The road out of Vegas was packed. Even at this time of night, the traffic was horrible. Fortunately, the traffic broke up soon - no one else seemed to be headed east - and the miles began to fall behind them as John piloted the SUV down the freeway. The glow on the horizon that seemed to turn the night to day would be visible for almost 100 miles. It was beautiful, but eerily so.
The darkness in the desert outside of Vegas was complete. Looking east, the sky was filled with more stars than seemed reasonably possible, filling the immensity of space with their tiny pinpricks of light. They created silhouettes of the craggy shapes of mountains, the only indication on this moonless night that they were even there.
As the crowded landscape of Las Vegas passed behind them, the last vestiges being the race track and the Air Force Base, Janice began to open up. She and John began by exchanging some pleasantries, but the tension in the car mounted as the east-bound SUV chewed up the miles. Janice knew that she had to come clean with John now if she wanted to have any kind of relationship with him.
Finally, John just came out and asked. "Why did you leave?"
Janice paused. This was going to be hard for her, as well as for him, and she didn't relish the things she was going to say.
"John, I'm going to tell you, but unless something is unclear, please don't ask questions or interrupt. This is very difficult for me, and once I get started I'm not going to want to stop."
"OK. I understand."
"When I was 22 - the same age you are now, if I'm not mistaken - and you were ten, I realized something I had been worried about for a long time. The team is a criminal organization. Their intent is to take over the world and form a new leadership. This is already underway - there are vast secret networks and cabals that exist, controlling business and information dissemination outlets from the internet and email monitoring systems to most of the main stream media. All of these networks are controlled by the team.
"But I'm sure you know all of this. I can see you are not surprised or even slightly impressed. The team has influence in so many areas of the world that it's difficult to determine where their influence is NOT felt, rather than trying to figure out where it is.
"I first became aware of these things when I was fourteen. I encountered a printout that was written in Chinese. You know as well as I do how to read Chinese - it's so similar and so related to our own language - so, curious, I began to read. What I discovered shocked me to the core.
"Chairman Mao was part of the team."
Janice paused to collect her thoughts. She still remembered how troubling she'd found this information to be. Even though Chairman Mao had been dead for a long time, she knew that his influence in China continued to the present day. Millions had gone to the grave both cursing and blessing his name.
"I was even more surprised to learn that he was not one of the main players on the team, that he was a relatively low-ranking member. This surprised me, as did the fact that he referred in this letter I found, to a supreme leader of the team. While Chairman Mao was alive, this supreme leader existed in Europe.
"I was surprised that the word 'she' was used in referring to the supreme leader.
"I began noticing how people acted around mother. Putting two and two together, I approached mother about what was going on. To my surprise, she began to cry.
"'I am not just your mother,' she began. 'Ah, how well I remember the day that I discovered who I really was, what my place was in the world. I was about your age, and very much similar to you, particularly in intelligence and inquisitiveness. I wanted to know everything. I wanted to erase or at least ease the inequities I saw in the world.'"
Janice paused again, blinking away the tears that had come with the remembrance of this conversation.
"She told me of an ancient race of powerful matriarchs, of whom she was the last scion. Until, of course, I was born. With me, she told me, rested the greatest hopes for the advancement of civilization. With me laid the repository of the genetic coding that would enable the world to at last become whole, one, united.
"At fourteen, I was overwhelmed by what she was saying. How could this be? I was just one small, relatively obscure girl in a very remote location. I loved mother, and I trusted her completely. But what she was saying seemed so very foreign to me...
"Then, perhaps seeing the incredulous look on my face, she decided a little demonstration was in order. She picked up a phone and asked father to come in. He did immediately.
"'Rick,' she said, looking at father, 'Janice has asked the question. She requires proof. Please provide the proof she needs.'
"If I had known what was going to happen, I would never have asked the question in the first place.
"Father picked up the phone mother had just used and spoke rapidly and softly. I could hear objections coming from the other end of the line, but at last father barked out a 'JUST DO IT,' and the command was heeded.
"Father motioned for me to follow him. I did so and he went into a room that contained several TVs. I had been to every room in our house, or so I thought. This one was accessed through a false wall in a closet I'd seen but never explored. You probably know which one I mean, John...
"The largest TV was tuned to CNN. Dad nodded to the three men sitting at their monitoring stations and pointed my attention to the programming on CNN. Suddenly, it shifted. A newscaster came on and reported the coup d'etat in Haiti where the leader known as 'Baby Doc' was being removed from power and forced to flee the country.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Not only had the coup taken place almost instantaneously - before our very eyes - but CNN cut to coverage of the event when directed by our father. I learned later that Baby Doc was hugely unpopular anyway, and that revolution was in the offing. But the timing was drastic and dramatic. A government had been toppled by a phone call.
"A phone call originating from our father. Instigated by our mother. As a demonstration of her power.
"The power I was to inherit."
Janice paused yet again to collect her thoughts. This was more painful than she thought. The memory of that day filled her with confusion now, just as it did then.
"I ran out of the room and straight into mother's arms. I wept and wept... It was just too much... She stroked my face. 'I know it's difficult,' she said. 'But you need to know. People were being hurt by that man - Baby Doc - and now Haiti has a chance to improve and democratize. It seems harsh, but Baby Doc will be OK - he's got enough in a Swiss bank account to guarantee that - and who knows? In twenty years, he may find his way back home. If he does, it will be under our terms. He'll know now that we're not to be trifled with.'
"From that day forward, I spent many hours with mother, learning the ins and outs of global political power. I learned about the power of the team, which stemmed not from money - although there was plenty of that - but from the power of communication. Every possible source of mass communication was under the control of the team. The dissemination of information was strictly in accordance with procedures long established which would serve only to strengthen the position of the team and ensure its secrecy and survival. In that order - for the most important thing was secrecy - team members would rather willingly die than divulge any piece of information regarding the team or any of its facets.
"Mother taught me all of the inner workings of the team. She taught me its organizational structure, its global reach. She taught me how to issue commands and have them followed. She taught me how to be stern, how to separate my heart and mind and soul from the tasks that must be performed. She even let me give some orders on some minor things. I began to enjoy what I was doing, seeing things happen in the world according to my dictates, my whims. It started with a few small companies whose stock I manipulated, but then it expanded to local elections and judges. I did not directly hurt people, nor did I indiscriminately affect outcomes. I always took steps after careful research and study. And of course, everything I did was approved in advance by mother.
"Then, one night, while watching CNN for the results of one more of her manipulations, I chanced upon one of those 'what ever happened to' bits they use for filler in a news cast. It was a story of a man I knew - I'd made sure that he lost the local county sheriff by exposing his philandering ways. The news story was bad. His family was in tatters, the man had nearly committed suicide, and everything was looking very grim for the man. He tried to put on a brave face, but he broke down and cried. He said that he just couldn't understand why this was all happening to him. He admitted he'd made mistakes, but the punishment seemed more than he could bear.
"My heart broke. I was about eighteen at the time, and in the years of learning how to separate myself from the results of my actions I had never had to experience this kind of thing. I was despondent, full of regret and remorse. This was not a nameless person who was doing bad things, this was not a corporation rife with greed and power... This was a human being with dreams and goals and aspirations. And not only had I hurt him, I'd hurt his wife and children in the process.
"I approached mother about this later. She held me close as I cried, telling me that what I felt was normal and to be expected. She had gone through the very same thing when she was my age, although the information was not as rapid to reach her. The wonders of modern technology, and all that... She encouraged me to consider if the man's judgement, while harsh, was not justified. Didn't I just speed up the inevitable?
"Things changed for me after that. I still participated in the manipulation, but I was detached from the process. No one noticed much, since I could pretty much do as I liked. Mother had stopped watching my every move by then, and I was much more careful. But I could never forget the man and the look of hurt on his face. I studied the actions that were taking place on a larger scale - to mother's delight - and the more I learned the more distraught I became. I couldn't help but imagine the thousands that were being affected by these little tugs on the massive web that connected the world. And I began to see mother as the spider at the middle, ready to change the web, to devour all those who came into her lair, and to defend her position to the death. And I saw father and the rest of the team as her minions, ready and willing to do her bidding.
"Finally, I'd had enough. I told mother that I needed to leave. She actually said she understood, and that she'd make sure I had everything I needed. I told her I had enrolled in nursing school - seemed like a good fit to assuage my guilty conscious. So I left home and moved to the Bay area.
"I met Michael in my third year, in his final year of graduate school at Berkeley. He doesn't know anything about my former life, about the team. He and I have a daughter... but wait, you probably already know the rest, don't you."
"Yes, I have been one of the team that has been assigned to monitor your whereabouts, needs, and safety," John replied. "I knew you were in the Bay area, but was taken off the team before you moved to Texas...."
His voice trailed off, focusing on the drive through the Gorge. Surprisingly, it was easier at night, with less of the impressive scenery to distract him. Still, he took it carefully, slowing into each curve and alone with his thoughts.
Which suited Janice as well...
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