d be interested in hearing what you have to say about the free guide, for starters.
Welcome aboard,
Sensei.
Mac read it a couple of times. Sensei knows me, he thought troubled. And I don’t know him. He made a print out of the email, saved it into a special folder in his email, and then he forwarded it to Janet and to Shorty. He called Shorty.
“Yeah, I got it,” Shorty said. “He knows you, Mac. I don’t think that was part of the automated onboarding sequence for a marketing newsletter. The others leading up to it, yes. But he’s vetting his subscribers, saw you, and segmented you into a leaders’ group.”
Minus all the jargon that he only vaguely understood, that was how Mac saw it too. “I cannot figure it out,” he said. “Who is this guy?”
“I’ll see if the writing style matches anything,” Shorty promised. “Read the pamphlet. Then you need to respond. Let him seduce you into this.”
“If he really knows me, he wouldn’t expect me to sign on,” Mac protested.
“Remember our discussion about Kate and cults?” Shorty asked. “Same thing. People want to belong to something. It’s human nature. Think about what he’s been doing with all these gun nuts from white collar jobs in Seattle. It’s a seduction. None of them thought they were getting in deep, and now you’ve got people cracking up all over Seattle.”
“Yeah,” Mac said troubled by the notion he could be as susceptible as any other. But then he thought about clean language and celibacy. It made him feel vulnerable. Well, he was, he acknowledged. Everyone was. And as soon as you realized it, you could guard against it.
No different than being under fire. The scary guys no one wanted to go out with were the ones who thought they were invincible. They took risks that got others killed. No, better to go out on a mission with a scared rabbit. Once you learned that you could be shot, that you could end up dead, that anyone could? Then you could learn to protect yourself. To be wary and cautious.
“So, read the brochure,” Shorty said, when Mac didn’t say anything more. “Respond to it. Think of it as drawing out a source. Not unlike what you did with Howard Parker.”
Mac nodded, that made sense. A good part of his reporting with that story had been phone calls between the two of them. Parker liked having a sympathetic ear, even while he was trying to kill Mac. And he knew Mac was trying to bust him. Those tapes had been a three-day sensation. So yeah, he could do that with Sensei, through email, he thought, gaining some confidence at the thought. Let him think Mac was coming over to the dark side.
Or in this case, the white side. He rolled his eyes.
“Thanks, Shorty,” Mac said sincerely. “You’re right. That I can do.”
“No problem,” his friend said. “And send me a copy of the brochure if you can.”
Mac followed the instructions and downloaded it to his laptop. He printed it out too. By then, Janet had responded, equally troubled by the sense that Sensei knew who he was.
He read through Facebook quickly, made a few responses, and gave a few thumbs up. He added a post about getting shot at on a story, like Shorty wanted. Made it amusing. Bait, he thought. Just like his happy-hour stories. He snorted.
Then he settled in to read how to prepare for the coming SHTF.
An hour later, he put it down, even more troubled. It was well-written, thoughtful. It actually had some helpful ideas about emergency preparedness.
