Local time – 10:45pm, Saturday 16th June, 2011.
Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Alex washed her face and procrastinated about whether to tell Gerome she was going to Pakistan. She could hear an excited conversation through the bathroom door. Henry was passing on the news that she had agreed to go and look for the last weapon. From the tone of the men’s voices, it was obvious they had been hoping for this. They needed the iPad to finish Bernie’s operation. An operation they had assigned him. Alex did her best not to look frightened when she came out of the bathroom, but she needn’t have bothered, as the men’s attention was not on her. They were all gathered around Henry’s phone, listening to the recorded speech from the Bilderberg dinner. When it was finished, Ryan slapped Henry on the back, congratulating him. Phil approached Alex, his hand out ready to shake hers.
‘I hear you’re coming with us. Bernie would have been proud.’ She shook his hand meekly. Phil was no longer surly, and the smile on his face took years off his age.
‘Yeah, I don’t know what help I’ll be, but I’ve got to at least try.’ She patted her satchel. ‘I’ll have a good look through the iPad tonight, to see if anything pops up.’
‘Good. Good plan.’ Phil’s attention went back to the Bilderberg recording. Josh had pulled the small desk into the middle of the room and Ryan sat at it, with a huge Apple Macbook open in front of him. He was opening programs and typing commands like a seasoned computer expert. Phil started unzipping a camera case and Henry explained their plans.
‘Ok, let’s show Alex the video so far. Then we’ll add the shots from France and Tallinn. Then we’ll record her narration, and then we’ll add the sound recording from the conference. The piece de resistance!’ He looked at Alex keenly, waiting for her excited reaction.
‘Do I have to do the narration? I know you want a journalist, but, I didn’t realise when I agreed that I’m on a Mossad hit list. I’d prefer not to draw any more attention to myself… ’
‘The spotlight is the safest place to be!’ Phil chipped in, his dark mood returning. Henry didn’t show any frustration though.
‘He’s right Alex. Once you’ve been seen by millions of people, outing the Bilderbergers plans, it makes it impossible for them to hurt you. The best way to convince people they really are a threat is to assassinate the messenger. You’re protected by your infamy.’ Alex thought about this for a few seconds.
‘We’ll look after you. We won’t let Mossad near you. And once the video is out, they’ll be too concerned with damage control to have any time to track you down. You’re safe with us, I promise.’
‘Ok. I’ll do it.’ Henry grinned. But I’m going to tell Gerome I’m going to Pakistan. She wouldn’t tell him what she was doing, she reasoned. But once he had seen the video, he would know how much danger she was in. And if anything did happen, she wanted him to know where to find her.
Ryan was ready for Alex to see what they had put together so far. They dragged the hotel room armchair to the desk, giving Alex a box seat in front of the laptop. Ryan sat next to her, Henry perched on the side of the armchair and the other two men stood behind. All eyes were on Alex as she watched the screen.
She immediately recognised the background music – Fatboy Slim’s Right Here, Right Now. The impatient build of the beat was well chosen. It matched her apprehension perfectly. White block writing appeared on the black screen, just as the instrumental melody joined the percussion.
‘WAKE UP!’
Then…
‘AMERICA IS IN DANGER’
‘YOUR GOVERNMENT FOOLED YOU OVER 9/11’
These words flashed on the screen a couple of times.
Then the familiar images of planes hitting the twin towers slid across the screen. The gaping hole in the Pentagon. The plume of white smoke as the buildings collapsed. The beat in the music launched forward and the angry voice of the singer pierced the repetitive melody – ‘right here, right now, right here, right now, right here, right now…’
More white words:
‘THEY ORGANISED THE ATTACK SO THEY COULD HAVE THEIR WAR’
Photos of American and British troops getting on planes. A fuzzy night vision video of a missile hitting a building. Iraqi children running from their ruined house. Screaming, covered in blood.
‘THIS TIME IT IS WORSE ‘
‘A WORLD GOVERNMENT IS PREPARING TO ATTACK YOU’
‘THEY ARE PLANNING A NUCLEAR STRIKE AGAINST AMERICA, DISGUISED AS AN ATTACK BY ISLAMIC TERRORISTS’
‘HERE ARE THE BASES OF THEIR SECRET ARMY’
A photo flashed which Alex hadn’t seen yet, of a base almost identical to the photos she had seen of the base in France. White buses. Caucasian guards. Razor wire and huge warehouses.
There were a couple of blank screens, ready for the new photos to be inserted. The singer changed her lyric to an indistinguishable tirade of ‘Waking up to find your love’s not real’. Then more text:
‘THEY CONTROL THE WORLD’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS’
‘AND YOUR PRESIDENT IS HELPING THEM’
‘NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT MEANS DEATH TO AMERICAN FREEDOM’
‘WHO IS BEHIND THIS THREAT? POWERFUL ELITES WHO WANT TO RULE THE WORLD AND DESTROY AMERICA.’
‘THE BILDERBERG GROUP LOOK HARMLESS BUT ARE THE HEART OF THE CONSPIRACY’
Another stream of photos started; this time it was covert snaps of Bilderberg meetings. Each photo remained on the screen long enough to read the caption underneath, listing the location, date and names of people in the shot. Alex had seen photos like this before all over Bilderberg conspiracy sites. Spelman and his wife entering the Westfields Marriott hotel in Virginia, 2008. Ben Bernanke leaving the same conference.
‘THEY WILL USE NUCEAL WEAPONS TO ESTABLISH A WORLD GOVERNMENT.’
A photo of a giant mushroom cloud appeared and flashed dramatically.
‘THE BILDERBERGERS ARE MEETING THIS WEEKEND IN PRAGUE. THEY PLANTED THE BOMB THAT KILLED CIVILIAN PROTESTORS AND JOURNALISTS.’
Alex was surprised to see a photo of the bombed street on the screen. They must have got it from one of the news websites. It was a horrific site – the ruined walls of the police station cells, ambulances, a black, incinerated car that looked like it had been chewed by a dinosaur and paramedics rushing towards the injured. She turned to look at Henry, who was staring at the photo, stony faced.
‘WHO WILL THEY THREATEN, TERRORISE AND KILL NEXT?’’
‘YOU’
‘YOU’
‘YOU’
‘YOU’
‘YOU’
The ‘You’s’ flashed up on the screen, in time with the beat of the music, seemingly incessant, and even Alex could admit to herself that it was quite frightening.
‘YOU MUST FORCE YOUR GOVERNMENT TO STOP THIS OR FIND ONE THAT WILL.’
‘THEY CAN’T ACT ONCE WE ALL KNOW THE TRUTH!’
‘PROTEST AGAINST BILDERBERG’S PLANS FOR WORLD DOMINATION.’
‘PROTEST AGAINST WORLD WAR III.’
An image of protestors appeared, and Alex guessed it was an anti war protest from 2003.
‘RISE UP AND DEFEND AMERICAN LIBERTY.’
‘DO IT NOW!’
‘DO IT NOW!’
‘DO IT NOW!’
‘DO IT NOW!’
The video ended there.
Everyone waited for Alex to say something.
‘It’s not exactly subtle, is it?’
‘It’s as subtle as using nuclear weapons against your own people and starting a never ending war to kill millions,’ Phil responded tersely.
Alex hesitated for a moment.
‘I didn’t say it wasn’t good! Now let’s finish it off.’