The Chardon Chronicles: Season Two --- The Winter
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Chapter Seven
A group of men gathered around a conference room table in rental office in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The office served as a shared meeting spot for freelancers of all kinds, graphic design people, web programmers, and occasionally members of the Brotherhood, in this case, all Disciples of the Beast. The men represented various elements of the “deep state”, the network of the Brotherhood that was woven into every element of the United States Federal Government. The six men at the table were the nexus of the intelligence, military, and financial arms of the government and corporate america.
The room was ideal for the purpose, it was an inner conference room and had no exterior walls or windows. The room was swept for transmitting devices. No notes were kept and no electronic devices were allowed inside. The doors were manned by armed guards.
Mort Headly was the de facto leader of the group. He was nominally a mid level analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, but had an enormous group of Brothers who reported to him. Additionally, he was a Disciple and had served the Beast for much of his adult life. It had spoken to him at length since Samantha launched the attack.
He addressed the other five men. “Something extraordinary has happened. You’ve all seen it. It’s something that could shake the very foundation of America, destroy the established order. This threat must be eliminated.”
“Are you talking about the cartel war with the bankers?” Elliot Peal asked.
Mort sat back in the office chair. It squeaked as his weight shifted. “No,” he said after a lengthy pause. “Our patron has been attacked.”
“What?” Peal asked. He was incredulous. None of the men was aware of the other side. To them, it seemed the Beast whispered directly in their ears. They had no inkling of the complicated relationship between the worlds.
Mort said, “Eight hundred years ago, in southern France, in what’s now Provence, our Lord came under attack by men with a similar technology.”
Elliot was flummoxed, “Technology? What technology 800 years ago? A fucking catapult? How is it even possible to attack He Who Is All.”
The men all murmured, “All Praise Him...”
Mort said, “In my mind’s eye, I saw a dim vision of this device. It’s like a metal ball, like a geodesic dome. Unfortunately, that’s all I know.”
Elliot asked, “How big is this device?”
Mort shrugged, “I don’t know for certain. It is big enough for a man to be inside of it at its center. We need to find this thing and destroy it, otherwise we’ll witness more of this chaos! We could all lose our positions if things continue on this trajectory.”
One of the men, an Army Colonel named Pepper Richards with short cropped brown and gray hair pounded the table with his fist. “An entire base emptied out yesterday. Men, women, soldiers and civilians, enlisted and officers just left. They just walked away. This was thousands of people.”
Elliot said, “Without the revenue from drug money laundering, the investment banks are going to collapse.”
Mort shouted, “Devote all resources to this search. Get the word out through the media. Whoever is directing this attack is a terrorist, a threat to national security!”
Elliot chuckled and said, “Let’s bring back ‘seditionist’. Don’t you all think terrorist is played out?”