 
The MMG

### By Mike Damm

### This novel is a work of fiction. The characters, names, incidents, dialogue, and plot are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.

### Published by Mike Damm on Smashwords

### Copyright 2015 by Mike Damm

### DammNation Publishing

### July 2015

### This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to e-book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

### To Susan, who inspires me every day

## Prologue

### 2018

Aiah could not believe his luck. He had stumbled onto the greatest secret the world had never known. In 2008 he had become a member of a networking organization called the MMG, short for the Mastermind Group, which projected itself as a group of world leaders coming together for the betterment of all. They hosted a public conference once a year to exchange ideas and to foster a global unity, but behind the scenes they were creating world change.

Aiah had eventually discovered the vehicle, called a Run, which was used to create change; a vehicle that enlisted the help of many, but hid the truth from all. An assembly line of change where each person did their small part without even realizing they were a cog in the machinery for market manipulation, insider trading, espionage, and assassinations. Aiah also learned who the lead Run planner was, John Bettle.

John Bettle had been an MMG'er for many years. He personally was blackmailing the MMG leadership to stop assassinations and war mongering. They had been involved in most of the world events since the mid-50s, when the group had formed. They were involved in the murder of JFK, ruined LBJ and Agnew, set up and exposed Nixon, manipulated the markets in the 70s, 80s, 90's and beyond. The tech bubbles, the sub-prime bubble, and Bettle personally orchestrated the market Flash-crash of 2010. No one ever knew of MMG involvement, the MMG controlled media made sure of that.

Bettle was dying and needed to pass on his blackmail control over the MMG. He had chosen 2 interns that had worked for him in the late 1980s. Aiah needed to eliminate Bettle's blackmail threat to remove the hold, and use the MMG Run process that he had uncovered to take over world control.

## Chapter 1

### 2018

It had been 32 years since Melanie Price had last seen Jonathan; Jonathan Bettle, her first boss and her only real love. He had asked her to come see him at Saint Mary's hospital, part of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. She was in a taxi, taking the few mile ride from the airport to the Mayo complex. She could not help asking herself, what was she doing? It had taken years for her to get over him – run! Why was she going to see him now? So what if he was dying, why would she see him again only to lose him once more?

The first day of her adult life took place June 28th, 1986 when she was 21. It was the day she realized she was in love with him. In May of that year she had landed a college intern position during the summer of her junior year at Northwestern University in Chicago. The intern location of Dubuque Iowa seemed strange for an international company that specialized in economics and global investing, but you go where you can.

When she was introduced to him she remembered how guarded he seemed, like he was manufactured, not real. At first he was a puzzle; within 4 months they would have a connection that only people that truly love each other can share. There was no sexual relationship, yet many intimate parts of life were shared; including love, faith, family, friends, even past sexual relationships. The term emotional affair had been mentioned later in life that helped her understand their relationship. He was 28 years her senior and was married; she had a boyfriend back in Chicago.

It all started as a simple friendship. They had review time and would go outside during the day to discuss her work and have a cigarette, and they would end up talking about anything. They shared personal stories and eventually some secrets. It seemed like it was all good clean fun until she realized that talking to Jonathan was more important than talking to anyone else, including her significant other. By the end of the work day she would have nothing to talk to her boyfriend about; everything was already discussed, or Jonathan would be the subject. Her girlfriends starting asking who Jonathan was; she did not even realize how much she was talking about him.

Going back to school that fall was the hardest thing she had ever done. At first she wanted to call him, tell him how hard it was to not see him; he was her best friend, damn it. What do you do when your best friend is the one you can't talk to anymore; the one causing your pain, who do you talk to then? Loneliness, depression, loss; life would lack joy for a long time.

The taxi was pulling up to Saint Mary's Hospital. It was time to see him again. Earlier she had been so confident that she could handle this. She knew there was an emotional door inside her that had been shut for over 30 years, but she did not expect that door to start rattling. The emotions wanted out, the mind wanted to protect the rest of the body, and the heart seemed to just want to be near him. There were so many butterflies in her stomach she was about to be sick.

## Chapter 2

### April 1986

John Bettle, lead investment analyst, studied the internship application again and Melanie Price appeared to be the type of person he would enjoy mentoring. She was smart, ambitious, a class leader, and knew six languages at age 21. The company never opened internship applications to the public; they had contacts at most of the major universities across the country that picked and recommended the interns to companies within the group. Melanie was studying Economics at Northwestern University in Chicago and came highly recommended. According to Aaron Boyd, the contact at Northwestern, she was hungry but did not carry the "all that and more" attitude that you sometimes see in gifted people. She picked up complex ideas quickly and knew the languages for the areas she would be doing research on.

The Regional Director, William Froiberg, John's boss, looked over a research packet on Melanie Price that had been provided by the company's private investigations unit. A daughter of two factory workers from Sullivan Illinois, she had grown up in a middle class background with enough family income to be knowledgeable of most things in life but to be hungry for more. She had worked as a waitress at the local restaurant, played the flute in the band, and had been academic all-state in volleyball. She dated in high school but did not have a steady boyfriend until college. She got a scholarship to play volleyball at Northwestern but just did not have enough athletic ability to see much playing time at a Division 1 Big Ten university. When she quit volleyball her political aspirations took off as she became active in campus politics. She gave up her scholarship and was now covering her college expenses via student loans. She planned to continue her education and get her masters in Economics and work overseas. She had all the things they were looking for; maybe she could be a new world contact that they could use to further the cause.

As she drove to her interview Melanie could hardly believe the location. Her research had shown Dubuque to be Iowa's oldest city, right on the Mississippi River, a mix of new and old. History poured out as she drove, she could easily see the land that would have been without blemish when Julien Dubuque had settled there in 1785. At that time the land was owned by the Spanish government, and the local American Indian Fox Tribe. It was eventually bought by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Julien Dubuque mined lead at the location and died in 1810, but the minerals brought new settlers. The city was chartered 5 years prior to being included in the Iowa Territory in 1838, which transitioned into the State of Iowa in 1846.

The impeccably refinished four-story building had been built at least a hundred years earlier, and probably was originally a manufacturing facility. It was red brick and looked like there may have been a store front on it at one time. There were 40 windows on the front side of the building, designed to give light to the workers prior to the wide-spread use of electricity. Each corner had a flat side that held a window as well. Located part way up a huge hill that had been carved by a glacial river, the view from the front door saw a gradual drop to the river front; which included a church steeple, many historical buildings, a dock/warehouse area, and the bridge back to Illinois. There was river traffic including a large paddle boat that was a modern day casino, but looked like it belonged here many years ago. Small eateries of all kinds appeared to have outside eating areas; the area was clean and inviting. It was the type of view that poured out history and reminded her of the pictures she had seen of places she wanted to go. It seemed like the perfect place to spend a summer.

Angelina Dayburg called the interviewers from her HR office to let them know the intern applicant was here. Angelina was late 30s, a tenured member of the company, and well on her way to financial freedom. Working for the company had its perks, the pension plan was excellent and the free investment advice was life changing. She breezed onto the 4th floor like she didn't have a care in the world, checked the time on the wall, and led the recruit toward the two executives sitting at the conference table in the corner office. When she knocked on the door she got a "come on in", and led Melanie into the biggest meeting of her life.

John stood and walked to the door, "Melanie Price?" he asked as he extended his hand.

"Yes" she said trying her best to give a firm handshake without shaking.

"Melanie, welcome to MMG Dubuque. My name is John Bettle, and to my left is William Froiberg, our Regional Director."

"Gentlemen, thank you for inviting me". She stepped forward and shook the director's hand.

John waved her toward a chair on the near side of the conference table as John and the director both moved around to the other side. Prior to excusing herself, Angelina asked if Melanie wanted a coffee, water, or a soda. She chose a coffee even though she wanted a soda, she was not sure why.

They seemed very happy she was there, almost like she had already been hired and this was her first day; it unnerved her a bit. She was still trying to decide if she would intern for free or go home for the summer to enjoy one of the last free summers she would probably ever have. She relaxed a little bit, they seemed to want her bad and she did not need this; confidence, self-actualization – she was in charge.

William Froiberg leaned forward and started the conversation. He had a charisma that you would expect from a company leader, a comfortable, shallow way of communicating without any of it meaning anything, but it sounded like everything. The weather, the trip, Northwestern, even the Cubs came up in conversation. He was probably late 50s and looked like he worked about 20 hours a week and just enjoyed the rest. He had that confidence that she had seen before in people who have it all and do whatever they do just for the enjoyment.

Part way though the interview things got interesting, "Would you like to see how the world really works?" He asked.

"That is why I chose economics, to see the world work and understand what makes things tick."

There were three nodding heads in the room, as they all agreed with their own personal version of what she had just said.

"We can give you a unique look that others cannot see. Our connections go around the globe and into places you would not expect."

"That sounds very exciting. Travel and language are two of my interests" Melanie said, "If I may, what is an international investment company doing in Dubuque Iowa, and why would you need a person that speaks multiple languages? From my research it seems your company should be in New York or Los Angeles." Melanie asked.

Smiles creased the faces of her interviewers, "We are a global entity with companies in New York and LA. Also Tokyo, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Japan, China and many others" said William Froiberg, the regional director. "Our location here is one of many in the group that makes up our worldwide organization. All locations are managed by a global leadership team, with each location specializing in knowledge needed to fill their roles as part of the whole. This location specializes in economics, world wide networking, and global investing; sort of a think tank. Our job is to see world change coming, and to prepare an investment strategy to maximize returns before, during, and after the event. We have a long history of predicting world events, and profiting from understanding what will happen if and when these changes take place. In addition, the company owns brokerage and on-line trading sites that allow us to get a return from the movement of money, positive or negative."

"Why did you choose Northwestern?" asked John Bettle. By this time she had sized up John as person that was very guarded. He acted normal but there was an underlying stiffness, almost like he was drunk and was trying to act sober, or like he did not want the world to see the real him. While she really did not care, there was something about him that raised interest.

"When I was young I loved volleyball and had an interest in economics. I earned a volleyball scholarship to Northwestern, which I saw as a well-respected school that has producing great thinkers and world leaders." Melanie said, "Without my scholarship I may have ended up at a local community college for a few years. While the volleyball did not work out, I was right about the school."

"So, how do you learn 6 languages by age 21 and make straight A's through high school and college?" asked William Froiberg.

"Language is like second nature to me, it just clicks." Melanie said almost apologetic, "I can learn a language in a few months using the language tapes available at the library. There are plenty of international students in the Chicago area that I can spend time with to perfect my timing and inflection."

"Well that comes in handy" John said, "There are a lot of reports that I need translated."

"So I will work for you?" she asked.

The two men exchanged glances and then William Froiberg leaned forward, adjusting his glasses. The meat of the interview was about to start, she thought.

"Your role here will be to read news and watch world regional news video streamed via computer, as well as reports we have, looking for items that may be of interest to us. We will be giving you a great deal of training over the first week and then you will spend part of your day combing through things we need looked at and then talk with John about what you have read. You will get a crash course in what is happening in the regions of the world you are assigned to."

"What types of things would I be looking for?"

"That is what the training is for," said John.

"Now", interrupted William Froiberg, "I know you were sent here to discuss a no-pay internship, but I want to let you know that when we find someone we like we want them thinking about the job at hand, not where they will stay or if they will eat. If we agree today that you are the one for us, we will put you up in a very nice corporate apartment for the summer, give you a daily food allowance, and pay you a good wage. The offer is only for the summer, we want you to continue your education, but we hope all our interns will eventually join one of our global companies."

"No Way!" "That would be awesome!" she blurted out before she could stop. "Sorry", she said, as she lowered her head in embarrassment, I hope I didn't just blow it, she thought. A smile, that she was trying desperately to cover, was creeping over her face - when could she start, she thought to herself. All of the sudden this opportunity had become hugely important; to heck with a leisurely summer, the thought of losing this now would be horrible.

"We are, in fact, ready to offer you this opportunity now," said director Froiberg, "you come highly recommended and we trust our source and know you are the right person for this job. Your schooling will end next month and we would like you start the week after, would that be acceptable?"

Would it! Holy cow! What should she do? What should she say? "Wow, this is all going so fast, can I have some time to think about it? I, I'm, very interested but I just need some time, would that be acceptable?" Do it! She thought, just say yes! You know you will, what is there to think about?

"Of course", said William, "but we would like to know soon. We have plans to make for you."

She regained her composure, the smile vanished, she needed to know more about this – it seemed too good to be true. "Can you tell me more about this worldwide company you mentioned earlier? My research did not uncover any more than this company at this location."

"As I mentioned earlier", the director said, "we are a global entity with companies in most major cities across the globe, and some in smaller locations as well" he said with a smile as he spread his arms to highlight the room they were in. "Our location here is one of many in the group that make up our worldwide organization. Some locations may be locally owned, but all locations are managed by a global leadership team, with each location specializing in knowledge needed to fill their roles as part of the whole. As I mentioned, we specialize in economics, world wide networking, and global investing. We try to see world change coming and prepare an investment strategy to maximize returns. You would be doing research to help see that change coming, or at least see if people are talking about it."

The questions ran out about 45 minutes later. Melanie was again asked if she was ready to make a decision.

"Yes, " she said. "I am very excited about this opportunity."

As she left the building she marveled again at the view, and the excitement swelled again thinking she would be spending her summer here; historic beauty, old world charm; and getting paid for it. She wanted to skip to the car, what luck!

The drive back to Chicago took a while. Just across the river from Dubuque, on the way back to school, was Galena Illinois. Galena had a vintage downtown area that was filled with boutiques, fashion houses, and specialty shops. While only a few blocks long, it reminded her of a miniature version of the locations around the world she had hoped to visit someday, European street markets like Stroget in Copenhagen or the Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris that she had read about. The big name boutiques and outlets were not there but then she could not afford them anyway. Melanie lingered for a while, called her mom and then her boyfriend to let them know how things went. After she finished looking around she went to a small pizza shop up the street for a bite to eat. Dubuque's charm, Galena just across the river, and she'll get paid – this was going to be great.

## Chapter 3

### 2018

John Bettle was late in years and was dying. He had the look of a man that was once vibrant and powerful but had lived a few years too long. He could act normally at times but then would tell crazy stories over and over that included sorted details about many of the major world events in his lifetime. He seemed to be rambling, like some older people do, almost rebooting and telling the same stories over and over again. The strange part of the stories were that he would talk about being involved in them, how he profited from them; the oil shortage in '73, Black Friday, the crash of 2008, and even some political stories of Kennedy, Nixon, and Carter.

John was 6' 2", his hair had thinned, going nearly all grey; his face was gaunt, and he was thin as a rail. He bent slightly as he walked. John had been fighting different cancers for years and had finally found one he could not beat. When he pondered his life, all he had on his bucket-list was to see Melanie Price again, and now she was almost here. The excitement gave joy to a man who had not felt joy in a long time. He was extremely wealthy and could have anything; yet nothing seemed to give him joy anymore. All he felt was guilt because of his past dealings, and the wrath of God scared the hell out of him as he faced death. He had done and seen so many bad things, all in the name of power and greed.

The private hospital room was dated but clean. The large hospital bed was surrounded by IV stands, monitors, an over-the-bed eating table, and a rolling pedestal walker, close by in case a walk was needed. There was a pull-out monitor arm overhead that had two monitors on it, along with one key board. The back wall was full of plug-ins, oxygen outlets, and multiple cords going everywhere. There was a big lounger in the corner for guests but John had not had any during his current visit. He had gotten himself into a specialty drug trial that required daily doses of the drug Genth17 that could only be administered in a hospital setting each day; it was good to have connections! The drug was given morning and evening via IV for 2 hours each time. Along with Genth17 John was getting an IV bag every day. To move around, John used the walker that looked like a pedestal on wheels, and of course, if anything was being administered at the time his mobile IV station went with him everywhere. He could droop over the pedestal to help hold his weight when he went for walks. He needed help going to the toilet; he hated needing help going to the bathroom and showering – being sick sucks.

In preparation for Melanie's visit, John had taken a shower. Now a shower for most people is not a big event, but for John it was like running a mile. Just standing up and moving the towel around made him sweat. It was almost funny when he thought about it; showering made him sweat so much that he needed a shower once he got calmed down from his shower. It wasn't funny however, not much was funny anymore.

The entrance took both by surprise. When he saw her she was an older version of someone he once knew, still beautiful but with wrinkles in certain spots. Her grace was still apparent, her athletic gait still visible. She had worn a dress, size 4, because she knew he liked them. The light yellow day dress came to about two inches above her knee and was belted. Her slender body and long legs wore the dress well.

She saw a dying man, like the look her father had before he passed. The difference in their ages, not of great importance when they met, was now so visibly apparent. She had aged gracefully, he had gotten old.

"Hello Jonathan, I am here. How are you?" she asked.

The sound of her voice almost lifted him off the bed. Memories raced through his mind, almost like having his life flash before his eyes, but the only images that flashed were memories of her.

"Melanie," he said slowly, "I am so glad you came. You look, so, wonderful! Please, come and sit beside me"

She was reluctant, she had not seen him in years and he looked so ill, so weak. She wanted to run and never come back but something was holding her in the room. She wanted to help him, to care for him, she walked over and gave him a hug and then sat beside him.

As they talked, it took just a few minutes for her to realize that she had wanted to see him so bad, she had missed him so much. They had always been able to talk for hours. Emotionally he touched her in a way that no one else ever could. She became at ease, felt safe, cared for, and knew that life without him had come to an end, at least for what sounded like a short time. They talked about everything. His wife had passed away five years ago, her husband three. His children were all successful, abundantly so. Her daughter was finishing up her law degree at Harvard. Both were sinking into a calm that two friends get to as they catch up and reminisce about past joys.

A nurse came in and they stopped talking for a second and then, without warning, Jonathan seemed to reboot to another world. He grabbed Melanie's arm and asked her, with urgency, "have I told you the story of how I created investment plans? I made so many people wealthy! Not hard though, when you know world events before they happen" – then he just trailed off, murmured something, and dozed off.

She sat there dazed and confused. The nurse noticed he was asleep, said "I'll stop back" and started to leave. Melanie followed her into the hallway and said, "It was so strange, I was just talking to him and he just changed, starting talking about some investment thing, and then fell asleep."

The nurse's tag said Abigail. She was a mid-thirties black lady that poured out happiness through her smile and talked in the southern belle style. She smiled and said, "he does that honey, the doctors are not sure why, Alzheimer's, dementia, but he can tell some whoppers! My favorite is how they disgraced Nixon because he was ending the Vietnam War, Piece with Honor and all that - said they did it because it would cost them a bunch of money if the war ended. Can you imagine? According to him, Nixon was telling the truth when he said, I am not a crook? HA, wouldn't that be a hoot"

After the nurse left Melanie did not know what to do. Jonathan had arranged for a place for her to stay but she was not sure she would. As she was standing in the doorway, contemplating her next move, he woke up again.

"You're still here, thank you. I would have been very sad had you left. Will you stay with me a while longer?

"I am here to see you Jonathan, I will stay," said Melanie, "before you fell asleep you started talking about investments or something. The change in conversation unnerved me."

"I am so sorry, that is part of the reason I asked you here," he said as he took a sip of water to relieve his drug induced dry mouth, "I need to tell someone my story before I go crazy or die. I can't control myself, I am not sure what's happening to my mind and I can't let this go to my grave. I have done some terrible things, Melanie. I need to cleanse my mind and allow it to relax. Will you help me work through this? "

"I will Jonathan, how can I help?"

"Please grab a notebook and pen from the closet. I have some things to say and I want you to be able to take notes."

She came back and sat beside him. Her feelings for him were of sadness and pity. He was now like her father, or uncle, but she felt no sexual tension.

He started to tell her stories that were so crazy, so farfetched that she did not even take notes at first, she was humoring him; these were the rantings of a crazy man. As she listened to him something came to mind that had bothered her for years after her internship ended. During the internship she had been tasked to watch, listen and read about six major world events that her employer was watching for. All she did was try to find any information or discussion about them. When she did hear news of one of them, she passed it along and it created quite a scurry of activity in the office. The strange thing was that event was the only one she was watching for that did not eventually come true. All five of the others came true within the next year. How could they have known that an African ruler would die, that the Lebanese Magazine Ash-Shiras would be the first to release information about the Iran-Contra Affair, and Black Monday – why had she been watching for news of a stock market crash that would not happen until a year after she left? She can remember the notes she was given about the market crash. "We need to know of any news or discussion relating to an impending stock market crash in Hong Kong"

She remembered connecting her research to Black Monday when it happened. October 19, 1987, the markets around the world lost huge value starting in Hong Kong and spreading to Europe and then the United States. By the end of October the Dow had dropped over 22%. Why had she been watching for news of a market crash starting in Hong Kong a year prior to it happening? She remembered William Froiberg's words from her interview. "Our job is to see world change coming and prepare an investment strategy to maximize returns. We have a long history of predicting world events, and profiting from understanding what will happen when those changes occur."

Now, years later, Jonathan is telling her that they made things happen, not watched for them. Was her internship research to make sure no one leaked the changes they were planning to create? Is that why the one item she heard about did not happen, because it got out somehow and they could not risk implementing it? Just as she decided it was time to take notes, Jonathan stopped and asked her, "Melanie, are you hearing me?"

"Yes," she responded, her mind clicking back into the moment at hand, "yes, Jonathan, I am here."

The stories were about a worldwide organization called The Mastermind Group, or MMG for short. Jonathan explained, "It was established in the mid-50s by private citizens to foster closer cooperation among the core industrialized nations of the world as the world started coming together after WWII. The most immediate purpose was to draw together the highest level of business and political leaders, along with the wealthy, to work together to promote growth and commerce across the globe". Continuing he told her, "Napoleon Hill had called out the need for a Mastermind Group in his 1937 book, Think and Grow Rich; this group was THE world-class mastermind group."

"MMG had been created to bring the world together, to share resources; the original idea was pure in thought. The purity would not last long, however. As worldwide power grew, greed took over and eventually a black ops unit was created. Murder and manipulation were not supposed to be part of the MMG charter and most members were not aware of this dark side. Most still thought the group had the world's best interest at heart. Black Ops was on a need to know basis, those who found out and opposed would perish. Those who were not aware had plausible deniability; they could not talk about things they did not know."

Even though she kind of felt that all of this could be real, she found herself unable to believe them. "You know Jonathan, your stories sound so real –you almost have me believing that a few hundred people can control the whole world!"

As he leaned toward her his face tightened, his eyes narrowed, and he took on a powerful presence. The clarity of his response startled her. "My dear", he said, "from before the time we knew each other until present day, I have been involved with, or have close-knit knowledge of, most of the historical moments of our life time. I knew about them before they happened; established a plan for how the markets would react to them, and set a plan in motion to capitalize on the changes. A few times, I was the one that saw the opportunity and helped design the entire plan to take advantage of a worldwide situation". He continued, "in 1987, I established the parameters to set up black Monday. That event did not just happen; we planned it, created it and benefited greatly from it. It was an enormous success for all of us that knew it would happen. You were asked to watch for it, to be sure none of the plan leaked. We planned that event for three years. We pumped up the market, driving it up, so we could crash it down. We made money on the push up, made money on the way down, and cleaned up with the bounce back up.

"The tech bubble of 2000 was not our creation but we saw an opportunity. We played with the market; if you control most of the financial sector, world exchanges, and the brokerage firms; and control the news that surrounds it, you can influence the markets in a spectacular way. Getting people to invest in a sure thing is easy, removing the sure thing is easy; knowing when the change will happen is like printing money!"

She realized for the first time since he had started talking, that during his lucid moments, he was still a strong-minded person, and that he was speaking the truth. It almost seemed like there was nothing wrong with him.

"Let me detail one Run that I am especially proud of," he said, startling her, "the time was 2010 and the market had just shown a huge rebound from the 2008 crash. MMG had made huge sums of money via the sub-prime bubble. Nothing like taking a market weakness and creating a frenzy, pushing things up and up, and then sliding out undetected, selling short, and then announcing that the bottom was falling out. Once the bottom is found, and things start to rebound, you buy back in low; then have the MMG controlled media tell the world things are getting better, and ride back up to the previous market level.

"Now, let's get back to 2010. We created a market blip that dropped the market hundreds of points in just a few minutes". He said with a smirk, "It happened at the time we decided, it created a few minutes of chaos in the market, and rebounded before most people even knew it happened. It had been calculated that a large enough drop, at a specific time, would create a scenario that would trigger computers at high frequency trading firms, ours included, to start selling the long positions they held. As the market sees the drop, a domino effect follows and markets dive. As stocks dive the market also sees opportunity and starts buying at some point. We were ready; we sold short on the way down and bought long on the way back up. Since we control many of the brokerage firms affected, we could pass the losses on to investors and we could buy low on a personal level. On top of that we got commission on all the activity! The investigators determined that a large mutual fund firm sold an unusually large number of E Mini S&P 500 contracts which exhausted available buyers at the time, causing the computers to start aggressively selling. No punishment was levied and no one needed to give back any money."

"Wow", she said. Her head was spinning; she knew this man and knew he would not tell her these things if they were not real, at least to him. She felt herself collapsing inward, she was being overwhelmed. He mentioned one event she had been wondering about for years, so the others she had been watching for were true? Murder of a world leader? Market manipulation? Iran Contra? "Tell me more", she said weakly, not knowing if she really wanted to hear it.

He explained - "The MMG is extremely influential and indirectly controls 85% of the world's wealth. Their agenda is the accumulation of wealth and control of world power while explaining to the world that the new normal and globalization is good for everyone. The ideology put forward at a Mastermind Conference is that what's good for banking, and the big businesses the MMG control, is good for the world. Not content with owning unimaginable amounts of money and property, they use their wealth to acquire even more power for themselves. They also have leaders in the media as part of their groups. Like a victor in a battle or coup; the powerful, and the group in control, can write the history however they wish."

"The objective of the conferences is to project the corporate ideology to appear rational and present it to the world for mass consumption. To show that MMG is just a think tank that takes no real action but instead educates the membership on world issues so they may have a positive global impact. They meet regularly, in public, but things are so well arranged that no one knows of the inner workings and the only news that is allowed out is controlled by the MMG held media. Presidents and world leaders are invited. World visions are shared."

She could see passion in his eyes, and hear it in his voice. She was about to ask another question, when he cut her off.

"Can we continue tomorrow?" has asked as he slumped in his bed, exhausted.

"Certainly", said Melanie, a little surprised and confused, "I will be back in the morning. Nine o'clock?" She asked.

"Yes, yes, nine o'clock", he said sliding off to sleep. As she rose to leave he curled up into a fetal position, she heard him mumbling under his breath, "have I told you the story of how I created investment schemes? I made so many people wealthy."

It was still early in the evening when she left Jonathan's room. She decided to walk across the street to get a bite to eat at the Canadian Honker restaurant. She got the walleye sandwich, a recommendation by the waitress, and a drink. She started adding to her notes. She had taken so few notes at the time because she had not believed at first; then, when it appeared the truth was coming out, she was so overwhelmed that she forgot. Like waking from a dream, she knew she needed to get this down before it disappeared. Could this be real? If so, what else is there – "My dear", he had said, "from before the time we knew each other until present day I have been involved with, or have close-knit knowledge of, most of the historical moments of our life time. I knew about them before they happened; established a plan for how the markets would react to them, and set a plan in motion to capitalize on the changes."

She was so intent on processing her thoughts that she did not notice the man that had followed her in and was seated at the corner table, watching her. He wanted desperately to see what she was writing.

## Chapter 4

### 2018

Hamlet's Security in Chicago was a buzz. John Bettle had dropped out of sight. Peter Eagleton, the head of MMG security, was a man that prided himself on being able to find anyone, at any time, especially an MMG'er. His job was to make sure he had knowledge of MMG member's locations and listening devises in place so nothing was missed.

As he walked through the data center a lieutenant came over with some background on Bettle. "Yes, yes, get that up on screen 12 where everyone can see it," he said.

He had the task of following Sixty MMG insiders, and vetting about 600 others. His organization occupied the whole 15th floor of a downtown skyscraper, with three sides having a view of Lake Michigan. They dabbled in security as a cover but their major role was MMG related; keeping tabs on MMG elite, private investigation, deep background checks, and some minor muscle when needed.

"JB," he yelled at one of the researchers, "do we have anything new on traffic cameras?"

"No sir, no hits yet, sir."

The large security data center was located in the middle of the floor. The room had no connection to the outside of the building, keeping it safe from all electronic surveillance. Two walls of the room were covered with large electronic screens. The screens could be manipulated to show 40 different images all the way down to one large image. At capacity there were 40 operatives manning computers and phones. There were additional phone banks outside of the room as well. The room normally monitored the MMG, and those the MMG wished to watch, but today the room was all hands on deck looking for Bettle.

Eagleton was a former college linebacker, 6'3", 225 pounds, and outside of a reminder scar on his reconstructed knee he felt he could still be playing at the age of 43. He dressed like a stock broker, impeccable suit, expensive white shirt, and shined black shoes so clean you could see your face in them. He had been with MMG for 17 years, recruited out of the NSA with a Navy Seal background. As an MMG insider he was financially secure, but his passion was technology, listening devises, and disguises. It was said that he could disappear in plain sight and could then walk back in forth in front of you and you would not recognize him as the same person.

When at full attention, which was most of the time, he commanded respect. He was smart, powerfully built, and a student of his passion.

The Ten, the Sixty and the C6 were members of the MMG. The Mastermind Group leadership started at the top with a group of ten people. The Ten filled the definition of a mastermind group, a collection of people from different specialties that worked together for a common goal, each sharing their expertise. Each member of the Ten had been grown, with MMG influence, into a world leader in their specialty in the outside world. The Ten rotated the MMG leadership position every year, but the leader role was basically an agenda creator and meeting facilitator, since the team worked together on all aspects. The true business of the group would not be expected to change depending on who was leading.

The Ten not only had different specialties but lived in different parts of the world. Each had a communication room that allowed secure video transmission so they could meet. Multiple screens and cameras allowed each person to communicate directly with another, as if they were in a room together. They normally only met in person once a year at the MMG conference, hosted by the Sixty.

Each of the Ten had a down-line group of 6 that they had responsibility for. The Sixty, as the group was called, were the visible leaders of the MMG. No one outside of the Sixty even knew there was a Ten. The leadership was a secret, allowing the Ten to be seen as an outside influence on the Sixty. The Sixty were seen from outside as leaders in their fields; IT, engineers, manufacturing, sales, finance, media, logistics, professors; just to name a few. The Sixty held an annual event sponsored by the MMG that pulled in people from all over, including world leaders. It was by invitation only, only the best were invited, and the event was one of the hottest tickets in the world.

Each of the Sixty had an approximate 10 person down line as well; the group of approximately 600 was called the C6. The C6 were hand-picked members of industry clubs that MMG used to create change and grow leaders. If you were picked to be a member of the C6 it was expected that you would grow into a position of leadership in your field and you would be given specialized knowledge at the right time to make sure you did. If you were not strong enough to be that leader, or would abuse the power you were given, you would be disgraced and cast aside, and the group would look for someone new.

The Sixty officially hold the annual event for the C6, as well as other select people, in cities like Zurich, Amsterdam, and Brussels. CEOs from the foremost companies in the world, as well as leaders in governments, media, academia, and science are invited, many of them already members of the Ten, Sixty, or C6. The meeting purpose given to the world is to bring these leaders together to foster global networking at the highest levels.

There is a specialty travel agent group that plans and manages the accommodations, in most cases taking over complete hotels, or series of hotel/resort areas. The event is by invitation only, no spouses or staffs are invited. Key note speakers rotate lecturing for all guests, discussing world trends and giving a vision of the next 12 months, 2 years, and 5 years. The event is not open to the public, or the media, unless by invitation.

As part of the event there are secret meetings held by each of the Sixty with their downline, the C6. These meetings are one-on-one and talk about the wants and dreams of the C6 member, and what the MMG can do for them. The purpose is to learn what people want and then to help them make it happen. The goal is to make dreams come true, gain control of the person, and then use the person as the group sees fit; all in the name of mentorship.

One of the MMG that Hamlet Security was watching had disappeared. Their last active surveillance tape at John Bettle's home, which was nestled in a back lot of the prestigious Oak Savana Community in Oak Brook Illinois, was from 3-days ago, since then nothing. When Bettle semi-retired in 2000, he lived with his wife in a home they had built in Oak Savana Community, a gated community for the wealthy. He was still connected with the organization but only really worked when he was needed. John's wife had passed away a while back and since then John had a routine; and the last day on the tape confirmed the routine. Up at 5:12 AM, work out, shower, read the Tribune, the Times and the Wall Street Journal, toast with peanut butter, and then off to his office computer at 8 to start watching pre-market news. John appeared to still love the market, even in retirement. Eagleton had heard stories that Bettle was the best, the person that planned extremely detailed plans that shaped or adjusted to world events. He would like to thank him someday for his insider investment advice that Eagleton had received over his career.

The last noise in the house was 3 days ago at 7 pm as Bettle had left, apparently to go out to eat. A later look around the house showed a man set to disappear and not return. His cell phone was on the kitchen table along with his house keys. His office computer had been wiped clean. He may not have been on the run, but he was making it hard for them to find him.

John Bettle was, by MMG standards, the most dangerous man in the world, and he needed to be found. Before his retirement he had specialized in creating plans, called Runs, which the MMG used to change world events, or profit from them. He had been a plan leader for over 20 years and had inside knowledge of the MMG that only a few members had. His plans detailed out change into small executable pieces. This allowed the MMG to create world change without being visible. The plans got assistance from MMG personnel without their understanding that their actions were part of a RUN, kind of like an assembly line for world change. One part doing a small job that collectively could change the world. Hundreds of little pieces, done in sequence, that would create market and world change, which allowed the MMG to profit from world events. Greed and power are powerful forces, which made it easy to get people to do what they are told without asking any questions.

The reason Bettle was so dangerous is that he had knowledge of all the plans that had changed world events, including some rumored assassinations many years before. Bettle apparently held this information over the MMG leadership to make sure the black ops group did not kill for profit. His information was solid; Eagleton had seen enough to know the threat was real. He had spent years looking for Bettle's hidden information, the man was good.

Now Bettle had gone missing and Eagleton's group was responsible for finding him. Bud Stellar, one of the Ten was on the phone. Bud was a technology and security expert and Eagleton's boss and mentor. "Yes, sir" Eagleton said, "we are on it. As I said before, there was no sign that he may run. I would not expect this to take much longer. We can handle it sir, there is no need for that sir. Yes sir, as you wish sir, I will make the call." Reluctantly Eagleton agreed to call his bosses contact at the NSA and they were to start searching for John Bettle also. He did not need anyone else looking for Bettle, he knew exactly where he was; Eagleton's loyalties had changed.

On the other side of the world another member of MMG already knew where Bettle was, dying at Mayo clinic in Rochester Minnesota. He had known for a few days and was already anticipating Bettle's death, since word had it he was at the end of his struggle there. He had a mole in the Hamlet Security office that was watching Bettle and feeding any pertinent information back to him.

A plan had been put in place to take control of the MMG. With Bettle in his weakened state he would not even be aware of the operation. God, how he hated Bettle! His plan to control the world via the MMG was only held back by dirt John Bettle had. Soon the time would be right to execute the changes needed to move forward.

This soon to be new world leader had spent years cultivating a quiet, respectful persona; a man of peace with a hatred for violence of any kind, but he had been plotting to take over for a decade. He had been involved in a Run about ten years back and recognized the power of the MMG. While most see their role as working to take advantage of current situations, he knew they had changed things, creating the events. He researched the Run he had been involved in, secretly checking with others and understanding the many depths of the Run. He learned of the involvement of many of the players; his home office wall had been covered with a timeline, detailing out as much as he could find. Blackmail, torture, and bribes were all used to find out what he could. At the time of the run he was one of the C6.

Via a few accidents, that were created to eliminate people above and beside him, he had moved into the Sixty after about 3 years.

The move out of the Sixty, into the Ten, was much harder. There were other members in his downline that had more experience in the MMG, and his up-line leader, who was part of the Ten, was quite young. Corrupting some of the Sixty, and then killing off the member of the Ten in a way it looked like an accident had taken the full skill of his team. Learning how a Run worked had its privileges.

He could create Runs without anyone who assisted knowing they were not real. Ruining someone with full use of the world media is not a hard thing to do. Doctor up some information and tell someone to run the story. By the time it is proven to be incorrect, the person is already ruined. Using the Run to start it eliminates getting caught; no one knows where each piece comes from, just that you are to execute your piece if contacted. Murder was more dangerous to pull off, but he had connections into the black ops side, and used them when he needed to.

He had moved into the Ten 3 years ago and had a plan to take over; now with Bettle dying he deciding it was time to implement his takeover. He had started a run of his own, killing off 3 members of the Ten and enough of the Sixty to create chaos and fear. The killings would be strategic; the end result would be the organization looking for safety and leadership. Like other runs set up by the organization, since he created the event, he had a huge advantage – he knew what was going to happen before it did.

Back at Hamlet Security Pete Eagleton's phone rang, "Eagleton", he answered.

"Peter, I think we may have a problem. 2 of the Ten and 5 of the Sixty have died in the last 24 hours. They have all had what appear to be accidents," said Bill Mentax.

"What! Who did we lose? Is there a pattern?" Eagleton asked.

"Well, I am afraid your mentor, Bud Stellar, was mugged as he got off the L-train on his way home. Not a lot of detail yet, but his was DOA at the hospital."

"Not Bud, I just talked to him. He told me he was not feeling well and was headed home. Wow, I can't believe it," said Eagleton.

"Sorry boss," said Mentax, "The other member of the Ten was our media mogul Takaki Mizushima; he died in his Tokyo office. Massive heart attack apparently. He had a wife and 3 kids, sorry story."

Half a world away a single figure walks the streets of Paris heading to his next stop. The killing was the last one he had been contracted for. He was not sure who hired him but this was his third killing in 48 hours. The final one lived alone, worked 80 – 90 hours a week, and should be an easy kill. He planned to sneak into the apartment and wait for the mark to come home. The plan was to make it look like a heart attack. As he approached the back of the building he pulled himself up to the balcony on the second floor. The French door was hardly even a challenge. Once inside he started to look around the two-bedroom flat. The rooms were large, tall ceilings, and all the furnishings were top of the line. For a geek, the lady had some nice clothes, nothing he could use of course. He looked around for a place to hide, finally finding the perfect spot. By 7 pm he was getting bored; wish she would come home already. About a half hour later he heard the key in the door. He went to his selected hiding place in the bedroom closet, frozen in the corner behind a suit bag he had noticed when looking for the perfect place to hide. Hiding in a place where he could be just feet away from his mark, without them knowing, was one of his great thrills. People paid him to make people die in ways no one would even think would be murder. The person he killed earlier in the day had tripped and drowned in the bath tub, at least that is what the authorities would determine. It was one of his best moves. Tonight would be a heart attack in bed. The drug, developed exclusively for this use, would cause death in a few seconds with no residual to be found in tests. It acted so fast the person was dead almost before they even felt the air needle.

She came into the bedroom shortly after getting home. She changed clothes, hanging up the days pants just inches away from him. He could smell the lavender from the perfume she had put on that morning. After changing she cooked what smelled to be a pasta sauce, it smelled wonderful. He realized he had not eaten since late morning and hoped she would have some leftovers that he could eat before he left. By nine she had cleaned up, started the dishwasher and was coming into the bedroom. He remained frozen in place. He had practiced for years to be able to remain motionless, even working as a human mannequin at department stores to practice his craft with an audience. He could hear her breathing change into a sleep pattern, slower, deeper. After half an hour he made his way out of the closet, creeping over to her position on the left side of the bed. The air needle was cocked and in his right hand. As he approached he brought it up to her throat and pushed the release. With a whoosh the poison entered her body, she made an involuntary jump, rising and falling in almost the same movement. The result was a massive heart attack that any coroner would label natural.

He exited out the front door, down the steps and out into the dark night. He threw on a beret he had kept in his back packet, crossed the street, hands in his pockets, mumbling to himself to look like a homeless man if anyone were to see him. As he walked the six blocks to his car he couldn't help but wondered who he was working for. He had forgotten to take the left overs, it was time to get something to eat.

Eagleton was going crazy, yelling at his team. "Two of the Ten are known dead, apparently of natural causes or accidents, one of them MY BOSS." He yelled, "There was no official sign of foul play; even our cameras and bugs throughout the member's homes came up empty. There are only a half-dozen groups that could pull off something like this, and we worked for one of them. We should have been informed if it was an official termination, heck; we would have provided surveillance information to make it easier." The members of the Ten that were known dead were world leaders in media, and Eagleton's mentor, who managed technology and security. "

Eagleton's cell rang again, this time the call was from the NSA. Bettle was apparently dying of cancer and had checked into Saint Mary's Hospital in Rochester Minnesota. "Thanks", said Eagleton.

"Do we have an asset in Minnesota?" Eagleton asked a lieutenant.

"Sure, we have people in the Twin Cities," was the response.

"Bettle is in Rochester Minnesota at Saint Mary's Hospital. Get someone down to Rochester to check on Bettle."

"Will do", said the lieutenant.

The leadership team was summoned. The word came down that Hamlet Security's focus had changed. It was now on the deaths of the MMG members and making sure the others were safe. John Bettle's file was set to the side.

## Chapter 5

Spring quarter at Northwestern ended the first week of June 1986. Melanie's second trip to Dubuque was even more enjoyable than the first. She was excited about her internship opportunity and looked forward to using her language skills and being exposed to world economics. She left Northwestern after her last class, not even going home for the weekend. She set off on Saturday morning in the twelve year old car her parents had given her as a high school graduation present; only 128,000 miles – ha. Dad had put good tires on it when she left home, almost 3 years prior, and she had not put that many miles on them since. Hopefully it would last her another 3 years until she could complete her Masters. She turned on the radio and started singing and dancing as she drove, this was going to be so cool!

The singing soon stopped - Interstate 90 by O'Hare was backed up. Apparently a semi-trailer had jackknifed early in the morning, backing things up for hours. She inched along for almost an hour and then all of the sudden, all clear. She always thought it was weird, being from a small town, that you inch along and all the sudden it's a race up to top speed, and then miles ahead you see the spot of the accident. Nothing going on, just colored plastic and glass all over the place. She hated that she lost an hour of shopping time.

She had her clothes hung on the rod in the back seat that her dad had installed prior to her leaving for college, enough good clothes to last the summer. Eight pair of shoes were in boxes on the floor in the backseat of the car, she hoped to add to that total as she got paid over the summer; oh, how she loved her shoes! The rest of her clothes, coats, and boots were stuffed into the trunk, some in bags and some were just loose.

As she came out of Rockford Illinois on Highway 20 she could not wait to see Galena again. She still did not have much money but she had received her first stipend check from MMG Dubuque. There were specialty shops selling coffee, pasta, and candy that would help her fill cupboards at her new apartment. That reminder her, she could not wait to see the apartment in Dubuque. They said it was nice and had a security system. She was glad for the protection and that she would feel safe. Aaron Boyd had delivered the keys and her surprise check a few days before the end of school. She remembered that it was kind of strange when Mr. Boyd dropped them off and said "I know you will do great, just watch yourself."

As she came over the crest and started down toward the Mississippi River she wanted to stop at Galena but realized that unpacking may be the best thing to do first. She would determine what she needed and then go shopping with a list. She pulled the directions out of her purse. Aaron Boyd had told her that the apartment was close to work and she would be able to walk. The apartment was fabulous, he had told her, nice old building, great view; he had stayed there himself a time or two. She was watching her directions closely but still drove right by the address, how could she have missed it? As a matter of fact, there did not seem to be any apartment buildings in the area. As she turn around and went back she realized that the address she was looking for was an old Victorian home. It looked like a Bed and Breakfast but there was no sign. She found parking around back and went around to the front door. Her key worked, she walked inside and found a sign under glass welcoming her. Her room was on the third floor and if she needed any help to call. She walked up the two flights of stairs and unlocked the door; her apartment WAS the third floor. There was a living area consisting of many antique pieces including an antique settee sofa upholstered with deep diamond-tufting in a French silk moiré, exquisite coffee and end tables with queen Ann legs, and a fireplace in the corner with an arched marble Carrera surround. The bathroom consisted of a small old style toilet, pedestal sink and claw-footed tub. The bedroom and office/den were more modernized. The den was huge and had a kitchenette with full cupboards, sink, stocked dorm fridge, and a microwave. The bedroom still had the Victorian redwood bed set, but also included a lounger and a TV mounted on the wall. When she opened up the embroidered Victorian curtains in the living room she saw the same river view as the one she had from the front door of the office building. How is it possible she lucked into this? What had she done to deserve this? There was a note on her living room table to give Angelina Dayburg a call when she got in if she was interested in a tour. She called Angelina and they agreed to meet, Angelina would pick her up.

Angelina was late-thirties, with a genealogy that kept people guessing. Her mother was Asian, Spanish, and Greek; with the Greek being the least pronounced. Her maternal grandfather had been a diplomat for Spain and spent a great deal of his time in Asia. He met Angelina's grandmother in Thailand; they fell in love and were married. Her mother was traveling in Paris when she met her father, an American with Dane and German decent. The mix made her very unique and exotic. She carried about 15 extra pounds but she still turned heads when she entered a room. She enjoyed biking, the pedaling kind, gardening, and was an avid golfer. In addition, she was regarded as the best cook in the company. When the company had food days she was called Chef Angelina, and she liked that a lot.

Melanie was waiting out front when Angelina pulled up in a newer Chevy Tahoe. The outside details showed it to be a Four Wheel Drive, LTZ, the top of the line. When Melanie got in it looked like pictures she had seen of an airplane cockpit. The soft leather seats, a sun roof, and a stereo that she was sure she could rock to!

"Hi, Melanie!" said Angelina, "ready to see the sights?"

"Yes, thank you Angelina. I am so excited to be here. I can't wait to look around!"

Angelina discussed a quick view of Dubuque and then lunch and shopping at Galena. Perfect, thought Melanie, just was I was hoping for. They toured around Dubuque for an hour or so, not stopping anywhere, just looking at everything that deserved a stop over the summer. After the tour of Dubuque they ended up in Galena sitting on the front patio of an Italian restaurant that had been there since the 50's. Small cast-iron tables and chairs, which had an awesome patina, had Melanie wondering who may have sat on these chairs over the past 30 plus years. The conversation turned more personal, as they enjoying homemade pasta and a glass of wine.

"Pretty awesome to be paid to intern" Angelina said.

"I can't believe it. I am not sure why they are paying me; I would have done it for free."

"They like to be sure that you have no outside issues that will take away from your work. You were hand selected and they make sure they get the people they want. The internship is basically an interview for a job after you graduate. You could intern every year until graduation and then come on full time. You have been chosen, honey; they want you and will take good care of you, if you will let them."

"Wow, said Melanie, "I can't imagine any reason why I would say no."

Melanie noticed a twitch on Angelina's face. It was nothing; but again someone had said, or done, something that pulled at her inner self, like something was wrong. But then, all she could think about was getting paid!

The first week proved to be as exciting a time as she had ever had. Monday Angelina showed her around the office and introduced her to about 30 people. The company occupied the 3rd and 4th floor of the building and was laid out with everyone having an office with a door, except the main receptionist on the 3rd floor. Melanie actually got an office next to John Bettle's; John had the corner office overlooking the river from the 3rd floor. She speculated that the furniture in her office was worth more than her entire net worth! The large antique cherry desk had a side section attached that had a computer and keyboard on it. There was also a matching credenza behind with storage and a book case. Everything had the old, antique look and was so heavy she could not budge it. Angelia got her set up on the computer and taught her part of what she could do. The technology was cutting edge, Melanie had not even heard of some of the things this unit could do. "Proprietary hardware and software," Angelina said, "top secret stuff, the market won't see this for a few years, until we have even better equipment." The system provided her with electronic copies of newspapers and news stories that had been dictated from her areas of responsibilities. She would spend her day combing the computer and hard copy newspapers to look for anything related to the topics she had been assigned. The company research indicated that certain things may happen in a region and would have her watch to see if any activity was starting.

"Want to go to lunch?" John Bettle said, as he popped his head in her office, "then we get right to work!" he said with his index figure in the air.

"Sure," Melanie said, "you can teach me about all of this over pasta."

The café was walking distance from the office. It was a store front on a brick building located on a corner lot. Because of the slope of the area, the front of the building had an entry on this level, and the rear of the building had a basement entry. The café booths could have been 30 years old, green vinyl with a flower pattern in the middle. The menus appeared to be 10 years old, pasta stains and all, but John assured her the food was fabulous.

During lunch John started telling her about her training and duties. There would be multiple instructors helping her but he would be her mentor on the project. It was very important that they find out if any news surfaced about some of these projects, the time was right. She felt so alive, so needed! To be on the cusp of world events, this was going to be exciting.

John, it turned out, was a bit of a slob, but in a cute kind of way. When he got excited he talked with his mouth full and actually spewed tiny pieces of food as he talked. He knocked over his glass and spilt water on the table, and it appeared he had never heard of a napkin. They chit chatted for a few hours and returned to the office. John seemed like a nice guy, what a great opportunity this will be, she thought.

Back in the office, she was working on where to put her stapler when Kirtra Jameson walked in. Kirtra was the computer expert and she acted like she should not be showing this information to an intern. She gave Melanie a booklet with the command list so she could pull up needed files. They practiced for about an hour until Melanie had it down.

Second in was Aileen Rainier. Aileen was mid-thirties, brunet, and almost 6 foot. She had played volleyball in high school and walked on at Iowa but never made the floor.

"Amazing," Aileen said, "how 6 foot is tall in high school but short in college. My 13 inch vertical leap did not help much either." They both laughed and then chatted about volleyball for a few more minutes.

"I am here to show you how to search for and notice things we are looking for. We are watching the world to see what will happen in advance of it happening. You may see an article of a land purchase, or a group of purchases over a short period of time, which may show the accumulation of property to build a factory. A story of a stock market change, or prediction of a gain, or crash, may also be something to report. If you hear of a foreign government in trouble, or a potential for change in power, the death of a major player in the area, you would want to report it. Finally, of course, you report anything having to do with MMG."

They looked at dozens of examples; first with Melanie looking for the item and then Aileen showing her where it was. Toward the end Melanie was picking up how to recognize what she needed to see. The work was tedious but still exciting.

She worked feverishly trying to find things to tell John about. There were a few land sales that looked interesting. The area currencies seemed to be fluctuating in one area she was watching. But, overall, there was not much to report.

She met John on day 3 for their first follow up. "Anything to report?" he said.

"Well a few things but nothing really exciting", she replied.

"We never know when events will unfold. That is part of the reason we have interns, to watch for what may be of interest." John said.

He continued like he was telling her a secret. "I have a few items I want you to watch for. These are specific things we have been watching for, so we need to know if anything is happening or if anyone talks about them."

He handed her a packet with 5 items in it, with detailed descriptions.

1. Watch for news of unrest in Africa. If any word breaks of a leader in peril, or assassination, let me know immediately.

2. Watch for any word about an arms deal that included Iran. We believe they are getting arms but we need to know how and from whom.

3. Upcoming revolt in Kazakhstan against the Communist party

4. If you see OPEC working on an accord that would cut production or if they appear to working together to raise prices

5. A market bubble, or a strong sell opportunity, starting in Hong Kong.

"These are the main items we are watching for. Anything else you find will be icing on the cake! Lock up the list; no one is to know about these but you."

Melanie looked at the list. Where would a list like this come from? She needed to learn more.

As the first week ended Melanie had a grasp on her duties, felt like God had given her favor, and knew this was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

## Chapter 6

### 2018

Melanie found the morning to come too early. After a few minutes she remembered she was in Rochester, visiting Jonathan. She had been up most of the night tossing and turning, dreaming and thinking about what Jonathan had told her. A Mastermind Group of the world's most powerful people determined to control, sway the reporting of, and even plan, major world events – up to and including assassinations! She, like most, remembered thinking at times that certain world events seemed almost unexplainable, and how they seemed like that were set-up, but now, to potentially have first-hand knowledge of a group that could do such a thing. Her mind told her to run and never look back, but her curiosity and happiness about seeing Jonathan again was in control. She would go see him again today; if nothing else just to prove that he was crazy and none of this was real.

After a complimentary continental breakfast, she left her hotel. She noticed a vehicle up the street, a dark blue GMC Canyon 4-door pickup. She recognized it because her husband had fallen in love with the new model and had to buy one shortly before his death in 2015. She sold it shortly after the funeral, too many memories. This was the same color. She was sure there are a lot of dark blue GMC Canyons driving around in Southern Minnesota, but she had seen two last night as well, or maybe the same vehicle twice. It was the first time she thought that she may need to be concerned about her safety; people may not want her to know what Jonathan was telling her. Crazy, she thought, HE's CRAZY! – this is just Jonathan's insanity. She hopped the bus to Saint Mary's and forgot all about dark blue Canyon pickup that was following at a distance.

"Good Morning, my dear", Jonathan said as she came into the room. He had adjusted the bed so he was almost sitting straight up. "You look wonderful. Did you bring your notebook? We have a lot to cover today, and I have a gift for you later."

"Jonathan" she started, "I am not sure I want to do this"

"Now, now, Melanie. Please, sit" Jonathan said, calming her. "Get your notebook ready; let me tell you a story."

"At the end of World War II, Europe was being divided up, new alliances were being made, and opportunity was abundant. A few world leaders were together for an economic conference and got together for drinks afterwards. As they discussed the changes in the world makeup they recognized that there was a tremendous opportunity to guide the change and growth to maximize democracy and peace. They agreed to start getting together on a regular basis to discuss world events and see if they could influence things in a positive direction. Eventually the topic of the Mastermind Group came up and they decided to establish a group with a diverse leadership, calling themselves MMG; the agreement was never supposed to be discussed in public. There was no office, no official company letter head, and no corporate structure, only people with power and money trying to do the right thing. Recruitment for The Mastermind Group downline started right away; engineers, lawyers, media leaders, doctors, innovators, entrepreneurs, large business owners, political journeymen, and young people on the rise looking for a way to make great things happen.

The search was worldwide and ended up as an unruly mess because whenever you get powerful people together with no leadership they all start doing what they want. The group started to break up into factions; the original vision was being lost. A meeting was held to gain back control. The group elected a leader and an unwritten structure was created. The Mastermind Group finally had a backbone; the time was mid-1950."

Jonathan sat forward and continued, "Ike was in the White House when I was hired by MMG as an investment analyst. My master's thesis was on world-wide investing and business growth. I had a professor that recommended it and helped me put together the outline. It entailed setting up a series of contacts around the world that would be able to work together to predict future world events, and to put plans in place to profit from the coming changes." The deep breath Jonathan took almost tipped him over," My thesis concluded that there were immediate opportunities that were in progress; the United States and the Soviet Union were starting an arms race, the European Common Markets would decolonize, and America would add Alaska and Hawaii as states. Other items included the commercialization of television and the possibilities it brought, the growth of jet air travel, and the growing need for oil - all things that were major events and that were changing the world. How would these things affect the world, what companies would prosper because of them? What companies could be establish, or purchased, to maximize the trend and profit from the new coming growth?" Jonathan took a quick drink, "I was pulled from college and asked to do what I had been dreaming of, putting this organization together. We had success; we did not build the bombs, we invested in, and supplied to, the companies that did. We created new technology and charged exorbitant prices because nobody else could do it. Things were going extremely well. Capital was not a problem, and engineers, lawyers and manufacturing expertise were being added to the MMG fold out of the nation's best colleges every year. They all were working to make things great, having no idea who was leading the organization they worked for. Competition started to grow in all areas. While we had a jump on many companies, they would eventually catch up and compete against us for contracts. I am not sure when I noticed that things changed, but our competition starting having accidents, fires, or just plain failure to perform. In many cases I would recommend that we buy them out, use their plants to continue our growth. The 50's and early 60's were the best time of my career."

Jonathan sat back exhausted. Melanie was impressed, Jonathan had been an industrial leader in the 50s, a golden boy, per say.

"The first time I got a glimpse of the true nature of what the organization was becoming was with the rise of the Vietnam conflict. America sent advisors to Vietnam in the early 1950s. MMG implemented a project to supply products and services to weapons manufacturers on both sides of the conflict. The conflict between North and South Vietnam seemed to grow out of large incidents or conflicts. These conflicts required more arms, better weapons, and would inspire both sides to escalate the war. I later learned that MMG was creating some of these incidents to help escalate the conflict and improve profits. I had helped set up a world-wide organization that was escalating a war by creating hate. I thought about going to the authorities but I was in too deep already. I went to talk to my professor, who had brought me into the group, hoping he would help me. I found out that he already knew and he explained that if I went public I would be implicating myself; since there was proof I was the ring leader that set everything up. I was in so deep I had no choice; I needed to keep quiet and continue my work growing the MMG. At one point I was in a meeting where someone said "If we can just get the US to send in troops", "I almost threw up."

"After the elections of 1960, which I had incorrectly predicted would be won by Nixon, Kennedy continued to escalate the war. The war was the MMG's most profitable endeavor. When Kennedy talked of backing down U.S. involvement the MMG was thrown into a tailspin. After the assassination of Kennedy, an incident was created in 1964 to make it look like a North Vietnamese fast attack craft had attacked a U.S destroyer. Regular U.S Troops were deployed in 1964"

"Wait", said Melanie, "after the assassination? You mean after JFK was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, right"

"Correct", said Jonathan, watching her response closely.

Melanie took the bait and asked, "you make it sound like the Mastermind Group killed him, to make sure the war continued."

His response was quick and to the point, holding up three fingers he questioned, "3 shots in 83 seconds, from the 6th floor, 2 blocks away, with a bolt action rifle - all 3 bullets hitting their target. A magic bullet? And, as was shown in the tapes, the final shot moved Kennedy's head back and to the left. Then the assassin is shot on TV in the basement of the Dallas police department?" He paused for a second, looking like he could hardly even say what was next, "A black ops group had been formed as part of the MMG. They specialized in making things happen for the benefit of the MMG, while making sure things appeared to be random or the act of crazy people. As I said before, MMG have leaders in the media as part of their groups. Like a victor in a battle or coup; the powerful, and the group in control, can write the history, and the reports, however they wish.

After he let that sink in a little bit, he continued, "Kennedy's call to space exploration was a great boost to our coffers. The beginning of the Vietnam conflict was expected to be a great boost as well. We were great supporters. We had started infiltrating space and weapons based companies with high level engineers. This allowed us to know what was being designed and allow us to beat the industry to the base minerals and ores needed to assemble the needed products. We did not create the final products but supplied the parts; at that time we lived at the ore level and in the middle, supplying the products needed to build the final assembly. We also knew who the players would be and could create investment strategies to capitalize on the coming growth."

Melanie felt herself start to collapse. She could not believe her ears. This man, this person she had fallen for in 1986, had knowledge of the Kennedy conspiracy and was sharing it with her. Could this be real? How, why; oh no, the room began to close in on her. Melanie's head hit the floor sending her book and pen flying. She came to just seconds later, composed herself, and then excused herself from the room. Walking the halls she still could not get her arms around the fact that this seemed true. My God, how could it be true! Why was he sharing this with her? Why was she still here? What was she going to do now? Her hands were shaking, her mind racing; what was she going to do?

The man at the end of the hall saw her come out and was caught off guard. He did not want her to see him. He ducked into a room to avoid visible contact.

It took a few minutes to regain her composure and she returned to the room. "I don't believe this Jonathan; at least, I don't want to. I'm not sure I can continue to come and see you. You're scaring me and I do not want to do this anymore."

"Melanie," Jonathon pleaded, "I understand your fear, your apprehension. The group has changed; they have been forced to change, that is the purpose of your visit. The black ops group no longer functions like it did. My role at MMG was to create extensive operational plans to create, inflate, and manipulate the world depending on what may happen. Once I realized what was happening in the 60's I spent years creating a multi-level plan that would expose the MMG if they did not stop the black ops group. I have control because of this. The MMG still operates; I am not a leader of the group, but I have stopped the use of assassinations, arson, and government overthrows."

"Since we have gotten to his point already, it is time for me to give you your present", Jonathan said as he handed her keys and a packet, "There is a safe deposit box in your name at US Bank, here is the key. The safe deposit box has a new, short term identity change for you, credit cards, a new cell phone, and lots of money. In addition, I have provided you proof of the assassination of JFK, and the cover-up, and a few other operations set up by the MMG. I compiled this information over the years and I am currently using it, and more, to blackmail the MMG so they do not use the black ops section to continue to do assassinations of world leaders. With what appears to be my imminent death, the hold I have would be gone; unless I can pass on the information to someone I can trust. That is why I have asked you here."

She could not believe it; this son-of-a-bitch brought her here to hold blackmail over a group he said was powerful enough to kill presidents and get away with it? What the hell.

She sat motionless, in an almost dream state, trying to gather her thoughts. Her head was down, her eyes were open looking toward the floor, but she saw nothing. Her mind was like a computer that had too many crossing tasks and just sat, spinning.

Finally her mind kicked back in gear and she remembered that she did not believe any of this stuff, that these things can't possibly happen in the world without people finding out, and she was determined to humor Jonathan until she could prove it was all in his crazy head. Sure, he was convincing, but really, the world does not work this way!

"I will go to the bank", she said.

"Excellent!" said Jonathan, "You have the packet. In it is a note, letting you know what to do and where to go in the morning. There are some changes you will need to make, and while I do not believe you to be at risk, we will be cautious. Check out of your hotel in the morning, call a cab, and read this on the way to the bank. It is very important that you not read this, or any of the other information you will receive, until it is time. Also, you need to execute things exactly as I say."

"Now, let us talk about nicer things. Please, tell me more about your life, and the things that have happened, prior to you coming yesterday."

Melanie was glad that they were done talking about the MMG. She soon calmed down and started to remember why she came; to open a closed door in her heart, release the pent-up conflict, and then to have closure with Jonathan before he passed. She stayed for hours before returning to her hotel room.

## Chapter 7

### 2018

With news of another death, this one the IT group leader out of Paris, the TEN had been reduced to 7. Six of them did not realize one member of the 7 was waiting to take over. As a remaining member of the 10, with the knowledge of what was going on, he was able to be confident and quicker on his feet than the others. He had, of course, planned this out, so it was easy to plan the perfect response. At 5' 11", 190, he was not large but he possessed a charisma that few men possess. He had such a presence that any room he entered he would be the center of attention inside of 15 minutes. When he left the room you could almost feel the room deflate, like a hot air balloon that was descending.

A meeting of the 7 remaining Ten was taking place via video conference. Each had their own bunker built for security purposes; a wall full of cameras and monitors, one for each person, so they could have face to face contact, and each had full access.

The 6 were not aware that Shem Aiah had arranged the assassinations to get this opportunity. Now he wanted them to ask him to serve as leader. With them giving him leadership he would reach his first goal in taking over the MMG and then the world.

Aiah started in on Eagleton, from Hamlet Security, to explain what they knew.

"Eagleton, what the hell is going on around here? Can we believe this is all coincidental? This appears to be an attack on our very existence! We must put things in place to protect the MMG and our members. I think we should put the 60 under guard until we figure out what is happening. I think we need to mobilize the ops group to make sure everyone is safe and to help with anything else we may need"

Ops were military experts, the black ops group; they were the muscle, the spies, and the enforcers, if needed. They were relegated to small to mid-size campaigns since they had been held down for years by the threat of John Bettle exposing them all; but this, was this attack on the MMG real? Who could possibly be doing this?

"Mr. Eagleton," interjected Lourdes Mendoza before Eagleton could speak, "are we sure of the threat? I hate to get Ops involved. There appears to be no proof, not even from our people that are supposed to be protecting us."

The rest of the group was nodding their heads in agreement. Eagleton had been working on his computer during the questions, but he stood up to respond. "Yes sir, ma'am," Eagleton spoke, taking a long pause. "Ladies and gentlemen, do you, knowing what we know, really believe that these deaths are not preplanned? Weston trips in his bathroom, hits his head and falls into the tub and drowns the same day that Jo dies of a heart attack? It is my believe that the leadership team is under attack"

"Eagleton", says Marat Pankov, a big burly bear of a man that specialized in oil, based in Russia, "it is our group that carries out these operations that look like accidents. Who could be doing this if not our people? How do we respond?"

"I am not sure who is responsible at this time, sir," Eagleton said, "but we need to protect this leadership team and we need to at least be looking out for the 60. There is a lot of work being done at this time and, as we deploy additional resources, this will get to be a very large, think-quick operation. I recommend we put one member of the leadership in charge to help me manage this going forward. I have already been in contact with Aiah on numerous issues and he has a great deal of knowledge already. I would recommend Aiah to spearhead this situation for all of you; he is our best option at this time"

The rest of the group saw a power in Aiah and were actually glad his name came up, if only he would be willing to take charge at this time.

"Well, thank you, Mr. Eagleton." Aiah responded with apprehension "I am not sure I am the best to handle this situation, however, if asked I will serve. My thoughts are for the families of our lost, and for our organization that appears to be under siege."

The group all started talking at once but somehow determined to do a show of hands to have Aiah elected as the leader of the group, at least short term, and work closely with Eagleton to determine the threat. A unanimous decision put the person that created the situation in charge of making sure it was cleaned up. How easy it is to stop something you personally started and know was already under control!

"Well, thank you all for your confidence," said Aiah. "I shall not let you down. Mr. Eagleton, with your mentor one of the people killed tonight, I am sorry to ask but can I get your thoughts on security for the rest of us?"

"Certainly sir!" Said Eagleton at standing at attention. "I have lost people in battle before sir; while I do grieve, I promise it will not affect my work, sir."

"Thank you for the respect, Eagleton, but let's relax the formalities, we are all glad you are here and working with us. Please, enlighten us if you would."

"Well, sir, ah, sorry...sir." An embarrassed Eagleton began, "Due to multiple locations around the world this appears to be a coordinated effort. This would lead us to believe that an organization of some sort is behind the killings. Certainly Bud knew how to take care of himself and could also see danger coming, and he got taken. This leads me to believe that we are dealing with professionals."

"With my knowledge of groups that could do such a thing, most would be government or mafia related. Mercenaries would certainly be the correct group to hire, but hiring mercenaries without getting caught in a sting is very difficult."

"The Ten are a closely guarded secret and should not be known outside of maybe 50 people. With Bud's passing most of the people with knowledge, outside of the people in this meeting, work for me now. Your identities are one of the world's best kept secrets. With all that I know at this time I believe this may be an inside job." As he said it Eagleton watched for reactions. No one flinched; all showed shock at the thought.

"Inside job?" said 3 of the remaining 7. Lourdes continued, "Who would do such a thing? We give our people a lot. Who would gain the most from these deaths?"

"Well, I would gain from Bud's death, of course," said Eagleton, "I would not be leading this group without him gone."

"Yes, yes, Eagleton," said Aiah, looking at each member on his monitors, "we realize that you could be someone that gains. But you have also lost a great deal. We all know how close you two were. Please get your people on this and let me know how things are going."

Aiah focused on the group monitors for the remaining Ten now. "My friends, Eagleton and I will work through this and find out who could be doing such a thing. The mix of the dead is a mystery. The Ten that are dead were Security, IT, and Media. The members of the C6 that died were not in those direct down lines. I do not see a pattern yet, but we will work through this and keep you informed."

The group was calming down with a new leader in charge as the door opened behind Kalibi Keita, the Banking, Finance, and Markets expert from Nigeria, Africa. "Sorry to interrupt!" said Tau Birri, special assistant to the Keita, "we may have an issue. I have just been asked to pass on that a Run may have been started, but it appears to have started part way through."

"What run?" asked Aiah.

"The Yen; and it appears to have started part way through with the blog, creating trades and dropping the value. No pre-blog work was completed to profit from the move."

"What the hell is going on around here?" Aiah yelled, "who would know this stuff?"

## Chapter 8

### 2018

After her visit to see Jonathan, Melanie returned to her hotel room. She thought back on their relationship that summer in 1986. It had all begun so innocently.

It was a friendly offer, "want to get a cup of coffee", John said? That's how it started, even though neither knew it at the time; just two people who hated to go on break by themselves. They did meet each afternoon to discuss Melanie's research but this was different, this was in the morning prior to their meetings. The company had a wonderful break area that looked out over the river. They ran into each other in the lunch room on occasion but this was the start of planned get-togethers, and the start of a friendship.

Melanie was sexy in a way that the moment she came into a room every man noticed her. Her dimensions were athletic; six-foot, 128 pounds with a face that almost made men blush when she looked at them. She knew how to take care of herself and took pride in it. She didn't have all the best stuff, but she made the ordinary look fabulous. She could make a snow suit and parka look sexy! Her personality was innocence mixed with a confident air. She had done nothing in life up to this point but she appeared like she could handle anything life through at her. Incredibly, she did not see herself as sexy; too tall, her nose was too big, and in her mind her feet were huge! She was a religious person and had a strong moral base.

John was six-foot two and fit at 205 pounds. He was an avid walker and enjoyed a game of golf each Thursday afternoon. His golf game both calmed him and frustrated him, both of which could probably be explained by the four or five drinks he would have on the front nine. It took a few holes to relax and then he would over-relax and start spraying the ball all over the place. He was happily married and was a deacon at his church.

They talked about life, good and bad.

"I was talking to one of my girlfriends last night and I wish I was home for the summer. They are at the beach or on boats all day, relaxing, partying, meeting people," Melanie said.

"Is that really what you want? Asked John

"Well yea, who wouldn't want to be able to party and not have a care in the world?"

"Sounds like fun to me, why aren't you there? If that is really what you want, why not leave now."

"Leave here, give up my internship?"

John smiled, "sounds to me like you have exactly what you really want. Have you ever thought that they are running around trying to find themselves because they don't know what they want?"

Their conversations engaged her in a way no one had ever done before. They were discussions, sharing, and eventually intimate conversations.

John wondered what kind of boyfriend would allow her to be a few hundred miles away and not see her. They had not been together since she started.

John was reserved about his personal life. He covered the basics; wife, one grown son; but mostly they talked about their lives when they were both young.

They started making sure they went on break together. They spent the whole time talking about their lives. John shared that his given name was Jonathan and Melanie decided to use it. They discussed what they wanted, what would be fun. They enjoyed their time together and eventually it moved to flirting. It was like the rest of the world disappeared when they were together. The positive emotional and physical reactions were growing stronger.

She started dressing for him. Every morning trying to find something that would please him. If he complemented something it went into the special side of the closet so that she remembered that it was one of the items he liked.

He would spend his free time thinking about things to talk to her about. Practicing certain things to make sure he could give her advice in an off-the-cuff way that was well thought out and planned. He wanted to please her, to help her, and needed her be impressed by him.

They eventually grew their relationship into an intense game of intimacy where each let the other in far enough to feel the excitement of being intimate, but not far enough to feel that they were doing anything wrong. Like a drug, the need for more led them to deeper and deeper intimacy. The withdrawals for both began to be extreme. It was almost a bi-polar feeling, extreme joy followed by extreme loneliness. They lived for work, to be near each other. Eventually the game of "let you in" turned to talk of sex. Both pushed the envelope. They shared stories of their first, their most public, and even discussed their preferences. All of their discussions happening at work, never in a place where anything would or could happen.

When he traveled he used to call her during the day. He remembered how it did not matter what they talked about – just that she "gave good phone". She was a joy to talk to. Just normal conversations came across as happy, giggly, a little naughty but in a flirty kind of way. It was safe intimacy, or so he thought

The closest they ever got to being physical was at a company get-together at a local pub on July 28th, 1986. They eventually ended up playing pool together after a few drinks. He played pretty well and she was horrible. After she lost the second game she started showing off to distract him and eventually she started pushing him as he was ready to shoot. Physical touching had begun.

"Hey, I'm concentrating here. Not an easy thing to do with you dancing around like that!"

"Oh, poor Jonathan," Melanie said, taunting him, "Would you shoot already?"

The touching heated up and eventually led to a full body hug. The electricity between them was intense; the eye contact was magical. Both felt like the other could see inside them, right into their very souls. Two bodies responded to the passion, yearning for more. Both held the hug too long and then recoiled away, knowing what they wanted was forbidden.

The result was a terrible awkwardness, but a knowing if things were different this would have happened with great passion. A decision process was going on inside both of them. Let's do this! This is wrong. John thought about his work, his wife, his church. This could ruin him, but she was so worth it! Melanie wanted him so bad, but did not want to be a home wrecker. "I have had a great time, but I do need to go," said Jonathan, holding back his yearning for her.

"Already?" She asked, "I'm just getting warmed up!"

"No, I really need to get home. I will see you in the office tomorrow." Jonathan said as he made a hasty retreat.

Melanie practiced her pool playing, as most of the men in the room watched. Eventually she went back to her room and called her boyfriend to talk.

The hug turned out to be a deal changer for both of them. John's yearning became like a need for drugs. He wanted to touch her, to care for her, to have her touch him. She couldn't get him out of her mind. She wondered what his caress would be like, how he would feel in her arms for real. The "let you in" games that used to be flirty and fun started to escalate too fast, and quickly became painful, because they wanted it to lead to something. They started to find reasons not to go to breaks together. The afternoon meetings turned into strictly work, no small talk. It wasn't that they were mad at each other, but niceties had a way of getting out of control. When the group went out, John went home. It was as if both had rejected the other and it hurt. After a period of time they would think it had passed; only to have one of them step over a boundary that made them both uncomfortable.

Forbidden fruit, a big enough bite to cause a yearning, a desire that could not be quenched. A love that would haunt them both, and last a lifetime. Melanie left in the fall, never to return.

## Chapter 9

### 2018

Melanie felt the nerves grow as she got closer to the U.S. Bank location that Jonathan's note had sent her to. A safe deposit box was located there in her name with copies of enough dirt on the MMG to keep them in line and her alive. There was also a file in some cloud on the Internet for her to access as well; so well hidden they will never find it, at least according to Jonathan's note. She didn't appreciate his note saying the "and her alive part", she would not be at risk if he would not have brought her into this.

Prior to coming to the bank she had bought some navy nursing scrubs, as he had instructed her; he noted that one of the best ways to disappear around the Mayo clinic area was to look like a nurse on lunch. She was not sure she believed anyone was really watching, but she was going to error on the side of caution until she saw the evidence. The safe deposit box was in her name; that made her feel better. If they were watching him they could know about her, and may think that he had passed information along, but hopefully they had not figured out who she was yet.

As she got out of the cab she started looking around for people in cars reading newspapers, "seen to many movies, Melanie", she said under her breath with a laugh. She gave the cabbie enough money to cover so he would wait for her. At the front desk she asked for the Safe Deposit Box area and was lead to the basement. The attendant took her back, helped her access the box, and left her alone. As she opened the box she fell back in amazement. There were piles of cash, a passport, cell phone, tablet/laptop, credit and debit cards, and a Minnesota driver's license with her picture on it sporting a new identity. As she dug deeper she found a set of instructions on how to move forward, some envelopes calling out packet numbers, and folder after folder of what she assumed to be detailed information about the planning and results of world changes. She quickly opened a folder named 1973 Gas Crisis and it showed amazing detail on how it supposedly started and how the MMG prepared for and executed a plan to exploit the changes. Knowing when it would happen, and how the economy would change, they had an unfair advantage and had cleaned up. There was even an end report showing what they planned and how close they came to being right.

She came back to reality and realized she needed to get out of there. There was a large duffle bag in the deposit box that she used to stuff everything into. She put her real ID and credit cards back into the Safe Deposit box, as instructed. She was not comfortable with this, but did as instructed.

As she came out of the bank and was getting into her taxi she noticed that an empty dark blue GMC Canyon pickup was parked back a few blocks – boy, it's amazing how you can have a run of seeing similar vehicles at times; she missed her husband very much.

Once in the cab she pulled out Jonathan's instruction sheet.

Do not return to your hotel, go to The Abby at Viola Suites, you have a townhome rented in your new name, and they are expecting you. Register under the new identity and use the new credit card to confirm the room. Have the tailor listed in a future packet come and make you some new clothes. The kitchen is stocked with food, if you need something call the delivery service listed in a future packet - do not go out until you have completed the enclosed packets, or one of the packets tells you to go out. Do not do anything you would normally do as yourself, do not contact anyone, unless I tell you to, and do not return to your old hotel room. Once you get settled in the townhouse open the next packet. You are only in danger if you do not follow my instructions. Once you get through the next week you will be free to be yourself or carry on using the new identity.

"The Abby at Viola Suites driver", she said as she leafed through the bag. More money than she could even get close to counting, 10 – 12 packets, as Jonathan had called them. Each numbered, each calling out not to open them until she was ready for that number packet. "The Abby at Viola Suites," said the driver, as they pulled up to the office at Viola Suites.

She entered the office and noticed a display that explained that The Abby at Viola Suites furnished suites, townhomes and single family homes for short term rental only 2 miles from the Mayo Clinic system. She was thinking about how Jonathan planned all this for her, as she made her way to the front desk. "Can I help you?" the receptionist said, startling Melanie. "Yes thanks, my name is, ah, Heather Canon. I have a townhome rented here." She looked around to make sure no one had followed her, or pulled in after her taxi had left. There was no sign of anyone following her; and there was no dark blue GMC Canyon Pickup; get a grip, she thought to herself, get a grip.

"Ms. Canon, we are so glad you finally made it", said the lady behind the desk, "the townhome was reserved months ago but we have been expecting you for two weeks! The refrigerator and freezer have been filled as requested."

"Yes, yes", Melanie said, trying to gain her composure, "I, ah, I have been delayed". Months ago, two weeks late, thought Melanie, how long had Jonathan been planning this? "I wish the circumstance were different but I am so glad Viola Suites is here. The refrigerator has been filled? When did you get orders to fill the fridge and freezer?"

"Your assistant called 3 days ago and ordered it"

"Thank you", said Melanie, trying to stay in the moment, "thank you very much."

There were a few people milling around outside but no one seemed to notice her. They all had the look of being in Rochester because they were sick, visiting someone that was, or business people that probably sold product to the clinic system. She felt bad for the little girl that had was getting into a car with a bandana on her head; cancer sure is an uncaring and cruel foe.

The townhouse was a block away and, since the area was fairly remote, she decided to walk. As she came around the corner she saw the building and it looked fabulous. Inside there were 3 floors, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, a fully stocked kitchen, and the cupboards in the bathroom and kitchen were full of daily need items. There was a big screen TV in the living area and in each bedroom. The freezer had meat, frozen pizza, and a bag of ice, and the refrigerator was stocked like someone was planning on cooking. There were 8 different types of pasta in the cupboards, all from a specialty store in Minneapolis. She would be able to stay here for a week, maybe two, if needed. It was then she remembered that this was not a vacation. She sighed deeply, sat down, and opened up the first packet from the safe deposit box.

If you are following my instructions you are now in the townhome, thank you. Over the next week I will prove to you that what I have told you is true. You will be conducting a Run that will prove that I have been involved in controlling world events. A Run is a preplanned series of events that start with a single activity; that will cascade down different avenues without the participants being aware they are affecting world events. One call or activity normally starts the process. The rest is hypothesized down to the last detail, knowing how the world will react. There are people watching for the activity, like you watched for things during your internship. The knowledge of the activity starting will be picked up by members of the 60, who will start their own Run by following the preplanned instructions they have been given. They do not know what started the bigger Run, only that they are to watch for the signs and start theirs when the activity happens. More on this in a later packet.

I am bringing in a second person to help you. His name is Jeremy Mist. He interned for me a couple years after you did. Jeremy and I have been in contact for about a year now and he currently knows about as much about this as you do. He has been on my personal payroll for that year and I have had him watching you since you came to Rochester to make sure you remained safe. During Jeremy's internship, the MMG determined he was someone that was too idealistic to allow in to the 600. He has spent the last 20 years as an investigative lawyer/detective, working to help people that are victims of financial fraud. He helped expose some of the Ponzi schemes that were in place in 2008 and 2009 and came back into my view as he investigated some of the more recent market Runs I have put together.

Use the cell phone I supplied and call Jeremy at the number provided. He is close by and will come over to help you.

Melanie was not so sure about this. She had no idea who this person was. Reluctantly, she called and he was on his way. As she looked out the window a dark blue GMC Canyon pickup pulled up.

Jeremy was six foot, about 20 pounds overweight, and his hair was thinning up front. At 50 his look still commanded attention. He was handsome with look of a rich older man that golfed a lot. He walked like an athlete, bounded the steps and rang the bell.

"Hi, my name is Melanie, er Heather, DAMN!".

"Hi", he said with a smile, "my name is Jeremy Mist. John has told me a great deal about you, Melanie, er Heather. He cared for you very much."

"Yes, well, he has put me at risk, changed my identity, and has me in hiding. In addition, he has brought a total stranger into my life to help and protect me. I am not sure how much that shows caring. If he had just left me alone I would've been just fine." She was upset that he had teased her; she was going through enough without his showing up and being an ass.

A smile creased Jeremy's lips, "yes, well, there is that, I guess. He asked me to watch you to be sure you were ok. Sorry for the secrecy but he wanted it that way until you called me. My watching you gave me the opportunity to come to the rescue if needed," he said. "Can I come in?"

Melanie let him in. Boy, she was steamed at Jonathan, how could he put her in this position?

"Can I get you anything?" Melanie asked, not really wanting to be nice.

"Actually, how about if I make you something as we get acquainted? I know you just got here and I love to cook. Come with me to the kitchen?"

Melanie followed him in. She was glad he liked to cook. She could make most things but did not like cooking and was just as comfortable with a box of mac and cheese.

Jeremy liked fine food and had spent a lifetime learning to cook. He believed in the cooking power of real butter, bacon, pork fat, assorted cheeses and top quality pasta. Many people wonder why everything tastes better at a good restaurant; Jeremy had done his research and knew why. As an investigative lawyer Jeremy had made a good living and spent it taking cooking lessons from some of the best chefs in the world. He pulled out some fresh vegetables and cheeses from the fridge. He knew what was there – he had called the office to order the food. He knew he was coming over and so he ordered what he needed to cook his favorites. If we are going to be locked in here together, he figured they just as well enjoy themselves. "Pasta ok" he asked.

"Sure", Melanie said, with her mind still going round and round.

As Jeremy was juicing the tomatoes, eggplant, and other vegetables to make his signature pasta sauce, he asked, "so, you interned with John also?"

"Yes, apparently a couple years before you did."

"I understand you actually found information on one of the things they had you watching for, is that true?" Jeremy asked.

"Yes, yes I did. Do you know what is going on here?"

"Some" Jeremy said. "but I am not sure I believe all John told me. He said he has been the lone person holding back a huge organized group that has control of many parts of the world. He called it the Mastermind Group, or MMG for short. Said it is made up of 600 of the world's elite, the best of the best. All controlled by a few people with world domination on their mind. An organization so secret that the people that are helping them have no idea they are doing anything bad. He compared it to an assembly line where each person does a small amount of work to create a very large item. If they did not work side by side, but instead worked in cyber space, they could work to create something and have no idea of the end result. Apparently John has something on the group and has threatened to expose the whole thing if they continue to do assassinations or make large global change. He said he would prove it to me but that time never came."

"I think it's here now," said Melanie, "I emptied the contents of a safe deposit box at the bank today; it's on the coffee table. Did he tell you they killed JFK? There is also a file in there about the 1987 Black Monday market crash. It started in Hong Kong, I was watching for information on it a year prior to it happening!"

"Really! What else have you learned?"

Meal preparation took a back seat to looking at the contents of the safe deposit box. Unlike Melanie, Jeremy enjoyed looking through the information and seeing what they were going to do. She did not want to admit it, but she was glad he was here. Maybe he could take care of this for her and she could return to her life again.

"This is unbelievable!" Jeremy exclaimed, "there's a packet in here about Nixon and Agnew. They were trying to stop Nixon from "Peace with Honor" but had to delay to get rid of Agnew first. They wanted the war to continue but were more afraid of Agnew as president. They created the Watergate incident, Nixon got caught covering it up because he was trying to figure out what was going on! They assassinated JFK, got LBJ to escalate the war and build "The great Society", all things they could profit from, but then Johnson got out of control. They used their military and media connections to discredit him, to ruin him, and then sat back and watched as he told the nation "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."

"Do you really believe any of this?" Melanie asked.

Ignoring her, Jeremy went on. "The gas crisis, Black Monday in 1987, two Tech Bubbles, Iran Contra, even Japan's lost decade. Could any of this be true? The John I knew wasn't crazy, and who would write all this unless it were true?"

"We need to look at the next packet" Melanie said. "Jonathan said we need to work through all of them this week."

In a minute," Jeremy said. "I just want to get some detail on the 2010 Market Flash Crash. I investigated this for 3 years after it happened, trying to pin the losses on someone. Unbelievable! The knowledge to create one small instance that cascades throughout the whole market, and then knowledge to exploit it, this stuff is genius."

"We need to look at the next packet!" Melanie yelled.

"OK, ok, I'll open it."

The packet contained a letter from Jonathan.

You are now together, ready to assist each other as I prove what I have told you and supplied to you is real. Many of the case study overviews you may have read have been assembled by me over the years. Early on I was involved in what I thought was a hypothetical Think Tank that worked to prepare for changes in world events. We worked on hundreds of projects about some of the craziest things you could imagine. By the time I realized some of my plans were coming true I was too deeply involved to do anything about it. When I brought my concerns to my professor I was shown evidence that would have convicted me of multiple crimes where I had worked on what I thought were hypothetical projects but the evidence would appear to show me with knowledge of the coming events, including pre-knowledge of the Kennedy assassination. I did not know of the assassination prior to it happening, but one of our projects was to calculate the world change to such an event. With no way to prove the reasoning behind it, my work would appear to have been done with knowledge of the coming event. It was also explained to me that they controlled the Warren Commission, the Dallas Police Department and the media. My options were to stay and continue, or to die. I was a coward and decided to live.

The death of Bobby Kennedy changed my life. I personally believed in him and what he could have done with this great country. He had been to the top, as attorney general for his brother, had lost everything, even his conviction that they were doing the right thing, and had fought back to become a new and better person. He appeared to be the right person at the right time in history. There are many moments were the world needs a leader, but the times are scarce where the true needed leader is available. The murder of Bobby Kennedy made me realize that I needed to stop the group from ever doing anything like this again. I did not have prior knowledge, nor do I have proof the MMG killed him, but it sure looked and sounded like what we had become.

I doubled my efforts to gain responsibility so I could have enough power to limit the scope of the MMG black ops division. I became the lead Run planner in 1969. I planned and started most Runs from that moment on. I was one of only a handful of people that knew of the plan, and the only one to have full knowledge of all involved. Our Dubuque location was set up as the world planning center. We had all the best communications equipment but we stayed out of sight and away from any investigators. The first big Run that I used to cement my hold on the MMG, so I could keep a lid on their black ops group, was the 1973 gas crisis. As I planned the gas crisis, I planned a Run on the MMG as well. My plan was to document MMG involvement to such a level that they would be totally exposed down to the smallest member, devastating the group and putting at least 150 people in jail. Much like they did to me, I would creatively work to get proof of senior leadership involvement, true or not.

I tell the both of you this because the control of the group is something I need to be alive to do. I had multiple delivery vehicles that would spread the news if I met with some type of accident. As I came close to death I realized that if I died the Run would start causing worldwide chaos; or, I could stop the Run, but then the hold I had would no longer be in place. I needed to transfer the control to someone I could trust, or in this case two people I trust. I have brought you together to keep the world safe in my absence.

Your next step is to get the attention of the MMG, and confirm the transfer of the information from me to you. This will be accomplished by a Run you will start today and monitor over the next three days. You will start this run by posting a social media message that is being watched for by an intern in India. The intern will pass the information on to her boss and she will open a packet that has been provided. In the packet are instructions for her to blog a story about a bubble on the Japanese Yen appearing to be near its peak, which will cause the collapse of the Japanese Yen. This story will be picked up by 6 other interns in the financial industry, who will tell their bosses and create a sell off, making the blog true. I am estimating that you should see a 6 - 8% drop in the value of the Yen over the next 2 days. This will be driven by the MMG members selling off Yen and then rebuying 48 hours later. By the end of the week the Yen will be up 4 to 6% over where it was when this started. This should prove to you that what I am telling you is real. The place to watch all of this unfold is currencytraderworld.com. The site will give you up to the minute news about the fluctuations and show the trading volume. The volume will blip up at the beginning, you will then see an explosion in trading as market stop losses are breached. There will be a short period of inactivity, then a small gain in volume, as the individual investors sell off, which will continue to the end of the second day. Then the pattern will reverse as MMG starts buying, creating a frenzy of activity as everyone tries to take advantage of the increase. The lady that wrote the blog, which I wrote for her, will be heralded as the next world currency guru and will get TV time from the MMG media. She will explain how she saw this coming, which helps cover the fact it was planned and execute. There will be an outcry of concern that will last a few days but since an expert predicted it, and our media will explain it, the outcry will be short lived.

As all of this is happening, an intern in San Diego will see the blog and will alert his boss. The boss will open a packet that has 2 mailers to be mailed out. One will go to the current leaders of the MMG, the other will be sent to you at your current location. The MMG will receive detailed information about the run you will have started along with confirmation that the incriminating evidence has been passed to you, and they will be informed of my impending death. You will receive a packet to confirm the run worked. The packet will contain information on where all the incriminating evidence is held, and instruction on how to manage the MMG. The control you will have over the MMG will keep the world from the chaos the black ops group could create.

Please open the small envelope that was in this packet and go to the listed web page, sign in using the enclosed password. Find an article titled RAGBRI, biking across Iowa 2018, forward the article to the addresses supplied with the login you use. This is the beginning of the Run. Then sit back and be amazed at the power of the MMG. A power you now have the reins to.

Jeremy got on the computer that had been supplied, logged into the Internet, and followed the orders that had been laid out. They looked at each other with overwhelmed eyes, scared that what they were doing was real, that their lives would change forever.

"I am still not sure I believe all if this" Jeremy said. "John did not seem like the kind of person that would have been involved in all of this. We shall see what happens" he said, as he walked off to the kitchen to finish the pasta he had started.

On the other side of the world Xylia Rupesh couldn't believe it! She had been searching for information for months and had found nothing. She had wondered why the company she worked for was even paying her, since she could not seem to find any of the information they were looking for, but now here it was. She had received a social media message about RAGBRAI, the Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. She had no idea why she was waiting for information about some bicycle ride in a place called Iowa in the United States, but she needed to pass it along immediately. She ran down the hall to her boss's office.

Arora Buatti held a corner office in the Bandra-Kurla Complex in a Mumbai suburb. Mumbai, also known as Bombay, is the capital city in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The area is the second most populous area in India and fifth most populous in the world. Mumbai lies on the west coast of India and, because of the deep natural harbors, is a major seaport on the Arabian Sea. Mumbai is the wealthiest city in India and has a higher gross domestic product of any city in South, West, or Central Asia.

Arora Buatti was an up-and-coming investment banker that had made a name for herself by always being on the leading edge of Asian emerging markets. In addition, she had been lucky enough to find a mentor that seemed to be able to foresee changes in regards to world manufacturing, supply chain management, as well as precious metals. This specialized knowledge had made her wealthy and highly respected. Her mentor had her attend a networking event once a year and the leads she got from networking at the event had made her business grow exponentially. She had a blog that was followed by some of the world's biggest investors and when she discussed Asian emerging markets there were discussions in boardrooms all over the world.

Her mentor had recently enlisted her in a special project. She had been instructed to hire an intern and have that intern watch for news of certain world events. If one of the things happened she had written instructions on what she needed to do. Not only had she been asked to bring on the intern but she was being compensated well for doing it. As the business owner she was able to bring on the intern to repay her mentor for the help she had received.

Buatti had spent days working on an investment opportunity that was just down the street from her location. Mumbai was a great place to be an investment banker, there was so much happening. She was deep in thought when she was startled as her door flew open.

"RAGBRAI!" shouted Xylia, "RAGBRAI!"

## Chapter 10

John Bettle sat in his oversized leather chair in his home office in Chicago crying. The day was June 7, 1968. Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy had been shot shortly after midnight June 5th in Los Angeles California, after winning the California primary election for President of the United States. Kennedy was shot shortly after a late night victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel. He would die 26 hours later. The person arrested was Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian immigrant.

There were not a lot of other details at the time but Bettle was sick with grief. He believed Bobby Kennedy would have righted a country that was seeing the incumbent president, Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) stepping down due to social unrest, riots, and widespread protests against the Military action in Vietnam; along with the entrance of Kennedy into the race. Kennedy, LBJs nemesis, had declared his candidacy on March 16, 1968 and LBJ backed out March 31st of the same year.

Bettle worked for an organization that had turned ugly. While he was not directly involved on the black ops side, he was told that the organization had orchestrated the killing of President John F Kennedy (JFK) on November 23, 1963. JFK was Bobby's older brother. While Bettle had no proof of their involvement in Bobby's death, this certainly looked like something the organization could have done.

Bettle was a lead strategist of a Think Tank for an organization that called themselves The MMG. A Mastermind Group established in the 50's to make the world a better place; at least that was the original goal. Bettle's job was to devise plans to take advantage of, and profit from, world events prior to them happening. To see what would be needed as the exploration of space took off, to seek new innovations in the arms race, the cold war, and to predict the growing needs of oil and other precious metals. He had a team of the worlds-best; hand-picked by professors across the globe, to assist him and provide him intelligence in their personal fields of expertise.

As his responsibility grew in the early 60's, his group was tasked with creating scenarios to show how the world would respond to fictitious world events as training exercises. What would happen if there was a coup in the Soviet Union, if Israel was attacked, if OPEC would stop selling oil, if the North Vietnamese conducted a raid on a US Navy craft, and, one of the many exercises was, what would happen if President Kennedy was assassinated? All of these were exercises for his team, they were not meant to be taken as real potential events.

As some of the fictitious events started to happen across the globe he became suspicious about whether the MMG was actually making some of these scenarios come to be. Most of his projections were about profiting from the world events. If this happened, how would the market react? Who would step in and what changes could they expect.

After the JFK assassination he had exploded with anger! He would not be a part of an organization that would kill a president! He quit, but was picked up and taken into a meeting with the leadership. They showed him the research he had done prior to the assassination, calling out how the world would change – proof, they said, that he had been involved in all of it. He remembered the sinking feeling he had as they blackmailed him. He had no recourse except to continue his duties or die, they said.

They explained that they recruited the killers, drugged them, and brainwashed them. They controlled the investigation team, had insiders in government agencies that made evidence disappear, and they controlled the access to the media. Killers! he remembered thinking, killers – plural. The leadership explained they had created a mind altering drug that would make a person hyper-sensitive to suggestion. Allowing them to brain-wash people to do what they wanted.

The few days after Bobby Kennedy had died Bettle was wondering about life; maybe it was time for his to end. He had bought a gun and it was in his desk drawer. He planned detailed step-by step events every day, why could he not figure out now what to do with his own life? He felt like he was disconnected from his former self, almost like watching things happen from the outside. Inside he felt hollow, listless, and empty, as if all the joy in his life had been removed.

He would spend months deliberating what he was going to do. A plan was developing where he would compile enough evidence to turn the tables on the leadership. He would get proof they killed Kennedy, details of how it was done, and then blackmail them right back. He could not go to the cops with his information so he needed another vehicle to make it happen.

He came up with a way to usher in world change without anyone knowing how it happened; a domino effect of activity, one event driven by the previous, then the one affecting the next. Manufacturing firms were using a similar concept with the assembly line. With Bettle's invention, one phone call to one person would set off activity to a few, then the few would call many, and the many would act per instruction. To get people to blindly take action without ever mentioning what happened was his next issue. How do you get people to do something without questioning, understanding they cannot tell anyone, ever, and to have them endeared to you at the same time?

"So you can see," Bettle would explain to the MMG leadership, "by creating avenues for the members to grow in their respected fields, and providing them with market tips to make them wealthy, we can create a situation where they will help us as needed. In addition, we will let it be known that they cannot discuss any of it because they have been given a special gift that no one else needs to be aware of."

"This next slide represents a basic Run. Once in place, the Run is started by making one phone call. The call recipient will alert others to open their packets of instructions and process the needed action. The Run would start with one action, cascading down though multiple connections to people who create the needed actions. No one on the Run would know what they affected; just that they did what they were told."

Bettle turned to the leaders and said, "there are hundreds, if not thousands of MMG people across the globe. To make this happen I needed access to all of them." As he explained the Run process to the leadership group they liked it and he was granted access to the members.

The plan continued to grow, revenge was in sight. Bettle devised a few Runs, using some people he knew might have information on some of the MMG's most notorious actions, including the John Kennedy assassination. His goal was to tell them to buy into something that would skyrocket in value, and then later come back for information as a payback. As he furthered his plan he decided to get the MMG leadership involved as well. He would document everything, who was involved, who did what, and who profited. They would put plans in place to manipulate the markets in ways no one could trace, let people in on it prior to it happening, and then start the Run. The leadership would get detail to the Run, but not all of it. Bettle would create Runs inside the Runs to further his own cause. Once he got the needed proof of the involvement of the leadership team he would blackmail them to stop the black ops group from any further assassinations. This would also keep him alive.

As Bettle detailed out the 1960's he created a file. This file would be the beginning of his hold on the MMG. The future additions would be easier; he would have first-hand knowledge from now on.

The 1960s ushered in unprecedented change in the United States, and the MMG was at the forefront, good and bad. Advances needed for the development of space travel created innovation in electronics, engineering, transportation, and led to a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

The first wave of the baby boom generation was coming of age. The baby boomers were not willing to "follow the rules" like their parents and openly rebelled against authority. Instead of accepting life as it was, they went searching for more. Illegal drugs, Rock and Roll, protesting, all became a normal part of life. The vastness of the baby boom generation and the need for drugs created a huge demand that drew thousands of people, and the MMG, into the drug trade. The MMG would give away marijuana, LSD, and mushrooms at parties and events. Hundreds of MMG people all over the country chasing the next great party to give away free drugs. The goal was to lock people in, create a network, and supply the illegal drugs for profit.

The fear of nuclear war was allowed to grow into a frenzy. The cold war was intentionally made uglier by the MMG so they could capitalize on their control of the bomb making industries. The MMG also created many items that would be used in a nuclear fallout shelter.

While these items would be driven in part by the MMG, they would be seen as signs of the times and very hard to prove. The list that Bettle put together that follows, however, shows some of the major events of the 60's that the MMG was involved in. The list was created by research Bettle had conducted by using bribes, blackmail, and luck. With the items on the list he had established detailed, undeniable proof of MMG involvement, including names.

1963

On October 11th 1963 John Kennedy signs National Security Memorandum No. 263 to start the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam by 1965. After his assassination, this order would be rescinded by LBJ, as LBJ moved to escalate the war.

Bettle includes proof of MMG activity in supplying arms to both sides of the conflict. This order signed by Kennedy would cripple sales, which created motivation for his next item.

He had personally been told that the MMG had killed JFK. They recruited the killers, brainwashed them, had them execute the act, and then they had one of the assassins killed, in public, on TV. No one could find any evidence, since it had been removed, except for what was found about Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby was blackmailed and told when to show up at the Dallas Police station, where to locate, and a diversion was created to allow him in. Ruby actually had been contacted multiple times, and made multiple trips to the police station, looking for the opportunity, before shooting Oswald in the basement.

Ruby said he was on a drug for his nervous system. Bettle's research shows it was laced with an MMG brainwashing drug.

Ruby later said "Everything pertaining to what's happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts of what occurred, my motives. The people who had so much to gain, and had such an ulterior motive for putting me in the position I'm in, will never let the true facts come above board to the world." When asked by a reporter, "Are these people in very high positions, Jack?" he responded "Yes.

Ruby was injected with an MMG created drug that would cause massive cancer growth and he was dead within a few years.

Kennedy was killed because he considered backing down in Vietnam. LBJ moves into the White House, his advisors, associated with the MMG, get him to move in directions the MMG wants. It would not take long for the MMG to regret putting him in power. A campaign was begun to discredit his presidency; he must not be reelected. A Republican named Nixon would be their guy.

1964

In an effort to escalate the Vietnam War, the MMG had operatives attack the U.S.S Turner Joy using mocked up North Vietnamese PT boats. On August 5th LBJ orders Seventh Fleet carrier aircraft to attack military targets in North Vietnam in retaliation. On August 7th LBJ and Congress approve the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which prepares the way for massive buildup of US involvement and gives LBJ unlimited power to conduct war.

1965

February 21, 1965, Malcom X is assassinated. Exactly who shot Malcom X, and why, was being publicly debated, but Bettle knew who it actually was.

August – U.S. sends ground troops to Da Nang Vietnam.

1967

Australian Prime Minister disappears while swimming. This is MMG driven as he was not the person the MMG thought he was when they helped get him elected to office. He had only been Prime Minister for 22 months.

June 5 -10 The Six-Day War. The MMG had worked to create instability in and around Israel; hoping things would escalate so they could sell arms. Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq finally joined forces and staged for an attack on Israel. The MMG alerted Israel and Israel attacked the air forces of all 3 countries, incapacitating them. Israel was then able to defeat the army ground forces, prior to a UN cease fire being put into effect.

The MMG created rioting, protests, anti-war media campaigns and had their media cover it; LBJ didn't have a chance.

1968

Bettle's ongoing investigation never did come up with anything on Robert Kennedy's death. The Bobby Kennedy file showed some interesting facts. The fact that Sirhan Sirhan claimed he had been framed, there appeared to be too many gun shots on the audio tape for the number of bullets in his gun, that he never seemed to be close enough to Kennedy to have shot him from an inch away, leaving powder marks, were just the beginning.

Kennedy had been diverted through the kitchen at the last second; anyone looking for him would have been elsewhere. He appeared to have been lead to his execution.

Sirhan Sirhan was a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship, born in Jerusalem. He killed Bobby Kennedy on the one year anniversary of the Six Day War. Killing Bobby Kennedy had become an obsession as indicated in a diary found in Sirhan's home. It called for the killing prior to June 5, 1968. Sirhan hated Kennedy for his support of Israel and had planned the killing for some time. After his conviction, Sirhan is said to have had no memory of the crime.

There is also evidence that there were others involved. A young woman, wearing a polka-dot skirt, was seen running with a man calling out "we shot Kennedy!" The police reports dismissed this evidence.

As 1968 ended Bettle was about ready to blackmail the MMG leadership. He needed to get it out prior to the leadership discovering his actions. Just a few more details were needed.

## Chapter 11

### 2018

Arora Buatti was started as her door flew open.

"RAGBRAI!" shouted Xylia, "RAGBRAI!"

"RAGBRAI? Really?"

"Yes, I got the message just now! I wanted to let you know right away!" Xylia handed her boss a copy of the message she had received.

"Thank you Xylia. I will take things from here."

Arora couldn't believe this was happening. She had been told that there was very little chance of anything happening but that it was imperative that if the message was received that she would pass along the message in the way she was instructed. Instruction came in a sealed envelope that was only to be opened if the RAGBRAI message appeared. No communication with her mentor was allowed, just follow the instructions. All of the sudden she was a little uncomfortable to be a part of this process without knowing what was happening. What if it was illegal or dangerous? How can she be sure she would not regret this? Arora pulled the sealed packet from her briefcase and used the bronze Rudgear Merle Letter Opener her mentor had given her to open the packet.

Inside there were details to a blog she was to post immediately. In the past her mentor would call at times to discuss events that were happening in the Asian corridor, which she would use for her blogs, but she had never received anything like this. She was being asked to publish a blog about a bubble and coming collapse in the Japanese Yen. Certainly she had seen the bubble growing, and had even commented on it in a previous blog, but to use her blog to predict an eminent collapse? That seemed wrong somehow. Then again, she had discussed it already, and doing it again would not be outside of her normal writing. She owed her mentor a great deal; she would not be a world figure without that connection. She read the blog.

Welcome, this blog is written with great concern. The Japanese Yen appears to be in peril. After 3 years of steady growth it appears that the Yen is being intentionally weakened. Market conditions show a Yen vs. the Dollar shift, with the dollar about to move up and the Yen set to lose. This pattern appears to be driven by the Japanese government hoping to improve exports. The falling value of the Yen would improve Japanese exports in the short term, slowing the trade deficit.

Word is that analysts around the world are starting to accuse the Japanese of manipulating the Yen to create an unfair advantage for the Japanese automakers. The weakened Yen could benefit Japans auto industry up to $1,200 per car. This would allow them to reduce the vehicle prices or add options to gather market share.

I believe this change will be swift.

"Wow," said Arora out loud to no one, "talk about straight forward." She had been given leads in regards to the Yen before but nothing like this. I owe him everything I am, she thought. Arora posted the blog as directed.

Nathan Quinn, along with 6 other MMG people that were watching for it, got a hit on the Arora Buatti blog they had been watching. The Yen! Nathan was an intern at one of the fastest growing firms on Wall Street. The firm seemed to have a Midas touch when it came to predicting the market. They seemed to know what to watch for and knew what to do for almost every conceivable situation. He made his way to his mentor's office and let them know of the hit.

Alder Kelly, a VP at a Forex commodity trading firm in London The ForeXLence Company, had his intern come in with news of the blog. Alder pulled a packet from his office desk and opened it. It had instructions to sell the Yen hard and fast, setting a buy back at 6% below current value. Alder had been through this before and marveled at the minds that watched and predicted this stuff, they were unbelievable. How could they possibly foresee world events happening? He passed the instructions to a team of assistants that processed trades and sat back to watch the Yen.

Jeremy and Melanie were eating when the first news hit of the Yen value crashing around the world. It had only taken 45 minutes for the first news to report the drop. Melanie felt her stomach knot up as she realized they had started this.

"I don't believe it – this is all true!" she yelled, "my God, Jeremy, they killed the Kennedys!"

On the other side of the world Arora Buatti watched in horror as the Yen crashed; had they foreseen something coming or did her blog make this happen? "You're not that powerful" Arora said under her breath. "You have seen them call the market before".

She had been given some investment advice over the years that had made her very wealthy. When the tips come you listen, her mentor had a way of being right. A knot started in her stomach as she envisioned the press stories about how she created a world event that caused people to lose everything, she had corrupted the market. The investigative agencies would start snooping around.

Her cell phone rang, it was him.

"What in the world is going on?" She yelled. "I post a blog and the market crashes within an hour? The press will crucify me!"

"Relax" he said, "You blogged about a bubble and that it may happen. Your blog did not make a trade, nor did it create the trade that starting tripping other investment firms sell orders. I was afraid you may be upset so I thought I would call."

"So, you're telling me I did not do this?"

"Of course not, you may be one of the world's leading investment bankers, specializing in the Asian markets, but your blog is not that powerful; not enough to create this type of market event. You have been watching the market, blogging that there may be a bubble in the Yen, and you let people know about it. You had no way of knowing the scope of the selloff that was coming. If you had made a trade and then wrote a piece to capitalize on the change, that may appear differently, but you did not."

They continued to talk for a few minutes and she started to calm down. There was no way her blog started a sell off on the Yen, it was something that was going to happen anyway; she had just caught a glimpse of it and wrote about it. She started to calm down; nobody will think that her blog created an instantaneous drop in the Yen.

Back in Minnesota Jeremy responded, "I can't believe this is true. I trusted John and all, but how can this be happening?"

"If this is real", said Melanie, "then the organization is real. The threat is real, and we are in terrible danger. If they can control world markets they can certainly find us. What are we going to do? Oh my god!"

"Please", said Jeremy," please," as he held his arms out trying to calm her, "we must remain calm. John put us here to make sure bad things do not happen. He will have protected us like he protected himself. We need to continue through the packets to see where this leads. Our lives depend on doing this correctly. John would not have brought you into this to see you perish."

Melanie continued her rant, "That asshole, my whole reality just changed and I didn't even get to choose a red or a blue pill. Looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life is not how I wanted to end my days. Even if we do have something on the MMG group and can keep them from doing the terrible things Jonathan says they do, they will be watching us, trying to find out where the information is, and trying to make this all go away, including us!"

Jeremy had only known Melanie for a few hours but she was starting to get on his nerves. He could not figure out why John would have included her in all this, and why would he partner them together? She did not seem like the kind of person that would handle this well. After interning she had dropped out of school, move home to Sullivan Illinois and got married. She raised kids, volunteered some, but had no real-world experience outside of her home town. To bring her into something like this seemed cruel almost, but the John Bettle he knew would not be cruel to her. John had loved this woman very much.

Melanie interrupted his thoughts again, "We need to go to the hospital and talk to Jonathan. He knew this was going to happen. Let's go and ask why he put this on us."

"No", said Jeremy, "it is not part of our instructions.

"Screw the instructions! I want to talk to him!"

Jeremy agreed, but did not want to deviate from what he knew was put in place to protect them, but this women was driving him crazy. Maybe John could talk some sense into her. He thought about it for a moment and then agreed, "Let's go ask him why we are together in this and if we can change the plan.

The trip to the hospital only took a few minutes. As they approached the room, Abigail, the nurse, came out with a puzzled look on her face but with her usual flair.

"Can I help you?" Abigail said.

"We have come to see Jonathan", Melanie said.

"Oh, my goodness", Abigail responded with a shocked look, "He passed away during the night after you left the last time. The family came and took away all of his things."

"Family?" Melanie asked, "are you sure?"

"That's what they said. They had a living will and everything."

Jeremy saw fear as Melanie looked at him.

"We need to get out of here – now!" Melanie said.

They said good-by to Abigail and walked toward the door, watching for any sign of trouble. Jeremy's detective background was on full alert. As they drove back to the townhouse he was pretty sure they were being followed. This had been a mistake, and he had known better.

Melanie was not aware of any danger; she had just lost someone she loved. She was mad she did not get to say good-by.

Two groups watched as Melanie and Jeremy exited the hospital. One sent by the MMG and one sent personally by Aiah. Both teams followed at a distance.

When they got to the townhouse Jeremy said, "Let's open the follow up envelop that was in with the instructions to forward the RAGBRAI story, we have more to do."

"I don't care what you do", she cried, "Jonathan is dead." She was scared and it was showing.

"One step at a time," Jeremy said as he opened the envelope. "One step at a time."

The envelope contained a second safe deposit key and instructions.

By now you should be seeing the Yen dropping and know that what I have told you is real. The market will drop over the next day or two and rebound back up to where it was, or better, within the week. The run you started began part way through a larger run; and this will alert the MMG that something is wrong. The original run was waiting for the Yen to bubble slightly, allow the MMG related media to pump up the Yen, maximizing the bubble. Then the RAGBRAI story would go out, creating a worldwide sell off frenzy.

One of the hidden components of the run is to have material delivered to the MMG leadership to let them know that I have passed my information on prior to my death. This will alert them to a new holder of the information and create a deterrent that should be enough to continue to hold back the black ops group. At the same time it will also let them know that my death will not ruin the organization, or throw the world into a tailspin. You can imagine what would happen if almost 700 of the world's leaders in all areas would be exposed. Do not, I repeat, do not deviate from these instructions. The next few days will be the most dangerous for you. Now is the easiest time for you to be exposed.

"Damn it", said Jeremy, "damn.

## 

## Chapter 12

In the early 1969 John Bettle had all the evidence he needed to blackmail the MMG and get them to call off the black ops group. He had pulled some favors, bribed a few people, and felt good that this journey was almost over. Soon he would be able to let the leadership know that he had proof of their involvement in over a dozen operations that had rocked world history, the kicker being the JFK assassination.

His office was on the 5th floor of an office building just outside of downtown Chicago. His team in Chicago totaled 15 people, besides himself.

As he accumulated the information needed to blackmail the MMG, he had also established a few aliases. He had cozied up to a person that created fake identities and learned that you find someone who had died, go to the court house and get a copy of a Social Security card, and then recreate the person. He established bank accounts, got drivers licenses, and even got credit cards. He also had 2 safe houses, apartments really, one in the Chicagoland area, just a short L-Train ride from his home and office. The other was in Milwaukee. Both aliases had vehicles in underground garages below the apartment buildings and he had a car under all 3 names in three different monthly-pay parking garages close to his work. He knew he was asking questions that could get him killed. He planned major events for a living, and he was trying to be ready for all possible situations that may come up.

Copies of all of his notes were in both alias locations in large wall safes he had installed. He kept nothing in the office or in his main home. He had everything ready and had just established a way for the information to get out if he would come to some unfortunate accident. He had lawyers under all 3 names that held sealed wills that would be opened at the time of his death. All would have a packet in it to be mailed to certain people that would be charged with releasing it to the media and the government. Because he had access to all MMG personnel for assistance in the Runs, he knew the names of the MMG faithful, and he knew who he could trust.

He had established moles in the MMG that fed him information in exchange for cash and favors. He was currently watching an investment manipulation Run and his two aliases' were set to make a killing. The Run would start in a few hours. Bettle decided to head down to the third floor for a birthday party that was being thrown for a friend in a different company. As the elevator opened he almost ran into Molly, the front desk receptionist. Smiling he said "Hi Molly, I am going downstairs for a few minutes. I'll be right back."

"Ok", said Molly, as she returned to her desk.

A 10 person team sent by the MMG was poised to move in. They had been tasked with taking out all of Bettle's team; all 15 people on the 5th floor must die. The team had 4 suburban vehicles. Team 1 was at Bettle's house looking for the information. Team 3 was taking a care of a person that had called in sick. Team 2 and 4 were on site with one person watching Bettle's car and one in the building lobby.

Kamar Mishra was part of Bettle's team and had called in sick. He was in his kitchen having coffee as the front door was picked. He did not hear a thing until he saw the gunman come around the corner. "What the h?" He did not get out the 'ell before the bullet took most of the back of his head off.

The team leader was prepared to move forward but needed to be sure all was prepared. "Team 1"

"Team 1 checking in, we're at Bettle's house, there is nothing here. No sign of any information, or even notes from his preparation. Nothing in the garbage. The garage is empty. This appears to be a place to sleep only. Very clean, not much in the fridge or the kitchen."

"Team three, status?" called out the leader.

"Team three, the man that called in sick was found at home, sir." Came the call from a team member that had been sent to kill Kumar Mishra. "All Is complete, but there is no information we are looking for here that I can find.

"Lobby?"

"All accounted for sir, the receptionist just returned."

"Parking ramp?"

"Ready and waiting, sir."

"Alright the remainder of team 2 and team 4, we're set to move. Drivers stay to protect the area and make sure no one gets out. We have been practicing this, we are ready to go. Everyone on the 5th floor must die, make sure they are dead! We move now!"

The team approached the building from their staging areas in the front and the back. There was a nod to the man in the front lobby; he was to stay as a look out. Another member broke off and held outside the elevator with a view of the stairway. The balance of the team moved into the elevator, armed to kill everyone on the 5th floor.

After saying hi to Molly, Bettle entered the elevator to go to the third floor. As he pushed the button he was relieved he was so close to getting this all set up. Soon we should all be safe, he thought. The elevator stopped to drop him off for the party, and then continued on its way to pick up the killers on the first floor.

As the doors opened on the 5th floor, the strike team immediately started shooting. Molly, the receptionist was first, all she got off before her death was a partial scream. All six from the strike team each got a shot off at her.

Heads popped out of offices and once the Bettle team members realized what was happening, they started to hide. The assault teams moved with precision in 2-man teams and conducted an office to office search and gradually were sure they had killed everyone on the floor.

"Head count!" yelled the leader of the killing squad.

"4," came the call from the first team of 2. 3 sir, 2 sir, 1 sir, 2 sir, 1 sir. That is only 13, Recount." A second count came up with the same number. "Verify!"

"Confirmed sir," said another operative, "only 13. Looks like the main guy is missing"

"Find him! This is not a success without him!" The leader yelled as he started to panic. This mission would be a total failure if Bettle is not killed.

"Negative," came the response. "We've torn this place apart. The rest of the floor is clean sir. There is no way he got out of the building, sir. He must be on another floor."

"We wait. Someone check the stairwell."

The phones were ringing, the team could easily be exposed if they waited too long; surely someone would come to check on things soon.

After about 10 agonizing minutes the leader determined it was time to move out. "Let's clear out. We will take him later."

The team exited the building and would need to lay in wait for Bettle to show himself.

"Jared! Happy Birthday, man!" John said surprising Jared with a quick visit during the party his workmates were throwing for his birthday.

"John! I am so glad you made it. I am glad you're here. Have some cake, man!" Jared ordered.

Jared and John had become friends; golfing buddies would be more like it. John had a regular Thursday night 4-some, he and Jared played weekends and an occasional night time round during the long June-August nights. When they golfed together they did some small talk, current events mostly. Anything that got kind of heavy would ruin the mood. They were out to just relax and enjoy the day.

John knew many of Jared's co-workers and ate cake and mingled for a while. Prior to leaving he headed back over by Jared. "The big 3-0! I remember those days!" John joked. There was actually a sizable crowd around Jared while John was there. "A toast! To one of the best hackers I know! To Jared!"

"To Jared", yelled the crowd.

"Jared," John yelled over a few people. "I need to get back. Maybe Saturday?"

"Saturday, sure. I call you/you call me!"

John waved back over his head as he headed to the elevator and rode back to the 5th floor. There was a strange smell in the elevator and he would not quite make it out. As the doors open the smell was recognized, gun powder! Molly was lying beside her desk in a pool of blood. Others were littered in the hallways. Bettle knew he had to get out. He also knew they would be watching for him.

He was still in shock and started to leave the building, not even conscious of what he was doing. As he got into the elevator he pushed floor number 1. As the elevator started to move he realized that the first floor was a mistake. He pushed 3 and returned to the 3rd floor to his friend.

John's mind was ablaze with activity. He planned things to extreme detail, but very seldom did he have to think on his feet like this. John needed a disguise, but at 6' 2" he was hard to hide. A diversion was a more reasonable plan. How do you get out of a building without being seen? he thought.

He could yell and scream about the massacre and get people to run out of the building. He would join them, hoping the killers could not pick him out. The fire alarm would cause people to exit in droves also.

He could call the police and have ambulances come and ride out in one of them on a gurney, but then there would be all kinds of questions and he would still be at risk when leaving the police station. He could wait the killers out and try to sneak out when it was dark.

All he needed was to get out clean. His alias ID would protect him after that. Locked up in his safe house he could complete his packets and get out the necessary mailing.

Bettle borrowed a phone and called the police. While he tried to be calm he was still suffering from shock and did not make a great deal of sense.

"There has been a shooting and there may be a dozen or so people dead. The killers may still be at large. They could still be outside waiting for us to come out!"

The dispatch asked who he was and the address of the building; he gave the address but ignored the request for his name.

After getting off the phone he pulled the fire alarm to get people out of the building to cover his escape. He then yelled to everyone on the 3rd floor that he had returned to the 5th floor and found everyone dead. His goal was to go out with the rest of the building, hoping the fire alarm and knowledge of the deaths would get people moving, creating confusion. Along with that, he figured if the police would show up to back off the killers, he had a reasonably good chance to get out of here. He also thought maybe he could catch a break and grab a fireman's coat and leave as a fireman.

Bettle went with the others as they fled down the steps. In the lobby he watched as people went out of the building. He needed the police to show up, hoping to escape with their protection. He wanted to go out with the rest but he needed the cops! Finally he heard the sirens. He tried to watch for activity outside that may signal that the assassins were leaving. He did notice a Suburban leaving the area and hoped that was them.

As he exited the building with a few stragglers he could see the police cars. Most of the people were standing around acting like they were conducting a fire drill, since they were unaware of the killings because they were not on the 3rd or 5th floor. Bettle did not want it to look like he was inciting a mass exodus, so he leaned in and said with a quiet excitement, "Everyone on the 5th floor is dead and there are still people with guns in the building – RUN!"

As the group started to run in all directions he headed with a few that were running in the direction of the parking lot were one of his alias cars was being stored.

The assassination team heard the police sirens and needed to leave. Team 1 had left Bettle's house and was now watching the parking ramp where his car was parked a few blocks away.

"Team 1; keep an eye on his car. He may be coming soon. Watch for any movement coming your way. Team 4; get out of here now, the cops are here. I am dropping off a couple people and we will fall back a few blocks."

As the police arrived they started to assemble the people that were still in the area. As additional officers showed up they went inside the building and still others seemed to be looking around for anything suspicious. The killers that had exited the vehicles ducked into stores and building lobbies, so as not to be noticed. Bettle was getting away.

"Team 2 to base, team 2 to base, the project is over but one remains. I am afraid it is the main attraction. Object was verified in location but not in play during the event. Cops and fire trucks - we had to evak. We are in search at this time."

"Team 2 this is base. You have better find him! Our lives may depend on it!"

At the alias parking garage John opened the trunk to the 1966 Chevy Impala he had there just in case. The new ID for Victor Lee was pulled and John Bettle became Victor Lee. John Bettle was locked away in a compartment in the trunk. Victor drove out of the parking garage and drove the few miles to the apartment leased under his name. As he pulled into the underground garage Bettle was enraged. They had killed his team! Those bastards! He vowed to not sleep until everything was ready and mailed. These people had to be stopped! His plan failed, however, at least for a short time, as he fell asleep with his head on his desk at about 4:30 AM.

The next day Bettle completed packets and air-mailed them out to MMG members he was soliciting to help. The packets were sent across the globe as top secret assistance requests to the individuals from their MMG mentor. The members, who were in close physical proximity to certain members of the MMG leadership team, were being asked to mail the package on a specific day, so all would show up around the world at the same time no matter where the leader was located.

Each packet contained a pre-addressed envelope to be mailed. The content of the envelope was not explained. There was just an envelope and a hand written note from the member's mentor asking them to do this as a favor and to never speak of it again, even to the mentor.

Inside the packet was a letter from Bettle calling out the leadership for some of the horrible things that the MMG had done, or appeared to have done. He had proof of their involvement in assassinations, market manipulations, and in some cases murder by their own hand.

John Bettle

MMG leadership

This letter comes to you with a heavy heart, and is written from a secret location, since an attempt was made on my life. All members of my team are dead.

I have brought my unhappiness about the direction of the MMG to your attention in the past, hoping to curb some of the more gruesome actions. Your response was to blackmail me with trumped up proof of my pre-knowledge of the very world events I was complaining about. While I had been tasked with projecting what would happen if any of the events were to occur, these events took place without me being aware of the plan to execute

The time has come for change and I am imposing a hold on all MMG related coups, assassinations, market manipulations, and character assassinations without these events being planned by me and my soon to be assembled new team.

I am a member of the MMG, and have been involved with enough criminal acts that if I was turned in, I would also be convicted of my crimes. My path has been chosen and I realize that you have enough on me to ruin me as well.

My offer is this; I will continue to serve the MMG in a new and larger role. I will be the only planner the MMG will have. There is to be no activity without my knowledge. I will prove my worth over the next few years and will increase the power and wealth of all MMG members. This is not an end to the MMG, but instead a fresh clean start without the uncontrolled black ops that have been taking place.

Anyone going against these rules will be disgraced. I/we know enough to ruin anyone in our group. All have played a role in our actions. No one is without blemish. Response to any action not planned and approved by me will be followed by swift, immediate action, and no mercy will be shown.

I have established multiple avenues for the enclosed information to get out into the public view. I have enough knowledge of the MMG to know how far the tentacles reach, and so I know where the weaknesses are as well. I have also cultivated special internal alliances that will do as I say, without regard to the rest of the MMG. They are in agreement with me about the despicable acts that have been done.

DO NOT TEST ME ON THIS! You tried to kill me; I will not hesitate to ruin you.

This is just the beginning. There is more to come after I receive your agreement. Your positive response to this letter will be signaled by the following personal add run in the New York Times in the next 7 days. This will show your understanding of events and agreement to meet to discuss further actions.

JB – all is fine, please return home. MMG

The packets started to arrive at the homes of the MMG leadership. Phone calls were being made to see if everyone had gotten one. An emergency meeting was called and the evidence was discussed. All members of the leadership team flew into New York for a face to face meeting.

The evidence was detailed, named names, and linked each one of them to all kinds of deception, market manipulation, and even assassinations. He had letters, notes, personal accounts, all wrapped up into proof of their involvement. If this got out they would each be ruined.

"What are we going to do about this?" said Kord Baumann, acting MMG leader.

"Let me track him down and kill him!" yelled Bud Stellar. Bud's specialties lied in security and he led much of the black ops activities.

"Are you kidding?" said Baumann, "he holds our lives in his hands. We cannot kill him, it will expose us all. I am sure his file on you was quite thick."

"It certainly was. I can't believe how much he knew," said Stellar, "I am so angry! I am the one to know information about others, and no one is to have the goods on me."

"Yes, well, that ship has sailed, has it not. Does anyone have any ideas on what we could do? Do we call his bluff, do we rat him out and hope we are not exposed? If we are to follow his advice what do we lose? Would the restriction be a terrible thing, outside of anyone being able to restrict our actions? He is our best planner and if we assist in building him a team I am sure many of our dreams could still be fulfilled."

The room exploded with ideas as many of the members spoke at the same time.

"I do not like anyone having control of our work."

"We cannot push him, I cannot be exposed. I would rather die."

"Kill, the bastard, let's take the chance!"

"This is our MMG, not his. We made it what it is. How dare he try to take over?"

Kord Baumann allowed the group to vent until things settled down some and then broke in. "OK, everyone, let me tell you how I am seeing this." Baumann, a businessman from Western Germany, was the leading expert in the group in regards to manufacturing and engineering. "As a business man it is not uncommon to use other people's money. In doing so you are responsible to them in some ways. I have had many opportunities that would not have been possible without these arrangements, and many come with strings. An advisory board, made up of the people loaning the money, is a normal cost of doing business and must approve all capital expenditures and major market moves prior to implementation.

Baumann scanned the room checking for the mood, and then continued. "We have all had to work with these advisory boards, or something similar, as we rose in our areas of prominence, it is just part of the leverage needed to do what we want. Bettle is not asking us to give up the work of the MMG, only to stop some of the darker side activities. He is actually professing his willingness to assist us. We have all seen his work; he is excellent at what he is offering to do for us. We may have an opportunity here that is well beyond our losses."

Again the room erupted with talk.

"An advisory board, are you kidding?"

"I have been uncomfortable with some of the things we have been doing as well."

"You make a good case, I am willing to discuss."

Bud Stellar, being more brawn than brains, took the floor. "I can't believe we are even considering this. This man is blackmailing us! I will not give in to this situation, No one tells me what to do!"

"Shut up Bud," called out Lourdes Mendoza, the Mexican beverage queen. "Your entire existence is to watch what we tell you to watch, do what we tell you do, and yes, in some cases, kill who we tell you to kill. This situation would be no different. I believe we need everything on Bettle that you can find. We need to agree, but also find a way to remove this hold he has on us. Go get him Bud, find us enough dirt to stop him."

Roger Pithie, a professor from Australia agreed. "I agree with Lourdes. It seems at this time that Bettle has the upper hand. I have marveled at some of his work and would not think of testing him on this until we have additional information... We must find a way to get back control, but it must be discrete."

More points were made, discussions continued as the group worked through the issue. Baumann did not interrupt; he just wanted the participants to vent so he could continue with the meeting after some of the heat had left the argument. They had very little to bargain with at this point, he felt he just needed to lead the group to agreement with Bettle, at least for now.

"So," interrupted Baumann, as things died down, "what I am hearing is that some of you have been uncomfortable, as I have been, in some of the things our group as done. Others are more upset about him having control than about what he is restricting us from doing. Overall I believe we all agree that our current situation is bleak. I am asking for a show of hands to see how many of you agree we should send the personal add. This would show our agreement with Bettle that we will halt all black ops projects and work with him going forward.

The vote was unanimous except for Bud Stellar. "I still think we should just kill him and take our chances."

The ad was placed. Bettle had achieved a hold on the MMG black ops. He also gained control of all projects. His soon to be assembled new team would plan all future MMG projects. Getting a team of MMG assembled held its own issues. Bettle was sure a few moles would be thrown his way.

## Chapter 13

### 2018

Watching it all come together, Aiah was feeling good. The balance of the 7 had made him the leader. Bettle was dead, and Aiah's team was close to recovering the detail of the Run that could crush the MMG, putting the world in turmoil and opening up the opportunity for him to take over. The Run could expose the majority of the remaining 10 and the 60, who had been around long enough to know of the black ops related issues, ruining them. Having foreknowledge of when the Run that would ruin the MMG leadership was starting will allow him to establish that he was not aware, and that he was exposing them all. He would be shown to be an unaware man of peace. A leader in a tough time, ready to take over. He would have many followers, since the 600 members of the C6 would still be in place. The 600 industry leaders would be looking for direction and a team to belong to, and he would fill the void.

The world would see many high ranking leaders removed from leadership roles, since they would be part of the 10, the 60, or be shown to be associated with them. The Run would confirm their rise to power using corruption and inside trading, ruining them. The world would find out it was not in charge, that the world was not what it seemed. The death or ruin of 50 to 60 people cannot change the world, but the perception that those 50 to 60 people controlled the world and are now exposed, could send the world into shock and chaos. He, as the peaceful, strong leader, would come to the rescue!

He would lead a global mandate to unite us all against the power of the MMG corruption, to make sure that type of power would never be allowed to flourish again! And, he would use the MMG power to execute his plan. Genius!

Shem Jaial Aiah (pronounced Hey ya, with a silent H), was born February 7th, 1960 in the Middle East, although the exact location is not known to him. His father had been part of the oil industry and had been involved with the establishment of OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies. As a man known to all 4 Persian Gulf states and Venezuela, who made up the original OPEC, his father served in a mediator role between the 5 countries. They moved quite often and were welcome in all 5 countries. His mother used to travel with his father on all his trips. Shortly after Aiah was born both his parents were killed in a tragic fire. How he survived has always been a little sketchy, but all family records were lost in the fire.

He was taken in by an oil tycoon, a friend of his fathers. He was adopted and raised like a prince. With the growth of OPEC, due to the worlds growing need for oil, the money flowed into the region, and his adopted father's pockets, so quickly that they could not have spent it even if they had tried. His adopted father was based in Caracas Venezuela starting in 1958, shortly after Venezuela's military dictator Perez Jimenez was toppled in revolution. The democratic government of Ramulo Betancourt was established and Aiah's adopted father was brought in by Perez Alfonzo, newly appointed Minister of Mines, to assist with exploration. He was an independent business man and was very successful, since exploration at that time was like shooting fish in a barrel, everywhere he looked he struck oil.

In the fall of 1974, at the age of 14, Aiah was sent to Darrow's School, a boarding school in America on the New York/Massachusetts border. Testing proved him to be a in the upper 1% of students in the world. His command of languages, business, math, science, and leadership skills made him a top student and a campus leader. Darrow's was also the place where Aiah became his main name. A one name person, like Cher, or Ali; he thought that was cool.

After Darrow's, Aiah went to Harvard for 2 years but dropped out to work with his adopted father. He soon tired of the oil business and started dabbling in business acquisition. His ability to find companies that were still sound but in financial trouble was uncanny. His adopted father helped him determine companies that may be a good fit, and then helped lead him in a direction that always seemed to put him in the right place at the right time. His adopted father also helped him find new employees that turned out to be the best. By the age of 28 Aiah was one of the most powerful businessmen in the world.

Shortly after his adopted father passed away, Aiah was approached about coming to a meeting of a group called the MMG. He decided to go, and found out at the meeting that his adopted father was a high level member prior to his death. A friend of his adopted father's became his mentor. Aiah was now a member of the MMG C6.

At the age of 6 Aiah found one of his adopted father's guns. He soon learned he enjoyed killing anything he could get away with. He enjoyed holding whatever it was, feeling the life fade from the body. No one ever knew of his dark side, at least not after his adopted mother went crazy after finding a dead bird in his room. He had a fascination about death, with pain, and eventually torture. His dark side was hidden from himself during his youth, grew during his prep days, and became ugly when he was in college.

At Harvard Aiah excelled in class, but his fascination with death grew. He would go out late at night and experiment on the homeless drunks. He was taking chemicals from the school labs and mixing them, looking for drugs that would immobilize, incapacitate, and kill without a trace. An evil was growing in his heart, and soon it would consume him.

After leaving college, he plotted to ruin anyone that got in his way. He had a way of exposing people, real or not, and having people look to him to fill the void after the other was removed. As a last resort, he would kill anyone that was in his way. He felt no remorse, carried no guilt, and slowly started befriending and controlling others that enjoyed death and power as much as he did. He had multiple assassins on retainer and wasn't afraid to use them.

Aiah's first MMG convention was in 2008 at the Trianon Palace in Versailles, France and proved to be an eye opener. Sure, the people at the convention were successful, but most just seemed to be lucky. How could so many people be successful and so unaware how they succeeded at the same time? The guy that invented one of the main parts necessary for cameras to move into the digital media age in the 1970s did not seem to fully understand what he had invented or how it could be used. As Aiah questioned him it seemed obvious that this guy could not have invented what he said he did. The names and inventions/discoveries changed, but the story seemed similar – they had been given a great gift.

As he thought about how lucky the others were he realized that he too had been given gifts. His adopted father had helped him pick acquisitions, and now, with a little knowledge, he wondered if maybe even the success he had with those companies had been preordained and helped along. How could his adopted-father have known? Was any of this truly his own doing? If not, he had to tap into the group that knew what was going to happen. He dedicated his future to finding out how the MMG worked.

During one of the MMG meeting days he sized up someone he could get information out of, made contact, and they met after the days meetings for drinks. By asking questions Aiah found out there were 600 people like him, each with their own specialties. All were given information at times to help them become a world leader in their respective areas. They were also, from time to time, given free investment advice. Buy this, sell this short; buy a put or a call on this stock for this amount of time. And then sell when this happens. He was also warned not to deviate from what he was told.

"People that deviate seem to have accidents, or scandal, shortly afterwards," his informant said.

"The group is awesome," he continued," My professor in college persuaded me to do my masters on satellite technology. When I graduated in the late-60's I was brought into a defense contractor to put my theories to work."

After taking a drink he continued, "As I left college, my professor recruited me into the MMG, one of the C6. I was sent to a conference to discuss satellite technology and I came out of the conference with enough information to create 3 major innovations in the industry, plus, I was given network connections at 4 firms that bought products from us which made me more connected and valuable. I rose in my organization to be head engineer inside of a year."

"Did you receive investment advice?" asked Aiah, buying another round.

"Yeah, funny you should ask," he said, "my professor called out of the blue one day in late 1969 and told me to sell anything I had in the tech market and to sell a couple companies short, he even sent me the funds needed to do it. Later he told me when to close my short position and the buy the shares back to hold. He thought this process would take about 6 - 8 months to happen. I thought he was crazy, the newspapers were saying the returns of 30% a year could go on for another decade."

After another drink he continued with a renewed enthusiasm, "Electronic Data Services, Ross Perot's company, you know, the guy running for President, his company was one of those I sold short and then bought again later. Control Data, Mohawk Data, NCR – they were all growing so fast, the news was so good. When they crashed some of them lost 80% in value. I sold at 100 and I bought back around 25. I made a killing. Then he told me to buy "the nifty-fifty" with the money I had left, after paying him back the money he borrowed me, ya know." After another sip, "then he called in late 1972 and told me to get out of "the nifty-fifty" and hold my money out of the market for a few years. I missed the big crash, heard some other people did real well with that one. It was years before he called to let me know I should buy back in and what to buy."

So! Aiah thought, they made this guy who he is and made him rich. "Did they ever have you do something for them without asking any questions?" he asked.

"Well", said the informant, "I am not supposed to tell, but you're one of us." He looked around and continued, "They put stuff in my satellites without anyone else knowing." He said with a look that only someone that is drunk can give. "The guys I met at the conference supplied some high tech parts for our satellite and I noticed they had something in 'em that I had not requested. When I called 'em on it my professor called to let me know it was ok to allow the items to go into space. When I started to say I was not sure about that, he stopped 'n reminded me about what he'd done for me. I fig'rd, hell, what difference does it make to me as long as it gets into space without me getting in trouble."

"Were there any other times?" Aiah asked.

"Well, one time he gave me a packet and told me if I got a call about som'pen that I should open the packet and do what it said. Gads, what was it? Oh, I remember! If I got a call about an apple orchard I had to open the packet. Never did get a call. The packet called out to destroy it after a certain date. I just tossed it out."

The night ended with a few more stories, but Aiah had enough confirmation to see that the C6 were getting assistance, and being asked to do things. More to learn, he thought.

One of the first companies that Aiah purchased with his adopted fathers recommendation was a pharmaceutical company. He found a few less than holy people working at the company and they helped further his passion for medical control over other people. Some of the drugs they already had would mentally incapacitate a person for 3 - 4 hours, with the person waking up without knowledge of what happened. The drug was valuable in surgeries, since the person having surgery could help get things ready for surgery and then not remember anything, but it is best known as a date rape drug. They also had developed drugs that would stop a heart yet leave no signature of the drug after a couple hours. The drug worked so fast that the heart stopped almost instantly once the drug was introduced into the blood stream. A second drug could induce a similar heart attack, but after 3 hours; giving the person that administered it enough time to vacate the area. A third drug would weaken a heart inside of 3 weeks, causing death by heart failure. A longer term drug would cause massive cancer growth and the recipient would be dead inside 6-months. The cancer would start in different areas but the result was the same. One of his favorite drugs was designed to put a whole house to sleep by introducing the drug, via a large syringe, through a key hole or under the door. The whole house would be asleep in a few minutes.

As his thirst for power grew, so did his reliance on his drugs, assassins, thieves, and technology. He had many leaders taking money, or he held something on them. Blackmail was one of his favorites. He would send his people to parties, have the leader drugged, and then have them wake up in compromising circumstances. He was never personally involved, but he pulled all the strings. His team could get just about anything done in the Middle East, Europe, or Asia without anyone knowing he was pulling the strings.

Aiah woke up on the second day of the conference with a burning desire to learn more about the MMG. How can they give stock advice 6 months before something happens? Are they really that good to be able to see things coming? Can they see the bubble, or are they manufacturing it somehow! Media, financial companies, engineers, software and hardware – all are represented by the C6. Are there puppet masters pulling strings to create, execute, and report events? All of the sudden Aiah saw an organization that had world-wide power. Power he had already been a part of without even knowing it. He needed to find out who pulled the strings.

He needed a second contact, one of the 60. He had spent the day at the conference searching, when opportunity found him. He met a man that he would soon create an alliance with. They would become partners in learning about and taking control of the MMG. The man introduced himself, let Aiah know that he had a close relationship with Aiah's adopted father, let him know he was sorry about how his father died.

"You mean my adopted father, well, thank you. But he did live a good long life" Aiah said.

"Well", said the man, "I actually meant your father and mother."

"Come again?" Aiah asked.

"I am sorry; I thought your adopted father had told you."

"Told me WHAT!" Aiah said, his voice and pulse rising.

"Please, keep your voice down," said the man, "I have been told your father was charter member of OPEC. He worked with the OPEC countries to create OPEC and, in doing so, reduced access and involvement of MMG companies and personnel in Middle East oil. A lot of money was advanced by MMG people and big oil companies to get oil pumping in the OPEC counties. Each country was shown innovations to make producing oil easier and faster, delivery systems were established, and markets were enlarged, all supplied or set up by MMG related companies. By creating OPEC, the countries involved took control of all aspects of their oil," he said, he leaned in and continued, "took it from the MMG companies. When your father helped set up OPEC he became an enemy of the MMG."

"Are you saying they killed him?" yelled Aiah in a whisper.

"That is my understanding, yes."

"And my adopted-father?" Aiah asked.

"He was not involved. He loved your father and mother. He and his wife were watching you when the fire happened, he adopted you shortly after. Your adopted-father eventually did become a member of the MMG, but that was years later after the group changed." The man replied. "By the way, I love your chemistry work."

"And what do YOU know of MY chemistry work?" Aiah asked.

"Your adopted-father treated me with samples of some of your finest items! They are to die for!"

"What chemicals are you talking about?" Aiah said hoping the answer would not be what he suspected.

"Heart attack, heart disease, cancer, sleeping gas, and a date rape drug," said the man.

Aiah didn't frighten easily, but this was unsettling. Did his company invent these, or were they created for the MMG? He tried to quickly think back to when he bought the pharmaceutical company. His adopted father had brought in people to help him and they had discovered the drugs, but he was sure it was at his request.

"I am not sure I know what you are talking about," Aiah said.

"Very well, it is our secret anyway," said the man.

Aiah realized that this man needed to die. He would connect up with one of his contacts to arrange it. His step father had connected him up with a man that could do almost anything. He had been part of the team that Aiah had used to kill people that were in his way. This man would be next!

"If you are planning to contact your man Zero, I just want you to know, my phone will ring."

Aiah almost passed out, "you're Zero!"

"I am. I have been by your side for years and I am loyal to you. Your adopted father was my mentor, saved my life many times in my youth, and I swear the loyalty I had for him to you," said Zero.

That connection brought the two together. They talked for hours and realized they had parallel goals. Aiah wanted to rule the world and Zero wanted to manipulate or kill everyone in Aiah's way.

As Aiah lay down to sleep late that night he was glad for the alliance he had started with Zero. The fact that the MMG had killed his father and mother, however, was starting to boil in his mind. This hatred would grow quickly over the next few months. He needed to know who was with the MMG then, he wanted revenge, and he wanted them dead! Disgrace, then cancer, he thought, that would be the most painful.

Aiah and Zero took turns creating situations to make them both appear to be golden boys of the MMG. In addition, they discredited or killed off everyone in their way. Within a year Zero had moved to one level below the top of the organization in his specialty. Aiah still had a few more people to get rid of to complete his rise.

During the cancer causing research conducted by Aiah's pharmaceutical company, the company also found a way to pinpoint and attack certain cancer cells. The break through research passed a variety of test situations and was proven and approved in 2010. The news of the find was met with great world acclaim. While most people saw a potential great financial gain, Aiah decided to build on his projected world view as a great humanitarian and philanthropist by giving the drug away for free. An award was given and there was even talk of a Noble prize.

Approaching the stage to collect his humanitarian award for giving the world a gift of free cancer drugs Aiah was in his glory. His company had stumbled upon a cure for numerous cancers that fall under the non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma title. The company had found a way to isolate the cells affected and reverse negative mutations. The media coverage was intense; the whole world was in love with this new philanthropist!

"My friends, it is great to be here!" said Aiah, waving as the crowd went wild. Zero stood off to the side and marveled, he could not remember another world event where the press clapped along with everyone else. "What an honor it is to be given an award for something that is a personal passion. Many years ago we started to work towards medical research looking for new and innovative ways to attack a cancer cell. I have taken it upon myself to work diligently to remove the threat of cancer from the world."

Again the crowd exploded with excitement. "Now that we have found a cure, we cannot hold the cure back from anyone! All that need it; will get it!" Again, there was a rousing round of applause from everyone in the room. The wait staff, the guests, and the reporters in attendance covering the event were all smiling and clapping.

"Even the mention of the Noble Prize for Medicine has humbled me. We were lucky to find the breakthrough, and giving the cure to the world seems like the right thing to do. We certainly did not do our research looking for monetary gain, but instead to serve this wonderful world!"

"Noble, Noble, Noble," came the chant from the crowd.

Aiah swelled with pride, feeding on the applause. Oh, how he loved applause!

## Chapter 14

### January 1970

John Bettle had blackmailed the MMG leadership into mothballing the black ops group. His team had been killed due to his lack of urgency. The success of his blackmail led to agreement with the leadership and they had given him 12 months to build a new team and show results. Not much time to plan the manipulation of world events, but then again, it was what he did.

With help from the leadership, a call went out to all members of academia and business, the MMG needed the best and the brightest. Business, economics, finance, stockbrokers, and the new world of computers. Bettle was looking for 2 things, and on the lookout for another; a team to call his own, a group of contacts to use as informants or helpers, and he needed to be sure he had no MMG leadership moles trying to ruin him.

The internal team was first priority, and the hardest. To get a group of successful people into a new job, without being able to tell them what they would be doing, or how much money they could make, would take all of the skill Bettle had. The group, based in Dubuque Iowa, would be called the MMG Dubuque. Lead by a figure head, William Froiberg, the group would be sold as a Think Tank, a group of individuals that were expected to be on the leading edge of their particular profession, able to see new possibilities and react faster than others when opportunity came. There were 12 original direct reports but the team number grew quickly to over 35.

"Good morning everyone, My name is William Froiberg. As Regional Director for our firm I want to welcome you to MMG Dubuque. Here you will have an opportunity to use your special knowledge to the extreme."

"John Bettle," Froiberg continued, as he pointed John out even though everyone had already met him, "is without a doubt the best seer of the future you will ever meet. With proper knowledge he can project the future almost like he is somehow making it happen. I must warn you; however, everything you see here is confidential. Nothing can be removed, or used outside of guidance. We will make you powerful in your field and wealthy in your bank accounts, but it does come at a price. There are no individuals here, only the Team. Individuals that take things into their own hands will be dealt with severely."

"Without further ado, I ask John Bettle to come forward."

"Thanks William," said John. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a job to do. We need to take current events and predict the future. If the price of gold is going to go up, or down, we need to know when and how much; if the cold war or Vietnam conflict are going to escalate we need to understand why and how it will affect the world; if the market is creating a bubble – what is it and how big will it get. And finally, if the Mets are going to win the series – ah, well, never mind, that one already happened..."

Laughter filled the room as most of the team realized the Miracle New York Mets had won the 1969 World Series.

"I need your best, all the time. We do not do anything, except predict everything. We get paid to use our talents to see change coming and react to it before it does. Does anyone have any ideas today?" Bettle asked.

Santos Arroyo was the first to respond, "everyone seems to think the technology area will continue to grow indefinitely, I think we have an opportunity here. Number one, none of the companies have any earnings. Most are selling with P/E ratios of over 100, when the average for DOW stocks is 16. With excess compound annual growth rates at over 25% each year, this appears to be total euphoria, not realistic market numbers. I believe we are one bad piece of information away from people selling their gains."

So" said Bettle, "if we have some newspaper articles discuss the super high-tech stocks as equities in a new growth market that could be expected to outperform the market as a whole, we can drive the bubble even higher. When the market gets to a fever pitch, we can get out, buy short, and release a story about the bubble."

The entire team looked at Bettle with amazement. Even thinking such a thing was bold, but to plan it, this was unbelievable.

The entire team was given a hefty bonus and it was "recommended" that they invest as Bettle told them to. The entire team made 10 times their upper 1% average 1970 annual salary in 3 months. Bettle also created proof of individual involvement by each team member. He documented what each member did and recorded it in such a way that it would look like they ran the Run and were the only ones to capitalize on it. He created proof that would stand up to world scrutiny. There was no proof of what the team did, except for their profits. They were now members for life. If not, they would quickly be ruined.

The MMG leadership was also involved in the profit of the tech-bubble of 1970. With this one event, Bettle had proved he was capable of leading the Runs.

## Chapter 15

### 2018

Still in shock over realizing all that John had told them was real, and after returning from a poorly thought out trip to the hospital to see John, Melanie and Jeremy were back at the Town House and ready to see what was next after the RAGBRAI Run. The envelope contained a second safe deposit key and instructions. Jeremy and Melanie read it at the same time.

By now you should be seeing the Yen dropping and know that what I have told you is real. The market will drop over the next day or two and rebound back up to where it was, or better, within the week. The phone call you made started a run about half way through what would have been a larger run; this will alert the MMG that something is wrong. The original run was waiting for the Yen to bubble slightly, allow the MMG related media to pump up the Yen, maximizing the bubble. Then the RAGBRAI story would go out, creating a worldwide sell off frenzy.

One of the hidden components of the run is to have material delivered to the MMG leadership to let them know that I have passed my information on prior to my death. This will alert them to a new holder of the information and create a deterrent that should be enough to continue to hold back the black ops group. At the same time it will also let them know that my death will not ruin the organization, or throw the world into a tailspin. You can imagine what would happen if almost 700 of the world's leaders in all areas would be exposed. Do not, I repeat, do not deviate from these instructions. The next few days will be the most dangerous for you. Now is the easiest time for you to be exposed.

"Damn it", said Jeremy, "damn." Knowing he had allowed them to be exposed.

The instructions continued. _There is a second safe deposit box and a second bank location. This one is in a fictitious name I have created for Jeremy. The ID and other needed identification are in this envelope. Go direct to the bank and return without stopping anywhere, as I have said, they will be watching for you now. We will continue this once you collect the second group of packets._

Jeremy stood and started toward the door.

"I need to go and get the contents of the safe deposit box, do you want to come?"

"Do you think we were exposed?" Melanie said.

"Possibly, but we don't have any way to know at this point."

"I don't want to be alone", she said.

"I understand", said Jeremy, "let's go".

Two parties had been listening in and would follow them to the bank. Both were watching, looking for an opportunity to learn more. Neither team was aware of the other.

"RM to PE, we have them sir. Picked them up where expected and followed to hideout. Operation copy and extract is a go, sir." was the call from the 2 man team that had picked up the trail at the hospital.

"Watch them close! We have reinforcements scrambling at this time. They should arrive 21:45 hours. Wait for them to move. Good job."

"Thank you, sir. We will continue recon."

The second party was made up on one person that had been sent down out of the Minneapolis area. "Snake 7 to Snake 1, I have picked up the trail. I repeat I have picked up the trail. Please advise."

But there was no reply. "Snake 7 to Snake 1, please respond."

The bank had a front door entrance by the road and one in the rear. Jeremy pulled around back to be sure they were not seen from the road. As they entered the bank it was mostly empty. Jeremy watched to see if anyone was too interested in them. Getting the contents of the deposit box was uneventful, maybe this will be ok, Jeremy thought.

Jeremy checked both ways prior to pulling out. He wanted to see if someone was parked, waiting for them. His training had taught him to memorize what vehicles there were and to watch for them as he drove. A Jeep Grand Cherokee was parked in the direction he turned and pulled out slightly ahead of them, but it continued on when he turned. When he made his final turn he saw another Cherokee in the distance, was it the same one? He decided to travel past his destination and turn back later. Except for Melanie getting upset that he passed the rental town house, the rest of the trip was uneventful.

The two-man team in the Cherokee that had been following them came to rest a block and a half away but with a view of the town house and Jeremy's truck. The listening devises they were using could pick up a mouse running around in the house. They had been sent by Aiah to get in the house and get copies of the information. They checked in to report the trip to the bank and return. They were advised to continue to wait for the reinforcements.

Another vehicle pulled behind the church across the street from the entrance to the Viola Suites complex, about a block from the townhome. He wired in to Hamlet Security that he had followed them to the bank, was continuing to watch, and was waiting for instruction. There was no return communication. He wondered what happened to the urgency of him getting down here and finding these two.

Once in the house Jeremy opened the packet. There were a dozen envelopes with names like org chart, the Ten, The 60, The C6. The top pack said open immediately if you have deviated!

Not even asking Melanie, Jeremy opened the Don't Deviate envelope. Inside was a scathing message from John directed at him.

Damn it Jeremy, you, of all people, should understand the rules of hiding. I expected Melanie to deviate, to try to come see me at the hospital again, but I thought you were stronger than this! Don't do it again.

Assume you are being listened to and watched!

This packet is filled with ANOTHER set of IDs for you and Melanie. These will be the last I have available. You will now be married. You need to get out of town tonight. Everything you say and do could be recorded now. We have no idea what the MMG may know. They are the best spy network in the world; if they have found you they will know everything you do and say! Do not discuss this, or anything you do not want them to hear; follow my directions completely and you should be fine. I have planned for this.

If they are onto you, they will watch you for an opportunity to sneak in and take, or copy, the information you have. They may even have a plan to do this after you go to bed tonight. You do have power in this situation, and they do need to know how much you know, but you cannot let them find out what I have given you. Take the packets, the laptop, and the phones with you. Jeremy, leave nothing, and clean the place of prints. They may know who you both are, but let's give them something to work for. The more time they waste trying to figure things out the less time they have to look for you.

At 6 PM call for a pizza delivery by Jake's Pizza, phone number 555-123-3456. Order a Jake's vegan specialty pizza. There is no vegan specialty pizza at Jake's, but there is someone waiting for your contact. Be ready when the pizza delivery man comes. As he approaches the house you and Melanie need to be outside in the front bushes. With the early evening winter sundown you will have the cover of darkness. You need to sneak out the back of the house after you order. Work your way slowly around to the front bushes in the east side of the driveway, in preparation for your rescue. The delivery man will leave his side door open for you to crawl into. He will knock on the door, he will carry on a conversation, pretending you answered, go in, and make it look like you paid him. Be very careful to move carefully into the van, they will see motion if you are not careful. They will be on high alert!

There is a timer in the bag to use to control light movement. Plug it into any wall outlet and set it so the lights turn off at 10 PM. This will make it look like you have gone to bed as you make your escape.

You will exit with the pizza man, who will supply you with a new vehicle registered under your new name. There are face masks in the bag for you to wear as you leave town. This organization can see all posted cameras and they have a computer that will find you if your face is seen. As long as you are not followed you will be able to get to the new car without being seen.

With the credit cards in the envelope you can get a room outside of Rochester. I would recommend Minneapolis, Saint Paul, or Duluth, if you want to go that far. I do not have additional help for you going forward – be careful and do not deviate again!

Until you get out of town you must consider yourselves at risk. These people are the best. They will not watch next time; they will just come after you.

Don't mess up again!

Jeremy put his right index finger up to his lips to instruct Melanie to not speak. He grabbed a note pad and wrote down that she needed to read the letter, not to worry, they would be ok.

As she read the letter she wrote a note. Another identity to remember – good grief!

Why me, thought Jeremy, why me.

Down the block there was a Jeep Grand Cherokee with two men in it that were set for the night. They were to watch and make sure the marks did not leave. Reinforcements would be here later and then they would make their move after the marks were asleep. They needed to drug the 2 and find whatever they could without them knowing it happened. These two were important for some reason and they did not want to let their leader down, people die for much less.

A second vehicle, sent by Hamlet Security, was watching, waiting. He had not received his new orders. He wondered why no one seemed to care about these people they had sent him to watch.

On the other side of the world Aiah was excited his team knew where they were. He needed to figure out how things would work, what was the first step in the Run Bettle had created to expose the MMG? He did not want the run to start until he was ready. He needed to get those documents they had picked up earlier at the bank. Hopefully they could drug them during the night and copy everything. The goal was to know how it would work, then push them, and let them start the destruction of the MMG. With foreknowledge of what would happen and when, he could interrupt the information on himself, take credit for finding and releasing the information on the dastardly workings of the MMG, and be in a position to take the leadership role over the C6. Then on to world domination!

Darkness descended and grackles came to the trees behind the town house to bed for the night. They were loud, dirty birds that snarled, cawed like someone hacking something up, and they were in a cackle that seemed like the hundreds. Every night the same thing, right at dusk.

Jeremy stood within view of the windows and made a call to order pizza.

"Jake's Pizza!"

"Hi", Jeremy said, "I would like to order a pizza for delivery."

"Sure, what would you like?"

"I would like the Jake's Vegan pizza, large."

"The vegan pizza sir?"

"Yes", said Jeremy," the Jakes Vegan Specialty pizza." He said slowly.

"Certainly sir", said the man on the phone, "and where would you like this delivered?"

Jake gave him the address, got a lead time of 45 minutes, and the phone call completed.

The men watching heard bits and pieces over the grackle noise.

"Veggie pizza", what a waste!" said the first one, "Got to have meat to be a pizza."

"Run a check on Jakes Pizza", he said to the other.

"Confirmed, just down the street."

They discussed their plan of action. Wait for the pizza to be delivered. Watch for the lights to go out. Sneak up and slide a tiny metal tube under the front door and pump in a highly concentrated vapor that would fill the home and put the 2 inside to sleep for the night. They sneak in, copy everything, leave, and the inhabitants think they got the best night's sleep ever! Easy as could be. Boy, will the boss be happy!

After 20 minutes Jeremy put the final touches on the light timer. About 3 hours after they were gone the lights would go out. They would be long gone, already well on their way to a new location with new identities.

As he opened the back door it creaked, loudly. They moved out slowly until they had passed the door. Closing the door was much quieter. They lingered out back for a minute or so, then slowly made their way around the house on the side opposite the road entrance. The final 30 yards or so was fairly open on the way to the bushes. They crept along on their hands and knees to be sure they weren't seen, just in case someone was watching. Once they made the bushes they could relax. Both could not wait for the pizza delivery.

A suburban came around the corner with a big Jake's Pizza sign on the top and slowly made its way to the town home.

"Action!" said one of the men in the Jeep.

One held a high-tech bionic ear and the other had a high power scope, both connected to a computer and monitor. The scope was strong enough to read the guy's name tag, if he had one.

He watched as the delivery person parked, moved around the vehicle, opened the far side door, and pulled out an insulated pizza delivery bag. Widening his view, he could see the front of the house and the delivery man. He watched the pizza man with great interest. This could be just a pizza delivery or could be a contact. He had to be sure this was just another delivery.

What he did not see were 2 people crawling to the open door, lifting themselves ever so slowly into the floor of the back seat, making sure not to rock the suburban. Jeremy helped Melanie in a way she did not appreciate; she would need to discuss that with him later.

The lone person parked by the church could not believe that they were getting a pizza delivery. Rule number 1 of hiding is to introduce no one into your life, unless it is absolutely necessary. He wished he had some direction, something was going on. He exited the car to go and get a better look.

The man with the scope watched, and the sound man listened, as the delivery man knocked on the door, slowly opened the front door with a free hand under his coat, and covered both sides of the conversation. The delivery man pulled it off without those watching or listening catching on.

Once complete, the delivery man returned to the suburban, put away the insulated bag, shut the side door, and drove off.

"Pizza sounds good," said the man with the scope, "I would love to get something to eat."

By the time the MMG operative made it to a small group of trees by the Town House the Pizza delivery was over and the driver was getting back in the Suburban. He moved back to the car. It is too cold and dark in Minnesota this time of year to be waiting outside unless absolutely necessary.

2 hours later Jeremy and Melanie were a good hour north of Rochester. They had top quality masks, new phones, laptops, and new identities. The delivery person that helped them no longer works at Jake's Pizza, he was now heading out of town also. Melanie worried about the rest of the people that worked at Jake's Pizza; they would probably be tortured, all because she did not follow directions. She felt very guilty and responsible. This, she thought, will take some time to get over.

"We need to find a place to stay," Jeremy said, "someplace out of the way. They will be watching hotels and motels, looking for someone that just stopped for the night without reservations. So much of the vacancies are listed on the Internet now, you can actually find leads by what closes late at night."

"Check to see if there is a ball game or something downtown Minneapolis tonight. The Timberwolves or Wild may be playing a home game tonight. We need to disappear!"

Additional manpower, for the Aiah group, showed up, as expected, around 9:45 via the Rochester Airport. They met up with the Cherokee and started their move. They were all dressed in black and started moving toward the house. As they crossed the main road leading to the town house they moved one-by-one under the cover of darkness.

The lone MMG operative noticed movement in the vicinity of a dark spot created by two street lamps being too far apart. He had counted 3 people so far. The townhouse looked to be under attack. He got out and moved toward the house.

One person from the Aiah group crept up to the front door. A tiny tube was pushed in through the door seal and a large amount of concentrated gas was pumped into the house. Estimated time to put everyone to sleep was about 5 minutes. He moved off to the side of the house to wait.

The MMG op moved closer. He activated his video camera attached to his glasses; the stream would go to Hamlet Security. He could see 4 people from his current vantage point. They were staged, waiting for something. He checked out the house and saw a 5th person. This person looked to have already done something and was waiting to enter with the rest of them. He did not dare call out to Hamlet; he would just stream the video and wait for instruction.

The 6th member of the Aiah team had responsibility to watch the perimeter. He noticed that MMG op had crossed the road in stealth mode and was watching the proceedings. From his vantage point he had a muzzled rifle pointed at the MMG op as he watched through the scope. He caught a reflection of a video camera and determined that this op was showing too much. He gently pulled the trigger and the MMG op dropped into the underbrush.

A lone computer in the back end of Hamlet Security was receiving a video that showed the bark of a tree. No one was watching; they were too concerned with the MMG leadership being under fire. Their op in Rochester was dying and no one was even paying attention.

After 5 minutes the Aiah group entered the house wearing masks. As they started looking around it quickly became apparent that they had a problem, the inhabitants were gone. Where, how?

"The pizza delivery! It was a fake!"

"What was the name of that place? Jake's pizza?"

2 shots rang out as the leader executed the 2 that had been watching the house. He may have just arrived but somebody had to pay for the hell he would get from Aiah.

Melanie and Jeremy had confirmed a Minnesota Wild hockey game would be ending about the time they got to downtown Minneapolis. Wearing their masks they were traveling north on Highway 52. Jeremy pulled off and found a room on line and booked a reservation. There should be a few others doing the same as they decide to stay in town after the game. He noticed Melanie was asleep, finally he thought, peace and quiet.

Aiah was up early waiting for the call. Finally he would have the last piece, the coolest piece. Bettle had put it together to hold the MMG from doing black ops, and soon Aiah would use it to his advantage! Jonathan is dead and the newbies don't even know who people are yet. People are dying, he is rising, and soon... Aiah's phone rang.

"Aiah!" He answered. "How did it go?"

"They got away boss. They were gone before we got here", said leader 1. "Apparently there was a pizza delivery and we think they snuck into the vehicle as the pizza was being delivered."

"I want the lead team executed!" said Aiah, "no one lets me down like this"

"Already done, sir," said leader one. "We also had an MMG visitor. I am not sure how much he saw, but he had a camera attached. My belief is he saw us assembling for the strike"

"Damn," said Aiah, "now the MMG knows there is another team after John Bettle's stuff."

## Chapter 16

Melanie awoke with lights and signs of Highway 52 north out of Rochester flying by at 72 miles per hour and asked, "So, how does one disappear without a trace?"

The question surprised Jeremy, he thought for a second and responded, "well, the hardest people I have tried to find start with disinformation. As the chaser you end up following multiple leads designed to throw you off course. By keeping the chaser busy checking leads, you disappear while they are making sure they don't miss anything. The bigger the file you can create for them, the less time they have to detail in on where you really went. Keeping your hunter busy by searching for you in the wrong place, and make the file on you as large as possible, is the key."

"Prior to leaving the Rochester area we went south past the airport. This was intentional, without masks, to make sure they saw us going south. Since we were heading toward the airport, they will need to verify flight manifests. The license plates I took from the car in the parking lot were used to cover the plates on the new car John provided. If they see us traveling south on the traffic cameras, as they should, they will find the plate numbers. They will get the address from the DMV and hassle the owner until they realize the plates were stolen."

"I have enlisted the help of a fellow PI that I trust. He will continue the movement south by working to rent an apartment in my name outside of Saint Louis Missouri. They will need to run a credit check and that should also create a bigger file for anyone that may be following us."

"We then turned around, heading north to the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area, with masks on. The stolen license plates were removed, and we are going to check into the hotel later under the same name. The big issue we have right now is getting into our room without being seen. Our masks are the best I have ever seen, they fit tight and I should be able to get us into our room without any trouble."

"All this", said Melanie, "and we don't even know if they are following."

Jeremy was so into the moment that her disbelief really made him mad. "Look", he said, "we are potentially running from the greatest tracking team ever assembled. If everything John says in the information he gave us is true, we must assume the entire resource base of the United States government is involved and will be looking for us."

"Wow, that makes me feel better," Melanie said as she sank down in her seat.

Eagleton's Land Rover screamed into the parking lot underneath Hamlet Security. His night lead came running up.

"There was a camera up on a computer in the back", said the lead. "it was from Rochester."

"So you said on the phone, and there was a second team?"

"Yes sir," said the night lead, "it appears they drugged the house and were waiting to go in. Our op was taken out. There is tape showing another team prepping to invade the town house, but then the camera angle changed to show tree bark, sir. I believe our op may be dead sir. They shut his feed down and we have no word since."

"Who else would be chasing those 2? Who would even know those 2 exist? It has to be somebody we know. This has to be internal. It looks like we have a new front to worry about. Who else knows about this?" asked Eagleton.

"Only me sir, I called you as soon as I found it."

Eagleton smiled. The night lead had an accident on the way home. No one else ever saw the Rochester tape.

Jeremy and Melanie, Mr. and Mrs. Thornton from Prior Lake Minnesota, were getting close to the motel. She had fallen asleep; he was relieved that she had. She could worry so much even he started to think bad thoughts. His mind was racing about everything. Focus! He told himself, you need to get into the room without being seen.

As they got close to the Twin Cities Jeremy had decided to not stay downtown Minneapolis, too many cameras. He drove through Saint Paul and headed east on Interstate 94. As he got close to the river he found a nice motel outside of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Easy in, no one needs to see her, easy out when they are ready.

Melanie awoke as they pulled into the Clear Water Motel and asked where they were. The motel looked like an old Holiday Inn, with a main building and then multiple units around the back. Jeremy explained the new plan to Melanie. Surprisingly, she was ok with it and did not question him. He removed his mask, put his hat on and pulled up the collar on his coat in an attempt to cover up in case of cameras. He could not, of course, pass the ID test with a mask on. Once inside he got a room around back and rented it for a week. He did not know how long they would be here but he was pretty sure it would not be longer than that. He paid with the card John had left for him.

Eagleton waited for information from his local MMG team. The NSA had provided video from the highway cameras showing them going south. They checked the airport but Eagleton was sure the PI would not be that stupid. He, it turns out was not only an investigative attorney, but a PI, and, apparently he interned for John Bettle a few years after the girl did.

His phone rang, "Eagleton"

"The plates belong to someone else. We went to the guy's home and the plates had been stolen at the hospital parking lot."

"Damn," said Eagleton, "now we are not sure where they are headed and if they are under an assumed name. They could have taken the plates off and gone any direction." Eagleton called his NSA contact and let him know to continue to have the system search traffic cameras in all directions.

Aiah was waiting for an answer. He could not believe it. He was all set, just one loose end, well two, and he would be good to go. If he could have gotten copies of the documents he was sure he could find a way to remove their control. All that planning, the window was open now, he needed to find them or he would need to move forward and take his chances. He hated taking chances. Knowing what would happen in advance had become normal.

About an hour after Melanie and Jeremy got to their room the pizza they ordered showed up. It seemed like years since the Jake's Pizza incident earlier in the evening. It is amazing how you notice so much more when you are running on adrenaline. Each hour can seem like a whole day; the heightened state of awareness packing more information into your brain than normal.

Melanie came out of the bathroom after her soak in the tub and went to get a slice of pizza. She was relaxed, clean, calm, and hungry. For the first time since getting the call about Jonathan dying she was able to relax, all because Jeremy was here and in charge. Jonathan trusted him, he had proven to be capable and knowledgeable, and so she would trust him too.

Jeremy was surprised when Melanie came out of the bathroom. She had changed somehow. Wet hair, cozy clothes, sweats, and bare feet. It was weird, she had become a sensual being all of the sudden. The shyness, the anticipation, it felt like she was his. Focus, Jeremy, he said to himself, focus. Still he could not help himself, Jeremy and Melanie had been together now for almost a week and he realized that they really didn't know much about each other. He started asking questions, then answering some; they talked well into the night. As they settled down to sleep, in their separate beds, Melanie asked him "are we going to die?"

"We will go on as long as we can", he said, "as long as we can," as he drifted off the sleep.

Eagleton had his group working on an expanding bubble as the time went on. They were looking for people showing up at hotels and motels at specific times depending on travel from Rochester. Every traffic camera was checked. Hotel and motels on the Homeland Security system were checked. The computer could take pictures and match the camera images off just a partial face. The full power of the government was being enlisted, favors were being used up. The MMG had many members that were some of the nation's best operatives in the NSA, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, and even some other secret organizations without publicly known initials. They had made following or finding terrorists an art. They expanded the bubble, looking for anything out of the ordinary, even seeing the oddity in the ordinary. The traffic camera hits were climbing but the computer could prove most of them unworthy of human review.

A group of interns from all over the country were being enlisted to coordinate calls out to Hotels and Motels not on the grid. They would pretend to be FBI agents looking for a couple that may have stopped in the night. The battery of questions would include description of the people and the car. They only had a few hours before the bubble got too big or the opportunity for a second move would ruin the trail. Eagleton figured they had another 12 hours, or so, unless the PI was stupid.

## Chapter 17

Jeremy woke in the middle of the night and started to check out the next packet. There were names of the 10, the 60 and most of the C6. Some of the names Jeremy recognized. A few names were in the news as he watched it on the hotel TV. At least 2 of the 10 had died, plus one of the 60. Jeremy ran the names of the 10 on this encrypted satellite lap top connections. 3 had passed away in the last few days.

"Too many to be a coincidence", he said out loud without thinking.

"What?" asked Melanie, waking, "what has happened?"

"3 of the leader group have died in the last few days. I wonder if we did that by starting the Run."

"Maybe Jonathan is protecting us", said Melanie.

"Yeah, maybe, but my bet is there is something else going on here. John could have ruined these people any time he wanted. Why would he do it now?"

"My God", said Jeremy, "some of the 60 are dead also. Without this list I would never have put these people together. This looks like a direct threat on the MMG, maybe a coup d'état. "

"If a true coup is in process our power could diminish. There is no reason to let us live if the leadership team is no longer in power. Telling the world who they are would have no sting. They could either forget about us or determine we know too much and kill us."

Jeremy read the packets they had received. Per John Bettle's notes, he explained that after his skirmish with the leadership team in 1969, an agreement had been made. The black ops group would back down from highly visible assassinations and war mongering. Bettle would become the lead planner for the team. His Run concept was a great success and they wanted him to control all he could.

There were a few test Runs as they reacted to events in the late 60's/early 70's, but one of Bettle's first big events was Nixon. Nixon was going soft on the war, and the MMG still wanted it to continue. Discussions started in 1972 and Bettle had a challenge. How do you remove an acting president, and what do you do about Agnew? The MMG did not want an Agnew presidency, so Bettle needed to remove them both.

"This is incredible," said Jeremy, as he reviewed the packets. "They took Agnew out and worked to get Nixon in trouble, all for profit and gain. You were like 8, and I was 6, when all this happened"

"All I remember about Agnew was his sayings, like "pusillanimous pussyfooters," "nattering nabobs of negativism" and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history". Melanie said with a chuckle; she cracked herself up, she thought to herself.

"Well, apparently he had a past." Said Jeremy, "at the time, a very thorough investigation into Agnew's past found that he had accepted bribes while serving as Baltimore County Executive, Governor of Maryland, and Vice President. Not only had he received these, but certain people in the MMG had first-hand knowledge, having paid the bribes. By July of 1972 they had all the evidence they needed on Agnew. When ready they released the incriminating evidence via the press, and he crumbled." Jeremy continued reading to himself because Melanie had moved into the bathroom.

Nixon, on the other hand, was more difficult. Removing a sitting president had never been accomplished without a gun. The MMG did have contacts inside the White House, as they had for every president since JFK. They learned of Nixon taping his office and his arrogance of wanting to be the best recorded president of all time.

The Bettle Run was put into place to remove Nixon and Agnew by the end of 1974.

The operative already in the White House proposed the break-in at the Democratic Committee offices to gather any advantage they could get for the coming election. A different operative was moved into the Committee for Re-Election of the President. A great deal of money was donated by MMG people to "use as they wished". The attempt at corruption worked, at the recommendation of the MMG operative, and a slush fund was formed.

"There is stuff in here about Watergate also." Jeremy shouted to Melanie, who was still in the bathroom. "Watergate started with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering at the Watergate Complex. It says here that the five were sent by someone in the White House and were paid with cash. They still had the cash on them when they were arrested. They were caught breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters on June 17th, 1972, after an anonymous tip by the MMG." Jeremy continued, "Wow, the FBI easily connected the cash back to the slush fund, as the MMG had someone deposit a cashier's check earmarked for the Nixon re-election campaign into one of the burglar's accounts. The burglars also had notebooks with the name of a Nixon aide and W House and W.H written in them. This all sure sounds like a set up to me."

"Knowledge of the tape recording system was soon passed on to become public. The final piece of the Nixon puzzle was to have an internal MMG operative delete 18 ½ minutes of a tape. What was on the 18 ½ minutes is not known, but it was not done to cover up a conversation, but instead to raise suspicions. Oh my god!" Jeremy said, "They set him up! A legal battle ensued in regards to the tapes as Nixon did not want to make them public."

Again, Melanie seemed less than interested so Jeremy continued to read without explaining it to her.

Nixon had not been involved in the break in at Watergate, but got caught up in the cover up. The missing 18 ½ minutes of tape could not be explained, he did not know how it happened.

The findings on Agnew were released to the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland in early 1973, and eventually to the FBI. Within 6-months Agnew was allowed to resign and plead no contest to a much reduced charge.

Nixon selected Gerald Ford as his new Vice President.

Once the tapes were released the MMG showed Nixon had been a part of the cover up and on August 8, 1974 Nixon resigned. It was the first peaceful coup d'état in American history. It was too late to stop "Peace with Honor," however, but it showed the power of the Bettle Runs.

A second Run happened at about the same time. This one actually came into being as a reaction to world events. The MMG was not fully organized at this point but Bettle saw an opportunity coming.

"Hey boss!" said Santos Arroyo, one of Bettle's team in May of 1971, "sounds like the US is going to drop the gold standard. I just got off the phone with the White House and Nixon is going to sign an executive order."

"I haven't heard of a meeting being arranged with the International Monetary System members," Bettle said.

"Hasn't been one," said Arroyo, "apparently the State Department doesn't even know Nixon is going to do it. He is also going to impose a 90-day wage freeze and price controls. On top of that he is implementing a 10% import surcharge."

"Alright every one, let's get on this NOW! We need to figure out what the markets will do with this in the next 5 days and over the next 5-years."

Bettle and his team saw change coming as America dropped the gold standard in 1971 and, as a result, the United States started printing money that was no longer attached to gold reserves. Britain would soon do the same, floating the pound sterling, and other countries would soon follow suit.

Bettle's team saw an opportunity. A media blitz was begun by the MMG media connections to support the removal of the gold standard. A bubble was being created by reporting how strong the markets were and how the future looked excellent, even though the devaluation of the dollar was seen by the team as a precursor to a recession. They even went so far as to publish an article 3 days prior to the market starting its freefall, which called for the market to have a banner 1973. Then 3 days later they had an article printed that started the negative press, and the imminent market collapse.

At that time a small amount of trading and a lot of word of mouth in the right circles could sway the market. As the market fell, people were buying as stocks went down, trying to catch the bottom, hoping to ride the market back up. But the market continued to drop.

In addition, Bettle had heard through internal contacts at OPEC, that OPEC leaders were very unhappy with the United States in regards to devaluation of the dollar. Relations between the United States and OPEC were already weak due to US policy in regards to Israel.

The devaluation of the dollar increased the tensions between the two powers. At that time oil was valued using US dollars.

"How upset are they?" Bettle asked his OPEC contact Abdul Rashid.

"There is talk that they may stop selling oil to America. They also want to get away from the dollar. They are talking about raising prices."

"An oil embargo against the US and her allies? How real is this threat?" Bettle asked.

"It won't take much to seal the deal." Said Abdul Rashid, "they are ready, they just don't feel world reaction would favor them making a move at this time."

In 1972 there were secret discussions among a few Arab countries about attacking Israel. This also came to MMG knowledge and to Bettle. He decided to helped fuel the fire. The goal, of course, was to sell arms. "If they use 'em, they buy more", one of the team said. There was a second reason in Bettle's mind. If the Arabs invade Israel, and the US were to assist Israel, that would give OPEC the reason to go for an oil embargo, driving the markets down.

Bettle instructed his team to do some detailed research and calculations to potentially gain from these world events. "What would happen if OPEC stopped selling oil to the US and Europe? Who would benefit? How much of an increase would be needed to start a rush of oil exploration in the US? What happens to the markets? I need answers and I need them in 4 days. This will happen, let's be ready."

Jeremy was engrossed in the information Bettle had provided and continued to pour over the material. In addition to fueling the Arab flame of the coming invasion of Israel, The MMG warned Israel of the invasion a few hours prior.

"What are you reading now?" Melanie asked.

"It's about the 1973 oil embargo. On October 6th, 1973 a few Arab nations attacked Israel, in locations Israel had taken from them in the 6-day war in 1967. The attack began on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which is a Jewish holy day."

Jeremy continued, looking for some type of reaction that she was listening now, "Also known as the Day of Atonement, Yom Kipper is the holiest day of the Jewish year. Confession, repentance and prayer lead the day as atonement is asked from God and people. The entire day can be spent in the synagogue by some. Traditionalists observe a 25-hour period of prayer and fasting, along with no bathing or washing, and no marital relations."

"Wow, can you imagine?" she said.

Knowing she was listening Jeremy continued out loud. "Even with the short notice provided, Israel was ill equipped to fight as the war began, since many were off observing Yom Kipper. Once back to full steam the Israeli forces were able to regain losses prior to the cease-fire, which was put in place on October 25, 1973."

"In response to the invasion of Israel, as Bettle had expected, the United States air lifted aid to Israel and helped them secure a victory, as Israel not only regained the ground they had lost, but added additional land on the Golan Heights.

Jeremy turned toward Melanie and continued, "OPEC, in response to US aid, decided to establish an oil embargo against the United States and some of its allies on October 17th, 1973, even before the war ended. They raised the price of crude oil by 70%. They also cut production numerous times over the next year."

"The amount of crude oil and petroleum related products available to American businesses and the American people was decreased almost immediately. The long term effect, as Bettle was expecting, was the motivation for the US and other nations to start exploration. The MMG had started the process of controlling the domestic oil industry, buying suppliers and leasing oil rights all over the oil producing states. In addition, the pre-knowledge of the need to develop conservation processes and techniques would allow a few MMG people to gain a fast rise to the top of a few companies. OPEC released the embargo in March of 1974. By then the price of a barrel of oil had gone up by more than 100%."

Jeremy continued to read to himself as it was apparent that Melanie had lost interest. The bear market of 1973 – 1974 lasted from early 1973 to late 1974. The US stock market was hit hard, losing over 40% of value. The Europe market was hit worse. The London Exchange lost 70% of its value. UK property values were dropping as well.

Bettle, along with many others, made a killing in the markets. They expected the drop, made money on it, and then bought property that people had to sell because the markets were so poor. MMG participants in London and surrounding area bought thousands of homes and rental property at bargain basement prices using gains, knowing this would eventually turn around.

The MMG controlled media talked disaster for two years after the crash began. They pushed even harder as the embargo took away oil. Disaster, rationing, shortages, dire, dreadful news. Values of most items went down. Bargains were to be had. Eventually OPEC removed the embargo in March of 1974. MMG controlled news outlets showed the world starting to turn around, and so it did.

As the recovery began, Bettle started thinking about the rising oil prices, the increase in cost of goods, and determined they needed to plan how to profit from runway inflation. Where would there be profit in that?

"Hey, were getting into our time now!" yelled Jeremy. Melanie came out to listen. "The 1980's and 1990's were a time of a great technology explosion. Computers, e-mail, the Internet were becoming house hold words. Cell phones we projected to be in every home in America. The MMG was on the leading edge of all of these technologies and most Runs were quick ones designed to take advantage of current markets and business conditions."

"The 80's was a time of take overs, corporate raiders, angels, and junk bonds. The MMG was very active at this time. There were numerous Runs to front money and get huge returns."

"One member, Andre Doyle, remember him?, became a visible leader of the era. Because of his MMG ties he could raise huge amounts of money quickly. At first this created huge wealth for the MMG faithful, however, after a few successes Doyle created a small team that decided to start out on their own. Taking MMG knowledge and networks with them, they started to work the market outside of the leadership team and John Bettle. They were warned multiple times, even pardoned once, but they continued to use MMG personnel to blatantly trade with insider knowledge."

"Now the MMG specialized in insider trading, but they let a variety of people win, mixing things around, so it was not obvious that just a small group ALWAYS seemed to win."

At that time Kalibi Keita, one of the MMG leadership, called Bettle. "How do we stop this man without getting exposed?" He asked.

"We control most of the market leaders. The firm that will investigate Andre is run by an MMG faithful. I think a few well laid hints about the insider trading will spark interest and it will not take long for the news to come out about the renegades."

"How do we do it?" Keita asked Bettle.

"I know a hungry media man that needs to owe us a favor someday; I will drop this his way. When the time comes we will have him pay us back."

"Always planning, connecting, looking forward; you are an incredible thinker, Mr. Bettle." Said Keita.

The renegades were convicted of insider trading. The charges were all in relationship to the deals they had run outside the MMG. They used the MMG network to learn about mergers or takeovers a few days prior to the change being made public. They would make huge trades and profit greatly from them. The problem was it was a straight greed play, stupid; all they did was create attention. With a couple phone calls the MMG had put a few of their own in jail. A notice went out to all MMG faithful, follow the rules or be ruined.

Many years after the market manipulation of the 1970's, the MMG took advantage of the Dot.Com craze in the late 1990's and early 2000's. There was no Dot.Com plan, until after it started. When everyone is excited about the market, a bubble is appearing. How long does it last? How high will it go? How far will it fall?

Once the Dot.Com phase started there were thousands of MMG people financing Dot.Com companies, acting as Angels, grabbing money from Angels, riding the media blitz, and then cashing out by going public! Making a killing with short term ownership of a fledgling company, all with a company that never sold anything and never made a dime! Wow, if you could only find the right technological widget, get the MMG based media to promote it, and sell the concept for you, and then you sell the company to crazed shareholders – that is one of the MMG ways of printing money.

The NASDAQ Composite Index from 1999 to late 2001 looked like Mount Everest. From a 1,500 Base to 5,000 peak, and back to a 1,500 base, all inside of 2 years.

In the year 1999 there were 457 IPOs, everyone was trying to get a company hyped enough to get investors. 117 of those companies had their stock double in price on the first day of release. Most companies were Internet or computer related. Bettle and his team could not believe the market. It is amazing how you can create something from nothing, create a media blitz, sell it at IPO, and double everyone's money in one day! The MMG faithful would then slowly sell out, letting everyone else in, as the company was soon shown to be over leveraged, overpriced, and not even close to producing a product.

The MMG also made money on all of the fees charged for market related items.

Bettle and his team were very involved in the market in late 2009. Bettle called his team together. "Day trading, computerized buy/sell, options; people, the market is now processing at the speed of a computer!" Bettle said, looking around the 4th floor conference room at MMG Dubuque. "There is opportunity here, I know it. I want to research how these programs work and test some theories to see if we can manipulate the market by predicting what the computers will do with a large trade. We designed this stuff; now let's figure out how to use it"

The team got to work finding everything there was available about the trading software used by large firms. Their access into the market firms allowed them to get inside information from market IT and development people. Since the software was developed by an MMG up-and-comer, they were able to hack in the back door of the software to run reports. The reports gave access to a large amount of information, but the team wanted outstanding orders waiting to execute if the price went up or down.

As they compiled the information a common theme was discovered. The sell orders were close enough that one large order may trip a few sells and drop the entire market. As the selloff starts, there would be a weakness of buyers, creating a freefall, making the drop continue. Testing showed the drop to be about 8% down, the buy orders would start to kick in bringing the market back up. This was not blind projection, it was already in place but most people could not see it.

"How do we capitalize on this without exposing our hand?" Bettle asked.

"Well sir," Gary Mason, the market specialist said, "it appears to me that the big firms hit their sells and get out and stay out, to protect against market volatility." He continued, "We would just position our sells a few points below the large firms and they would trigger if the large firms sold. We would not be first, we would not be exposed, but we would be on the sell at almost the beginning."

"In addition," said Michel Pari, "because we have the back door we can predict what will happen and how big the initial sell would need to be." Michel was the technology expert that helped create the software. "If we can get the current market to drop on our simulated system, we would be able to predict the drop, and the recovery."

"So," Bettle said, "we can predict how market computer trading will react, we can be late to the party to cover our knowledge, and will have buys in place to get back in low." A smile started to creep over Bettle's face. "So, if we are to get people involved to maximize MMG profit on this one, where and how do have them trade?"

"Well," said Michel, "all we need to do is pass out instructions to set sell and buy numbers at the correct dollar amount as we get close. As a matter of fact, in preparation for the actual blip we create; people should start posting sell orders and low priced buys on their investments now. That way it will look like they got lucky, waiting for a blip that actually happened."

"How about option trading or currency?" Bettle asked.

Gary jumped in on this question, "we believe this movement will be so fast that options won't have a chance to be re-priced prior to things going back up. Our projection here is that all of this will happen inside of 2 hours. None of this would be possible without computer trading. The buy/sell action will be instantaneous. If we start it at 1 PM it should be all done and back to normal by market close."

"Very well, what kind of timing are we looking at?" Bettle asked.

"We would like another 5 – 6 months to test and perfect this, we will only get one shot," said Michel. "Afterwards the market will create safeguards that will not allow this to happen in the future. As a matter of fact, I have already created them. I am just waiting for the opportunity to save the day!"

As the debt crisis in Greece was creating market instability Bettle knew the time was ripe for picking the market. "Run it one more time," he told his team. "I want to be sure." It was May 3, 2010. "I want to prove this out, all the MMG personnel that will benefit on this movement should be ready since we instructed them to make trades a while ago; let's shoot to do this Thursday, 2:45 Eastern.

On May 6, 2010 a phone call was made to a member of the stock market, the only message was "Flash Gordon approaching." He opened the packet he had as part of the Run and it let him know to trade a large quantity of E-Mini S&P 500 contracts.

The investigation would show a prominent mutual fund firm sold a large number of E-Mini S&P 500 contracts which exhausted all available buyers. This created a drop that computers saw as a leading indicator that something may be wrong. In response the computers started to sell mutual funds as programmed, which tripped others, dropping the market at an exponential pace.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 9% during the day, most of that in a 5 minute period. The rebound took about 20 minutes. By days end the market was almost back to full value. Selling short, riding down, buying back in, it turned out to be the best 25 minute payday in MMG history.

The MMG media blamed Wall Street, called for reform, and sold tons of newspapers. The investigators did an in depth review of all that happened and concluded that the computer trading systems were holding tight sell orders prior to the crash, because of the debt crisis in Greece. When the E-Mini S&P 500 contracts sold it triggered the computers to sell, doing most of the damage.

How could anybody get in trouble? The computers did it. And while markets do crash, and people were looking for it with the Greece crisis, profiting from an immediate rebound was seen as pure luck. An immediate rebound of a market crash had never happened before.

As Bettle liked to say when explaining it, "No punishment was levied and no one needed to give back any money."

"Wow," said Jeremy, with Melanie by his side. "I can't believe how much of this happened in our life time. I can't believe I researched some of this and could find nothing! Sure, some of the people that made big money during these events didn't seem to understand how they made the money, but there was nothing I could find to implement anyone. Unbelieveable."

"It's late, said Melanie, "I am going back to bed."

"Alright, see you in the AM," Jeremy responded without lifting his head.

"Mr. Eagleton, sir," said one of the MMG interns. "I have a potential. No cameras, no car information, but I have a fairly good match on the description. The man checked in last night at about 10 PM with no reservation, which puts it in our bubble timing. East of St. Paul just outside of Eau Claire, Wisconsin."

"Thank you", said the intern's supervisor, "we will hit all the leads in the Twin Cities first and then send someone out."

At 9 AM the next morning Jeremy woke up and realized they needed to leave. Who knows what resources they have, he thought, they could be on to us already.

"Melanie," he said calmly, "it's time to go. We need to be out of here in an hour."

"Why are we leaving, I thought we would hide out here for a few days."

"I was wrong," said Jeremy," they could track us here. If they track us by travel time and check in times, they will check to see if this check-in was us, the timing fits. If we leave, the chance of them finding us goes down exponentially with each mile.

## Chapter 18

Eagleton called his team together at 10:00 AM for an update.

"We have physically checked 100% of the check-ins using cash, nothing yet," the lead investigator reported, "we are following the credit card leads now. There is no hit on either name, or the fake she used in Rochester. We are still working at it. We have about 50 more in the Twin Cities, and then we will expand out. There are currently 25 people running, we should have the Cities covered in an hour or so."

"Sir, we just got a hit in Saint Louis. Mist's name just took a credit hit trying to rent an apartment. We're making calls now."

"Deception," said Eagleton, "he would not use his real name, but have someone check it out."

The "Thornton's" put on their masks and headed to the car. Jeremy needed to get to the next location so he could look at the other packets that John had left them. They had been so fearful of getting caught, and he so interested in the proof, that he had not taken time to see what was next. His plan was a 2 day trip to Branson Missouri on mostly state highways. No big city travel at this time. Later in the day he would make a reservation for a cabin, or something, in Branson.

The drive included lots of windshield time, and turned into a time of sharing and bonding, as the two of them started to care for each other.

Once at the hotel in Davenport Iowa Jeremy got to work. The packets included dossiers on each member of the 10 and 60. One packet showed a historical breakdown of the MMG. It listed who had been past members of the 10 and 60.

There was a packet of next steps, how could he have missed this? One of the items was to make first contact with MMG leadership. This would be done using a secret e-mail address that was only used by the MMG 10. The e-mail would be the first contact with the 10 by the team that Bettle had passed information to. That seemed like something to work on as they settled in tomorrow. They would be safe if they were not careless.

Jeremy went on-line and rented a resort house outside of Branson Missouri. He paid with the card John had given him, what a blessing to have the new identity to be able to hide. The next morning they left early, masks on, under the cover of darkness. Just in case, Jeremy thought, just in case.

The search team had finally made it to the motel outside of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Discussion and fake FBI badges got them a look at the night security camera. The man that checked in late last night tried hard to cover his face but it was definitely their guy. "We have them sir. They are traveling under last name Thornton. They used a credit card sir!"

The trip to Branson had been uneventful for Melanie and Jeremy. They stopped at a grocery and purchased a weeks-worth of food. The resort house was nicer than he had expected. Big kitchen, 3 bedrooms, and only had one neighbor. The balance of the surrounding area included woods and a lake.

Since the day Jeremy met Melanie she had been a pain in his side. She cleaned up around him as he cooked, getting in his way, nagged about everything, and was almost vicious to him when nervous or scared. So why was it he could not stop thinking about her? She was irritating, loud at times, and her anal retentive, obsessive compulsive actions drove him up a wall. If he were cooking she would come up behind him and sweep the floor if he dropped some crumb, or clean a counter while he was still using it. If his shoes were not properly put away, she would pick them up and put them where she thought they belonged, even at a motel!

"Hi," she said as she came into the room.

"Hi," he said with a surprised voice.

"I cleaned up in the bathroom, it should be usable now", she said.

They had only been at the rented house outside of Branson Missouri for about an hour and he hadn't even used the bathroom yet. "Thanks," he said not looking up from the packets he was looking at.

"Do you like me?" she asked out of the blue, "I can't figure out if you hate who I am, or if you understand me completely. Most people get so mad at me for my strangeness; you just seem to ignore my little habits."

"Well," he said, "I don't hate you. At first your idiosyncrasies drove me crazy, but now I..."

She rushed him and kissed him, hard.

"Oh, my," she said backing off, "I just kissed you." Embarrassed, and more than a little nervous.

"Well," Jeremy said," that makes it my turn to kiss you, which will even things out." He leaned in for a nice long kiss.

After a long kiss she looked at him with desire in her eyes and responded with a smile, "let's try not to keep score."

They kissed and embraced for a few minutes before the passion welled up inside her and she became nervous. There had been no one but her husband for years. The whole dating scene was not even on her radar after his death. She backed off for a second, and then rushed back in. He was such a good kisser, and she needed love so badly!

He couldn't believe he was kissing her! This person that had been driving him crazy – really! Her lips were so soft, she felt so good in his arms, his whole body was excited and on alert. His chest felt like they were transferring electricity back and forth. The feeling was more spectacular than he could ever remember.

She was teetering between almost passing out from comfort and relief, and, at the same time her body was coming alive. She backed off and looked at him. She felt so connected, so appreciated, someone finally understood. She moved forward for another kiss. His hands started to wonder, and she decided hers should as well. Kissing took a back seat to touching and soon they were collectively looking for someplace to land.

As they lay down he whispered, "Open your eyes. I want to see you."

There lovemaking was hurried, passionate, and intense. They were all over the place, rolling off the bed, against the wall. They wanted to try everything. She bit him very lightly and he responded by increasing his rhythm. She could feel the swelling of sexual tension rising in her body. For the first time in her life she was allowing herself to be loud. He heard her passion and it over took him, as they nearly released at the same time. Ten minutes was all it took, but what an animalist ten minutes it had been

As the passions subsided she blurted out, "I LOVE SEX!" Her body felt like a swollen river that was slowly releasing excess emotion. She could feel the liberation of her cells as tension, stress, and frustration slowly left, as an endorphin induced euphoria replaced it. Each cell smiling as it let go of all the bad stuff. Peacefulness, calm, safety. She started to sob from happiness.

"And so do I", said Jeremy. "So do I." His body seemed to release tension in a way that reminded him of what he thought it might feel like to die. Part of him transcended his body, hovering, and then rushing away. Giving him an overall feeling of peace. He was about ready to pass out when he heard her crying.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"Never better," she said, "never better."

She rolled over to hide her tears and he slid in behind her. Being in his arms calmed her and a short time later they both fell asleep. She awoke to the aroma of food being cooked, wow, was she hungry! As she made her way to the kitchen she could smell pasta sauce, onion, and garlic. As she came around the corner she could not believe the mess he had made. It took every ounce of her being not to grab a rag.

"Wow, that smells wonderful," she said. He jumped and tossed sauce against the wall.

"Holy cow!" He yelled from surprise. "Hi".

He finished the pasta as she cleaned the wall, the counter, the cooking surface, and the floor. She would come back in after they ate, she thought, so she can get this really clean.

She was distracted as they ate; thinking about cleaning the kitchen again, but the pasta was great. Jeremy was a 5-Star cook in her mind. They ate by candlelight, soft, romantic. The after-sex meal turned to thoughts of the relationship.

"If things were different where would you want to go?" he asked.

"Well," she answered, "I have never been to Hawaii or Cabo. They are both high on my list. Europe would be ok but going overseas seems so dangerous anymore."

They looked at each other and bust out laughing, considering the situation they were in.

"Yes," he said with a cute, sarcastic smile, "Europe would be too dangerous for us."

After the meal Jeremy checked out more of the packets and Melanie cleaned the kitchen. Jeremy remembered there was multiple action items that they needed to do but decided not to mention it tonight.

As they headed to bed each turned to their own room. She stopped with the anticipation that he would follow. He, of course, was just heading to bed.

"Did you want me to join you?" he asked in a way that sounded like he was hoping she would say no.

"Not if you don't want to," she answered.

"Sorry," he said with a shrug. "Not quite ready for that."

As she closed her door she felt hurt, almost used. Had this been a romp? She did not think so. Were they now a couple? She thought so. Shouldn't they be together? As she started to get into bed there was a knock on the door.

"I made a mistake," he said. "I wasn't ready for the moment. Do you mind if I come in?"

"If you want to," she said coldly, "not sure what has changed in the last few minutes."

"Hey," he said cutely, "I'm a guy; sometimes it takes me a time or two before I get it right."

As he started to fall asleep he pushed some covers off of him, clearing his left foot and mumbled in her ear, "I think I have been waiting my whole life for you. You make my soul feel good."

She fell asleep with a smile on her face and joy in her heart.

They awoke the next morning around noon. It was the first quality sleep for both of them since they had met. The sun was shining into the room. It was going to be a glorious day!

## Chapter 19

Eagleton was so glad to have good news. "We have them!" he told Aiah, "they are in a resort house in Branson, Missouri. I have people on their way already. The lead outside of St. Paul proved to be the one. We got a confirmation from the check-in and they had a video camera with a great picture of the guy." Eagleton continued, "The camera was not hooked up to anything except a tape machine in the back, but we got it. Once we found them we just needed to follow the credit card to the next place."

Aiah was thrilled. Hopefully they would be able to get the information so he could make his move. He would soon be able to let everyone know he was the most powerful man in the world.

Melanie and Jeremy almost danced around the house they had rented. Love was in full bloom! "Let's go on a picnic," Melanie said. "We can wear our masks until we get to where we are going and then relax in the quiet comforts of nature."

Jeremy was reluctant, for about 48 seconds. "Well, ok, but we need to be really careful," he said thinking only about how much fun it would be. "What should we have for our picnic?"

"Why don't we go and just drive through somewhere," Melanie said. And with that they were off, masks on, holding hands, heading out to spend some time together.

The man from the surveillance team held a personally modified military issue scope, watching for any movement. There were 3 drones in the air in a triangle pattern covering all sides of the house. All video was being sent to the equipment laden van in the driveway and back to whoever had tasked them to watch the couple.

He wished he needed his sniper rifle, but no kill order had been given. He was about 200 yards from the entrance to the house in the passenger side of a Suburban waiting for the marks to leave. He could shoot a dime on end at that distance; all he needed was opportunity and permission. This was the hardest part of the game, he thought, waiting for action.

He had arrived with the rest of his team late last night. They were to watch and advise if there was any movement, ANY movement. The goal was to get into the house if they left, copy any information they have, and forward it on. He would follow the couple; other team members would search the house. This is what his team did. The key is to get what they want, but not let the mark know they got it.

He saw the couple coming out the front door. They were not worried at all about being seen, this would be easy. He alerted the team and his driver. The group that would penetrate the house, just a few a few blocks away, were scrambling as he watched the car turn south. His driver pulled out slowly, tailing from a distance.

"Scramble," called out the leader. "They are on the move. We need to be in that house in two minutes!"

The group grabbed their gear, guns, cameras, and break in tools, and started the jog through the grove of trees to the back of the house. Once at the rear of the house the French door was picked no problem. They moved into the house, confirming each room as "clear". The document expert found the packets in backpacks on the living room floor. These two idiots had no thought they were being followed, he thought.

He took copies of the documents that were instantly uplinked to a location on the web. There was a lot of interesting stuff here, things he did not know. All these people are part of a special organization; this may come in handy for him someday! Uploading all the documents took about 15 minutes, and then they were out. The house was cleaned for all prints and everything was back where it was when they entered. Piece of cake, he thought, as he returned to home base. The knife in his back was a total surprise. "Sorry man," said a teammate that he had known forever, "I have no choice." He guessed he would never get to use that information, it must have been important.

After driving through a local chicken fast food joint, Melanie and Jeremy headed to the country. They followed the river road looking for a secluded spot to hide the vehicle and themselves. Jeremy saw a pathway that they could drive down and he headed in that direction. The spot by the river was perfect! Only one way in, down in a slight valley, and the flooring was a beautiful bluegrass. They put down a table cloth they removed from the rental, laid out the food, and then met in the middle to kiss. The food took second place to being alone in the woods.

"Have you ever done it outside?" she asked?

"Maybe a time or two," he said.

She moved in on him and started to touch his arm, his chest, and his hips. He responded and they touched and enjoyed the great outdoors for an hour prior to being hungry. They had cemented their love for each other. Neither now had any question. They could hear thunder in the distance as they picked up to get ready to go back.

The sniper was watching from the other side of the river. This is a perfect scenario, they are in the country, if he shot them no one would find them for a while, and all evidence would be across the river and up a hill from where it happened. When he cleaned his area there would be no record of him being here.

"Suspects are sighted sir," he said "permission to fire?"

"Negative," came the response, "now is not the time."

"Doesn't get much better than this, sir," he continued. "This is almost too perfect"

Negative," came the response, "Not at this time."

The view was pretty good. Her body was better than he expected. Amazing how skinny athletic women seem to have no curves until the clothes come off. He was enjoying himself but hated the thought of having to kill her; ah, who was he kidding, he loved killing, killing her would not bother him one bit.

## Chapter 20

Aiah was excited. Information was coming in. How much would be there, how deep can he get in to the Run to destroy the MMG? The files were coming over about one a minute. Scanned in Missouri and instantly available to him all the way across the world, I love technology, he thought to himself.

One packet was called the Proof of Corruption – the MMG. Aiah watched as the pages came over. There was a cover letter from Bettle.

This is to be used only as a last resort. The fate of the world lies in the balance if this information gets out. If all of the information listed is brought to the public at one time it will cause a world-wide breakdown of trust. I cannot emphasize how dangerous this Run is. Think of a Wall Street company at the top of their game and then remove the 5 high level players and the CEO due to inside trading and cheating. Think of the loss of trust; think how the investor base would respond, the media, and the other players. There would be total disillusionment. The company and the entire market would be in flux for years. Now compare that to the world if they find out that not all playing fields are level. That the leaders of all major fields have been promoted though specialized knowledge, corruption, even death. Everyone would be suspect. No one would know what was real. Everyone that did not have, or had lost, would try to sue everyone that was successful. Any successful person would be considered a suspect in corruption.

This run is unique when compared to others because after you start it you can control it some. Information can be leaked a little at a time. If you get a positive response to the initial wave you can stop the rest of the Run from happening. The idea here is not to let the Run go all the way unless you absolutely need to. You can pick who we want to expose, if needed. This is a bargaining chip; not a sledge hammer. As with a normal run, this one starts with a phone call. An article will appear in the New York Times about a secret organization that rules the world. A packet will be delivered to each of the MG leadership 10. The packets will have specific instructions for each member. They can decide at that time if they want to back off or be exposed.

This run is only to be used if you see a large group of people dying or exposed for some type of act. If the balance of world power seems to be shifting we want to test this Run to see who jumps. This Run will also be released with your deaths. By now the packets we sent should have notified the MMG leadership of the change in who holds this information. They should be aware that you are not to be touched.

The Run will work off of a web site that I have created. This information is top secret and should never leave your possession. The web site contains links that start individual runs that will expose certain people. If you start these runs the world will see the person exposed almost instantly. Information is sent to internet and media sites immediately using back door access. Articles will appear from nowhere outlining enough dirt on each person to cause their collapse in the eyes of the world.

Aiah picked up the phone and called his head IT leader. "Sandeep," Aiah yelled," get may name off this web site! NOW!" Aiah e-mailed a link to Bettle's top secret web site to Sandeep Singh, leader of his IT department in Mumbai India.

The department consisted of 20 of the best programmers, hackers, and researchers in the world. Aiah felt his team was second to none at compiling information on companies he was looking to acquire. They also can hack and disable a web site of a competitor or acquisition target. One of their specialties was bombarding the competitor web site with undetectable pings that would use up the available computer space, either shutting it down or making it run at a crawl.

"Get my name off of this site and find a way to disconnect it and move it somewhere that only I have access to. Username AiahMMG, password Only7leaders! I need all our resources on this.

As they arrived back at the house Jeremy saw that a piece of tape had dislodged on the French door; someone had been here. He had taped a piece up in the corner where it would not be visible unless you knew to look for it. He had also leaned a magazine against the French Door before he left so he could tell if anyone entered, and both were tripped.

He held out his arm and touch Melanie. "Stay here," he whispered, "let me check things out."

"You are always so dramatic," Melanie said, still relaxed from their trip, "I can't believe..."

"Shut up" he interrupted, whispering louder, and then calming down, "someone has been here; I need to check this out. Everything we say and do could be being picked up by listening devises. Stay here and be quite."

As he searched the house he started to get an uneasy feeling. There was no sign of entry except for his tell. Nothing was out of place. This was a complete professional job. Outside of the two tells he set up to verify if someone entered, he would have had no idea that anyone was here. All the packets were in place, he had to assume all had been copied. Damn, he thought to himself, I should have taken them with me! Now the MMG knew what he knew. They now may have the upper hand.

He grabbed the packets, the food and their personal items and tossed them in the trunk.

"Let's go," he said. "We cannot talk here, we are not safe."

Melanie was frightened; she trusted him and knew he was scared. Just get in the car, she thought, let him take care of this.

The web site was not easily penetrable. Aiah's IT specialists were not initially able to get his name off the web site. If he could just get his name off he was set for his next step. He could use the web site to expose everyone! He wondered what Bettle had on him. Aiah had been very careful to show his softer, gentler side, and hide his evil side. What could Bettle possibly have on him?

"Sandeep, can you get me access? Can I get access to drill down to additional information?" Aiah, asked.

"Not yet, sir. We are still working on this."

Jeremy's mind was racing as he drove. If the MMG had the information about the web site they could lose all their leverage. This could make them no longer a threat and/or could allow the MMG to kill them. He had been lax about sending the needed e-mail to alert to the MMG leadership about the transfer of information. He pulled into a truck stop, gained wire access to the internet and sent the following message to the MMG leadership mail ID called out in the packets.

Hi everyone, this is John Bettle speaking to you from beyond the grave. By now you all know I have passed away. Prior to my demise I have passed my files that could expose you and the MMG to a trusted source. They have sent this e-mail to let you know that while I have passed, my hold on the organization has not. There will be more to come.

Jeremy added his own message at the bottom.

Whoever is tracking us and breaking into our house had better back off or I will expose you all!

The message found its audience. Most of the MMG leadership were not surprised that Bettle had passed on his information, they had expected that, but no one seemed to know what the last sentence was about. Who was chasing the person John Bettle had passed his information on to? They did not even know who they were yet. The MMG organization and the leadership's very lives were at stake here. They had all agreed to Bettle's demands in trade for them being able to continue their lives. None of them would push the envelope at this point, would they? A special meeting was called to discuss. Head of security Eagleton was included.

"This seems to say that someone is chasing the new contact, we need to find out who", said Jian He, a Chinese real estate mogul and member of the Ten. "This person, or persons, can get us exposed. We cannot lose face, this cannot happen!"

"If we are not careful the entire organization could be breached." Roger Pithie, head academic and a member of the Ten from Australia, said as he slowly lowering his head. "Can you imagine the chaos if the world finds out what we have done?"

"Please, everyone," said Aiah, "you have asked me to lead, so let me try. Mr. Eagleton, do we have any information about what is going on?"

"Bettle passed his information on to two people that used to be interns for the MMG in Dubuque back in the 80s" Eagleton explained as he sent out files on each, "Neither came aboard, which is why we believe he chose them. Melanie Price and Jeremy Mist were brought together in Rochester as Bettle was dying. We found Bettle's location shortly before his death but he was already dead and cleaned by the time we got there. We were lucky enough to see the two come to cleanup some business and trailed them to a townhome on the north side of town. Our operative was killed as another group stormed the house."

"Another group? Who? Why were we not told about this?"

"We are still not sure who the other group was," Eagleton continued, "our best guess at this point is that the couple got away since we are hearing from them now. They would be scared, and could be hiding out anywhere. Bettle more than likely supplied them with fake IDs, making them almost impossible to find once they settle in. We have asked all our leads for assistance in checking travel cameras, we have pulled in many favors, but still nothing."

"So," said Aiah, as he continued his questioning, "someone is apparently chasing these two and we must be prepared for anything. I am asking for your full cooperation and support for me to act in the best interest of the group, if the need arises. We are all at risk here. I am asking for a vote to allow Mr. Eagleton and I to do whatever may be necessary to stop this risk, do I have your support?"

Aiah's plea came across so genuine, with so much charisma that the group voted unanimously to give him the full power of the MMG. Little did they know that he already had been using most of it.

## Chapter 21

As Aiah read the packet documents he was impressed. The detail, the forward thinking; too bad Bettle was dead, he would have made a great addition to his team.

One file intrigued him, a file titled Financial Control. It discussed creating scenarios where certain money denominations would start trading erratically. There were multiple steps to this and it was not ready to implement. A new electronic money type would be established, or an existing one commandeered. Runs would be started to weaken world currencies and drive people to the security of the electronic currency, which would be designed to hold constant value. The new money type would need to be set up in advance, and trades made prior to the currency fluctuations to profit from the variations, but the overall goal was to drive people to the new MMG electronic money source. They would create market fluctuations in the Forex and commodity markets, profiting from the rise and falls. The fluctuations would drive people to use the new MMG non-fluctuating money type, creating a situation where there was less money held in world denominations. The initial goal would be to drive the world to less than 5 denominations, and then, eventually to one. This one new money type would be their electronic money type that would become a physical currency as well. The MMG would become the new world-bank. A monopoly on money, what a concept!

Aiah thought about it and he knew of one electronic money type that was already in existence, OPETRO, as it was called. It started in the oil industry, as Aiah knew well, created by the OPEC leadership to make transfer of funds easier between members and creditors. Each side would put money in at current exchange rates and the leave the funds in. Trading would be done using the electronic currency with no worries as to fluctuations in exchange rates.

This was modified recently to open it up to the world to set up to be a free electronic money exchange. Like the Internet, anyone could use it at no cost except for the cost of maintaining an on-line account. There would be a monthly fee for the account, just like a bank. OPETRO is now an international electronic banking system. Any money type can be moved in to purchase an OPETRO Share. Shares are then used to buy and sell electronically. The only time an exchange rate is used is when money is put in or taken out. This puts everyone on the same playing field. They put their denominations in and get their denominations out; the system takes care of the rest.

The goal of the Financial Control packet has a few layers. First is to create an electronic bank, then get as much money flowing through it as possible. The system would take in all denominations in trade for the electronic money credits. Sellers would pay a small fee, like a credit card; and people would pay so much for having an account, like a bank. Credit, debit, and on-line transactions are all covered. Money sitting stagnant waiting for use, invested by the owners, could be borrowed out at higher rates to create income.

Second, a Run would start to create weakness in Asian currency, all Asian currency. The money would fluctuate so much that the region would hardly be able to function because of the daily fluctuation of money. The rest of the world would watch as values would change 3 – 5% daily. Over time something you bought for 300 Yen on credit could dive in price to 150 Yen prior to you paying yours off. Companies buying with 120 days to pay would have no idea how much they may actually pay in equivalent money when the time came. The MMG controlled media would call for a one Asian currency to solve the problem. There would also be a drive to get all Asians to move to the new electronic money source; however that would not be expected to happen at this time. Businesses however, would be persuaded to use the electronic transfer system as they sell out of region. The discussion is to get the thought in place to get all to use the electronic system in the future. The Runs would continue to drive chaos until the end goal was reached.

Third, along with the fluctuations in Asia, a Run would start to create weakness in European currencies that do not use the Euro. The drive would be to get more countries to take on the Euro as their standard currency. In addition, the hope would be to see more international business done via OPETRO.

The final step would be to build the MMG electronic bank through world-wide business use and recommendations for the MMG to use, and then collapse world denominations making the MMG money type the world money system.

Billions in currency would go to OPETRO, as it would become a standard for business transactions world-wide, due to the media attention it would get in these 2 instances. Skimming off a few basis points of trillions of dollars, thought Aiah, I need to get control of this. Amazing how easy it would be to grow something like this when you have the backing of many of the world financial, media, and business leaders. Aiah had used OPETRO in some of his transactions but to capture control of the world money system, this was huge.

He knew it was OPEC, but he was not sure how it all worked. Aiah picked up the phone and called his financial contact. "Find out who owns OPETRO, I want it all, and I want to know now!"

As the new leader of the MMG Aiah's response to Jeremy's Bettle e-mail from the grave was short and sweet. Jeremy and Melanie read it together.

We understand that John Bettle has passed information along to you and we agree to keep our part of the bargain established with John many years ago. Nothing has changed on our side.

We are attempting to find out who is harassing you, certainly you understand that we would not put ourselves or the world at risk knowing you can expose everything. Please keep us informed of any additional trouble you may have so we can try to assist. MMG

"So, the only people in the world that would have any need to chase us are say they are not the ones doing it? Who else would know about this stuff or have any reason to chase us?" said Melanie.

The news unsettled Jeremy so much that he really did not hear her, or respond. He needed to research these packets further; there must be an answer in here. As he stood at the window looking outside he caught a slight reflection in the sky, like something winking at him. He watched for a while to confirm. So, he thought, they have drones watching us. His heart sank as he envisioned all those stake outs he had performed that he loved so much. Now things had reversed, he was now the prey. If this group was as strong as John had let them to believe he could easily be listed as the silent #1 most-wanted person in the world. What chance did he have if they wanted to kill him? He would be dead inside of a minute if that is what they wanted. What did he still have that was stopping them? While he and Melanie were out of the house someone appeared to have copied everything. Was their death just a matter of time?

He decided it was time to go on the offensive. He responded to the e-mail.

You can start helping by removing the drone that is watching us just north of our current position. I don't believe the organization that John Bettle describes in the packets could be the position you are without knowledge of our situation. You are the only people we are a threat to, and someone is chasing us and you're telling us you have no knowledge? Please. If you as leadership are not aware, you have a mole or a decenter in the group that is keeping this all from you.

## Chapter 22

Aiah stood in his private home office flowcharting the entire Financial Control packet. He was looking to understand the entire run so he could eliminate others from profiting; only he would be able to call the changes in currency. Only he would know in advance. He would become the world richest man!

He was reading what could only be described as a huge amount of data about the detailed investment recommendations that were being made prior to the run starting. The first action was to trade the Yen versus other world currency on the FOREX (FX) market. There was a note that the long term goal was to kill the FX market, diving people to OPETRO use.

He read the side story about the FX market - The primary reason the FX market exists is to facilitate the exchange of one currency into another for multinational corporations that need to trade currencies continually (for example, for payroll, payment for costs of goods and services from foreign vendors, in addition to merger and acquisition activity). Sounds familiar, Aiah thought, comparing it to OPETRO. However, these day-to-day corporate needs comprise only about 20% of the market volume. Fully 80% of trades in the currency market are speculative in nature, put on by large financial institutions, multibillion dollar hedge funds and even individuals who want to express their opinions on the economic and geopolitical events of the day.

No one will ever prosecute you for insider trading should your bet pay off. There is no such thing as insider trading in FX; in fact, European economic data, such as German employment figures, are often leaked days before they are officially released.

The FX trades 24 hours a day, from 5pm EST Sunday to 4pm EST Friday, and it rarely has any off hour gaps in price. Its sheer size and scope (from Asia to Europe to North America) makes the currency market the most accessible market in the world. His concentration was broken by a phone call.

"Aiah," he said as he answered the call from his financial expert, "what did you find out?"

"As I am sure you are aware, OPETRO was actually established, unknown to most of the world, as a way for OPEC countries to move money back and forth without the hassle of money exchanges. A centralized on-line bank was established to record-keep the transactions. People that supplied services to the OPEC countries soon became involved and had accounts set up. The OPEC countries paid the supplier via the on-line bank and could withdraw their funds by transferring the money from the on-line bank back to their accounts at their own bank. The use of the OPETRO continues to grow as the circle widens. The on-line bank currently has no physical home and money is wired in and out, but no current physical currency exists. The OPETRO on-line bank is privately held by the OPEC countries and rumor has it they would like to get rid of the responsibility as long as the system would remain. While the system holds billions in assets daily, the overall cost would not be that expensive. The stability of the investment, however, depends on people using it. If everyone pulls all their funds there would be nothing left. The company is a series of computer programs and storage."

OPEC, thought Aiah, my home turf. "Thanks, I will let you know if I need anything else."

A few phone calls got Aiah hooked up with the owners and an agreement was reached. While he could not get full control, Aiah would take over management of the system, and 60% of the ownership in return for a $50 million note that OPEC would carry. OPEC would also continue to be the holders of the collateral and the responsibility that carried. Aiah was now an international electronic bank owner.

The second part of the run discussed stocks that would be affected by the Asian currency fluctuations and had recommended short and long purchases, along with option puts and calls listed to maximize the rise and fall of the stocks.

The next item explained how the media would be told to react. This would initially create a small bubble in Asian currency prices, and then collapse the currency. MMG news articles would hit hard in respect to the need for a stabilizing currency in the area, trying to create an Asian currency union.

I must create ways for me to be able to get all the money without anyone knowing how much I gained. I need to be audit proof. As he considered his need for hidden corporations and other ways of hiding his gains, his phone rang again. The other MMG leaders were on the phone, they were getting to be such a bother!

Aiah was tired of these leadership phone calls. They complain so much! If they only knew it was me, not these two pests who were no longer a real threat, that it was I that held their life in my hands.

"Have we learned anything new?" ask Lourdes.

"Nothing at this time, said Eagleton," whoever is doing this seems to be well connected."

"I am so tired of this! Which one of you is doing this?" Aiah had determined to go on the offensive. "No one knows what is going on here but us. That means someone in this room is doing it, or passed on information to someone else. I want all of you to look at your organizations for anyone that may try something like this. We cannot allow these two to think they have no choice but to expose us all!"

The group discussed and a couple of names came up. "We will eliminate them all, just to be sure. We need to find out who is doing this!"

While there was great concern, there was no action taken except for Eagleton to continue to search for the person responsible, and have a couple MMG eliminated just in case. All agreed this would continue to play out and they would need to adjust and adapt as needed.

## Chapter 23

Aiah had spent months deciphering the Financial Control Run. He had arranged his organization so that he could profit from the Run once he started it. He had figured out the first part of the run so he could replace packets at strategic points, having others make trades at the correct time in his numerous accounts, at least in the best guess of Bettle. He was also including the other 6 MMG Ten; he figured making them wealthy would help buy their support, not that he needed it, of course. The packets instructed financial institutions to make trades as requested depending on market conditions, and these trades would happen without his direct involvement. Since he had predetermined what he wanted to do, and no one would believe anyone is powerful enough to sway the currency market, this would make him the richest man in the world and keep him audit proof! He was ready. The first of the actions would start today. He made a phone call to the number listed.

"The soaring of an eagle is majestic", he said, and hung up the phone. This, he thought would be fun to watch.

Melanie & Jeremy were exhausted. They had moved every day at first, mostly at night, for seven days after seeing the drone. They had no idea if they were still being watched but nothing new had happened for months. Because they had no defense, and the group chasing them had unlimited resources, they kind of just stop worrying about being at risk. If death can come at any moment you start living every moment to the extreme. They were visible and they knew it, but they had nothing else to fall back on.

They were just outside of Vail Colorado and had decided to come and go as they pleased. They had money, credit cards, and lots of time.

Jeremy spent his days watching for any movement that may show the MMG was executing a Run, and watching for whoever may be following them. Melanie started reading novels, and had started a garden in the back yard, although it was more a way to use her time as opposed to a true garden. They had skied some, did some hiking, and had even ventured into Denver for concerts and an occasional night out. Jeremy watched closely as they traveled, looking for any sign of someone following them. If there was someone there, these guys were good!

JingJing Meng could not believe she had received the call. She had just started as an intern at The Chinese Financial Review a few weeks prior. The Review was the leading on-line financial web site in China. She had been so lucky that her professor at business school had slated her for this opportunity. She would do anything to get ahead.

She alerted her mentor that she had received the call. She watched as he pulled out a packet, pulled out a disk, and uploaded it to the web site. She was thanked and sent home for the day because of her great work.

Within hours all Asian currencies were going crazy. With the previous blog, and subsequent Yen fluctuation, this was seen as another issue of currency price variance in the Asian Market. A Chinese web site had posted a new story that the Yen will greatly outpace the dollar over the next few months. This is the same web site that had hit on 4 of the last 5 major moves in the Asian currency markets. Trading was running at an almost all-time high. People were going strong on the Yen, trying to capitalize on the market. All but a few, that is. As the Yen grew stronger Aiah's predetermined market actions started selling the Yen short, buying the stocks on Bettle's list that will explode in value as the Yen dropped, and selling short the other investments that would lose value as the Yen values dropped. Tomorrow an intern in the UK would get a call that would create another story that would show the Chinese story incorrect. The Yen would plummet to a 5 year low over the next 24 hours. As the Yen plummets, Aiah's holding will be liquidated at a projected point at about 90% of the total fall, and then held in cash until the buy/sell triggers are hit on the way back up. If this goes as planned he will create hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth. Once he does he can return the OPEC funds he borrowed to cover the moves he made, and he will be wealthy beyond believe. Then he will move to the next currency and do the same using his own money for security

Jeremy saw the Yen rise and fall unexpectedly. He pulled the Financial Control packet and realized that this Run was in process. Who would start this now? Who would have the most to gain? He started searching for recent changes in the financial world that may lead to who is doing this. There must be a lead.

The MMG leadership called another meeting. "Yes, yes, Eagleton and I are on it." Aiah let them know, "The Financial Control Run appears to have started. We are monitoring and trying to ascertain who is responsible. We should know more in a few days."

Aiah couldn't wait for this to be over. He would soon be the richest man in the world and he could ruin them all with the push of a button, if he wanted to. He would soon go from leader to commander! Then they would be his soldiers, letting the world know he should lead.

As the Yen continued to rise and fall, Aiah was waiting for the right moment to start the next Run on the EURO. The Asian currencies would continue to yo-yo up and down for months. The instability in the area would continue for up to a year. With one currency fluctuating greatly it would not be a surprise to have another do the same. The Yen was not the only currency at risk in the East, all were feeling the affect. Articles, that he could only assume were driven by the Run, starting calling for the entire Asian continent to move to one common currency union, like the Euro, to put a halt to this confusion. In discussing the opportunity Aiah particularly like the article in the journal.

A single currency union brings new strengths and opportunities arising from the integration and scale of the Asian-area economy, making a single market more efficient.

Without a currency union, the need to exchange currencies means extra costs, risks, and a lack of transparency in cross-border transactions. With the currency union, doing business in the Asian area would be more cost-effective and less risky.

Meanwhile, being able to compare prices easily encourages cross-border trade and investment of all types, from individual consumers searching for the lowest cost product, through businesses purchasing the best value service, to large institutional investors who can invest more efficiently throughout the Asian area without the risks of fluctuating exchange rates. Within the Asian area, there would be one large integrated market using the same currency.

The smaller countries were starting to show agreement but China and Japan had no interest. The discussion, however, was on the table.

The EURO Run was similar and Aiah was prepared. All was in place and all he needed to do was make the call. This would cement his world power; the richest man in the world, the power would come soon!

A man answered on the other end, "g'day!"

"The tide is rising," Aiah said, and hung up the phone.

Jeremy went to the web site John had passed on to them and noticed he no longer had access. He became frantic - The web site that gave them all of their security was gone! He could not expose anyone, even if he wanted to. What were they going to do now? How can he spin this to Melanie as a good thing?

Why were they still alive, he thought? If the MMG cracked the only bargaining chip they had, why have they not been eliminated? Then another question came into his mind - if they are no longer a threat, they would not need to be eliminated. He needed time to think this through before he discussed it with Melanie.

As he looked over financial news it appeared that Shem Aiah had become the poster boy for making money in the current market swings. Shem Aiah, he recognized, was part of the 10.

They were either hidden from view, no longer a mark, or it was just a matter of time. He had chased criminals his whole life but he never gave a thought to how they felt in hiding. Now he was the one in hiding and he didn't like it.

The MMG leadership was not sure what to think, they had been called to a meeting at Shem Aiah's penthouse at Elite Estates in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Offering a magnificent view of Kuala Lumpur's Twin Towers and the city skyline. The penthouse was newly acquired.

"Come in, come in, my friends," Aiah said, "we have much great news to discuss!"

The conference room was outstanding, a vision of a home field advantage. The room was done in old world mahogany, with two walls made into book cases holding some of the world's rarest works, and a third covered with some of the world's most renowned paintings. The final long side of the room overlooked Kuala Lumpur from 75 floors up. The conference table was 1 ½" thick solid mahogany polished to a luster. The table legs were hand carved 5" solid mahogany columns with antique claw feet. It was said to be a gift from a Saudi sheik and dates back over 150 years old. The 21 chairs matched the tables.

The room corners had large black marble pillars holding huge Chinese vases incased in glass. The ceiling was covered with a bright multicolored antique Chinese Temple pattern with a large ornate yellow Chinese lantern in the middle.

Aiah appeared to be almost dancing as he shuffled people around. Everyone was to sit looking out over Kuala Lumpur. Eagleton stood in the corner, on alert as always. As people finished marveling at the room and the view, Aiah called the meeting to order. Two panels unfolded in front of the windows. As they unfolded they showed a digital image of the outside view. After all was unfolded, the screen went to black. A bold wall-size 3D image of MMG appeared to project out of the wall a few inches.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I want to show you a dream, a vision, which I have had. A few years back I was asked to join the MMG and I was thrilled. After a few meetings I came to realize that I had been a member most of my life, I just did not realize it. My step-father, whom you all know, helped me in ways I was not even aware of."

As he continued he paced around in front of the monitors, "After a while I recognized the overall concept of the MMG. Assist, grow, and mentor the world's best. Get them to high levels of power in their chosen field and plant ideas and lead the acquisition of supplies; learn of growing trends from one part of the group and supply it to another. Kind of the world's best insider trading firm."

As he took a sip Aiah watched the group, they looked interested but confused. He could not help but wonder of their thoughts, who was he to school them; he bet they were thinking, who was he indeed! "I made it my life's work to figure out how it all worked. I watched as Runs played out, who won, who lost. I researched who did what by having a group of people talk to the people who had been involved. How did they know what to do, who did they call, what happened later? I even found out it was John Bettle who planned it all."

Several members now were sitting up; concerned with the direction this was going. Aiah pressed on, "I have been tracking John Bettle for 2 years now and the reason the MMG could not find him was because those following him did not tell you we knew where he was. Mr. Eagleton and I have been working on a special project and it is time to let you in on it."

Aiah continued for almost an hour talking about trailing Bettle and the two he passed things to. He let them know he had procured the files held by the two and had removed their access to the web site that could discredit them all. He gave them a sense of relief, the threat was removed! They could relax again!

"Now," said Aiah, "about the Runs that are in progress in regards to world currency; I have started them."

"What!" was the joint response from the group, "how could you, who do you think you are?"

Well," said Aiah calmly, "actually, I am now the richest, most powerful man in the world. I have placed trades prior to all the fluctuation and have created billions in wealth. In addition I am in process of buying up property, inventory, and businesses at huge dicounts because the market swings created panic and loss. I am taking advantage of fear in certain regions, people are selling everything. The trades I have made will allow us to take over control of most of the world."

"US!" said one of the leadership team "sounds like this is all about you."

"Well, as I said, I am the richest man in the world, but I share this room with seven of the world's richest people. I have taken the liberty to make trades for all of you, buying property, businesses, and trading the currency market all in your names. Each of you now owns much of the area of the world you are from. We will rule the world together!"

"Seven," said one the Ten, "how can you share this with seven, there are only six of us now, not including you. The only other person in the room is Eagleton. You are NOT including Eagleton?"

"Yes," said Aiah, "Eagleton is now a member of this group. Not only a member, but a person that will have controlling interested with me."

All eyes turned from Aiah to Eagleton, and back. The room was quiet. Each member looked down at the table top in shock. Each started to wonder about Eagleton's involvement but also about how much they had made. Why would Aiah do this? "So what's the catch?" asked one of the members.

"Well," said Aiah, "since you asked. I am now in charge of this team. This team is now in my possession. I will determine our future actions."

Pandemonium took over the room as all of these powerful people felt scared, put down; and by someone who had just joined the group. They shouted, huddled, and finally turned on Aiah.

"QUIET, STOP!" yelled Aiah. "There is more. I am now in possession of the information and the web site that John Bettle had on all of you. Yes, he did have some information on me but I was not even aware of most of it, since my adopted father did most of the work. I have a button I can push for each one of you, or all of you, that would expose your involvement or knowledge of the Kennedy assassinations, the market manipulations, and the world chaos that you caused. Undeniable proof! Pictures, charts, hand written notes, letters, e-mails, and a trail that will take no time to prove that you made it happen!"

The energy in the room was sucked out. All the members fell back on their chairs. But, Aiah was not done.

"I have uncovered something else we must discuss, and I want all of you to know that I am aware of your involvement. All of you were in a leadership role when the call went down to try to kill the creation of OPEC by killing the lead negotiator, who was my father! I am not sure who all was involved so I must assume all of you had a hand in his death." Aiah took a deep breath, "I will cast you to the WOLVES," as he pounded the table, "all I need is one indication that you MAY cross me." His finger now was moving back and forth pointing at each member as he drove his point home, "DO NOT! tempt me, on this issue. I hold the key to your VERY LIVES, I am in charge!" A twitch under his right eye gave a tell of his anger. This was not a man to be pushed.

After calming down Aiah called Eagleton over, "Zero, please pass out everyone's packet. Let's show them what they've won!"

Aiah continued, "Ladies and Gentlemen, over the next few weeks I, and a company I have acquired that controls all the money for OPEC, will be buying currency to help stabilize the current market fluctuations. This will be met with great accolades from all of you, and the MMG controlled media. I, and the unwavering value of the OPEC currency, OPETRO, will become a world-wide sensation! We will see to it that I will be on the cover of all the financial magazines and newspapers, I will receive honorary degrees, massive Internet articles going viral, and I will become a social media hero!"

"It will be reported that I lost a great deal of my fortune saving the world, and it will be well documented, even if not true. The world will love me, trust me, and I will put on a show of great compassion for the world. All of you will sing my praises. At the same time we will be driving currency and market fluctuations and buy everything in sight at bargain prices. In a few months we will own most of the world outside of the United States."

Aiah continued, "The rise in use of the OPEC currency will start a trend to reduce the number of currencies worldwide."

"I have started a dialog of all the major world oil producers, outside of the United States. As I am sure you are aware, OPEC includes the major oil producers of the Middle East. Also included in OPEC are Venezuela, Brazil, and Columbia in South America, and Nigeria and Algeria in Africa."

"In addition to OPEC, we have solicited the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus 3. There are many small oil producers in the area with some big ones including China, Indonesia, and I am adding India with this group as well."

"The final partner being wooed is Russia and the prior Soviet States."

"Excuse me Aiah," said Lourdes Mendoza, "geography is not my thing, what countries make up OPEC and ASEAN?"

"Certainly Lourdes, the plan makes little sense without an understanding of the players! I will put the countries up on the screen so we can look at them. The world map beside them is most impressive also."

The list was put up on the screen

OPEC has twelve member countries:

Six in the Middle East,

Iraq

Iran

Kuwait

Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates

Qatar

Four in Africa, and

Algeria

Angola

Libya

Nigeria

Two in South America.

Ecuador

Venezuela

ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) Plus 3 consists of the ASEAN countries of

Indonesia

Malaysia

Philippians

Singapore

Thailand

Brunei

Vietnam

Laos

Myanmar (Burma)

Cambodia

The Plus 3

China

Japan

South Korea

Also to be included

India

Australia

New Zealand

Eagleton stepped up to a world map and took over as the leaders shared quick glances, "once we get everyone involved we would control 70% of the world's oil production. The balance falls to the United States (14%), Europe (8%), Mexico (3%) and then some minor producers."

"Consider this; if we could get Russia, China, the ASEAN states, and the Middle East to create an oil alliance, this would change the face of the world, much like OPEC did when it started. We could also create embargos to throw non-alliance countries into severe recessions."

"Because all areas outside of OPEC use different currency, the drive would be to put the oil producing countries all on the OPETRO, creating the world's greatest currency, which would be backed by oil. In the past, money was backed by gold reserves at the issuing country, or The Gold Standard, OPETRO will usher in The Oil Standard. Currencies around the world would be compared to OPETRO. They would have to make it the world standard currency; otherwise they would get no oil!"

Aiah then took back leadership of the meeting. "The plan is to get the leaders of each country to agree to come to a meeting. OPEC, plus Russia, will send out invites. All will come, since we have high level contacts in all the governments already."

"An alliance of the world's largest oil producers, except for the United States, will come together at the conference. One of the companies I own has developed a drug that instills an atmosphere of mind altering acceptance, if done properly. We will pipe in the drug, explain the plan, literally brain washing all present, and then have an agreement signed."

"The agreement will call for a small tax from each country to go to the central coordinating board, us, in exchange for massive investments in infrastructure, equipment to mine precious metals, farm equipment to feed the world, and to manufacture military equipment to preserve the safety of all."

"All of the transactions will take place with the OPETRO as the currency. Anyone wanting to trade with the new organization will need to do so with the OPETRO. Since the OPETRO is secured by The Oil Standard, it will command a power position in the world currency market."

"There will be loans and grants provided for any board approved capital expenditure, as long as it meets the goals outlined. As the alliance grows stronger we will reduce the supply of oil, raise the price to 5-times current value, and then use the funds to continue to achieve our needed goals of food, material extraction, and eventual military superiority."

"I am sorry Aiah," said Kord Baumann from Germany, "but this does not seem to include Europe, or the United States. On top of that, I can't imagine you can get all these people to agree on anything."

"Yes, thank you for bring up the West," Aiah said. "It is time to discuss where all of this is headed."

"This initial step will be to get the oil producers in our smaller nations together to create a bargaining unit. Europe does have oil production but they have shown themselves to not be interested in this project. The United States is NOT invited. We do not need THEM telling US what to DO!"

"OPEC is already on board. They are tired of the United States being THE world power. The US may have earned it years back, but they will no longer have power over us if we all act together. Their inconsistent message to the world is very disconcerting."

"President Volkov of Russia has agreed in principal and will be at the meeting when it is held. We are playing to their need for structure, food, and the dream of putting the old USSR back together, although that will never happen."

"The ASEAN plus 3 countries are all in except to China and Japan. China is a must and I have plans to go there next week. They want to use their currency but I will come away with agreement for them to come to the meeting. There they will succumb to the drugs like all the others."

"If Japan does not want to play we will SQUASH THEM like a BUG!" Aiah pounded open handed on the desk with great exuberance.

"Once the alliance is set we will build an army to protect our team. We will weaken the West with an oil embargo, sweep into Africa, taking control of their vast resources, and we will use the African population as soldiers to further our cause."

"Our army would include China, Russia, India, and Africa. Our numbers would be 10 times that of the West. We would work quickly to train our soldiers but we could defeat the West just in throwing great numbers at them. We will have the nuclear power of Russia and India. We will have submarines, destroyers, and the manufacturing expertise of China, Russia and India."

"When we are ready, or when it is necessary, we will cripple the USA, invade Europe, and wipe Israel from the face of the earth!"

"How do you intend to cripple a power like the United States?" questioned Lourdes.

"That is a plan I will not share at this time. There is more to prepare. But let me just say that America will no longer be threat to our plans when we are ready to remove them. Much of the plan is in place, waiting for someone to call the right numbers – then boom!" Aiah smiled and turned and left the room.

Eagleton instructed the group to not allow any of this information to leak out. People were watching for any discussions and the group had no idea what the MMG had bugged. If any word leaked, the guilty party would be dealt with without mercy.

The group retired to a private bar adjacent to the restaurant located at the top of the tower.

## Chapter 24

A few months later an on-air reporter discussed the results of the OPETRO Accord. "The report out of the oil producers meeting is that an outline for a deal has been struck! It is being called the OPETRO Accord, in reference to the OPEC currency OPETRO, and has the members using the OPETRO going forward. The members are calling themselves OPETRO-EZ, for the currency that will be used to trade, the OPETRO, and the Economic Zone (EZ) that they have established.

Here are a few seconds of an interview with a Saudi sheik. "We are so excited about this accord. The oil producers of the East have come together to become one force. We are creating an economic zone, with the intention of raising the quality of living for members of all of our countries."

"There will be a small tax placed on the production of each barrel of oil and the money will go towards drilling water wells for our people, so no one in the member states goes thirsty. We will also create new farming zones and invest in everything necessary to increase the acres being farmed, and the yield per acre."

"Well done today, Shahid!" Shouted another member, interrupting the interview, "you were exceptional today!"

The sheik waved, and then continued. "Thank you my friend, thank you!"

"We will be establishing a Medical program in the economic zone that will be second to none. We are actively seeking our best and brightest to send to medical school. Doctors, nurses, other medical people are needed. We will build a series of hospitals in each country."

"This all sounds well and good," said the reporter, "but where will the money come for all of this?"

"Were will the money come from you ask?" mimicked the sheik, "from the production of oil and precious minerals from all areas of the EZ. The great thing about all of this is...Hey, Aiah! Come here!"

"I will introduce to our EZ architect! Aiah, come say a few words."

Aiah looked tentative, like he did not deserve credit. "Well thank you Shahid, but I only served at the request of the membership. Each member deserves all of the credit."

"Aiah was elected to run the EZ, his knowledge of business and ability to speak most of the languages makes him most qualified," rambled the Sheik.

The reporter turned as Aiah spoke, "The generosity of the many world governments that make up our EZ is what is making this all happen. They have money, power, even fame; but their willingness to share with all people is so inspiring. The new cartel will most certainly raise prices some to help cover the tax, but they could have done all of this without the investment in the people." Said Aiah, new Supreme Leader of the OPETRO-EZ.

"New hospitals, doctors, nurses, wells, farms \- all to help a people that have been forgotten, downtrodden, and have gone sick or hungry. We will also develop new medicines, vaccines, and cures, all which will be available to member citizens for free."

"What will be done with the individual military's for each country?" the reporter asked as a lead in.

"OPETRO-EZ will not have a global military, but instead will invest in the military programs each country current has. We will be expanding each current military, and better equipping them also. OPETRO-EZ will pull needed military personnel resources as needed from member countries; much like a reserve force would be used."

"Where will OPETRO-EZ be based?" asked the reporter.

"Well," said Aiah, "I and my team are currently in Kuala Lumpur, and I do not see us moving at this time. There will be an eventual creation of a governing group as we go forward. This could be located wherever the leadership group determines. Thank you."

"Well ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here first! The base points are set for what may be the greatest agreement in world history, and with it, the creation of possibly the largest empire of aligned states in the world."

The call came on the 17th green to the hot phone of the President of the United States. Robert (Bob) Antwan Tanderson had been elected Vice President a few years back and had looked forward to the status and trips abroad. If he would have known that the President would be diagnosed with brain cancer and need to step down, he never would have said yes. He had been serving as president for about 4-months now, and was just starting to learn everybody's name. Tanderson had found that being a 2 time governor from Idaho, with no Federal Government experience prior to the Vice-Presidency, did not lend itself well in working with the people of power in DC.

Sneaking off to the other side of the golf cart, the president answered with a tone of unhappiness," what is it Jake?"

"WHAT? They came to a base agreement without us even being invited? What the h... Get everyone together in the Situation Room – 1 hour!"

The United States Cabinet and other government leaders were called into a high-level strategy meeting in the large 5,000 square foot Situation Room in the basement of the White House. The room doubled as a conference room and intelligence management facility. The Situation Room is equipped with secure, advanced communications equipment for the President to maintain command and control of U.S. forces around the world. This was the room shown when America's leaders watched as a seal team killed Osama Bin Laden.

This meeting had members that were experienced in national security level clearance, and it was not often that this group would be visibly shaken. There was an overall feeling of doom, with some even appearing to be actually scared. Half the world had just come together against the West in a way that was unprecedented, and very unnerving.

"How in the HELL did they get this put together? None of those leaders trust each other. Russia, China, India - the Russia and China I know would never agree to this!" yelled Sam Dixon, a senator from New Jersey that sits on the Committee of Foreign Affairs.

"I agree with Sam, this has to be some type of coercion," said Sara Fenton, a Deputy Director in the State Department, "this was not projected to be a possible outcome, not by a long ways."

"Well it HAS happened," pointed out Skip Sellers, a congressman from Texas, "the question is what are we gonna do about it? Seems to me we better organize the rest of the world. The fire power of this group will overpower us inside a few years."

"Ladies, gentlemen," said the President as calmly as he could, "we need to meet this new alliance with hope. Who would have believed all of this could happen to improve the lives of people around the world. Certainly we need to analyze this and prepare for this coalition to potentially become a world power, but this is an Economic Zone, not a military merger."

"The point is – how is this possible!" yelled Dixon, "nobody would have believed this was even possible prior to this meeting. Somethin' is going on and we need to figure out what before they take over everything. Do you realize this group controls 70% of the world's oil production? What if they quadruple prices or just stop selling all together? China, Russia, India; my God! Billions of people; money, oil, weapons, natural resources to build anything; and top that off with many of them having a lack of trust in the United States, or they just down right hate us. Most of them feel we have run the show long enough. If we do not figure out how to diminish this, we will be weakened!"

The Russian president, Bogdan Volkov, return to Moscow to a riot at the Kremlin. Their inclusion in this group was unacceptable!

"How can you sign for all of us on something like this? We have power, money; we have rights!"

"Gentlemen," said a calm, powerful president Volkov, "as we discussed prior to the conference, this is the greatest opportunity in history! We are part of a group that will soon be a world-wide power, greater even than the old USSR, and it is coming together now and will soon need leadership. Who will supply it? Aiah? He has never run a country. The Saudi's? They do not want the burden. We will allow this to happen, get China on our side, and then make our move. If we get China to back us, no one can stop us."

"Aiah is on his way here and should be arriving shortly. He had some loose ends to clean up but I received word that he is in route. Let's listen to him; think about what I said, and see if you do not see the same future that I do! This is being given to us; we are the main player in this field!"

Outside of the OPETRO EZ alliance members the world was showing fear. Europe, Africa, South America, and the leaders for many other countries were meeting, calling. Calls were being made to pull in allies, seek help from friends, and call in markers. The list of call backs for the President of the United States was growing by the minute.

Nathan Oborny, a highly respected Senator from Alaska, finally got the floor. "Listen to me!" yelled Oborny, "I think we need to discuss why we were not part of the conference! The United States, including the great state of Alaska, are a leading oil producer and it would seem logical that we would be included. I believe this could be a sign of bigger problems. What if the intent is to hold the world ransom with oil and diminish the role of Western powers? What if an attack on the United States is imminent?"

"An attack?" laughed Gwendelina, call me Winnie, Hackney, a congresswoman from Mississippi, "an attack? How do we go from an accord that will almost eliminate poverty in over half the world, to it being a staging ground for war? I suppose you are going to tell us all that this Aiah person is the anti-Christ as well?"

"I was not going to bring that up today, but since the subject has been breached," said Mason Petrie, a Senator from Nebraska.

"Oh, SHUT UP Petrie", yelled Sam Dixon, "everybody knows you religious types try to make everything sound like the end of the world, to try to capture new believers. Let's leave the anti-whatever out of this for now. You can create your sound bites for the media, but let's stay on the real issues here and now."

The Grand Kremlin Palace was home to the Russian president and today was the meeting place for Aiah to address the parliament of the Russian Federation, the Federal Assembly of Russia. The Assembly consists of two bodies, the State Duma and the Federation Council. Also in attendance were members of the government and the judicial courts, chairpersons of regional legislative assemblies, public figures, and executives of major media outlets.

Walking through the arched hallway, Aiah could feel the tension. He could hear and feel the emotion of the crowd even prior to getting into the room where the party leaders were waiting for him. He had a few people loyal to what he was trying to do, and by the end of the meeting he would have them all!

The brief case he carried held a special compartment that held a gas canister that he could active at any time. The parts per million in the air needed to make the drug affective was so small that the tiny canister in his brief case was all that was needed. The drug would take about 5 minutes to deploy and would affect everyone in the room. They would be ultra-susceptible to auto-suggestion for about 30 minutes. Not everyone could use the power of the drug; the drug required someone with a grand charisma, which could sway the crowds.

As Aiah walked into St George Hall the crown went eerily silent. All eyes shifted to this small man that had apparently captured the imagination of over half the world's oil producers.

Bogdan Volkov called the meeting of the Russian Federation to order. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a special visitor today. I would like to present to you a man that has facilitated bringing together 70% of the world's oil production under one alliance. A man with a dream to assist all people of the alliance countries, by offering work, medical assistance, food, and an overall increased quality of life. Aiah would like to address the assembly and then he and I will take questions. Without further ado, Aiah, please," said Bogdan, as he introduced Aiah with his left arm extended, quickly waiving at the wrist; motioning for Aiah to move to the microphone.

Aiah released the gas as he headed to the podium. "Thank you, President Bogdan. Hello everyone, I must tell you it is an honor to be here. I have always marveled at your architecture, it is an honor to be in this building, and addressing this great assembly."

Aiah continued for about 10 minutes and then ramped up the power. With the drug at full effect it was time to make things happen. "So comrades, we can increase our prices on oil, take part of the increase as a tax to take care of our people, and hurt the United States and Europe at the same time!"

"We will lead the world! Moscow will again be the most powerful place on earth! You will rule! All we need to move in that direction is your support, and for us to grow the alliance, assist the people, merge and increase the combined military power, and dominate the West like we used to!"

The hall exploded with excitement. Everyone that could stand rose to their feet with thunderous applause.

"We must unite the non-western oil producers. We will use existing Russian resources to build new Russian factories, and will produce needed materials to build hospitals, roads, and bridges. We will use Russian land to feed the world; at least the parts that are important to OPETRO EZ!"

Laughter filled the hall. "Russia is in the best position to lead the new alliance. China will grow quickly as well. They have great manufacturing capabilities and natural resources that will further our cause. We will have them stop making products for the West, and instead help us clothe, feed, and improve the quality of life for all EZ people!"

"Today is a day we will all remember as the turning point in world history. The day Russia said "We will no longer be pushed around by the west – WE, are the new world alliance – and WE, will decide!"

The emotion in the room was overwhelming. People were hugging each other, jumping for joy; and everyone believed. Aiah smiled as he shut of the gas, and closed his briefcase, and left the podium. Russia was in his hind pocket; the world was not far behind.

As the news came out about OPETRO EZ, with Shem Aiah as the leader, Jeremy could not believe a member of the 10 was now in control of over ½ of the world. Jeremy noted that Aiah was leading the MMG, had created OPETRO EZ, and had recently been extremely lucky in the trading of world currencies. It now seemed obvious that he also was the one that stole their information and web site.

The packet on Aiah did not have a lot in it since he had just recently risen inside the MMG. There was not enough information on him to make the world take notice. At this point, if he exposed anyone else it would probably just give Aiah more control.

He and Melanie had set up a home of sorts, in the outskirts of Vale, Colorado. They had stopped worrying and started living. But in the back of his mind he knew that the end could come at any time. He wondered if cancer survivors would feel the same way; the knowledge that the cancer was in remission but could return at any time, unannounced.

The announcement that the Russian leadership had agreed unanimously to endorse the OPETRO Accord threw the West into convulsions. A group of countries not included in the Accord; the United States, most of Europe, Israel, and Africa, called a meeting of their own. Unofficially called NO Petro, they met in New York City. They were meeting to discuss options on how to stop the OPETRO Accord, and how to adapt to it if they could not.

Aiah was home after a tour of the Kremlin in Moscow and The Great Hall of the Chinese people, which is on the west side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing China. With Russia and China on-board nothing could stop him now. The only real concern he had were the paper documents held by the 2 people Bettle had passed his information to, MJ as Eagleton like to refer to them. They did not have much on him personally, but now that he had changed this mind about ruining the other members of the 10, he felt it was time to close MJ down.

As he looked out over Kuala Lumpur he could not help but smile. He had singlehandedly just taken over leadership of half the world; and they were glad he did! At this time he was seen as a facilitator moving everyone together, but soon he would move to Supreme Commander!

As he headed off to bed Aiah could not help being amazed at this own accomplishments.

He had scheduled the extraction of MJ to be tomorrow. He and Eagleton would observe from Kuala Lumpur via video. Eagleton had set up the multiple feeds to the big screen in the conference room to show a visual of each extraction member's video. Capturing MJ and bringing them to see Aiah was the final piece to close this out. Once complete, no one would be able to stop him or his team.

"Isn't life glorious!" Aiah said out loud to no one. "It is good to be god!"

As President Tanderson walked back into the Oval office the room was like a bee hive with activity. Oh, how he hated when everyone had a reason to get on their own personal high-horse. This would obviously be the defining moment in his presidency and he had no idea what was really going on or what his reaction should be. He passionately believed in the reduction of hunger around the world, as well as providing clean water for all. The need for hospitals in the poorer parts of the world is something that is hard to fight against; he would not fight against it. A small tax on oil production in these nations would not greatly affect the United States Gross Domestic Product or change the balance in the world; but this accord, as they were calling it, made him uncomfortable.

"Janice," the president called to his personal assistant.

"Yes sir"

"Get me everything we have on this Aiah fellow. And I want the number one expert on him, and OPEC, in my office in one hour. Tell 'em I want to know what Aiah ate for breakfast and I need to understand this OPETRO stuff!"

"Yes sir, Mister President"

One of the other bees scurrying around his office was Sara Fenton. "Sara, we need to call in everyone on this. Can you do that? I need intel into everything that just happened. We need our spies in all affected countries to tell us how any of this could have happened."

"I will take care of it sir; I will expect answers in the next 24 hours.

"This does not seem possible, Sara. I feel like I should wake up from this nightmare. If they complete this and things go badly we could lose our dominant position in the world. Life would change forever. America is about to lose our world power and become Europe. Not that being Europe is bad, just that they used to be..., oh never mind."

"Yes sir, thank you Mr. President."

## Chapter 25

The MMG team watching Melanie and Jeremy had been waiting forever. These month-long surveillance jobs were killers. Even with a decent rotation, it seemed like you were doing it all yourself. Always watching, always listening. Besides the sex, these two were boring!

But now the call had come down. They were all in and at full attention. Word had come down to go get them.

"Listen up!" said Mark Woods, extraction team leader. "We have a go, we have prepped for this, and you all know what to do. We take them alive with as little damage as possible. Our leaders want them clean."

"About time, man. I am so tired a sittin' around."

Eagleton and Aiah watched via satellite feed from Aiah's apartment overlooking Kuala Lumpur as the team prepared to move. There are multiple monitors on the electronic wall, each showing different action. A large overhead shot of the extraction point was supplied by two drones, which were flying high in the air, watching the front and the back of the house. There was also a personal view, with audio, of each operative, there was audio from a wall mounted bug as well, that had been placed on the house earlier.

The team consisted of 10 operatives with four vehicles, all black Suburban's. As the team rolled into position the six non-drivers exited to take positions. The expectation was that the 2 would not have much fire power, but the guy was a PI, and would certainly know how to handle himself.

Once all were in place, operative #3 moved to the front door. Gas was sent into the house via a tube under the front door and the two inside were asleep within minutes.

"Op 3, we are a go."

Woods responded, "Very good, let's go get them. Just like we rehearsed, bring to my vehicle. Well done."

"Like clockwork!" Eagleton said, looking at Aiah. "Soon they will be on a plane and be here tomorrow."

"Yes," said Aiah. "I will enjoy talking to them prior to you executing them."

The team had named the vehicles Sub 1 through 4 and Woods was driving Sub 2 with the captures in the back. The plan was to move to Denver International and get the captures, and Woods, to Kuala Lumpur. The drive was about 120 miles and should be no problem. The airplane was waiting at a private hanger and MMG personnel would make sure the team got on the plan with no problems.

The cabin was located in the mountains, and the initial part of the trip would be through small resort style roads, and then Interstate the rest of the way. The only oddity was the Eisenhower Tunnel about 45 minutes into the 2 hour trip.

Sub 1 was in the lead. The pace was slow, due to winding roads, but they were making ok time. As Sub 1 came around a corner a man was standing beyond the turn with a bazooka. There was no chance to turn, or do anything, before the rocket was upon them. The explosion threw sub 1 into the air and it careened off the curve, over the shoulder, into the underbrush just prior to the surrounding forest.

"Sub 2 to Sub 3 & 4, Sub 1 is down; I repeat Sub 1 has taken a hit." Woods relayed, knowing very well they could see what had happened. "Sub 3 take the lead. Hostiles are here."

Aiah jumped about 3 inches out of his chair. "WHAT THE HELL? Eagleton, what is going on?"

"I have no idea who would know of the extraction, sir." Said Eagleton, "We will need to watch this play out. These men are the best. Now that we know there are hostiles they will be on alert."

The pace had picked up some and the suburbans were almost coming off the ground as they took small hills. The team in Sub 3 was on high alert looking for other potential attacks. Team 4 now had operatives in the back with machine guns at the ready watching for any attack from the rear. The whole team attitude changed, they were under attack.

The next corner had a side road on the inside bend that was hidden from view. The Mercedes did not look out of place sitting at the stop sign until it drove straight into Sub 4.

"WHO ARE THESE GUYS!" Aiah yelled, as the cameras for the operatives in Sub 4 showed the accident. "Who is doing this!"

"Sub 3, Sub 3," said Woods, "Sub 4 has been taken out. Get me to the Interstate! Go!"

"Roger," was the response from Sub 3.

The road opened up as they came into Vail, the Interstate was in sight. Speed increased as the teams could see the safety of no side roads once they reached the Interstate. There would still be danger, but the issues so far came partially because of lack of vision.

As the vehicles sped up to gain access to the Interstate via the onramp the speeds were reaching 75 mile per hour. The sniper bullet that took out Sub 3's right front tire made the vehicle drop on that side. The driver tried to correct but it was too late. The Suburban did a right flip over and off the road. Sub 2 was on its own.

"Woods, are you ok?" asked Eagleton.

"Affirmative sir, not sure what this is all about but I and the packages are ok. We will continue to the Denver airport. Do we have any assistance in the area that we can call in?"

"I have people on it; they will be coming from the Denver area and will catch up with you as they can. Be careful for now. Help will be there soon."

"Thank you sir," was Woods' response. "I will look for them shortly after the Eisenhower tunnel."

The Eisenhower Tunnel, officially the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel is named for Dwight Eisenhower, for whom the Interstate system is named, and Edwin Johnson, who lobbied to get the Interstate system built in Colorado.

The tunnel is a dual-bore tunnel with two lanes on each side. The tunnel allows Interstate 70 to cross under the Continental Divide, which separates waters that drain to the west coast or the east coast. The tunnels are about 2 miles long at an elevation of about 11,000 feet above sea level.

"Approaching the tunnel sir," said Woods.

"Yes, I can see that. Have you considered the alternate route? The tunnel could be a trap."

"Either way could be a trap sir. This is the area where I would strike."

"Understood."

Aiah and Eagleton watched as the vehicle entered the tunnel. All communication was lost. The wait was excruciating. After about two minutes the vehicle exited the other side with no adverse effects.

"Woods, any problems?"

There was no response, but the video was showing the vehicle moving down the road.

"Woods?" said Eagleton, "Woods, are you there?"

"Sorry sir, I am here. We took a hit and Jamison is dead, but we made it through the tunnel." was the slightly quivering response from Woods.

"Jamison? How was he hit?"

"Sniper sir, they missed me, but he is dead."

"Very good, help will be there soon!"

"Thank you sir."

Woods, however, was no longer in Sub 2. As they entered the tunnel a like vehicle with the exact same equipment began moving and took the place of Sub 2. Woods shot Jamison, stopped Sub 2, and then he and a team that was in place in the tunnel, moved Melanie and Jeremy through connecting tunnels to the other tunnel bore to a waiting repair vehicle that was headed back to Vail.

The exchange had to happen early in the tunnel to get Woods back on the radio. Sub 2 was now controlled via remote-control by an operator that was in the tunnel and following in a separate vehicle. Explosives are set on the gas tank to create a massive explosion as Sub 2 takes an apparent bazooka hit from the rear. There are bodies inside to throw off the team coming from Denver. At autopsy it will be discovered that the bodies are not who they think they are, but by then the extraction would be complete

"Someone get Woods' file up on the screen please. NOW!" shouted Eagleton.

"What's up?" Aiah asked.

"Only man left in a failed mission has to be suspect, sir. Who knew of the operation besides his team and a few people here? We can address the few people here in a few minutes, but if my guess is correct we have a rouge agent driving that only remaining vehicle, and he has our cargo."

"Where is my picture?"

A dossier came up on Mark Alexander Woods. Born in Little Rock Arkansas, high school track and baseball star. Enlisted in the marines and joined the Marines Special Operations Raiders Regiment. Raiders are tasked with direct action, counter-terrorism, special reconnaissance, and informational operations.

"Is there anything here to show him as a mole in our group?" asked Aiah.

"Nothing, sir, he looks clean."

The explosion that was recorded prior to Woods' camera and mike cutting out showed the suburban blowing the backend over frontend and then careen off the road.

"Explosion sir!" said the man to Eagleton's immediate left. "The explosion appeared to come from behind. Before the camera cut out the vehicle had the back end coming over the front. The explosion was large, sir. Probably a projectile from the rear that hit the gas tank."

Aiah came unglued, "how is this possible! We are the greatest organization in the world. Who could possibly foresee what happened, here, today. Aiah paused for a moment, and then turned to his left. "Mr. Eagleton, do we have Bettle's body?"

"No sir, it was taken away by the two we're chasing. Why would you ask that n...? Wait, you don't think..."

"Yes," said Aiah, "at this time it is the only plausible explanation that I can think of. We must pick up the pace on our world domination; we need to be too big to stop very soon.

## Chapter 26

Melanie awoke to a strange feeling. She had just been standing in the kitchen at the cabin outside of Vail, but now, she felt like she was flying. She was in a seat; she was in an airplane! She nudged Jeremy who was sitting beside her.

Jeremy awoke and instantly knew something had happened. He looked over and Melanie whispered, "We're on a plane."

"So I see," he whispered back, noticing that they were not restrained.

"Excuse me!" Jeremy said, looking to their captors.

"Ah, you are finally awake!" said Woods. "Melanie and Jeremy, my name is Mark Woods. I was sent to rescue you. Welcome to the Anti-MMG witness protection program!"

"What?" Melanie said, "You mean we're safe?"

Jeremy looked over at her, amazed at how quickly she adapts.

"Yes, we are all safe. I have been part of the team that was following you. I will need to tell you that story, but first you need to watch a video. I would recommend that you stay in your seats to watch it. Do either of you need to go to the bathroom prior to watching.

Both said yes, they had been out of it for 4 hours.

As the video started both were shocked to see John Bettle on the screen. The first shot was of him with a paper from the day before beside his face.

" _Jeremy, Melanie, I so hope you are watching this video. That would mean you are alive and safe. You have been on quite a journey, and I apologize for having to get you involved, but things have gone according to plans, with a few exceptions."_

Jeremy and Melanie looked at each other "John's alive?" Jeremy said at the same time Melanie said "Jonathan's still alive – that son of a bitch! I'll kill him myself!"

" _I am sure my being alive is a shock to you, and that Melanie, you are probably cussing me right now, but the world is in danger and this course of action was needed to remove me from the MMG vision. There is a very dangerous shifting of power happening and I have been under "against me and I needed to fake my death so I could watch without being watched._

Mr. Woods has been watching you all along, since the first days in Rochester. While it appeared to be true, you were never truly in danger. The extraction today officially resulted in your deaths, as the vehicle you were in was blown up by a bazooka blast, or so it seems. By the time they figure out you were not in the vehicles you will be long gone and untraceable.

There is much to do, I will see you all soon.

As the plan prepared for landing at Mercedita Airport, a few miles west of Ponce, Puerto Rico, the man sitting at the outdoor beach bar turned and waved as the plan went over his head. Things had not gone exactly as he expected, but then, that is why you plan for every conceivable option – that is what he does.

## ####

Thank you for reading my book. If you enjoyed it won't you please take a moment and leave me a review at your favorite retailer?

Thanks,

Mike Damm

Mike Damm is a business man that has spent a life in customer service and just-in-time distribution. He is an avid Minnesota Viking fan and lives in Iowa, where he is working on the sequel. He may be contacted at mkdamm@yahoo.com.
