The Illuminati (10 page)

“That is a point in your favor in these times,” Cal Rutland commented. “She has no political baggage to carry.”

Hunt stopped for a moment to think. It was obvious that Cal knew about Kathy Alton before this meeting. But he hadn't shared his information. More and more Mark understood just how much weight his aide carried. And they had him backed into a corner.

“I'll need to give this some thought, Mr. Franklin,”Mark responded with his long-practiced political smile.

“Do that, Senator,” Franklin replied with only slightly veiled irritation. “But I will expect to hear from you on this matter within two days. In the meantime, I would suggest that Mrs. Alton and you spend a little time getting better acquainted. She can be a valuable asset to you.”

Hunt realized that, as far as Franklin was concerned, the issue was settled. He wasn't sure what Kathy Alton had to do with the Society, but he knew she must be a part of a larger scheme, which he had yet to learn.

As the senator and his aide flew back to Washington later that day, Rutland tried to strengthen Franklin's suggestion as he commented, “Think of it this way, Senator. Kathy Alton is bound to be a big asset to you. First, she is a well-known woman who is not associated with politics. Second, she has the ear of the most powerful man in America.”

“Tell me something, Cal. Did you know Franklin wanted her as my running mate?”

“I knew,” Rutland acknowledged matter-of-factly.

“Why didn't you tell me before the meeting, so I wouldn't walk in blindly?”

“I couldn't, Senator. I was instructed to keep my mouth shut.”

After a slight pause, Hunt asked slowly and deliberately, “Who do you work for, Cal? Them or me?”

“Both, Senator,” he countered. “I'm on your team, but we're both on their team.”

“Well, you inform the Society that I'm not some lackey to be told what to do. I won't take Alton,” Hunt declared.

“You'd better think that over carefully,” Rutland said coldly, his eyes riveted on Hunt's. There was a look of urgency in Rutland's piercing eyes. “That would not be a wise decision at all. Your campaign has been financed at great expense to the Society, and they would not take a no lightly.”

“What can they do at this late date?” Hunt asked, trying to bluff his way. “I'm their candidate. Kilborne and Crow have been beaten by this earthquake thing.”

“Senator, the goals of the Society are greater than any one man, including you or me. John Kennedy thought he could overrule the Society and learned better—the hard way!”

Hunt paused, dumb-struck.
Could Jack Kennedy have been eliminated by the Society? Was that even possible? Yes
, he decided,
it was. That would explain the misinformation surrounding the assassination and why so many witnesses died mysteriously
.

“Think of it as a positive step, Senator,” Rutland continued without waiting for a response. “Kathy Alton will represent no threat to your power in the White House. She will simply bring in a new dimension to your administration—the women of America. Her influence will rally the working women to your programs. You'll need their help to make changes.”

“I guess you're right, Cal,” Hunt heard himself say. He knew he was beaten. Then, in an attempt to salvage some of his pride, he added, “Besides, I suppose having the first woman vice president on my team won't look bad in the papers, will it?”

In the sleeping compartment of the big jet, Kathy Alton smiled as she listened to the conversation over the monitor.
A true politician
, she thought to herself.
His convictions last just as long as they encounter no opposition
. She stared out the tiny window to her left.
Lee would be amazed to see how far his sacrifice has brought me and how much further there is to go
. For a moment she was drawn back into her grief over Lee's death. Then, with a resolve steeled by years of indoctrination, she took comfort in the progress that had been made, the progress that was to come. Lee's death had been instrumental in that progress.

Three days later Kathy Alton was announced as Mark Hunt's running mate.

5

T
HE
E
LECTION

With the unprecedented move of announcing Kathy Alton as his running mate before the Democratic primaries, Senator Hunt nailed the coffin shut on President Kilborne's renomination. Even the president's staunchest allies began jumping ship, trying to strike a deal with the Hunt team.

The American voters, fed up with hard times and frightened by the growing violence nationwide, were looking for new leadership. Daily they were bombarded with scenes of looting and widespread civil disobedience, and daily Mark Hunt flooded the airwaves with promises of better times and an end to violence in America—just what the American people wanted to hear. As the economy continued to slow and revenues declined, Washington was forced to make more budget cuts. And with each new budget cut by the Kilborne administration, Hunt's position strengthened.

To most Americans, the nomination of Mark Hunt on the Democratic party ticket was the long-awaited answer to their many problems. The effects of the depression on those who were less than fifty years old were especially devastating, since most of them had never experienced any really difficult economic times. The depression of 1929 was nothing more than a chapter in their Economics 101 textbooks. And the recession of 2008 had been tempered by massive government spending. To them it was an accepted fact that the government would hire the unemployed during a recession. That had worked fine as long as the money continued to flow in from the Japanese and from the European Community.

Few American workers grasped the fact that as the money poured in, ownership in many American industries shifted to Europe and Japan, especially Japan. By the year 2009, nearly half of all businesses in America were owned by the Japanese.“So what?” the politicians had said. “After all, they still employ American workers and feed the American economy more money.”

The day of reckoning began in January of 2010, when the Saudis announced that they were running out of oil and would be raising their base price by fifty dollars a barrel. With half the available oil reserves contaminated from the nuclear fallout of the Israeli bombs that had rained on Iraq and Iran during the 2008 war, the Saudis controlled 80 percent of the available Middle East oil reserves. The European Community had access to the north shore oil of England and France, but other countries scrambled to bid for the oil supply they needed.

Japan outbid the United States, winning by a wide margin. The U.S. economy received a double-barreled blast as a result. First, the available oil supply was reduced by 40 percent and immediate rationing took effect. Nonbusiness vehicles were limited to ten gallons of gasoline per month, and prices shot up to nearly five dollars per gallon. This triggered an inflation rate of 30 percent per year, effectively wiping out many businesses, retirement savings, and Social Security. The elderly went back into the work force
en masse
. The competition for jobs between the young and old became a political issue.

Next, the Japanese began a systematic shutdown of competitive industries in the U.S., saving the jobs for their Japanese workers by shifting manufacturing back to their factories at home. By the time the public was aware of their strategy, most of the major industries were gone, and the only jobs available were in lower-paying service industries. The result was a devastating slowdown of the U.S. economy that dragged virtually every nation outside of the European Community and the Asian Triangle down with it. The Japanese began systematic price slashing to siphon business away from both the U.S. and Europe. In one year, they virtually captured the world market for automobiles, heavy equipment, aircraft, and defense armament. The result was an unemployment rate of nearly 25 percent in the U.S.

The next blow to the economy came as the Japanese gradually withdrew their loans to the U.S. government, citing their need to develop business within the Asian Triangle. Without this money to feed its ever-growing deficits, the government was forced to begin massive cutbacks. There was talk of a new constitutional amendment to rescind the Balance Budget Amendment, but somehow Congress could never develop the momentum to push it through.

The desperate need for finances led the Kilborne administration to sponsor a bill to rescind the tax exempt status of all nonprofit groups, including all religious organizations—a move proposed and supported by the National Civil Liberties Union and most other liberal factions. The bill was passed into law despite religious lobbying by church leaders. The result was immediate economic trouble for all churches.

Christian leaders railed at the government's actions and promised picketing and mass demonstrations. Meetings were held in churches throughout the nation to discuss the growing trend toward disenfranchisement of Christians. The recognized leader of the protest movement was Pastor John Elder of Atlanta, Georgia. As the pastor of a fifteen-thousand-member Atlanta Baptist church and as a worldwide television minister, Elder was the principal spokesman for the evangelical community.

Elder was no stranger to controversy. He had organized and led three of the largest anti-abortion rallies in Washington. He had also organized a very effective grassroots organization, the Constitutional Rights Committee (CRC), to oppose politicians who were recognized as anti-Christian. At least six liberal senators and ten congressmen had been voted out of office through his efforts.

The
coup de grace
for the U.S. economy was delivered by the Japanese when they announced they were calling due nearly $3 trillion loaned to the United States. They publicly stated that when the U.S. treasury bills they held came due they would expect prompt payment, because the money was needed to rebuild Tokyo after the earthquake. This announcement sent the U.S. stock market into its steepest decline since the collapse of 2010. Financial markets around the world reacted with panic as they feared the U.S. would default on its debt.

In a specially prepared message, Senator Mark Hunt announced that he had a plan for handling this latest demand by the Japanese and was sure he could work out a settlement satisfactory to both sides. Given the air of animosity that had built up between the two counties since the U.S. had imposed trade restrictions on most Japanese products, the majority of analysts scoffed at the idea. Two days later, the Japanese minister of France, Isochi Yamore, announced that some mutual compromise might be arranged. They decided to delay any decision until after the elections in America. The announcement came two days before the primaries. No one outside the inner circle of the Society knew that Yamore's actions had been the result of a personal visit by Jason Franklin.

Senator Hunt obliterated Kilborne in the primaries. The mandate by the public was so great that not a single delegate dared to support the president at the convention. With the November elections coming up, Hunt had only to defeat a weak Republican candidate to win the highest office in the country.

The presidential election was not just a mandate by the voters; it was an ultimatum to Congress. Hunt received 96 percent of all votes cast. Never had a president been elected by so great a margin. The American voters were saying insistently, “Do something!” In an unprecedented move, Kilborne resigned his presidency, paving the way for Hunt to move his administration into Washington. Kilborne's vice president was sworn in to head a caretaker government until January, but in reality, the reins of power had already shifted to Hunt.

Mark Hunt was sworn in as the forty-seventh president of the United States in January, with some two million cheering admirers filling the capital. The inauguration of Kathy Alton as the first woman vice president was hailed by women throughout the world. Even Hunt had to admit the wisdom of Alton's selection. She followed his campaign platform exactly, always deferring to his judgment when a new issue arose. The one thing that irked Hunt was the way the reporters catered to her. When the two of them were interviewed together, it was as if he didn't exist. His solution to this problem had been to send her to obscure locations— where he didn't want to go anyway. And, surprisingly, she had never objected to any assignment.