The Illuminati (42 page)

“Kill him immediately!” Razzak ordered. His rage was becoming uncontrollable. Even the normally stoic Rutland felt a chill when the leader became this agitated. “Control of the Christians is essential to our plans,” he ranted as he swept the desk clear and everything crashed to the floor.

The tiny device planted inside the stapler on Razzak's desk stopped working when it hit the floor, but the listener had heard enough. She quickly closed up the portable receiver that was concealed in the briefcase and headed for the basement.

Amelia Durant had been born thirty years earlier, Shanon Vinetta, daughter of Jewish parents, in Israel. At seventeen, she had been recruited by the Mossad, the Israeli secret police, to be trained as an undercover agent in America. Once she accepted the assignment, she was transported to the United States, placed with a family in New York whose daughter had been killed in an auto accident ten years earlier, and raised as an American citizen; all records on Amelia Durant had been altered to make her and Sharon Vinetta one and the same. The Mossad was clearly as efficient as the Society and had long known the future goals of the group.

Amelia was educated in the best schools, trained in cryptology, and positioned in Washington, where she quickly worked her way inward and upward. She was recruited into the Society and had been instrumental in securing essential records for them. At the same time, her nearly perfect recall allowed her to keep the Mossad informed of agents the Society planted in Washington and Israel. Over several years she had been instrumental in compiling a profile on the Society and its ultimate goals. Now two shadowy organizations were locked in mortal combat for control of the United States and, ultimately, the world.

Amelia reached the basement. As she approached the hallway leading to Wells' office, she took out a small cylinder and concealed it in the palm of her hand. At the door, the guard stopped her abruptly.

“What do you want here?” he demanded, his hand resting on the holstered weapon inside his coat.

“I'm looking for the records office,”Amelia said meekly. “Isn't it here anymore?”

“No!” the guard answered sharply. “This area is off limits to all unauthorized personnel.”

“I'm sorry,” the young woman said, appearing to be very flustered. “I'm new here and I was told records was here in the basement.”

Softening his previously stern look the guard said, “Someone was putting you on. The storage records were removed from this area more than two years ago.”

“Well, thank you,” Amelia responded in a small, quiet voice. “I'll just have to find it.”

As she turned to go, she dropped the stack of files she was carrying and let out a soft moan, “Oh, no. I did it again.”

“Here, I'll help you,” the guard offered as he bent down to pick up some of the scattered files. As the woman brushed by him, she touched the concealed cylinder to his neck and pressed the trigger. Instantly the startled guard reached for his gun, but even as his mind told him he had been duped, his muscles refused to obey his commands. He slumped to the carpeted floor, unconscious.

The young woman deftly punched in the codes to give her access to Wells' work area. As she entered the room, she put her finger to her lips signaling Karen to be quiet. She motioned for Jeff and Karen to follow her.

Jeff was naturally cautious and started to say something. Again Amelia frowned and put her finger to her lips, and at the same time shook her other hand at Wells. She drew her index finger across her throat. She handed Karen a short, handwritten note from her father saying, “Karen, follow the person who gives you this note without question or hesitation. It means your lives are in imminent danger.” Karen looked up from the note and signaled for Jeff to follow them as she moved quickly toward the door.

Jeff took another few seconds to type in some final instructions—the last commands to activate a hidden program he had been developing since they had received Dr. Eison's message. He wished he had enough time to verify it, but the frantic look on the face of the young woman told him he didn't. He issued the shutdown command to disable his terminal and then followed the two women out the door.

Once they were in the hallway the young woman said, “You must do exactly as I tell you if we are to have any chance of escaping. The security police will be coming after you any minute. If we're not out of the White House before they discover you're gone, we won't have any chance at all.”

“The guard . . .” Karen was startled when she saw him slumped down on the floor. “Is he—”

“He's just unconscious,” the woman said sharply. “Help me pull him inside the door. It may give us a few more minutes until they come.”

“I can help,” Jeff said as he punched in the access code and then added in a series of new numbers.

Seeing the puzzled look on Karen's face, Jeff said with a sly grin, “I reprogrammed the system to allow me to change my access code. The system's a lot more versatile than anyone else realizes.”

Moving rapidly toward the security elevator, the young woman said, “My name is Amelia. I'm part of the group helping to restore our government to its people. There will be a limo waiting in the garage. As soon as we call the security elevator, we will have two minutes to get away from the garage. Security will know something is wrong when the elevator is used without the proper access codes for today.”

“I wish you had told me,” Jeff said as they ran. “I could have programmed the system to ignore the call.”

“No time.”The young woman panted as they ran. “Things were moving too fast. We had hoped to make contact before the actual move, but Rutland has orders to eliminate you immediately.”

“But why?” Karen gasped as they ran faster. “Jeff is still needed.”

“They found out you allowed the Christians to continue using their Data-Net cards,” Amelia replied as she got her second wind.

Karen glanced over at Jeff, who was also winded. “Too much sitting at a computer day after day,” he said as he sucked in the oxygen his lungs craved. “I promise to exercise more, if I get a chance.”

They reached the elevator and Amelia punched in the only access codes she knew—Vice President Grant's emergency code. The monitor responded: “Confirmed: Access Vice President.”

“The vice president?” Jeff commented as he arched his eyebrows in surprise, as well as admiration.

“Yes. He's one of us; he wants the government back in the voters' hands. He could have been a great help to us, but I'm afraid when they discover he has helped us, he'll be compromised.”

“Not if you can get me to a computer and access to the Internet,” Jeff said confidently.

“You can change the internal codes?” Amelia asked in amazement.

“There is really nothing you can't do with a computer system like Data-Net. Maybe too much, in fact,” he added. “Dr. Eison was right; it's too much power to trust to anyone, especially politicians.”

“This is more than politics,” Amelia added as the elevator doors opened. “This is evil against good.”

Jeff half expected the elevator to be full of secret service men. His mind conjured up images of the men who had brought him back from California. They would not hesitate to kill, if so ordered. That much he knew. But the elevator was empty. As they stepped inside, Amelia punched the button labeled “Official Parking.”

In the security control room, the signal to call the elevator had triggered an immediate reaction. The guard assigned to White House security systems said, “Somebody called the security elevator. Are any of the ‘big shots' signed out to leave the building?”

The other guard glanced at the computer terminal and replied, “Not on my log.”

“Well, someone called the elevator. Better check it out.”

“May be a scheduled maintenance check,” the other man suggested. “I'll call and verify.”

It took a few seconds to reach the day shift supervisor. When he came on the line, he confirmed with several select words that his crew didn't schedule maintenance in the White House without checking with security first. As he was slamming the receiver down, the guard heard him mutter, “Idiot!”

The security guard put several processes in motion at once. He punched the silent alarm button, signaling all the other guards that a breach of White House security was in progress. Then he turned to his companion and said, “I'm headed to the garage. It wasn't maintenance.” After turning the console over to his partner, he hurried out the door. He knew that it would take at least five minutes for any of the other guards to reach the garage deck; he could be there in less than two.

The ride up to the VIP garage level seemed like an eternity to Jeff. He could envision the events taking place as soon as the elevator was called. With all the recent trouble, he had no doubt the guards would shoot first and then try to sort it all out later. He knew their lives would be determined by a minute either way now.

The elevator stopped at the garage level, and the doors retracted into the walls. As they stepped out, Jeff breathed a sigh of relief. “No guards,” he announced.

“There will be soon,” Amelia warned. “Follow me, quickly!”

Jeff and Karen followed as she dashed toward one of the limos. She had a set of keys ready and stopped in front of one of the limousines— a Lincoln. Jeff heard the click as the electronic locks responded to the magnetic key.

“Get in!” Amelia commanded as she slid into the driver's seat. Jeff and Karen scrambled into the back seat. Amelia had already donned a chauffeur's cap and was starting the limo.