by Bobby Akart
One such group of students started a new school newspaper at Yale called The Iconoclast. In its first volume, the editorial board of the paper dared to take the Bonesmen head-on. They tried to expose members of the Order and the alleged control over the university’s financial dealings the Bonesmen exerted.
Year by year, the deadly evil is growing, they wrote in their inaugural issue. Out of every class, Skull and Bones takes its men.
The article closed with this statement, It is Yale College against Skull and Bones!! We ask all men, as a question of right, which should be allowed to live?
One thing was certain, The Iconoclast, a publication named for a person who attacked cherished institutions, was not allowed to live. The paper was immediately shut down and many of its student-editors were expelled from Yale.
The legend of the Skull and Bones grew further when, in 1856, the Tomb, a windowless, brownstone meeting hall, was constructed. To this day, outsiders claim strange, occultism initiation rites are held twice a week. This was all speculation, of course, because Bonesmen never speak of what happens within the structure’s walls.
Within the Tomb was lodge room 322, the supposed sanctum sanctorum, the holy of holies, that contained pictures of the founding Bonesmen, together with the emblem of the file and claw.
The old engraving had become a symbol for the Skull and Bones with a meaning known only to them. Even the number, 322, had a special significance. Speculation had always run rampant, with no definitive answers emerging.
One Summer day at Yale, in 1984, the Bonesmen gathered at their private island retreat on the St. Lawrence River known as Deer Island. The forty-acre retreat was intended to give Bonesmen, students and alumnae alike, the opportunity to rekindle friendships, negotiate business deals, and discuss the politics of the day.
On that particular summer weekend, a divisiveness grew within the ranks of the Bonesmen. President Ronald Reagan had pleased the conservative members of the Order while enraging the liberal constituency. In a rare showing of the breaking of the ranks of the Skull and Bones, the two disagreeing groups congregated in separate parts of Deer Island.
The purpose of the agreed-upon separation was to allow cooler heads to prevail so the political acrimony could subside. The alcohol was locked up, and the most influential Bonesmen of the time hoped the arguments could be stopped.
What actually happened during the cooling-down period would go down in history. The conservative contingent led by George Trowbridge and Hanson Briscoe used the rift as an opportunity to plan for the future. The two men could see the direction the country was taking, and in their opinion, it was a path reminiscent of Rome as the empire began to collapse.
Trowbridge was a student of history. He recognized that collapse had happened to every empire in human history. It was, as he deemed it, a natural law that an empire achieves a certain level of success, its height of power and economic security, and then it implodes.
In his mind, debauchery and decadence began to rule the day during the time of the Roman Empire, and its decline came soon thereafter. It became a society that was mired in political unrest. Trowbridge, Briscoe, and the other Bonesmen on the right side of the political spectrum agreed and made a solemn vow—this will not happen to America.
Beginning that summer weekend, through the next three-and-a-half decades, those Bonesmen, and others who agreed with their underlying premise, prepared for the day when they thought America would reach the breaking point.
They were opportunists who wielded great power over the military-industrial complex and the politicians who controlled the purse strings. For decades, secretive alliances were formed. Politicians were bought. Rank-and-file employees of the government, the media, and strategic businesses were brought into the fold. An army, of sorts, was built, awaiting the moment when they were given the signal. A signal that would come from a single source—MM.
The collective minds of these Bonesmen had come together that evening in October at Briscoe’s Monocacy Farm to celebrate their attempt to rescue America from a certain decline into anarchy. They set their plan into motion. It was a plan that had been developed, revised, and finalized waiting for the right moment. It was a plan that was to be trusted.
To these Bonesmen, the only way to save America, was to bring it to the brink of destruction in order to build it back in the vision of the Founding Fathers. Their efforts created a framework, a plan, to give the nation a second chance.
Trust the plan.
PART ONE
Chapter 1
Haven Barn
The Haven
Blair Smart never looked back upon her life and thought—what might’ve been. As a high school freshman, she was pretty, popular, and full of potential. Then, one fateful day, while riding in the pickup truck of a classmate with her friends, the sixteen-year old driver sped up a hill toward a railway crossing, hitting the tracks too fast and lost control. Blair, who was sitting in the lap of a friend, was thrown forward into the windshield, causing significant injuries to her back and spine.
The surgeries and recovery associated with the accident forced her to withdraw from high school and abandon the extracurricular activities she enjoyed. For months, as she fought through the pain, both physical, from the accident, and emotional, due to her withdrawal from her normal activities, Blair tried to focus on her future.
Years later, when she first met Ryan, he told her that his father always suggested that he go to college. “You trade four years for forty,” Ryan had relayed to her his father’s sentiment. Four years of college would set him on a career path toward retirement.
Blair would never forget the conversation the two of them had over beers at a beach bar on Longboat Key, Florida. They talked about the board game—The Game of Life. After you start the game, you quickly have to make an important choice that sets the tone for your life. One path, college, enabled you to make more money in salary but it took longer to get into the real world, so to speak. The other path, career, threw you right into life and the school of hard knocks.
At age fifteen, due to the accident, Blair’s choices in The Game of Life were taken away. Her dreams of college and becoming an attorney were over. She was facing physical therapy, home-schooling, and a goal of attaining a G.E.D. rather than walking in the graduation processional with her friends.
Yet, she still had options. She was pretty, and most certainly could find a husband, have kids, and follow the path of motherhood that so many of her girlfriends had in mind. Or, she could enter the business world and find her own way.
Which she did. With the bulk of her physical therapy behind her, Blair got a job in a beauty salon. Not as a stylist, but as the receptionist. Within just a few months, her organizational skills impressed the owner and she was elevated to the position of office manager. By seventeen, she’d abandoned hope of being an attorney but still pursued her paralegal training. This also led her to training to become a private investigator.
The consummate over-achiever, Blair had barely blown out the candles on her eighteenth birthday cake when she applied for, and received, her licenses in Florida as a paralegal and a private investigator.
After meeting Ryan, the two worked together and developed various businesses together. Some were successful and others, not so much. But they didn’t care as long as they had a roof over their heads and they could be each other’s side.
When the Smarts won the lottery, they could’ve followed in the footsteps of others mega-millions winners by throwing lavish parties, spending money on toys, or impressing friends with expensive trips. Instead, they stuck to their plan that focused on the safety and future of their family.
Now, as she stood in Haven Barn watching introductions being made and small talk exchanged between the strangers who knew nothing of one another, her chest swelled with pride. None of the people gathered for the morning meeting realized that they were all brought together for a purpose, one that was conceived many years ago in the minds of Ryan
and Blair Smart, and long before those lucky numbers appeared on those ping pong balls of the Florida lottery.
Fate determines who enters your life, but actions determine who remains.
“You! You’re the young lady that helped us in Richmond!” shouted Donna Shelton as she rushed to Hayden Blount’s side. “I’ll never forget your face, even in the middle of the chaos.”
“You’re the Gold Yukon?”
“Yes, dear,” replied Donna. “Tom! Tom! Come here, quick!”
Tom Shelton was speaking privately with Ryan when Donna got his attention. He excused himself and rushed over to her side with a concerned look on his face, until the recognition overcame him.
“Impossible,” he began. “It’s you! My God, this is an amazing coincidence! My name is Tom Shelton.”
Donna exuded exuberance. “I’m his wife, Donna. I can’t believe we’ve crossed paths again.”
Hayden was also in shock at the unexpected turn of events. Her eyes darted around the room as she noticed the others pausing their conversations to listen in. “My name’s Hayden Blount, and I work in DC. I was on my way here, of course, when the whole thing happened at that bridge overpass.”
“This is like the Twilight Zone,” said Donna as she spontaneously hugged Hayden. “Young lady, I don’t know how we can thank you enough.
“Let me echo my wife’s sentiments,” added Tom. “We’d been traveling in New York City and had been given a ride to nearby Norfolk from a, well, a friend.” Tom glanced at Meredith Cortland who gave him a knowing smile.
Donna picked up on his sudden pause and continued for him. “And, here we are. What a small world this is, right?”
“It sure is,” said Hayden.
Tom recovered and his curiosity got the best of him. “Hayden, I have to ask you something.”
“Okay,” she replied with a hesitant look on her face. Hayden lived in a world full of opportunists and vultures in Washington. Her legal training always kept her on guard.
“During the melee, one of the men was trying to get into your vehicle,” Tom began. “Suddenly, he fell backwards onto the pavement and his face was—.” He grimaced as his voice trailed off.
Hayden nodded and allowed herself a slight smile. “Prowler didn’t take too kindly to the guy invading his space.”
“Prowler?” asked Donna.
“He’s my Maine coon cat, and let’s just say he’s bigger than the average cat.”
“More like a lion,” quipped Alpha from the other side of the room. Hayden glanced in his direction and then realized everyone had stopped talking as they became intrigued by the chance encounter between Hayden and the Sheltons.
“He’s a big one,” added Ryan. “What happened?”
“This guy, one of a dozen of more who attacked us, was trying to grab at me from the passenger window,” Hayden replied. “Prowler was pissed. He did some real damage to the guy’s face.”
“I can attest to that.”
Hayden and the Shelton’s turned their attention to the woman’s voice.
“I’m Dr. Angela Rankin, a doctor at VCU. I was working in the ER when this patient came in, handcuffed to a gurney and escorted by police. We’d never seen anything like it. The consensus was he was attacked by a bobcat, or something larger.”
“No, just Prowler, although he’s as large as most dogs. He’s, well, very territorial.”
The room erupted in laughter, except for Cort who said, “There are a lot of coincidences here, including one that I haven’t mention yet. By the way, I’m Michael Cortland, but you can call me Cort. This is my wife, Meredith, and our daughter Hannah is with us too.”
“Are you gonna tell them?” asked Meredith.
“Yes, I think so,” he replied. “A couple of things. First, and I haven’t mentioned this to Delta over there.” Cort pointed in Delta’s direction who waved.
“My real name is Will Hightower, but around here, I’m Delta.”
Hayden smiled at Will and introduced her moniker while at the Haven. “They call me Foxtrot.”
“Foxy!” shouted Alpha.
“In your dreams, buddy,” Hayden threw it back at him, before turning back to Cort. “Go ahead, please continue.”
He glanced at Delta and explained. “When I met your daughter last night, I remembered something that I needed to ask you about. Were your kids traveling alone, possibly from Philadelphia to Atlanta? She might’ve been wearing a light blue sweat suit?”
“Yes, exactly,” replied Delta. “How would you—?”
“They walked right in front of me along the concourse when I was waiting for my flight to Mobile.”
Delta perked up. “Wait. Hold on. The kids were on Delta 322 from Philly. I was at baggage claim to greet them.”
“Delta 322 was the flight that continued to Mobile and I was on it. Well, at least until it landed in the Gulf of Mexico.”
“Huh?” asked Tyler Rankin. Angela squeezed her husband’s hand and he allowed them to continue.
Meredith picked up the conversation as she noticed Cort suddenly became withdrawn as he recalled the memory of New Year’s Eve. “There’s more, everyone. Cort crossed paths with Delta’s kids. But, the Shelton’s crossed paths with my father who lives in New Haven, Connecticut. They knew one another when Tom was in the military.”
“That’s right, and then Hayden helped us in Richmond and the guy who attacked her landed in Dr. Rankin’s ER.”
“Angela, please. Doctor is so formal.”
“Is this crazy, or what?” asked Alpha.
Blair smiled to herself. She understood how these things work. The universe finds ways to put souls together. That’s how she and Ryan found one another. Some occurrences were just too inexplicable to be explained away as mere coincidence.
Fate. Destiny. Call it what you will. Blair knew it was meant to be.
Chapter 2
Haven Barn
The Haven
To some, it might seem like an episode of the television show, LOST, but not to Blair. She knew all of these people intimately, more so than any of them had realized. The School of Hard Knocks had taught her well as she entered adulthood in her teenage years. Everything she and Ryan had experienced in their lives, both before they met, and after they were married, led up to this moment. Their successes gave them the opportunity to create the Haven and bring everyone together. But their failures and practical knowledge enabled them to create a group that would mesh under pressure. The fact, however, that they crossed paths in so many different, unexpected ways was more than just fate. It was almost supernatural.
“Guys,” began Ryan, interrupting the conversation. “We’re gonna have more opportunities to get to know one another and trade stories about your journeys, but we’ve got some important business to discuss first. Would everyone please gather around the whiteboards with me?”
The group wound up their conversations with one another and Blair heard promises of several people to talk later. She studied the faces of the residents she and Ryan hand-picked to be the core members of their team.
To be sure, everyone within the Haven had a role to play or they wouldn’t have been selected. Those within the community had been screened, vetted, and assessed as to how they would advance the Smart’s goal of creating a safe haven during a time of societal collapse.
She stood at the back of the room, watching Ryan begin the morning meeting and she considered the strengths of the five diverse groups of people that had now coalesced together as an extended family.
Blair expected that the connection between the Sheltons and the Cortlands would reveal itself. Naturally, Tom Shelton could never know she had the ability to peak into his financial affairs and saw the regular monthly deposits into his account from an obscure limited liability company in Providenciales. Blair knew how their banking system worked and a few phone calls to Barclay’s Bank in the Turks and Caicos enabled her to gain access. Then, she traced the origins of the LLC back to George Trowbridge’s co
mpany.
At first, she wasn’t sure whether the relationship would be a problem. She noticed that social events attended by Trowbridge never mentioned a daughter. Likewise, none of the images posted on Meredith’s Facebook or Instagram accounts referenced her father.
She filed it away as information that was good to know, but not necessarily a reason to exclude either of the families from the Haven. As it turned out, it drew them closer together and Ryan’s intuition from a year ago that Tom and Cort would make excellent advisors in the event of a collapse was spot-on.
“All of you have found your way to the Haven from different directions and under exceptional circumstances,” said Ryan in a loud tone of voice to get everyone’s attention. “Every bit of knowledge you gathered along the way, all of your experiences, will help us formulate a plan to protect everyone in the community.”
Alpha stepped forward. “Ryan and Blair have created an excellent security plan and we’ve got a great team in place to implement it. But as Sun-tzu wrote in The Art of War, know thy enemy as you know thyself. We have to anticipate what happens next in the event the crazies bring their happy asses to our doorstep.”
Hayden laughed. “Trust me. Crazy never takes a vacation in D.C. From what I’ve seen, it’s consumed everyone outside the Haven too.”
Ryan stepped forward. “One of the things that will help us is to develop a working theory of what’s happening. It should come as no surprise to any of who that I detest the media. All of them. They all lie, exaggerate, tell half-truths, and manipulate Americans to advance their own narratives. Their actions disgust me, but it is what it is. We need to determine if this situation is going to get worse, and whether we need to be prepared for the proverbial golden hordes descending upon us from nearby towns and cities.”
Alpha stepped forward. “We all recognize the fact that the Haven isn’t exactly a secret in the community. Ryan and Blair built this place like a fortress for a reason. However, that most likely garnered the attention of the locals, and in a panicked crisis, word can spread quickly. Having a working theory of what’s happening and who’s behind it will help us explain, predict, and understand the causes of the collapse, and how we should adjust our security plan.”
