Part 1 (1/2)
Karyn Kane.
Conspiracy of Fire.
Bulmer, Tony.
The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.
The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. It rejects even the a.s.sumption that human creatures could espouse a philosophy which must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent.
J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation 1935-1972.
01.
Honolulu, Hawaii. The time for death was at hand. Senator Tex Johnston stood at the picture window of his 48th floor penthouse suite gazing out over the city into the Hawaiian night. His excitement had been building for weeks, until now it had reached a wild, almost intoxicating crescendo. Soon, the world would hear the clarion call of a bright and glorious new future, but in order to herald in this new age of mankind, the senator knew he would have to kill.
Clasping his hands behind him, the senator took a breath that drew him up to his full height. He felt the adrenaline building now. Oh what a future it would be, a future filled with the freedom and liberty that was the birthright of all mankind. But such a glorious resurrection could not come without sacrifice. The old and treacherous past, with all its squalor and degradation would have to be expunged; swept away by the power of the new.
Soon, they would come . The senator had arranged it. They would come silently under the cover of darkness, to ensure that his carefully laid plans could not be threatened-there was too much at stake. Greed and betrayal could not be allowed to derail the righteous destiny of mankind.
The senator felt euphoric. He was an apostle of the new future. A thousand years from now, voices would unite, across the world, to speak of his selfless dedication to the cause of freedom and justice.
Soon, they would come , soon. The deaths would be quick and efficient.
Ghostly reflections of the apartment danced across the window. The governor by the bar and the girl, flaunting herself in her skintight dress, wearing heels so high she could barely stand. The senator watched, as she tottered forwards, bent towards the bar and sniffed noisily, at the lines of white powder. A lewd comment from the governor filtered across the room. The girl let out a shrill laugh.
The senator s.h.i.+vered, as the ghastly drunken laughter snaked around him. The girl was ugly, her tiny body augmented with pneumatic b.r.e.a.s.t.s, created by the hand of a l.u.s.tful surgeon. Her face meanwhile, was a hard sculpted approximation of what beauty might be. The senator felt a growing sense of contempt-how many cold impersonal scenarios had this woman known? How many diseased liaisons had she endured, until she had arrived here, at this pivotal moment in the history of man? The senator turned his head quickly, furtively, so that he might seek confirmation of the ghostly scene reflected in the window.
”Come join us senator,” cooed the girl.
The senator flashed a thin smile and turned back to the window.
Soon they would come. Soon they would be here.
”Hey, Johnston, get over here. This is some of the best blow I've ever tasted. You want to do business with the big boys, you've got to learn to party like the big boys, you understand me?”
The senator understood. The governor was weak; a man of avarice, fond of unG.o.dly pleasures of the flesh, and as with all such men, he was easily manipulated. Even now, as he sat at the bar quaffing Napoleon Cognac and running his filthy pervert hands all over the girls body, the senator knew that there would be no place for such weak and unG.o.dly men in the new order of things. Such men were the very reason that mankind had fallen into the cesspit of depravity foretold by the apostles of old. The weakness and the corruption of the old world had to be cleansed, washed away- along with the injustice that had, for so long held down the cause of the emergent man-strong, powerful, chaste of heart and mind.
The senator balled his hands into fists, his fingers turning white, as the pressure amped through every part of his being.
Soon they would be here, soon.
The governor was drooling into the girl's cleavage now, his lascivious face pressing hard against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. It was a sickening sight. The senator felt repelled, and yet fascinated by this nauseating seduction-the slickness of the girls flesh, alive with the power of sin; her bulging, unnatural body, writhing under the pressure of insistent fingers-the whole horrible scenario so sinful and unwholesome-and yet- The senator tore his eyes away, forcing himself to look outside into the swirling night. Far below on the boulevard, cars crawled like c.o.c.kroaches in the cold neon, clogging the diseased streets with the aimless throb of urban decline. The senator had no time for these little people engaged in their pointless cycle of consumption and waste-a journey to the liquor store; a trip to visit some ungrateful relative, or a run to buy gas with meager wages, so that rudderless lives might maintain the pretence of normality-work, consume, procreate-faster and faster, until death was upon them all. Didn't they realize as they lived their repet.i.tive insect lives, that their meaningless routines would soon be thrown permanently, irrevocably into disarray?
”What the h.e.l.l are you looking at Johnston? You keep staring out the window like that and this little lady right here is going to think you downright inhospitable. You don't want to be a party to that kind of misunderstanding now, do you? Because if I remember rightly, we had an agreement-you do remember our little agreement, don't you senator?”
Tex Johnston turned, gave the governor a cold look. ”I am betting there are a lot of sharks in that ocean out there.”
The governor paused, wiped the wetness from his face with the sleeve of his coat and said, ”Sharks you say? What in the wide world are you talking about senator, you trying to make some kind of candy-a.s.sed moralistic point? I thought you Texas boys had b.a.l.l.s?”
The senator stared back, said nothing. The governor flashed a broad, orthodontically adjusted smile.
The girl looked worried, ”What's he talking about sugar-cakes?”
”Pay him no mind, honey, the senator here might come across as some kind of soft-soaped southern hayseed, but he's really one of those Was.h.i.+ngton DC boys through and through. Ain't that right senator?”
”Have no fear, for the oceans will rise up and wash away your sins.”
The governor's smile melted south, ”You best be thankful I took me a handful of those little blue pills senator, because that weird-a.s.sed bible talk is a regular cold bath for folks looking to put a little romance back in their lives, if you know what I am saying.”
”He is scaring me,” squawked the girl, her tone amping shrill in the awkward stillness.”
”Now you quiet down there, sugar-cakes. Looks to me like the senator here is getting overwrought on account of the fact he missed out on Sunday service this week-ain't that right senator? But I know just the thing that will set you straight...”
”I have no interest in your sordid compulsions governor,” said the senator. ”I am here as facilitator, to herald in the new era of man.”
”Now listen to me, you self-righteous little p.r.i.c.k, there will be no heralding in anything unless you do exactly as I say. We had an agreement remember?”
”I am protected.”
”Protected h.e.l.l, you are my b.i.t.c.h on the Hill until I say different. Are we clear senator?”
”The wave of righteousness is coming.”
”You better cut it out with that Old Testament talk, because I got the inside track on your bulls.h.i.+t plans, and unless you come good with our agreement, you will be kissing goodbye to your cushy little career in Was.h.i.+ngton, faster than you can say Federal indictment.”
The senator smiled, ”They are coming. Soon they will be here. The time to repent is at hand.”
”He has called the G.o.dd.a.m.n cops,” shrieked the girl. ”That's it. I am getting out of here-And don't think I am not going to run your cheapskate credit card anyways-because I will. Then you and your freak show boyfriend here can talk chapter and verse until the second coming of Christ for all I care.”
”You ain't going anywhere sweetheart, you are staying right here,” snapped the governor nastily.
The girl ignored him, grabbed her clutch purse and cigarettes and flounced towards the door. She made it two steps, maybe three and the governor caught her roughly by the arm.
”You ain't hearing me little lady, are you now? When I told you that you were going nowhere, I meant you were going nowhere-”
The girl let out a petulant gasp, but her eyes were hard and angry. ”Get your G.o.dd.a.m.n hands off me, you animal.”
There was a hard rap at the door.