Local time – 3:15pm, Saturday 16th June, 2011.
Tallinn, Estonia.
Alex concentrated her remaining energy on being invisible. Henry put a protective arm around her. He must have felt her leaning towards him because he pulled her into a hug. That’s how they stood as a nondescript white van pulled up at the curb in front of them.
‘This is us.’ Henry opened the front door and slid across the bench seat next to the driver. Alex got in next him, only then noticing that there were two other men in the back of the van. Alex looked at Henry, confused. Before she could ask who they were, Henry explained.
‘This is my team. Phil, Josh and Ryan. Guys, this is our journalist, Alex.’
All three men stared at her. Ryan, from the back, said ‘Howdy’ in an exaggerated American accent and she saw when she twisted round to see him that he had a self-deprecating grin on his face. He was thin and freckly, with light red hair and big ears. She liked him immediately. Josh seemed shy, avoiding eye contact with her. He was also quite slim, but much taller than Ryan, with a thick mane of dark brown hair. He looked serious and broody, as if lost in his own head. Alex noticed that the driver, Phil, had a really sour expression. He seemed much older and more weathered than the other two, who looked about the same age as Henry, perhaps in their late thirties. The front seat was cramped and Alex found herself wedged a little too intimately next to Henry. She could feel they were all waiting for her to speak. She looked at Henry.
‘Team?’
‘I was going to get to that, when we got a chance.’
As Phil drove away from the airport, Henry told them about the police on the plane. They already knew about the bomb.
‘Thank goodness you weren’t arrested, you’re a lucky girl.’ Ryan exclaimed. Henry grabbed her hand and squeezed it.
‘Don’t turn your phone back on. And the iPad, does that have 3G on it? You’ll have to turn that off as well,’ Ryan warned.
‘Why?’
‘You can be tracked through them. Who ever is looking for you won’t be able to find you unless you turn them back on.’
‘How do you know? What’s going on?’
‘I lied about being a researcher,’ Henry said.
‘The passport... ’
He pulled his backpack onto his lap and opened the front pocket. ‘Here, I stole this from you in the cab.’ He handed Alex her passport. ‘They must have told the police you were involved in the bombing. They didn’t want you leaving Prague.’
‘You mean the Bilderbergers?’
‘Yes. Look Alex, I get the impression you still don’t believe me. I’m not going to waste any more time. You’re here now and we’ve got a job to do.’ Alex resisted arguing. Henry’s tone told her how serious he was.
‘What do you mean by team? If you’re not a researcher, what are you?’
‘The Bilderbergers have been growing in power since the mid 90’s. This is going to be a shock. But you have to trust me Alex. Maybe you’ll take it more seriously if you know how we all got involved.’ Alex noticed the three other men were visibly ignoring Henry, their eyes and ears fixed on the sights and sounds outside the car.
‘We belong to a group that’s so secret, it doesn’t have a name. There’s five of us, and three of us are ex-intelligence.’
‘So you’re CIA spies?’ Alex pulled her hand away.
‘Phil and I are ex-intelligence. We resigned because we didn’t agree with our superiors’ orders.’ Henry stared at Alex, waiting for a reaction. She stared back.
Josh suddenly found his voice. ‘When you’re serving your country, you’re often asked to do things that are hard. But what they were being asked to do wasn’t just hard, it was evil.’ Alex turned and looked at him blankly.
‘Innocent Americans were killed on their own soil.’ Josh let his statement settle while Alex joined the dots.
‘September 11?’ Josh nodded.
‘It was the Bilderbergers, Alex. They used the CIA to plan the whole thing. The attack was false flag, designed to start a war with Islam.’
‘No, I don’t believe it.’
‘Why, because they could never keep it secret? Do you have any idea what happened to people who showed any sign of cracking? Who do you think were in the planes? Dissenters disappeared while the world was distracted.’
‘But why... why would they kill their own citizens? Why would they want a war?’
‘Wars start revolutions. A rewriting of the rules,’ Ryan interjected.
‘A new world order?’ Alex knew all about this idea thanks to Bernie. Josh looked slightly frustrated, but the passion in his eyes was electric.
‘You saw what they did today. It can only mean one thing. They’re scared people are getting too close to their next plan.’ Alex wrapped her shawl tightly around her shoulders. A queasy feeling took hold in her stomach.
‘What next plan?’
Ryan took over. ‘We don’t know, but since they’re in possession of most of the world’s nuclear armaments, we’re assuming September 11 could now be considered a training run.’
‘What on earth are you talking about?’ Alex looked at Henry, who was staying out of it. Again it was Josh who explained.
‘The Lop Nur weapons, you remember what happened when they went missing?’
‘Of course I do! We researched that story for months. The Chinese MSS caught the terrorists in possession of them before they could do anything.’
‘So you bought their lies? Of course the Chinese sold it that way. They didn’t want anyone to know how close that team got to moving three weapons out of China. It wasn’t terrorists Alex. It was the Bilderbergers.’
‘That is ridiculous. It’s just a conspiracy theory. Why on earth would they try to steal China’s nuclear weapons?’
‘Because it’s cheaper than buying them. But they failed, so they gave up on that tactic and decided to fork out for them instead,’ Henry finally contributed.
‘Why do they need nuclear weapons?’
‘Total power. No one argues with you when you could kill hundreds of thousands of people by pressing one button.’ Alex didn’t reply.